-
America’s Virginian
April 20, 2011 | 28 comments
-
Poured Concrete for the Soul
February 4, 2011 | 47 comments
-
A Splendid, Precarious Victory
September 30, 2010 | 55 comments
-
Blown Away
September 16, 2009 | 37 comments
-
What’s the Big Deal About Intelligent Design?
December 22, 2005 | 1 comment
Feature
Cloudy With a Chance of Weapons and Gold
A report from a semi-annual machine gun festival, held just this side of Fort Knox.
The machine guns roared, pouring tens of thousands of bullets into the night’s blackness. Suddenly: Ka-WHOOOMP! WAAHHHMP! WHA-OOOOMP!! Enormous fireballs flashed into yellow-white existence, mutating into billows of orange flame 100 feet high. The pulse of shock and heat hit my skin. As the explosions faded, the night air was lit by an endless fusillade of red and green tracer rounds, the incandescent muzzle blast of automatic weapons, and flames from burning vehicles…
Just a typical evening in the green autumn hills of north-central Kentucky.
Typical twice a year, I should say. Every April and October, the Knob Creek Gun Range, fittingly located in Bullitt County, Kentucky, hosts “The World’s Largest Machine Gun Shoot and Military Gun Show.” Knob Creek Range lies just a few miles north of Fort Knox, home to the United States Bullion Depository and the 147 million ounces of gold in its vaults. As the names suggest, the range is only a short hop from the distillery where Knob Creek Whiskey is made (more about that superb nine-year-old bourbon later).
I had been hearing about this machine gun shoot for a while. According to the Knob Creek website, the shoot consists of “firing at a wide variety of used appliances, abandoned vehicles, pyramids of tires, and barrels of fuel with pyrotechnic charges attached.…The charges are set off by the impact of the bullets, creating fiery mushroom clouds and fireballs from hell!…The objective is to destroy everything down range.” That sounded like something I needed to investigate personally.
After a 10-hour drive from Northern Virginia, I finally got off the interstates near Louisville, and headed south down Dixie Highway past Fort Knox. Checking in at the Gold Vault Inn, a modest but pleasant establishment, I spotted a stack of official-looking notices at the front desk. They were headed, “Attention Machine Gun Shoot Guests.” With reflexes conditioned by living near Washington, D.C., I expected a dreary warning or prohibition. Instead, the notice read, “For your convenience we have cloths available at the front desk to clean your equipment,” followed by gracious thanks for the guests’ patronage. If you are ever in a mood to ponder the difference between government and free enterprise, there it is in a nutshell.
FRIDAY MORNING at Knob Creek dawned cool and brilliant, under a heartbreakingly blue sky. As I navigated my pickup to the grassy parking area, I could hear the mixed notes and cadences of machine gun fire not far distant. The Knob Creek shoot started small several decades ago, but now attendance can exceed 15,000 people over the course of the three-day event. Alongside the slow-moving vehicles, pedestrians streamed by happily on the property’s gravel and dirt roads, a few with rifles or tactical shotguns slung from a shoulder, some carrying newly purchased gun parts or accessories, some carting cases of ammo. This is a well-armed country, I thought.
Admission is $10 and parking is free. Just like an NFL game. In 1954.
The main action is at the covered firing line on the 350-yard range. That’s where private machine gun owners unleash a withering fire at cars, boats, defunct appliances, propane tanks, and other suitable targets. For the gun owners, it’s a great opportunity to shoot their full auto weapons under friendly conditions. For the spectators, it’s a chance to see some impressive firearms in action.
Next to the main range is a large gun show, consisting of hundreds of tables in a pole barn and in dozens of tented booths around the barn. The exhibitors hawk handguns, rifles, t-shirts, military surplus equipment, ammunition, technical manuals, militaria, and anything else you can imagine that relates to firearms. Among the offerings of one clothing vendor, I was a bit nonplussed to discover camouflage bra and panty sets trimmed with black lace. (My cheesiness threshold is pretty high, but I’ll admit that those dainty garments slammed the cheese-ometer needle right up against the peg.)
