Attention: Some pictures from the site of Battlefield no longer show. Apologies are in order, but there is nothing we can do about it.

Or, how Vegas differs from the rest of the world.

This article was prompted by some discussion that took place in a Greek group on Facebook called "Friends of Guns". The original discussion was about shooting ranges in Greece (or what we call shooting ranges, in reality nothing more than ex-army camp shooting fields, in the best of cases).

While driving around Vegas with my good friend Ike Ziros, he pointed to me an area behind Circus-Circus, which really draws your attention. It's almost a block wide, and what caught my eye was the sight of several army trucks in the yard. And then I saw a ... Huey helicopter.


Crappy shot from a panorama that I tried to shoot.

And then some mortars, machine guns posts, airplane bombs etc.

With the advice of my friend, I decided to visit the establishment, which is called "Battlefield", or as the sign outside says "The Fabulous Battlefield Las Vegas". Their web page, by the way is www.battlefieldvegas.com.

And what did I find there?

This is the main building.



See the Hummer parked at the front? Some more shots from the yard.

How about an M35?



Or an M923?



Or an M109A3 Comm-Truck?



Or the Huey UH-1C I had noticed the first day I passed from there?



So let's move inside to see what we have here. This is the hall of the offices section of the company.



OK, some army uniforms, some gun cleaning chemicals, a few glass shelves with some pistols, no big deal, right? Yes John, look the other way.



Oh my .... this is getting interesting.



In case you can't read the small labels in the front of these guns (one of them is a Barrett .50 cal.) they say "Yes, you can shoot me".

And then, behind the counter ... make your choice gentlefolks!!!



These not enough for you? Then how about these two rows?





Still not enough for you? Well, if you ask kindly, the owner, Ron Cheney, will guide you to the ... safe.



This is just one of the three walls of course, here is Ron with something I've never seen before.



This is a collapsible French paratrooper's full-auto firearm. When collapsed, it is a little bit larger than a book. Even the barrel collapses inside the main body of the gun.



And another one, I wish I remember what this is, but it is a well-known fact that my memory is not refreshing at the proper rates. Several members whose memory works better than mine suggested after this article was published that this is a StG 44/MP44 Sturmgewehr. I take their word for it!!

Enough to say, that if there is an automatic weapon on earth, you can be sure a sample of it, exists in that building. M4? By the dozen. AKs? Same. Old, WWII Schmeissers? You bet. WWII English Stens? Yeap. Full-auto Glocks? Yes Sir! You name it, Ron and his associate Matthew Supnick have it. Of course, you can choose to shoot more mundane weapons like M1 Garands and of course 1911s. You name it, it is there. And you can shoot it.

Then Ron escorted me to the shooting range. Not too many rows, maybe ten. The last one features a special support fixture, so that even a kid can shoot a machinegun without a problem.



The company offers special packages, which are theme-oriented and allow you to shoot several firearms used in that theme. For example, if you select the D-Day package, you can fire a 1911A1, an M1 Garand and a Thompson. If you select the Spec-Ops package, you can fire a Sig Mk25 suppressed pistol, an H&K MP-5SD, a Colt CQBR and an M-249 SAW. etc.etc. Visit their web site for more info.

After spending some time at their shop, all I can say is that this shooting range fits perfectly with its environment, Las Vegas. Like everything in Vegas, this is extreme! It has the largest selection of full-auto firearms I've seen in my life. The people are extremely helpful and friendly. The prices? Well, I didn't ask. Sorry, but they are all available in their web site.

And yes, if you must know, I didn't shoot any firearm in there. The reason? Elementary, if I started with one gun, I would surely want to fire others. And with so many beautiful firearms around, I am sure I wouldn't be able to leave without depositing a significant amount of money at the cashier. No, I didn't fall in that trap. I humbly thanked Ron and moved back to my hotel. But if you visit Vegas, do save some money to spend shooting those things. I am sure you will enjoy it.

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