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Old 3 Nov 12, 06:07 PM  
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WileyCoyote
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Disney Feast West&East Day 34:Stop or my Mom will shoot !- Florida Firearms Adventure Day

A disclaimer for the day – If you ask the 4 chaps in the group, they will have this as one of the best days of the holiday.

I cant say the same and as I am writing the trippy, I may be rather biased so I will try to reflect the fact that they absolutely loved it.

For me, it was ok , mildly terrifying , long, hot, dull and did I mention mildly terrifying ?

This was booked as a birthday treat for Andy – the blurb says it lasts till 2/3 pm and that would give us time to do something else later that day.

I had thought about not booking myself and going to a park. As it turned out I am not sure if I should have done or not. After researching and reading lots of Dibb comments, I settled on this one as it seemed to have the best supervision and overall experience.

When I booked this, Connor had asked me “ what happens if someone just goes mental with a gun “ – to which I had told him not to be so ridiculous but when asked again, I replied that one took cover,quicky, of course.

As the day drew nearer, this conversation began to play on my mind and as someone who does like to have a worry or two on the go, I became convinced that there would be a pyscho in the party and that I was a very BAD parent for taking my children on this type of adventure. So I didn’t set off this morning in a very skippity doodah mood.

Which is not helped by us somehow managing to leave late, with no breakfast and Andy having to put his foot down to get us there on time.

I had taken Dibb advice to have some drinks with us and change for the vending machines ( just a shame they weren’t working, in the 100 degree heat, on a day that lasted 7 hours …….)

Oh well, that one bottle of Fanta will be fine then ……… If you are going, get one of those cheap coolers and take loads of drinks and nibbles with you .

Its out in the back of beyond, down a very dodgy lane, like something out of the movies – shanty shacks, abandoned vehicles, big intimidating dogs , moonshine stills , men with long beards and rifles ( ok, I made the last two up, but it looked like a good fit) .

The set up feels a bit haphazard –and it transpires that it is indeed a haphazard day with the instructors finally telling us some time later that they had been running an hour or two behind schedule – and unfortunately , it showed.

Anyway around 10 its starts – there are 18 people, and one toilet, which you can only use when its unlocked , so this is not the place for you if you have a bladder like a teabag

We are split into two groups and Craig introduces us to the first two guns of the day , the AK47 and M16 – telling us all about them and asking us lots of questions. We also have a comprehensive safety briefing which is good, because under stress it’s very easy to forget and we don’t want any wavy gun pointy moments ….


I get the dubious honour of being first up to fire the AK47





who's gonna stop me , huh ?





I found it quite hard and man it has some kick on your shoulder so I am quite slow – and this is a problem during the day as there are a number of slow firers and fast firers and they would have been better putting us slow peeps together so the fast peeps could do more.










Edited at 06:11 PM.
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Old 3 Nov 12, 06:21 PM  
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ok, so the gun probably is bigger than he is ...













Wow, Mum with a gun - now she really IS scary !



We shoot ten rounds on each gun at paper targets and then swop around until everyone has done this. Then we start again and shoot ten rounds on each gun at the small plastic discs ( with Hit or Miss being shouted out each time. One person in the party seems to have a bit of a meltdown and cant carry on , which is a concern and causes about an hours delay in the proceedings while the instructors make sure the person is ok. In between we retrieve our targets and put up ones for the next group.






I found the rifles heavy and hard going - especially as squishing my face against the gun meant I pushed my glasses off my nose and couldn’t see – so it took a while for me to get my head in the right place and be able to see the “red dot” . I wish I had worn my contact lenses.



It is almost 2pm now – we have only shot the two rifles and not had any lunch – the day is supposed to end at 3pm.

By now my shoulder is hurting quite badly – having previously broken my elbow, my right arm isn’t brilliant at the best of times and this has knocked me for 6. The others are fine – the boys have enjoyed it and realise that firing real guns isn’t quite the same as it appears on the xbox.


Finally its lunch which are deli sandwiches ( nice) , crisps and cold drinks . All are greedily consumed and then we sit in the car with the air conditioning on as its too hot to sit on the porch with no fan .


Its time now to move up to the next range where it is shotguns next. I opt to skip this as I don’t think I can lift it but the boys like this shooting at the water bottles. I am reminded that perhaps this whole thing falls in the bad parent category when I see Jamie with the shotgun – its almost as big as he is !