What sets the Knob Creek gun show apart, of course, is not the stray clothing item, but rather the number of exhibitors selling full auto weapons, parts, and accessories. Did you know that you can legally buy a machine gun? Not a problem, truly, if you’ve got the money, and are willing to jump through some bureaucratic hoops. You can’t be legally disqualified from owning a gun generally, and your state has to allow machine gun ownership, which most do. There is a background check and some paperwork, including photos and fingerprints, to be filled out. Local law enforcement must sign the proposed transfer form, and it must be approved by ATF. You’ll have to pay a $200 transfer tax. If the transfer is approved, as most are, the gun will be registered to you in a national database, and you’ll be the proud owner of your very own machine gun. You don’t need to have a dealer’s license yourself.
What you will need is money. Quite a bit, in fact. The cheapest, stamped-metal full auto weapons start at several thousand dollars. Decent military full auto rifles are likely to run 10, 12, 15 thousand dollars or more. After that, the sky is the limit. I saw one machine gun for sale at the Knob Creek show for $24,995.95 (plus tax). The reason is that a federal law in 1986 outlawed the manufacture and sale of new machine guns for the civilian market. Law enforcement, yes; military, yes; civilians, no. So there is a limited pool of pre-1986 machine guns out there—probably more than 100,000—that civilians can legally own. It doesn’t require a lively imagination to figure out what strong demand coupled with a limited, decreasing supply does for prices.
THE STUFF WITH WHICH the boys on the main firing range were casually blasting away was often expensive and sometimes extremely rare. There were several .50 caliber Browning machine guns mounted on stands or tripods. The .50 caliber metallic cartridge is roughly the size of a cigar, and the right projectile can punch through steel plate an inch thick. Expert military snipers using the .50 caliber round in specialized rifles can pick off a particular individual with one shot from a mile and a half away. The distinctive, pounding “thud thud thud thud thud” of the full auto .50 cal literally shakes the air.
Perhaps the most exotic weapon on the firing line was the 7.62 mm minigun. The minigun differs from most machine guns because it uses six barrels rotated by an electric motor. A gas or recoil operated machine gun might shoot anywhere from about 400 to 1,000 rounds a minute. At its maximum rate, the minigun can fire 6,000 rounds in a minute, though many are slowed down to save ammo and barrel wear. But considering that in two seconds a minigun can lay down a stream of bullets 18 inches apart for the entire length of a football field, it is no surprise that ever since the Vietnam war our enemies have greatly feared these weapons.
The minigun doesn’t even sound like a machine gun. Its cyclic rate is so high that you can’t detect any interval between the shots being fired. It sounds like a fearsome chainsaw at full throttle, with a deeper note and 20 times louder.
The quantity of ammunition burned up at this event is prodigious. The .50 caliber cartridges for the Brownings may cost from a little under $2.00 a round to more than $5.00 a round, depending on quality, type, projectiles, and other factors. Inexpensive 7.62 mm ammunition for the minigun might run 50 or 60 cents a round. Doing the math, it’s easy to see that ammo costs for a full minute of firing with these guns could range from a thousand to several thousand bucks—if you’re using the cheap stuff, that is. I was reliably informed that one of the shooters who returns to Knob Creek year after year blows through about $70,000 in ammunition at each shoot. It’s like wine-making, day-trading, and magazine publishing: if you truly desire to make a small fortune in shooting, start with a large fortune.
Letter to the Editor View all comments (48) | Leave a comment
More Articles by Dan Peterson
More Articles From Feature
http://spectator.org/archives/2012/02/06/cloudy-with-a-chance-of-weapon
Follow us:
ADVERTISEMENT
Current Issue
- Eugenic Abortion 2.0
- Ailes: A Voice for the Silent Majority
- Nuts to Nutter
SPONSORED LINKS
FLASHBACK TO: 1995
-
Pope Culture
A man of faith in a godless age is hitting Americans where it hurts.
-
Why the GOP Does Not, Like, Totally Suck
Mr. and Mrs. American Spectator Reader, let P.J. O’Rourke talk sense to your kids.
-
Dames at Sea
-
In the Absence of Guns
In Britain, defending your property can get you life.
-
The Metaphysical Martini
-
Counting the Costs of Clintonism
The debacle of this president’s administration is both a cause and a symptom of the decline of American values. Unless Congress impeaches him, that decline will go on unchecked. An eminent jurist surveys the damage and assesses the chances for the recovery of our culture.
-
Chuck McHagel
It won’t take long for conservatives to scratch this presidential wannabe off their 2008 scorecard.
