The Shooting Range

When we first arrived in Mongolia, we’d heard about this place where you can go and shoot an AK-47. It wasn’t until last weekend that we finally got around to doing it. We’d heard from friends of ours (David and Tracy) who had been our on the previous weekend that it was pretty good, that we though “Why Not?” We organized with some more friends and out we went.
The place was called the Hujir Bulan Shooting range. It’s about a ½ hour drive out of UB towards Gachuurt and we arrived about an hour before opening by mistake so to use up a bit of time we climbed all over and into an old Mongolian/Russian T-55 tank and BMP armoured personnel carrier.

Paige inside one of the tanks

The boys & Paige standing in front of the shooting range sign

The guns arrive

In typical style, the guys arrived late for opening, turning up in an old Russian military van with ammo and gun boxes in the back. We followed them into the office and were blown away by the selection of possible firearms available to use. The process is to fill in a sheet with your names and details and what weapons you want to shoot and how many bullets you want to use.

Some of the guns that where available

Ben elected to go for the AK-47 (of course), the PPSh submachine gun, the PKM light machine gun and to top it off the RPG-7 rocket launcher (bwah ha ha ha!). I selected the AK-47, the RPK, the Tokarev pistol and the RPG-7. After parting with quite a bit of money, we waited outside for the others to fill in their paperwork and the guys to bring out the guns.
We followed the guys out to a fenced off shooting range. They then prepared the guns, set out the targets and away we went. This was not a “free for all” but a carefully coordinated and supervised activity (that bits for you Mums). Each shooter was called up one at a time and supervised through the shooting using weapons on semi and fully automatic modes.

The men bring out the guns

Bernadette shooting a Tokarev pistol

Bernadette pointing to the head shot on her target

Ben shooting a PPSh

The raw power of these guns was frightening at first. I didn’t know what to expect and let out a small shriek much to the amusement of the spectators. I think having a go at shooting these guns hit home that there are children solders in countries that are made to kill people and that having a gun in your hand is like playing god you can take a life by pulling a trigger.
After we’d fired all the guns it was time for the rocket launcher. This was a little daunting as you have a bit of an idea of the destructive power of these things. The guys pulled out the rockets and assembled them and we went through the safety briefing which included the correct stance, how to arm and fire, why you need to keep your mouth open and most importantly aim up because if you fire the rocket into the ground at your feet you’ll die.
Murray, our Canadian friend went first. We all stood well away from him as he fired, missing the target about 100m away. The rocket hit the ground short of the target and ricocheted into the hill behind it before exploding. Wow, we were stunned. The noise, the shockwave! Amazing.
Ben was next. He went through the safety drill and on Murray’s advice aimed a little higher. Wooosh, the shockwave goes right through you leaving you partly stunned. Ben’s rocket also hit the ground short of the target bouncing into the hill and exploding. I think it was an experience for Ben that he will never forget.

Three steps to Ben shooting the RPG-7 rocket launcher

I was next, but decided to decline. It was a bit intimidating and I didn’t feel confident, I felt I couldn’t get my balance and the thought of pointing the rocket to close to the ground was enough that I decided it was best to walk away and our friend Dave have a turn. He took Ben’s advice and aimed even higher. His rocket punched right through the target and we all cheered. Nice shootin’ Tex! Finally Danny’s partner Doogi (sorry if I get the spelling wrong) had a go. She seemed to take an eternity before firing and we thought she was going to chicken out, but she finally fired. Hers fell short too, exploding in a big cloud of dust.
That was it for the day. Still buzzing from our experience we went out for dinner, re-living the day. Wow. What an experience! Something we’ll probably never get a chance to do again. Where else but Mongolia?