Blowing things up when I was a kid was always fun. However, shooting things never appealed to me. Politics aside, I just never understood the appeal of guns when I was younger. I get it now, but it took some life experience before I understood.
Friends visiting Las Vegas often wanted to go shooting simply because they couldn't do it at home. It wasn’t until someone invited me out to the mountains to shoot guns and blow things up that I finally understood the hype. Here are a few unique shooting ranges in Las Vegas you might want to check out if you’ve had one too many bad beats during your visit.
My first time officially shooting guns was at Pro Gun Club about 30 minutes away from the Vegas Strip. The property is more than 150 acres and has a pretty amazing variety of locations to shoot guns. Most of my visit was spent riding a golf cart up and down the mountain home of the 21-station sporting clays course.
We also took a walk over for some long distance shooting into a mountain. The bullets were huge, maybe longer than my fingers, and the experience was fascinating. After shooting a handgun (maybe a Glock) I retired to the lounge for a beer. That’s where I belong.
Shooting guns isn’t something I do often but the experience at PGC was fantastic and eye-opening. I really understand why people enjoy shooting guns for recreation. There are gun ranges for different things, but my experience at Pro Gun Club had a variety of experiences that can’t be matched by many, if any, gun ranges in Las Vegas.
You may remember earlier this year I visited Essence Cannabis Dispensary to learn about legal marijuana in Las Vegas. The parking lot for the dispensary sits in between the Strip Gun Club and Essence. My mind was sort of blown away by the proximity of the two, but the location might be its best feature besides being able to shoot guns seconds off the Vegas Strip.
Unlike Pro Gun Club, this is an indoor shooting range. The range offers a more traditional experience with a variety of guns and targets. The biggest selling point for this range might be its location. Not only is it behind a legal marijuana dispensary but it’s across from the thrill rides, casino, and bars at the Stratosphere. Pro-tip: Shoot guns mid afternoon then and head to Level 107 at the Strat for Happy Hour between 4 pm and 7 pm.
This is another unique shooting experience in Las Vegas. Everyone that works here is a veteran of the US military. That plays into what makes this a unique gun range. They fancy themselves as sort of a military museum in addition to a place to shoot guns.
They have a massive variety of guns (they have more than 350) and you can drive a tank over a car at Battlefield Vegas. Another thing that separates them from other shooting ranges is that they offer packages inspired by movies, video games, and world history.
Battlefield Vegas is so close to the Vegas Strip that you can walk from Circus Circus. However, you won’t want to walk here to shoot guns. They’ll pick you up in a military vehicle right at your hotel. You know you want to ride down the Vegas Strip in the back of a camo humvee.