-
The Legacy of Old John and Mother Fresh-Roasted
-
It’s the Best Time of the Year
The American Christmas, like the songs that celebrate it, makes room for everybody under the rainbow. Is that why so many people seem to be hostile to it?
-
The Bush Crack-Up
Was the President done in by the economy, or by the politics of the economy?
Clip of the Day
ADVERTISEMENT
Bill| 1.28.12 @ 8:30AM
Thank God for America!
Petronius| 1.28.12 @ 8:53AM
To All and Singular who shoot
The only thing the Federal Government has to do to enslave us is halt the manufacture and distribution of ammunition and loading components. There is only one mill in this country turning out smokeless powder. Add to it the fact that our side does not control any large public cultural institutions or corporate entities of any significance, and we are toast. When you get right down to it, people who want real Freedom are a disparate lot of purely self interested anarchists relative to political authority. Our social philosophy is grounded in the words spoken by the late John Wayne in his last film, The Shootist. "I won't be wronged. I won't be insulted. I won't be laid a hand on. I don't do these things to other people and require no less than the same from them." As such, government views us all as an entity to be subjugated and or, eliminated. Their agents were also at Knob Creek watching us. They just wait for the order to come for us.
wukong| 1.28.12 @ 11:47AM
Jack, I couldn't agree more. Why don't we start with the entertainment industry first. No more colossal wastes of other peoples money. Yeah, that's the ticket.
Herb| 2.6.12 @ 9:51AM
BATFE agents were indeed watching the happy firers at Knob Creek and the author should have spent at least half his article on
smoking them out. In my view the registered owners of automatic weapons are already marked for arrest when SHTF.
And there are those on this thread who will be cheering the Federales when they start pounding on doors. Or working for them or informing for them.
Jack London| 1.28.12 @ 10:40AM
A senseless waste of money and time. Imagine how much better off we'd be if these people spent all this effort say on repairing old people's houses, or such like.
Liberty| 1.28.12 @ 11:22AM
I'd rather imagine what is going to happen to tyrants like you when the ball drops.
Tyrants exercising their freedom of speech - stupidly - instead of exercising their freedom of action - actions speaking louder than words - hypocritically.
Diogenes| 1.29.12 @ 8:18AM
And blowing up a stationary, uncamoflaged refrigerator IED with a stream of bullets is what kind of action exactly???? What is the point of having a weapon that you can't figure out how to use, to defend a trailer in the woods worth about 20% the cost of your toy?
Reality| 1.29.12 @ 11:09AM
What is the point of having a brain that you can't figure out how to use, to defend the oppression of liberty through tyranny, such as arbitrary life, liberty, and the pursuit of abominable behavior, confiscation of wealth earned through labor, and all other liberal policy defying common sense?
You and your totalitarian comrades will become the natural manure of liberty when the balloon goes up.
Ryan| 2.6.12 @ 8:37AM
Says someone who has never fired full-auto.
It's FUN.
F-U-N.
VonMisesJr| 2.6.12 @ 10:25AM
Degenerate, the point of us having weapons and knowing how to use them is to make sure the OWS scum stay in the inner-city with you. Your enlightened rulers are enlightened enough to know not to waste time rebuilding Detroit or Newark. You will turn it into a rat infested slum no matter what.
But screw with the good people in Kentucky, and you will find out the "point" the hard way.
Mike| 1.28.12 @ 6:10PM
Jack
I am late comming to this game so please excuse my tardiness in responding to your post.
I hardly know where to start. I am exasperated by the person that your comment reveals that you are.
I can't possibly imagine how much better off we would be if these folk spent their money on something that you desire as it is their property. I wonder how many interests consume your wealth as oppossed to fixing up old folks homes or some such.
I will reveal this. I can imagine how worse off we would be if these folks didn't spend all this effort on exercising their Second Amendment rights. I imagine a tyrannical federal government, or a foriegn goverment, that are not afraid of what the citizens of this great Republic would do in response to a complete usurpation of our rights. Imagining such things, I see the same outcome as the Jews in Nazi Germany, or the peasants in Red China, or even the Blacks in the South after the Civil War.
Without the ability to defend ourselves against tyranny it is just a matter of time before the slaves are fettered. I celebrate these folks dedication to the concepts of liberty and freedom and salute them.
