I have seen the future …
... and it is in Germany. If you don't do anything else today, just make sure you watch this video.
The range shown in the video is the MÜLLER SCHIESS ZENTRUM ULM range.
How awesome is that 3D hunting simulator?
[ Many thanks to Vaar for emailing me the info. ]
Haven´t known that center. I´m living two hours away from ULM. Nice to know. Will take a visit.
Holy crap, this entire complex is going into my dreamhouse.
how is this for a business opportunity ?
I think i just made a decision about my future business plans .
Looks to be really expensive.
I would never leave that place. Ulm is a wonderful place to begin with, now this. I may have to think of a reason to get there this year to check this place out first hand.
LOL, that is what I thought. If I ever make a couple of $100 million, I am gonna build one in my city
*Faints* I know where I want my next Birthday party.
1 1/2 hour drive from where I live. Neat.
Awesome. However, the commercial makes me feel like I’m watching some futuristic sci-fi movie that shows an old commercial of what the future was supposed to look like but the rest of the movie shows a different outcome. It also looks like I’d spend a months wages just walking about the place.
Wow, everything is so clean and orderly and futuristic – it’s like an Apple store with guns. Probably the first gun range where you would feel obliged to get dressed up before visiting.
It’s a million miles away from the dank concrete basements and reclaimed waste ground I’m used to.
The indoor trap range is what fascinates me. I wonder what the walls are lined with, that shotgun pellets don’t destroy it, but don’t bounce back at the shooters either.
Looks like a lot of fun, but I doubt I could afford to eat at that restaurant often.
The stuffed animals in the shop look like the ones that Cabela’s has at their stores.
The video of the targets flapping as the carriages pulled them downrange looked like something out of Harry Potter, and made me wonder if any person unfamiliar with shooting expected the shooters to try to hit those bullseyes while they’re flapping like that.
I wonder if the video shooting range uses real ammo, or blanks and some kind of laser system? I know Jeff Cooper wrote about using a shooting system on a transatlantic liner in the 1930s which had some sort of movie projection system and would show you where the bullet would have gone.
Based on my bad German and the help of Google language tools, it looks like the 3D simulator uses live ammo and some kind of camera system to determine the track of the bullets.
http://www.mszu.de/schiesskinos
the only thing more impressive than the range is their price list
http://www.mszu.de/seite/4/preise
I don’t know guys – they might actually be the master race. Dang, that’s cool.
Wonder what Pink Floyd thinks of having their music in an ad for a shooting range?
Its like a Cabela’s on steriods.
I should start learning German now.
Speechless!!!
I love the video hunting. Think of the tacticool possibilites.
I am afraid those flat-screen monitors mounted on the shooting benches near the beginning of the video wouln’t last too long before catching some lead at an American range though…
Cabellas needs this in their facilities….
The only part they forgot was the on sight Hotel, so I never have to leave.
Been to Germany to visit family twice in the last 4-5 years and they never mentioned anything like this, even though they know my pre-occupation with all things bang, man they were holding out on me. That place looks awesome. What I was wondering is what is the ceiling and walls made out of in that trap and skeet shooting hall?
Anyone know what made that high-pitched ricochet-like sound following each shot on their high-power range? Is that what a snail-style bullet trap sounds like?
Is that Pink Floyd I hear?
Oh my god… (stunned silence)… that is the most awesome place I can Imagine. looks like costs you soul to get in, but its a price gladly paid to participate in such a… Ethereally, sense tingling, amazing place!
Amazing simulator! The bow hunters would really benefit from that simulator.
SpudGun, LOL, thats exacly what it is: an apple store with guns.
Wow, add some class 3 stuff and a strip club wing and you have heaven.
This is a great looking club, but is also the result of strict gun laws in Germany. This is all for sport, and most of these people probably do not even keep their weapons with them when the leave the “club”.
Hunting is for the aristocracy, and self defense is basically not allowed. If you shot another human being before they shot you, you would likely be charged for murder in tried in a court with no jury.
Concealed carry permits are issued only to be people with a “need”. Hunting licenses are only obtained after an entire year long class, after which a 1 time test must be passed.
Definitely not a country where the simple man can own a inexpensive tool to protect his family from the vermin of society.
The main point of all this is that the only reason a market exists for an elite gun club like the one you saw is because mostly the upper-middle class are he only people who shoot, and own firearms, and an even smaller demographic actually hunts.
God Bless America – and don’t forget less it be taken from you!
It’s actually quite cheap too.
I was completely impressed until I saw the transparency machine they were using for their “seminare”… they have 3D spinning transparent pigs with overlayed ballistics but no PC projector?? Talk about old school!
Seriously though, this place is awesome (and probably really expensive). I have to believe there would be market for this in the US. I’ve always thought about building an indoor 100- or 200-yd rifle range. Wouldn’t that be awesome??
It’s like some high-tech German Cabella’s. I’d love to check that place out. Maybe taking German wasn’t a waste of time!
