Battlefield Vegas is nothing short of gun nirvana.

While we were at SHOT James, Steve, and I felt it was a good idea to take our camera crew to Battlefield Vegas. After all, this is the only place in town that can really excite the discerning gun nerd after a week at the world’s largest gun expo. If you were going to loose your gun virginity all over again, wouldn’t you want it to be with a super model? I mean, it’s an MP7 for your first range experience!

We got the full tour of the place and let me tell you, it was nothing short of awe-inspiring. The vault is like nothing you have ever seen outside of a museum. Not only do they have the favorites on hand for the customer that wants to shoot the gun from Rainbow Six, but they have some truly rare and interesting examples tucked away in the vault. With machine guns like the Micro Galil, SAR-21, Sig 522, Mini-Beryl, L86A1, Ultimax, MP7A1, Walther MPL-K, and more on hand for shooters enjoyment you just can’t beat the selection. I could have gone on for a couple of paragraphs about guns that I didn’t even know they had at the time and am sad that I didn’t shoot them. That’s OK, maybe next trip.

As soon as you walk into the showroom you are met with some pretty awesome guns in a roped off area. A place has to be interesting if they have a Bren and a MG34 in the showroom, The walls are also lined with a small sampling of what firearms are available to rent. Don’t worry though, they are all inert replicas. The real ones live in a secured vault in the back.

Touring the vault.

One of the crew snapped this photo of me standing in the vault while looking at some of the guns they have for rent. I wanted to shoot all of them, but time dictated a smaller selection. Notice that mini-gun in the background? You can rent that too! Why would you not take the time to visit Battlefield Vegas if given the chance? A full list of guns they have available can be seen here.

Brett, one of the cameramen, found this gold AK in the vault and thought it was too cool to not take a photo. They even had a Hello Kitty M16 and what appeared to by a My Little Pony themed one as well. There was no shortage of amazing firearms on the racks, and whoever is doing the buying has some very good taste.

Time to load up and get ready for the range

Once we prepared a menu of some of the coolest machine guns, shotguns, grenade launchers, and pistols for our gun virgin friends we loaded a cart up with the needed magazines and the guns that were selected to give our gun virgins the best possible experience were stacked up below.

The staff at Battlefield Vegas was very helpful in putting together a list of the most popular and iconic firearms with a couple of interesting ones thrown in there as well. You see a portion of the guns selected below. Tonight’s selection was a full auto VEPR 12 (utterly uncontrollable, and I am pretty good at dumping a mag on a machine gun), M16, MP5, an HK MP7A1, AK 47, M203, M60, and a Desert Eagle in 50 AE.

Not a bad way to spend a night in Vegas if I must admit.

Now it was time for the gun virgins to saddle up and introduce themselves to firearms in style. The range facility at Battlefield Vegas is one of the nicest “public” ranges I have shot at and surprisingly there was a distinct lack of holes in the ceiling. Much of Battlefield Vegas’ business is people looking to experience a machine gun for the first time and some of those in the inventory aren’t the easiest to handle.

Right about now you could see all three of them getting a bit apprehensive about their turn to shoot. If I am honest, I was rather jealous that they were about to experience their first time behind some of the coolest guns on the planet.

You remember that mini-gun in the vault? We weren’t able to shoot it since someone had rented it before we could say that we wanted a go on it. Damn. I guess that leaves yet another gun on my list for the next visit.

Now, we shoot!

My cameraman, Alex, was up first on the MP7 and was more excited than James gets while shopping for a new t-shirt and shorts combo in the kid’s section. The MP7 is something of an urban legend, many people have heard of it, few have seen one, and even fewer have shot one. Being able to introduce these guys to the wide world of firearms with a near moon rock was pretty awesome!

Of course James’ cameraman Brett was there to document the whole thing. We were there after all to shoot a TFBTV video where we let three gun virgins experience machine guns. Even though Alex was having a great time, Brett was a true professional and filmed away. The same went for Alex once Brett stepped up to the line.

Not too bad for a beginner! Alex did a bang up job of keeping the bursts to an effective length and putting the rounds on target. Alex was beaming with pride once his turn was over on the fireing line. I have to say, I am pretty proud of him. He handled even the VEPR 12 like a pro.

Now Battlefield Vegas does have a range officer right there to coach you and assist as needed, but Alex didn’t much need the help. He shot like he had done this before even though he hadn’t.

While we had the MP7 out Steve decided he needed to check a box off his bucket list. The excrement-eating grin on his face when he turned around said more than words. Once I saw him smiling like a 4-year-old who has just met Micky Mouse for the first time I knew I had to have a go on it as well. Even though we were there for the cameramen, who was I to say no when asked if I wanted to shoot it?

Steve also gave the full auto VEPR 12 a try. I am told that there is only one person that has been able to hold a mag dump of 10 rounds period. Watching everyone else shot the VEPR it was clearly going to rock any shooters world.

My turn!

Now that everyone else had their fun it was time for myself and James to step up to the firing line. There was ammo left over and the cameramen’s hands were a bit jittery from the adrenaline. Brett’s hands, in particular, were still shaking 20 minutes after he got off the line. It is a bit of a rush if I do say so myself.

Frist up for me was the good ol’ AK 47, not a favorite of mine but if I happen to have a loaded gun in front of me while at a range, you bet I am gonna shoot it.

Next up was the full auto VEPR 12. They warned me that it was near uncontrollable. I didn’t listen. Foolishly.

In my mind, I was an experienced machine gunner who has spent an extensive amount of tim shooting an original AR-10 in full auto, a G3 on full auto, and a FAL on full auto. All of those are a handful but don’t even compare to the VEPR. When I say it was uncontrollable, I really mean it. The fact that Battlefield employees only ONE guy that can dump 10 rounds out of it and stay on target should tell you something.

Warnings aside, you should rent one if you visit Battlefield Vegas. The recoil and muzzle climb is impressive.

I decided to finish with the MP7 since that was on my bucket list just like Steve’s. The best way I can explain the sensation is it reminds me a lot of shooting a handgun chambered in .22 TCM on full auto. I have been shooting for a long while now and been writing for the largest gun blog on the planet for several years and this still put a massive smile on my face just like it did our cameramen.

James and I carved our targets up pretty well, even if I did struggle with the VEPR a bit. James wisely elected to skip the VEPR, I should have followed his lead.

So you might be asking yourself, how do they feed all these machine guns and keep the flow of patrons moving? Pre loaded mags and belts of ammo as far as the eye can see. It seems that they have the ability to move shooters through while still giving them a top notch experience thanks to countless rounds fired.

Just lock me in the range with a 249, this box, and a bucket to pee in. Check on me in the morning. That is all I ask.

So was the trip a success? Watch the TFBTV video about us introducing our amazing camera crew to firearms in the most epic way we could come up with. These guys worked their butts off to provide an incredible amount of content covering SHOT, this is the least that we could do.

So are they converted shooters? I think so. I know that at least two started researching what to buy when they got home in the car ride to dinner. I think they really liked the experience, I know I did. While shooting the guns was fun, just watching the pure joy a new shooter feels when dumping a mag through something like an MP7 or AK for the first time ever was pretty awesome.

I want to thank Battlefield Vegas for everything. Not only was the staff amazing, but the selection of firearms was nothing short of mindblowing. If you happen to be in Vegas for what ever reason, you really should swing by and rent a few things. They can be found on the web at the Battlefield Vegas website or their Facebook page.