You, not so much.
Mike Johnston
SFC USA (RET)
Diogenes| 1.29.12 @ 8:19AM
They make medication that will ease your paranoia.
Mike| 1.29.12 @ 10:35AM
Well now that explains everything Diogenes. The millions that were killed after they were disarmed were paranoid.
But you will be OK. Those of us that will defend liberty against tyranny will defend you too.
Mike Johnston
SFC USA (RET)
Maxwell| 2.6.12 @ 8:48AM
Full auto, suppressors, and CCW are things I can only dream about here in Jersey with our RINO Chris Christie, Mittens best friend.
I just called my law firm of Wilson, Baer, Brown & Springfield and they told me that as soon as I can move South!
I never knew so many here on Am. Sp. were as anti-gun as Mittens and Christie. Learn something every day.
Melvin| 2.6.12 @ 7:55AM
There is that one small thing called freedom, that Americans still have, to do what the hell the want in this Country, without some damn busybody sticking their pointy nosed into the rarefied air. "Senseless waste of time and money."
Those Americans are bothering nobody. Did you fail to notice at the beginning of the article of all the fund-raising that was going on. "I encountered were volunteers politely soliciting donations for children's diseases. Inside the clubhouse, the ladies were selling cookies, brownies, and cakes to send kids to camp." I suppose this is a waste of time to?
Why can't people like you leave Americans who enjoy firearms the Sam hell alone? What is so awfully hard about that.
How come no one every makes snide remarks about former Speaker of the House requesting chocolate covered fresh Strawberries on her birthday aboard an Air Force Jet. Now it that is a complete waste of taxpayers money I don't know what is. But let a regular joe enjoy themselves, Oh, hell no we can't have that, they're participating in a complete waste of time.
Damn Socialists always sticking their noses where they don't belong.
Ryan| 2.6.12 @ 8:35AM
Bullets and guns and all the stuff sold there cost money. I bet there were plenty of paychecks related to the event...paychecks which build houses and send kids to school and the like.
Let the free market work occasionally.
calvin | 2.6.12 @ 9:02AM
London; what do you do for fun? If I buy a sailboat, or a horsefarm, and don't instead raise potatoes to feed the poor, or convert my C&C 30 into a commercial fishing boat, have I done something wasteful or immoral?
You miss the point of being American.
Live free or die.
Ret. Marine| 2.6.12 @ 12:21PM
Yeah all fine and dandy Jack, least you forget we have a Country to be saved first. A good home is a good thing to many, as long as they can afford it, not forcing me and others to pay for it because they chose my money over theirs but, the freedom protected by means of that force, illustrated by these machine guns, is far better than a typical hammer, although in the correct hands can do as much damage.
TheBeatGoesOn| 1.28.12 @ 12:24PM
Nice. I can smell the spent powder and my ears are ringing. I think I'll go outside and do a little plinking, being careful not to hit any critters who might be in these Southwest Virginia Blue Ridge Mountains. And, I'll pick up the shell casings too.
I enjoyed the account and your story telling skills. Thanks
rnd| 1.28.12 @ 4:17PM
Sir, thank you for posting this tremendous piece of information. To think that I've lived in Kentucky for a few years (many years ago) but did not know of this. April? Thank goodness for the web. I will look it up or call the Gold Vault Inn. (I do remember it as I was once a happy patron there as well)
God bless America! (And HE does!)
This sounds like a fantastic event. April?! I'm there! Thank you, sir, for informing us of this.
I've been needing a reason to go back to Bullitt County. The first place I got a vehicle moving violation ticket. Ah! The memories.
To the Editors: Please run this story again at least twice. Once in mid February and once again at the start of March.
More Americans need to know about this very fine, unique, cultural (chuckle!) Americana event.
More articles from Dan Peterson! He's our kind of guy.
Curt Quiggins| 1.28.12 @ 5:10PM
Knob Creek Gun Range is just twenty miles from my house and it is an amazing place. Machine gun shoots are held twice yearly typically on the second weekend of April and October. This show is a must for any true gun enthusiast. See their website at: www.machinegunshoot.com
Diogenes| 1.29.12 @ 8:27AM
Wouldn't it be cool to buy 2 this year and mount them on an ultralight for next year and STRAFE the show!!!! ALL the blood spatter and the camoed hillbillies hopscotching between the rows of portapotties!!! WOW! Good Times. They won't even hear Me coming with all the bap-bap-bap-bap bap and the BOOM! and BOOM!
