It was never an issue when I was growing up in SW Nebraska. Of course that might also be because in my hometown, my Dad was The Law - yes, those words deserve capital letters where Dad was concerned! I suppose the game warden might have been called out if someone heard us shooting, but it was pretty well known that Dad had at least once machine gun in his collection, and Dad and the game warden were friends.
It's a different mindset out there. Out there if someone heard a full-auto going off, they'd either assume it was legal, or none of their damned business.
We had a couple that we played with. The Thompson was the fun one - it was pre-WWII and had a cyclic rate of about 900 rounds per minute - by far the most fun machine gun I've ever fired, and to date I've shot:
Thompson
Uzi
H&K MP5
Sten
Bergmann MP35
Mac 10
SAW
M16
M60
Probably one or two more, but they aren't coming to me right now.
Here's a pic of me at about age 16 or 17 with the Thompson - by this point I was already a practiced hand a shooting it. (Please, no judging of the dumb clothes I was wearing at the time - it was 1986-87 after all.) This was at a place we called The Gravel Pit that had once been used as a source of gravel and magnesia for "paving" of country roads, and it had been cut into the side of a hill, so we had a great dirt backstop and lots stuff to shoot at - Dad taught me to shoot by pointing out a dirt clod or clump of magnesia, (we used to also use it as sidewalk chalk) so I'd shoot it until it broke apart, then he'd have me hit one of the smaller pieces, and when it broke, one of the smaller pieces, and so on - kind of dialing it in.
The second pic is Dad with the Uzi taken at the range the town set on the outskirts of town for him (mostly him) and the other police officers under him - he was Chief of Police when this was taken.
Anyway, no - we never to my knowledge had the police called because we were shooting a machine gun.
It's a different mindset out there. Out there if someone heard a full-auto going off, they'd either assume it was legal, or none of their damned business.
We had a couple that we played with. The Thompson was the fun one - it was pre-WWII and had a cyclic rate of about 900 rounds per minute - by far the most fun machine gun I've ever fired, and to date I've shot:
Thompson
Uzi
H&K MP5
Sten
Bergmann MP35
Mac 10
SAW
M16
M60
Probably one or two more, but they aren't coming to me right now.
Here's a pic of me at about age 16 or 17 with the Thompson - by this point I was already a practiced hand a shooting it. (Please, no judging of the dumb clothes I was wearing at the time - it was 1986-87 after all.) This was at a place we called The Gravel Pit that had once been used as a source of gravel and magnesia for "paving" of country roads, and it had been cut into the side of a hill, so we had a great dirt backstop and lots stuff to shoot at - Dad taught me to shoot by pointing out a dirt clod or clump of magnesia, (we used to also use it as sidewalk chalk) so I'd shoot it until it broke apart, then he'd have me hit one of the smaller pieces, and when it broke, one of the smaller pieces, and so on - kind of dialing it in.
The second pic is Dad with the Uzi taken at the range the town set on the outskirts of town for him (mostly him) and the other police officers under him - he was Chief of Police when this was taken.
Anyway, no - we never to my knowledge had the police called because we were shooting a machine gun.
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