Holy crap, that is beyond amazing. Not sure I would have chosen Pink Floyd’s Time for the background music though…
There’s a bow hunting simulator called “TechnoHUNT” that might be more suitable for American musical tastes
and financial options.
http://www.technohunt.com/
Gizmodo compares it to an Apple Store with guns.
http://gizmodo.com/5547068/its-like-an-apple-storewith-guns
They also append this note…
UPDATE: Reader Ron has emailed in, saying that his German wife watched the video and can report that the facilities are only open “to law enforcement, licensed hunters and licensed gun owners in Germany.” Apparently, to procure a hunter’s license one must spend a year studying botany, zoology, federal law, anatomy, and not to mention everything about firearms—with the lessons alone costing a minimum of $8,000 USD.
Joe, thanks. That title was a quote of our very own Spudgun who said that in the comments (above)
I’d like to echo what Ryan said, as totally awesome as that facility is, shooting sports in Germany and Europe are for rich elites, nothing like the every day people who enjoy it in America. The tech is bad ass, but the atmosphere will be bad and very foreign to American shooters.
And again, nobody there shoots for self defense, it’s all lame target pistols and match stuff. Nobody brings their glock and shoots silhouettes at 20 feet. And you can damn well forget about having an AR, AK etc.
Germany may have some of the best weapons manufactures, but they sure as hell dotn let anyone buy them.
Steve,
I am in Germany and this place looks like a “must visit” but I can tell you, it is not that easy to get a firearm here.
To own a firearm and reload you need a license and both cost money, be glad you are in the US right now. I miss my firearms.
V/R
C_S
I beg to disagree with what “Ron’s wife” said.
My brother who lives in Stuttgart (not too far from Ulm) – and who is not a licensed gun, cop or whatever – went to MSZU with one of his colleagues and shot a few .50 rounds from a Steyr HS50 at their 300m indoor range. So it is open to anyone.
Anyway, I’m not familiar with gun laws in Germany but I suspect they must be as strict (and weird) as in France, where I live.
My indoor – underground I should say – range next to Paris is not nearly as glamour as MSZU. But it’s fun anyway and there’s no “social pressure” against fast shooting or even self-defense drills.
Concerned_Soldier, it is a sad world in that we all do not get to enjoy the 2nd amendment.
FYI: I speak German and emailed the Range since I lived near Ulm for many years. This is the response i got this morning. Joe Hooker is WRONG.
Sehr geehrter Herr Chirol,
herzichen Dank für Ihr Interesse an unserem Schießzentrum.
In unserem Haus dürfen auch Personen ohne Erwerbserlaubnis schießen wenn Sie mindestens 24 Jahre alt sind. Ein Jagdschein oder eine Erwerbserlaubnis ist bei uns nur notwendig wenn Sie
unter 24 Jahre alt sind und schießen möchten bzw. wenn Sie in Deutschland Waffen oder Munition kaufen möchten ist auch eine Erwerbserlaubnis (WBK) oder ein Jagdschein notwendig.
Ich hoffe ich konnte Ihnen weiterhelfen, ansonsten stehe ich Ihnen gerne noch für weitere Fragen zur Verfügung.
The range said that you can come and shoot WITHOUT a weapons license if you are at least 24 years old.
I don’t know about not having an AR or an AK in Germany. If you watch near the end of the video there is a women shouldering a Ansuhtz, but behind her is a case with an HK SL8, an HK MR223 (HK416), an HK MR308 (HK417), and what appears to be a SIG 55X series rifle from the looks of the stock. There were no high-cap mags however. anyway here is an interesting site for German civvie “Black Guns” http://www.waffenschumacher.com/
I had a dream a few months ago about building an indoor skeet field using an industrial 30′ high space. When I later did some back of the envelope calculations it seemed do-able, required less land than a field, and it was easy to reclaim shot, but needed to stay busy to break even at reasonable prices. This place looks way better than I envisioned and it appears to be a larger hanger type structure.
On the prices, 8 euros to get in, plus 10 euros per round of skeet or trap is expensive compared to here but I don’t know the going rate in Germany for a round; it may be reasonable.
For those interested in reading the pages, google can translate them for you.
truly awesome,(and I use the word very sparingly) and likely only in germany can you get something like that…
based on my competetion shoting experianc the skeet shooting rang will usaly requier and sell 12 guag shells with less powder and ruber bird shot .
this takes care of recoil muzzle flash and becose ruber loses force 3 times faster it also prevents stray pellets from injuring a bystander. now on the rifle and pistol rang your ques is as good as mine
austin, according to the website, the “Clay Pigeon Hall” is for steel shot only. Use Google Translate, it makes the website very readable.
Lucky Germans.
The norwegian army uses a system very similar to the 3d hunting sim. in the video.
They use it to train soldier in the correct use of force.
It’s basically a tent, where you have a projector and a solid backround to stop the 5.56′s. The shooter is presented with a number of different scenarios in which he/she only has a few seconds to deside wheather the person they see on the screen represent a big enough treath to be fired upon or not. It’s good fun, and gets the adrenaline going.
“guy selling popstickles,guy selling popstickles,guy selling popstickles….GUN!” doubletap!