Machine gun owners to fire on strip mine

The Dominion Post ^ | 6/17/2004 | AP

[the_devils_advocate_666]

CHARLESTON (AP) -- Hundreds of machine gun owners plan to meet at a remote, abandoned strip-mine site near Shinnston this weekend to shoot their weapons.

''We call it 'Thunder in the Hills,' '' said Frank Watson, the event's promoter. ''Basically, it's a chance for machine gun owners to spend three days shooting lead and shooting the bull.''

Billed as a ''shoot and show,'' the event is open to owners of all types of automatic firearms. Military buffs will get a chance to see everything from the British-made Lewis gun of World War I to the M-60 now used by the U.S. military.

''We'll be shooting up some old appliances, and we'll have some exploding targets. Anything to make things interesting for the shooters and the spectators,'' Watson said.

Several participants plan to bring modern ''miniguns'' to the event. The electrically powered weapons can spit up to 6,000 rounds a minute from their rotating barrels. At night, with tracer ammunition, the stream of fire resembles a laser beam.

Spectators will be able to rent machine guns and purchase ammunition.

[the_devils_advocate_666]

More info: http://www.thunderinthehillsshoot.com/

Videos from last year http://www.p3llc.com/ThunderInTheHills.html (not the fastest downloads)

[Oztrich Boy]

Some people really must hate strip mining.

[gieriscm]

WV's own KCR!

[Rebelbase]

Porcelain commodes and sinks make great targets for a couple of seconds.

[John Will]

How many liberals will show up there?
I'm guessing negtive numbers.

[Leisler]

How about a Volvo with a Earth First sticker?

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

How can they do this? Don't they know that strip mines are an endangered species?

While we are at it we must organize to save the skeet from the skeet shooters!

[shotgunjohn]

gawd, that looks like fun.....dynamite on sticks are a challenging and fun target...the results of good shooting are so satisfactory.

[bondjamesbond]

They are going to be converting this strip mine into a lead mine in a few years time...

[SengirV]

I'm guessing there won't be too many crimes committed on unarmed citizen's there. I think there is a lesson to learn here.

[50 Cal]

We have a machine gun shoot down here (Fla.) every 3 months and it is a BLAST!!! I take out my Browning 1919A4 never shoot less than 500 rounds. (250 Round belts). I get that barrel so hot the smoke is pouring off. And if I melt the barrel so what , I can get a new one for $65.00. Last summer a guy came out with his Mini-Gun and burned up 3000 rounds in a single stream that cut a car totally in half. We had another guy come out with a 25mm cannon and that did a great deal of damage also. TOO COOL!

These things get so crowded with shooters that when the firing starts there is a steady rain of empty shells that fall on and around you. Way too much fun!