A 2nd Amendment, don't need a pilot's license for an ultra lights, loaded my own rounds without a license either wet dream of an opportunity.
Make Columbine look like peace rally. Do you think they would EVER find Me, after 3 circles of the field and a short landing on a dirt road 17 miles away in the national Forest... ride out on the ATV I parked there and just motor down the road like every other gunnut redneck in a 4WD, mud covered Dodge....
Does TIDE take out GSR? Or should I bring a change of clothes? Wouldn't want the crowd at Shoney's to get a whiff of dull .30 cal perfumes and spontaneously ejaculate @ the buffet.
albert constantine jr.| 1.29.12 @ 9:55AM
"Make Columbine look like peace rally"
As you indulge your perverse fantasy, please factor in that everyone there can shoot back. You wouldn't need to write anything after the above sentence.
VonMisesJr| 2.6.12 @ 1:24PM
Let's just give degenerate some cynide and they can have a Jamestown statement. Why waste bullets when your enemy is stupid enough to commit suicide?
Pecos Pete| 2.6.12 @ 7:34AM
Diogenes: In your screed you forgot to call a few of us crackers. You are one whacked out leftist who would be pleased to see us trailer rednecks in the gulag. You need to read some history, like Russia in the 1930s.
Ryan| 2.6.12 @ 8:36AM
Wow, because that happens ALL THE TIME and we need to...
wait. No it doesn't.
Con Chef (NB) | 2.6.12 @ 9:15AM
Your hyperbole is almost middle school like in its idiocy, Diogenes. Why don't you go spend your money on leather gay bars, nipple piecings & blow?
You spend your money (undoubtedly either a welfare check or a trust fund) what YOU want to, so who the F**K are you to criticize what people who don't share your views spend money on?
How many houses for the homeless have YOU built? How much money have YOU given to the Wounded Warrior Project, or St. Jude's Children's Research Hopsital?
You haven't. You're just a pompous, self absorbed douchebag. Crawl back to your toilet at the Flushington Post, idiot.
Harry the Horrible| 2.6.12 @ 9:21AM
Bad news for the strafer. I'm pretty sure there is at least one anti-aircraft gun at the Knob Creek shoot. Probably more. I don't think the strafing run would last very long, though the gun crews might be disqualified for putting a round over the berm.
CREDIBILITY| 2.6.12 @ 3:38PM
I am a 1%er, in Mensa.
I am Diogenes.
I am fckewe.
I am Orr, Gasm and Associates.
I am Purp.
I am Purpleguy.
I am jharp.
I am Mensan...
Agamemnon| 2.6.12 @ 9:11PM
So?
Denis| 2.8.12 @ 11:16AM
Thanks for revealing your inner thoughts Diogenes. I will forward your remarks to the FBI. Clearly you are unbalanced, and a threat.
china electric moped Suppliers | 1.28.12 @ 10:04PM
china electric moped Suppliers
Appleby| 1.29.12 @ 8:43AM
Ontario Canada has had a prohibition against owning weapons of any kind since 1938. Not so long ago, a 14 year old was able to order an AK-47 on line and have it shipped to im from the States; the box was marked "Baseball B at" and Canada Post, obviously busy sleeping on the job (thanks to cell phone cameras, there is plenty of evidence of this) waved it on by, and it was onloy discovered when Mama went in to make his bed and thee it was in all its gloy.
Seeing there aer a lot more of these things around than anybody wants to admit, isn't it a good plan to hold festivals where the owners can actually learn how to use them properly? Otherwise somebody's going to shoot his eye out.
calvin | 2.6.12 @ 9:12AM
I bought a mailorder 12 ga. for 57 bucks when I was 15. I have not shot anybody with it yet.
My neighbor has his own shooting range; yesterday he was enjoying his freedom to make noise and destroy things. I felt safe and warm from the bad guys sitting in my living room across the streeet.
The reason people on remote farms are safe from the thugs in the nearby cities is that the bad guys reason most of us are armed to the teeth and leave us alone.