Edited at 12:14 PM.
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Old 3 Nov 12, 06:34 PM  
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When I toon my nephew (12) to FFA it was his highlight of the trip!
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Old 3 Nov 12, 06:38 PM  
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At last onto the hand gun , a Glock . I find this the most scary of all and its not like you see in the movies, I start really well getting 4 out of 5 on the targets but then I decide I have had enough – my shoulder is really hurting and I feel a bit panicky and suddenly a bit scared like I wont be able to hold the handgun straight so I opt to finish early, as I don’t feel I can fire another 10 shots.
















Craig, the instructor is brilliant – he takes so much time with everyone, really teaching you well and being patient- he is wonderful with the boys. I feel he is better with novices than Jim, who tends to just shout louder. But that said, they were both exceptionally safety conscious and taught us a great deal.

*** I should also say that they emailed us a while after we got back saying that they realised it was a long day and they are not going to run with such large groups again and they have offered us a free 2 hour sniper rifle session on a return visit - so fair play to them, thats really good service and I am sure the boys would love it ! ****


We are finally all done – its almost 5pm and to put it bluntly we are all knackered, thirsty and smelly.

They hand out the awards – Nick has done the best out of our group – which surprised him and us and was much to Connor’s chagrin. I am awarded “ most improved” which we all know is code for “managed to be marginally less rubbish at the end than was at the start”.


We take our targets and some souvenir shell casings home with us.
No-one is hungry, after such a late lunch) so we are happy to just relax in the villa.






The boys have really enjoyed the day, even though its been much longer than expected. They are very chatty about all the different guns, how they felt when they fired etc. They have learned a lot. And we have a TON of photos to show their friends

By bedtime I have a big bruise on my shoulder and cant move my right arm. This does not bode well for packing !

We are all glad to turn in early – I think we just had snacks and grazed on the mountain of doggy bags in the fridge – I cant recall that we went out for dinner.

We are off to Disney tomorrow – I do hope I got the expiry dates right on the tickets !

No satnav sabotage or shopping today – after persuading the boys that customs really wouldn’t like them bringing back any of the items that were on offer at the shooting range !

Edited at 06:48 PM.
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Old 3 Nov 12, 08:11 PM  
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Wow. I think my son would love that. I'd hate it. I'd be terrified some nutter had booked on the tour and would shoot us all. I blame my over active imagination on Criminal Minds and other such shows
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Old 3 Nov 12, 08:22 PM  
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That was nice of them to offer you a free session if/when you return.
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Old 3 Nov 12, 10:01 PM  
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That looks so much better than the indoor range that DH and DS's went to, it was so hot they had to leave - and that was February.
If DS goes back with us after Uni we will take him there, we have a shot gun and rifles here so they would like the hand guns best I think (live on a farm).
I might even give it a go as when we clay shoot I quite enjoy it.
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Old 3 Nov 12, 11:50 PM  
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Another great read!
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Old 4 Nov 12, 12:21 PM  
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Originally Posted by hross42877 View Post
Another great read!
Thanks for reading along x

Originally Posted by Scotty View Post
That looks so much better than the indoor range that DH and DS's went to, it was so hot they had to leave - and that was February.
If DS goes back with us after Uni we will take him there, we have a shot gun and rifles here so they would like the hand guns best I think (live on a farm).
I might even give it a go as when we clay shoot I quite enjoy it.
I read alot of other Dibb reviews/posts and had narrowed it down to this one or Top Gun Tours. I liked the fact that this one was outside and that you werent just left to your own devices. They spent alot of time talking to you about the guns as well so the boys certainly learnt loads - even down to when they had to re-load them and that was harder than they expected as well !

Originally Posted by SammyScotland View Post
That was nice of them to offer you a free session if/when you return.
Yes it was , it was a shame it didnt run smoothly as I think I might have enjoyed it more , it just felt a long day. I guess its becoming so popular and it was really hampered on the day by a few very slow shooters which held up the guns being passed to thers.

Originally Posted by Ariel's Mum View Post
Wow. I think my son would love that. I'd hate it. I'd be terrified some nutter had booked on the tour and would shoot us all. I blame my over active imagination on Criminal Minds and other such shows
Yep, I felt just like that - I was relieved to leave in the end - I kept thinking " I cant believe I brought my children to a place where there are people firing REAL bullets - OMG ! " It all seemed like such a good idea when I booked it. But the reality is , they absolutely loved it and the instructors had said from the start that anyone who wasnt competent with the rifles wouldnt be allowed to fire the handguns for safety reasons. They were very on the ball the whole time.
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Old 4 Nov 12, 12:22 PM  
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Originally Posted by 15isto2 View Post
When I toon my nephew (12) to FFA it was his highlight of the trip!
Yep, i can relate to that - along with Six Flags theme park, this day was in the top 3 for our boys. Their mates cant believe they got to do this !
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