Normally I like to kick back Saturday and not think about anything in particular with no appointments to keep and no clocks to watch, but I dropped that routine last weekend. Editor Samantha Perry had gotten a text from the Beckley Gun Club, and that text had the magic words machine gun.
For several years, the Beckley Gun Club has hosted a Media Day at its gun range in Cool Ridge up on Flat Top Mountain. Its built on reclaimed strip mining land, and a really great piece of scenery. The mined out areas, now converted into gun ranges, form natural arenas for shooting. Bullets and shotgun pellets go right into cliffs. The sites remoteness also adds to safety.
I look forward to Media Day, and this year fellow sports reporter George Thwaites and photographer Jessica Nuzzo joined me for the shooting. I know the way pretty well it involves going up steep roads, many of the paved with gravel so I didnt have any problems; in fact, the route seemed shorter this year. George and Jessica traveled together and found the route a touch more daunting; the forest on either side of the road makes you think of cougar and Bigfoot sightings. As the old saying goes, once you think youre lost, youre there. Jessica told me after she and George arrived that they were thinking of turning back. I know theyre glad that they didnt.
We get to fire a variety of rifles, shotguns and pistols; the gun club provides all the firearms and ammunition. But this year there was some ammunition I could have provided: filled pop cans.
Shooters Roost brought a can cannon to this years event. Its an AR-15 rifle body with what looks like a mortar or rocket tube instead of a regular barrel. You load the rifle with a .223 Remington blank cartridge and load a 12-ounce can of soda pop into the tube.
Naturally, I had to try it. You hold it like you would a shotgun, and when the range supervisor gives you the OK, you take off the safety and fire. The kickis similar to what a shotgun gives you.
I fired a can of Diet Mountain Dew about 150 feet into the air. It smashed into a cliff, spraying Mountain Dew and embedding itself into the rock. I think that can is still there. After firing that, I announced, I want one! Cpl. James Long, of the West Virginia State Police Princeton Detachment, who is a gun club member, pointed out that you wouldnt want to get hit by that cannon. I agreed, and remarked that the state medical examiner would have a pretty strange report to write if anyone got hit. Struck by a round of Diet Mountain Dew would be an unusual cause of death.
Longs daughter Brittany, who is a champion shooter in NRA 3-Gun competition, demonstrated her skill when she shot two cans fired by the AR-15 launcher. What was really amazing was how the cans reacted to the buckshot. Instead of exploding, they seemed to peel apart in flight as they kept going in a straight line. Imagine an oranges peel suddenly spinning right off the fruit.
We also got to fire an automatic AR-15 short barrel rifle with a suppressor. I quickly learned that its a weapon you dont master quickly. Yes, it looks simple, but when on full automatic, the barrel wants to climb and you have to hang on tight; of course, I came away wanting one of those, too.
Of course, we learned about gun safety, too. Thanks to the clubs lessons, Ive come to think of firearms the same way I think of power tools like saws and drills. Theyre perfectly safe if you use them correctly. For instance, leaving a power saw plugged up is a bad idea, and so is leaving a firearm loaded and with its safety off. Im planning to get a pistol of my own, but I also plan to attend classes on how to use and store it safely. Im not looking to get into any gun battles or foolishness like that; just some target shooting on a range and self protection, which I hope would never be necessary.
I plan to attend next years Media Day, and I hope my friends at theDaily Telegraph will keep attending it, too. Its a great opportunity to use firearms and learn more about them.
Greg Jordan is the senior reporter at the Daily Telegraph.Contact himat gjordan@bdtonline.com.
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'Can cannon,' AR-15 add extra kick to Media Day at the range - Bluefield Daily Telegraph