Stammon| 2.6.12 @ 12:25PM
Let's see:
1942 Finnish Nagant 7.62x54R
1955 Yugoslavian SKS 7.62x39R
2001 Scoped Ruger Ranch NATO 223 AP
1995 New England Arms 22 Hornet
1995 Scoped Mossberg Rifled Pump 20
1980 Remington Upland Bird 20
2000 Mossberg Riot 12 gauge.
1942 Mossberg US Training 22 Target
1955 Colt Agent 38 Special CC
These are just my house guns. The ones I use daily around the farm. My other 20 or so are pistols or black powder or hunting and target rifles. Among my friends I have the fewest amount of high powered guns, but more than most in black powder.
With 2 kids in college, and another 10 years of college with them and the other two coming up, I have no money for more guns.
Southern Indiana Farm, along the Ohio River.
c.j. acworth| 1.29.12 @ 3:09PM
The real tragedy, of course, is all the greenhouse gasses generated by the burning targets.
calvin | 2.6.12 @ 9:13AM
Oops poor grammer; it was I sitting in my living room not the desparados.
Sorry.
JimH| 2.6.12 @ 9:20AM
I know the Beatles meant to be ironic, but at least sometimes happiness is a warm gun.
Conservative Bob| 2.6.12 @ 2:09PM
'... happiness is a warm gun" Every weekend!
I have a range in the back yard. All of my neighbors shoot. Everyone in my family shoots. We unfortunately do not have any fully auto weapons. (No desire to be on the federal list is a major reason)
My 8 yr old grandson is an extremely good shot with handguns and rifles.
Shooting has been a regualar recreational activity in our family for a few generations now.
Happiness is indeed a warm gun...
Those of you who disparage the shooting sports... you should try it some time.
My neice brought her anti gun boy friend out for Thanksgiving a few years back. He started the same empty (stupid) rants several posts here are making. At the end of their 4 day visit, after teaching him safety and the bacis of operating the different weapons, he was breaking clays and hitting what he aimed at. He was also dumping clips out of the AKs and AR and having fun with the rest of us. He continues to shoot.
Franco| 2.6.12 @ 12:34PM
Pity us poor New York City-ites. Look, blowing stuff up with booms and things is, well, a lot of fun, and this fact is something many otherwise sane people will never understand. None of those MG' s has ever, I bet, been used in a crime (war crime, perhaps, Lord knows the skeletons many of these veteran surplus weapons might have in their closeted pasts) or been used to shoot up a school, rob a bodega, or whatever.
I placed Knob Creek on my bucket list long ago but haven't had a chance to go yet. I have fired on full an MP-40 and a Sten gun, though. Maybe an MG 34 over the fireplace, hmmm...
mister Z| 2.6.12 @ 4:24PM
Diogenes, please inform us all as to what your hobbies are, so we can unilaterally disparage your choice of pastimes...or, perhaps you spend your free time trying to improve your Mensa score. Seriously, to what part of the unalienable right of '...the pursuit of happiness...' are you so opposed?
Ron| 2.6.12 @ 4:44PM
Golly, and none of those "evil" firearms jumped up and shot anyone! Won't the anti-gun people be shocked! (tongue in cheek there...)
bob alou| 2.6.12 @ 8:05PM
I know nothing, except the fact of my ignorance.
Diogenes.
We can assume that this is not you since you obviously don't.
DaddyBear | 2.6.12 @ 8:19PM
Great write-up! I live in Louisville, and we go out to Knob Creek to shoot all year long. It's a great place any day of the year. Too bad the spring shoot has been cancelled this year.
lyle| 2.7.12 @ 1:54PM
Why
lyle| 2.7.12 @ 1:55PM
Add question mark...
Richard Baker| 2.8.12 @ 11:18AM
During my Army Infantry days, I was able to fire:
M-60 machine gun
M-2 .50 caliber machine gun
M-16A1 rifle on "AUTO"
Always enjoyed any opportunity to shoot and we used to refer to the activity as "popping caps". The only downside was CLEANING after shooting. What a mess but worth the effort to shoot full automatic. Can definitely understand the attraction of this event.
JP| 2.13.12 @ 6:50AM
I should point out that Social Darwinism would have been strongly opposed by Darwin himself, who despised what he saw as racism among the British colonials. The evil man here was Herbert Spencer.