Last weekend found me doing no painting, playing, or anything miniatures related since I was up in Reno Nevada to see my son Paul graduate from University of Reno with a BA in Business administration and Marketing, way to go Paul! While I was up there I decided to take Paul and his girlfriend Rhianna shooting while my wife and I were visiting. We have always had a history of shooting in my family, my grandfather, my dad (Illinois state champ 52-53 iron sights, 1000 yards!), me, my wife, and the my kids, Paul and Kendall. I had on my “bucket list” plans to shoot some WWII machine guns like an MP40, Thompson, MG34/40, Russian PPSH, the British Sten gun, and in Nevada you can do that at Reno Guns & Range
Graduation was on Friday and Saturday was devoted to recuperating, shopping, and before dinner getting together to go shooting. I was really excited to let Paul and Rhiannon shoot some of the guns I had brought, a Ruger 22 single action revolver and a Glock19 9mm, as well as the Machines guns we would rent. I have done quite a bit of reading, research, and wargaming the World War Two period but now I was going to get some firsthand experience on how these weapons felt to use! A bit better feeling for how their game stats match actual performance. Now my limited 3 mags put through each doesn’t make me any kind of an expert or really give me a fair view of their performance in the field but I am a notch above those who have only read about them! The difference in quality is apparent right off with the German made MP40 clearly superior to the British Sten gun in manufacture and felt more comfortable to hold, aim, and fire. The MP40 was noticeably heavier which helped the MP40 to be more accurate staying on target but boy lugging it around all day! the MP40 seemed to be less prone to jamming, more reliable through 6 mags by far but these guns and magazines are well used so really hard to say how “fresh” weapons would do . Bottom line, both were a hoot to shoot!
Me and the MP40
Paul and the Sten gun
Rhiannon and the Sten gun!