I was looking forward to NFA day for weeks for several reasons: getting to meet forum members, shoot machineguns, and experiment with several different SBR's as a way to better decide what I want to do with my first SBR. I was surprised by the NFA day offer itself as I had heard again and again from fellow shooters that NFA owners do not like to let others touch their guns since they are so expensive and the only chance I would ever get to do anything NFA would be to go to Knob's Creek and pay out the nose for it.
I loaded up the car the night before, but still had to round up stuff on the day of the event and somehow even managed to leave my digital camera at home (which would be my only regret of the day).
The directions to Lovemywood's house were great as was the ride. And just as I feared I might get lost, there was an official NFA day yard sign to guide me. Before I knew it there was a beautiful house overlooking a serene lake and warm faces welcoming me. They even had name tags with avatars and an ATV to run our gear down the steep slope to the range.
While I was unloading, I found out the fellow member that wanted to buy ammo from me on NFA day was standing next to me and had parked beside my car. With three heavy ammo cans full of lead, that was convenient as it gets.
Soon we were all down at the range and joined by our three NFA "guides"/range officers who passed out NFA forms and ran through the basics of the day. We would be running two lines - one with paper targets & bowling pins, the other with water bottles, hanging targets, even watermelons. After a brief safety review, we started.
The guns were laid out on a table like some EBS (Evil Black schmorgesborg). All you had to do was pick an appropriate mag, load it up, get in line, and when it was your turn the owner would bring it to the line. Where else could you get valet SBR service? Each owner acted as RO, and they were obviously experienced. There were even radios for calling the line cold as people needed to run up and down the hill. Lovemywoods runs a high tech range.
22lr's were first with a long line for the 22lr AR machinegun. I jumped into the short line for the suppressed Ruger. It was nice! Quiet, sleek, nicely balanced, and accurate. The zombies never heard the headshots before dying yet again.
Then it was the AR's turn and it was a hoot. It took some getting used to and did have the usual 22lr issues, but when it burped there was nothing like it. And even with supersonic ammo, the suppression was impressive. I could spend many afternoons digging through paper, melons, dirt, whatever with that.
Now the exact order that followed was rather a blur. The Serbu came out early and seemed like some kind of bad bet. And for the bet to be worth it, BigCraig was egged on to load it with 3" magnum slugs. And being the man he is, he loaded them up.
BOOOM! -laughter- BOOM! -laughter- BOOM! -laughter-
The dang thing was so rediculous in a perfect way that everyone was laughing and slowly lining up to get a turn. And the funny thing is that each person's main reaction was to laugh after each BOOM! And I saw that each time a new shooter broke into laughter, it only made BigCraig laugh more himself. Soon the line was long to get in on this "inside joke" with the "big punchline" and left everone digging in their bags for all the 12 gauge ammo they could find in boxes, piles and bandoliers.
The SBR's were also very impressive, both 9mm and .223. I loved getting the chance to run them at various lengths and both suppressed and unsuppressed. As I expected, suppression is exactly that, suppression not silencing. But there were things I did not expect. I was surprised that they suppressors did not add much weight to the weapons or greatly effect balance. Second was the amount of gassing that was brought back to the user from the silencer, particularly the smell. That was different. Finally, the length of the suppressors and how that would effect the choice of the initial barrel on any SBR build was something that I was glad to be able to both experience and talk with BigCraig about in person. Meaure twice and all that...
Then, of course, came the machineguns. I really was looking forward to the M16 unsuppressed, especially with the old school upper that was available! And it did not dissappoint. I ran a couple of mags through it and it was fun, controllable, and easily addictive. At the same time, the big surprise for me was the M-11. While the long mags were a pain to load (made far better after someone showed me how to use the loading tool), the gun itself was amazing. The rate of fire was fast, but not so fast that you missed your fun. The recoil was not only controllable, but easily workable both in controlled bursts and in moving around a full auto run. The balance was at the right grip and the weight light. I can see now why these are so popular (in addition to price point reasons). I burned many, many boxes of 9mm quickly.
There were also longarms on the show table. And I kept returning to the the AK. I am very partial to AK's, but get frustrated by their inaccuracy at times. This AK was different in firing a lighter round, it was easy to keep on target and make many little holes into one large one. Very, very easy.
As the day wore on, it was time to take a break and head up for a huge dinner. I had an amazing burger and way too much cherry dessert. But even better was getting to sit around and chat on Lovemywood's deck with people I have never met in person, all 30 or so open carrying firearms and feeling right at home.
After gorging, we went back down to eek out what daylight we had to put more lead in the berm, er... targets... Some people happened to have firearms from home and those got to have some fun, even a nice M1 carbine. My STG finally got some rapid fire and introduced me to it's "smoking handguards" that taught me something new about it's vented gas tube (i.e. that it is vented)! Ha!
Glocks, Sigs, P3AT's, Bolt action rifles, and a slug gun all had some time before the light ran out. Then the ATV's again hauled gear, and a couple of shooters, back up the "exercise slope" and many a winded shooter was ready for the trip home.
But first, VUPDblue was ready with more Form 1's just in case.
As sometimes happens in the countryside, I drove home behind a truck that was being towed, in the dark, at 25 mph for a long time. But I did not get at all frustrated because I had had such a great day, it just did not matter how long the drive was going to be.
Thanks everyone, but especially to:
Lovemywoods for hosting such a gathering, not to mention hosting such a shoot. Your willingness to open your land, home, and private range to us was a kindness that is very rare.
Shooter521, VUPDblue & Bigcraig for sharing your babies with us and spreading the word about how fun and available NFA is to all shooters. Bigcraig, your fun is especially contagious and I hope to join the bandwagon soon. VUPDblue, thanks for making a goal of spreading the truth on NFA firearms. Shooter521, maybe I will be able to listen to some of your advise and skip a few more mistakes along the way.
To the cooks, all of you, Yumm! That was good eating.
To the fellow shooters, you were a great bunch to shoot with both for fun, but also due to the atmosphere of courtesy and camaraderie.
To the camera crews, thanks for making the fun last even for those who could not be there. And thank you for putting up with the torrent of requests for copies that are sure to come.
Lastly, to the wives and families of the shooters and hosts. Thank you also for helping us all get out and play. Many a wife took on all the kids alone to make it happen, and who knows what other burdens were taken on to make the day go. So thanks to you who weren't even there.
It was a good day.
