It is a barren waste land in the middle of nowhere. Pahrump's claim to fame is that at one time it was the brothel capital of America and still boasts the world's only brothel museum (though I don't know why anyone would be proud of that and I cringe at the thought of what would be in it). It is a sad little town with 3 small hotel/casinos - none of which are in any way appealing. We stayed in one of them on one of our trips and found it more desirable to sleep out in the desert in a tent than to ingest all of the cigarette smoke. The area surrounding the shooting ranges is all BLM land so we just find a nice flat spot and set up camp. For some reason the terrain reminds me of the movie Tremors, with Kevin Bacon. That movie still makes me laugh - I love it.
The Courses
Front Sight offers a pretty good selection of firearms and martial arts classes - though we have only taken the gun classes. We have taken the handgun, shotgun and rifle courses - some of them more than once. We took the 4-day practical rifle class this past weekend and we took a few photos so I'll use them to explain what the class entails.
The rifle class takes place on the 200 yard rifle range which is shown below.
It's not much to look at and it always seems to be hot and dusty but it really is a pretty good facility. The weather is almost always warm - last weekend the highs were in the mid 80's and the lows in the mid 50's - perfect (except for when the wind blows too much or not enough). The 4-day 'practical' rifle class is basically an assault rifle class, as you can tell from the assortment of AR-15's in the gun rack. The AR-15 is a great little gun. It is the civilian version of the M-16 which you have probably seen in every movie that has anything to do with Vietnam - or any American military conflict since.
Like all gun courses at Front Sight the rifle class starts with 'this is the butt stock, the trigger, the muzzle, etc' and is followed by a thorough safety rundown. It is always a little surprising to me that every time we go down there we hear a new story of someone who accidentally shot himself and it's always on the pistol range. Oddly enough the only fatality at Front Sight in its 14 years of operation was from an accident on the zipline on the rope/rappel course and had nothing to do with guns. The last guy that accidentally shot himself during a handgun class was apparently back on the range the next day - and he shot himself through the thigh with a .45. Hand gun wounds are not as serious as rifle wounds. There is a reason why the military fights with rifles - the bullets generally travel faster than half a mile per second, have much greater range than hand guns, and do a lot of damage when they hit the target. For that reason, the rifle and shotgun ranges are run as 'cold' ranges, meaning that anytime you leave the firing line, your weapon is verified to be unloaded. There is also, including the range master, 4-5 people watching everyone on the firing line to make sure they don't do anything stupid - and they do a commendable job.
In the rifle class, one of the first things you do is 'zero', or sight in, your rifle. This involves taking three series of 3 shots at a target to verify that your sights (or your scope) are lined up correctly so that you are shooting accurately during the course. This is done by laying prone behind your rifle while propping it up on two sand bags - one under the barrel and one under the stock as shown in this photo.
The only part of the gun you are touching is the grip and trigger (with your firing side hand) and the stock (with your cheek). You lay as comfortably as possible until your heart rate slows down to its resting rate. Then you focus on the 3 keys to accurate shooting - sight alignment, sight picture, and trigger control. Sight alignment - with a scope it means looking through the scope so that it is bright and clear and their are no shadows around any of the edges. If you look through a scope at the wrong angle, black shadows appear around the edges and indicate that you have bad sight alignment. Sight picture - you have the intersection of the cross hairs right where you want the bullet to go. Trigger control - you slowly build pressure on the trigger until you get a surprise 'break'. You literally want to be surprised when the gun goes off because if you anticipate it, you tend to jerk and it messes up the sight alignment and picture. With your heart rate slowed down you wait for the natural respiratory pause that comes after an exhale. If you have good sight alignment and sight picture you slowly build pressure on the trigger until the gun goes off. You never force it. If you do it right it looks like this - three nicely grouped holes that tell you how far you have to adjust your scope turrets so that where you are looking matches where the bullets are going.
As I was saying, the shooting part is the fun part. The instructors run you through several scenarios from quick reaction/short range shots from a standing position to 200-yard take-your-time prone shots. Just for fun, on the third day, they take you out to 400 yards and spot for you while you shoot at a 24 in. square steel plate. The first time I took the rifle class I hit that target with open sights (no scope) - the credit goes to the instructors and the rifle. It's no wonder that the M16 has been the main battle rifle for the military for so long - I love the 'Little Black Gun' (as it is sometimes called).
The exercises they take you through are designed to prepare you for the skills assessment on the last day of the class. It's a timed test and includes the following:
1 - shots, while standing, to the cranio-ocular cavity (or the snot box as we call it) and thoracic cavity (chest) at 15 yards in under 3 seconds
2- shots, while standing, to the cranio-ocular cavity and thoracic cavity at 25 yards in under 4 seconds.
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| Nate taking a 25 yard head shot. |
3-then they back you up to 50 yards and give you less than 5 seconds to get a shot in the thoracic but they let you sit, kneel or stand - whichever you prefer.
4- after that it's back to 100 yards wehre you have 5 seconds to go from standing to prone and get a shot on the target. It's hard but doable.
