Review: OB/NWFA MG Shoot

raindog · Sep 27, 2009

I saw the ad for the OB/NWFA machine gun shoot...

http://www.northwestfirearms.com/forum/showthread.php?t=13797
http://www.northwestfirearms.com/forum/showthread.php?t=13797

...and couldn't resist. I've always wanted to shoot a Thompson on full auto.

The shoot was out SE of Estacada in the Mount Hood National Forest. Beautiful drive. I live near Gresham and it was about an hour to drive out. Honestly, I enjoyed the drive - beautiful day for having the windows down and enjoying the sunshine. Traffic was light and the final seven miles up the hillside was very nice. I had brought a book on tape but really just enjoyed the beautiful scenery.

Folks at the shoot were very friendly. I got there Sunday afternoon. Storm Enterprises was there, along with Beaver Creek.

Personally, I'm more interested in putting a single round on target at 600 yards than shooting full auto, but the chance to shoot a few historical guns was too good to pass up. I talked to the the Storm guys for a while - very friendly, with a wealth of historical info on the guns.

Prices were $20 for a magazine of pistol ammo (like the Thompson or MP5), $25 for rifle ammo, and $5/round for the .50 cal with breaks for more.

First up was the Thompson SMG. I was surprised how little the muzzle rose. Very easy to shoot. Virtually no recoil to speak of. Wish they'd had a 50-round mag to feed the Al Capone in me but the stick mag was sure fun.

I saw a kid shoot the Russian DP and knew I'd have to try it. Makes quite a statement, sending 47 rounds of 7.62x54 down range...

Video from this afternoon:

Finally I took a shot with the Barrett .50. I'd never shot a .50 before and found the kick to be horrific. Fun! But I'll stick with .308 ;-)

I stopped with those three. Would have liked to try the PPSh-41 and the M3 Grease Gun. A guy from OB said they're going to do these every three months, so I'm sure I'll have a chance in the future.

For those who didn't go, I'm leaving out lots of guns. There was a whole table of full-auto black rifles, AKs, various SMGs, etc (see the original announcement's list). Lots of suppressed rifles, too.

Overall, a very nice way to spend the afternoon while my wife was at a baby shower

terrylf72 · Sep 27, 2009

it was great had fun, loved watching my girls shoot the MP5-40. But I didnt expect for it cost what it did.

I fired the AK-47, MP5-40 and a couple of the M16's. Loved the AK, fired every round without failure. MP5 as well, the 2 great weapons. But the M16'a were having trouble. Was reduced to shooting burst on a 20" A2 platform..

My opinion of the pros and cons..

Pro - great selection, plenty of ammo, prompt ability to shoot, debit/credit card to feed the need to ROCK-N-ROLLA!! Friendly people..

Con - Price, about $1 per round (wolf ammo) lot high. Relability of the AR platforms, (they were jaming every 2-3 rounds).

Hawaiian · Sep 27, 2009

My son and I were there today and had a great time. Shot a lot of the guns. Will post up some pics and video's later once he sorts them out.

I agree, a great bunch of friendly folks at the shoot. That is half the fun. And a great range officer who kept everything safe.

The only down side, was as stated before. Lots of jams in some of the guns. When paying 20 or 25 bucks to shoot a gun, I would have expected it to run like it is supposed to.

But overall, we had a blast. Pun intended. We will be back for the next one for more fun. Will post up some pics later. :s0155:

TonsOfOregonBrass · Sep 27, 2009

Hey thanks for the reviews.

We are really glad you guys had fun. That was the main purpose of this. Sorry the AR's weren't functioning properly. The pistons did not like wolf ammo at all. They ran well ok on brass, but beavercreek stated they would not have pistons there next time. They will be sticking to gas blow back.

We had a lot of people show up through out the days, and it was a lot of fun. I took a lot of video and am making a video to post.

Even got a great video of a 4 year old shooting one of the m/16's. Everything was very safe and family friendly, (besides my potty mouth some times, Sorry.)

Check out our site over the next few days and we will have the video up. Thanks Hawaiian for letting us use video from you and your son. A lot of it turned out well from what i have seen so far.

Thanks again for the review and if anyone else came that wants to comment please do so. We don't mind negative comments either, they help us make the next one better.

And yes we are planning on holding another one in January. We will make another post when we have the dates and location down.