My local indoor range hosts a St. Valentine's Day full auto shoot every February. They have 8 or 10 guys with fully automatic rifles (pistol cartridges only: < 2,000 fps) who let the public come & shoot their guns at the range. It's only $5 per shooter, but you have to buy all the ammo from the range.

I tried it... once. Firstly, I thought it was just a b!tch to have to load a 50 round Thompson magazine over & over again, when I was emptying it in 3 to 5 seconds. Mainly, though, I found the whole exercise to be just plain stupid, because I couldn't put the little holes in a man-sized target at 15 yards! The muzzle rise, even on the little Uzis, took the bullet right up off the target, often into the ceiling of the indoor range!

I also have an AR in .223 that I bought back when some Knucklehead in Washington DC was offing people with a Bushmaster. I figured I should buy one while I could. At the time of purchase, I gave them even more $$$ for two 30 round magazines: get 'em before they're banned, dontcha know.

What I didn't know, though, was that it's virtually impossible to find a bench rest that will accommodate a long-a$$ed magazine that sticks out of the bottom of a rifle. Or that firing 30 rounds out of a rifle, even with a bull barrel, heats up the barrel so much that accuracy goes to [excrement]. So, you're reduced to firing offhand, or standing from a supported rest (forget about prone with those magazines), and likely not emptying the clip in one string, unless you just want to make lots of noise, & you don't care about barrel life.

My point? If you're looking to make noise, & you don't care about where the bullets go, then go get a 12 ga. It's only$250,it has plenty of recoil, lots of noise, & it will put your friend on the ground. Fun, fun, fun!

As for myself, I've discovered that shooting's only fun when the bullets go where you want them to go. Whether that's into paper, or into a game animal of any size. I have yet to meet anyone, or see any posts on these types of forums, where someone's bragging about how much fun they had shooting a 8" group.

I'd still recommend that you spend 2 or 3 outings at a range WITHOUT A RIFLE. See what they people are doing, shoot their rifles a time or two, & get an idea of the safety rules used, & the respect the shooters pay to them, and to one another. You might just decide to save $800.

FC