5- the last distance shot is at 200 yards. 6.5 seconds is all the time you have to go off your feet and onto your belly and get a shot off. It's not as hard as it sounds.
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| Kirkus and me getting ready for a 200 yard shot. |
With the long range portion of the test over it's time for the hostage shot. The hostage shot is a 7-yard, untimed shot on a target that looks like the one below. The hostage is in white - the hostage takers have their cranio-ocular cavities designated by a box. The message? Get it right the first time and never, ever shoot the hostage. In the handgun class they actually have you write the name of a loved one on the hostage before you take the shots. In this exercise, it is a point of pride, that I have never shot the hostage. A perfect score is one bullet hole in each hostage takers snot box - and none in the hostage or off the target.
They also teach you to clear malfunctions (often incorrectly referred to as jams) and include them on the test. The three malfunction types are 1) hearing a click instead of a bang, 2) getting brass stuck in the ejection port, or 3) having your gun try to chamber two rounds at once. They are also timed and have spoiled the hopes of many aspiring Distinguished Graduates...
DG
The prize at the end of each course is the coveted 'DG' - or qualifying as a 'Distinguished Graduate'. Besides bragging rights it allows you to take the more advanced courses at Front Sight. I am sad to say that I did not DG the rifle course this time. I did on the practice test but not the real one - but you gotta bring your A-game every time - practice doesn't count. I was hoping to DG this time so I could take the Precision Rifle (or sniper) course with Nate and Brady but, alas, I will just have to make another trip back in the spring to try again :)
I DG'd the handgun class but that's easier than the rifle class. To give you an idea of how hard it is - of the 42 people in the class last weekend, only one DG'd this time around - Nate. Look at him bask in his DG glory. I personally think it was the T-shirt. If you look closely, that's Burt from the movie Tremors.
It is unlikely that any of us will ever need to use the skills we have acquired at Front Sight but I haven't needed my seat belt yet and I still wear it every time I get behind the wheel. You just never know...
The real reason we go to Front Sight is the comraderie. The first time we went it was just Brady and me. Then we got more of the fellas to sign up and it has the beginings of a great tradition. Here we are at lunch solving the world's problems.
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| The Sports Mobile in all its glory |
The Sports Mobile (that is its real name) is one of the coolest things I have ever seen. I won't say whose it is because I know he doesn't seek the recognition that comes with having stuff like this. He doesn't really care that much about 'stuff' but I could write a whole post geeking out about it.
Here we all are on the last day of the class.
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| Nate, Brady, Jeff, Me, Kirk. Though I own camo pants, I refuse to wear them. Mostly because it's so freaking hot! |
Nevada Night Life
I have said before that Front Sight is the most fun a bunch of Mormon guys can have in Nevada. We go into nearby Pahrump at night to eat, shower, and buy supplies - and by that I mean explosives.
We usually eat at a place called Terrible's casino - and the name fits. It is a smoke-filled cavernous casino that has cheap food and it's actually pretty good. I recommend the blackened salmon or the T-bone steak - both of which may be had for $9.99. It's funny because every time we go there they tell us it's at least a 20 minute wait - even with a bunch of open tables. We figured out that they are probably trained to tell everyone that get you to spend some time in the casino while you are waiting for your table. When we just stand their waiting they usually will just seat us. I hate casinos but we eat there almost every night because Brady and I both have to be careful what we eat and somehow Terribles sits well with both of us - everyone else in the group is kind enough to just humor us.
Casinos, to me, are very sad places. It is remarkable how many people in there are in wheel chairs and need oxygen tanks to help them breathe. There is a heavy feeling in such places. The blank stares of the gamblers hoping against hope that the next one will be 'the big one' is depressing to see. Brady and I have seen this car with the wheel chari lift on the back, no kidding, every time we have gone to Terrible's.
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| If the whole real estate thing doesn't work out - Brady always has pole-dancing to fall back on (not that I have ever seen a pole dancer....) |
Once dinner is over and we have showered off the casino smell - it's off to Walmart for propane and to the fireworks store - and Nevada has great fireworks - especially the improvised ones.
What you are about to see is a bunch of old friends reliving parts of their childhood. Yes, it is juvenile - but it's also good clean fun. All of the supplies purchased for these activities were done so legallly.
A brief explanation of Tannerite is required. Tannerite is an inert binary explosive compound - which by the way, may purchased at most local sporting goods stores (Cabela's and Sportsman's Warehouse to name a couple) under the label 'reactive target'. It is a mixture of amonium nitrate (fertilizer) and aluminum powder. It is not flammable or explosive in its unmixed state and even when mixed and ready to go it can only be detonated by hitting it with something traveling faster than (I think) 2500 feet per second - or a bullet from a rifle. I can neither confirm nor deny that I have any knowledge of the orgins of the following video. The dwellings seen therein were long-abandoned and the one you see in the video is one of the few remaining with more than one wall. I realize that the following may dissuade certain people from associating with me - but be that as it may - here it is - bringing it home with a little help from Katy Perry...
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