Boom! Red, white, and blue smoke filled the air as a concussion ripples across the field and a chest-thumping sound expands across the rural landscape of Georgia just North of Atlanta. With this, the IV8888 YouTube Range Day kicked off its yearly event of shooting, socializing, and networking for the firearms community.
Sonoran Desert Institute (SDI) attended IV8888’s invite-only event on October 7, 2017, and it was an impressive display of solidarity, friendship, and fun. Representing SDI was its own Wes Lemay, Garett Bischoff, and Mac Christian. With the current political environment surrounding the firearms community, an event like this could very easily evolve into a highly politically charged meeting. This day, however, maintained its course as an occasion to gather with like-minded individuals representing various areas of the firearms community to have fun and learn.
Walking around the tables set up at IV8888 YouTube Range Day, attendees could find a large assortment of firearms in almost any model and type. Even the most avid firearms enthusiasts would be able to find something new at this event, whether it be Kriss Vectors, suppressed 50 cal rifles, or Ruger’s new backpacker rifle with a suppressor added–which SDI’s Wes LeMay called “the coolest darn thing I’ve seen in a long time.” The air around Range Day was filled with a constant cacophony of firearms. The sound would vary from large bolt action rifles to the occasional rattle of fully automatic rifles as well as the thunderous noise of a 50 cal bolt action rifle. These were all handled under the supervision of professionals with specialty licensing to work with these types of firearms.
Held on a private property in Georgia, the shooting course might have resembled a bit of bedlam but once the range went hot, a fair amount of order ensued. A rotary clay launcher sat in the middle of the range and shotguns were primarily demoed in the center of the course to provide access to the randomly firing clays. Fully-automatic and semi-automatic rifles along with handguns were fired on either side. Close targets were identified as handgun-only targets to prevent any fragments from coming back to shooters. Targets were placed at varying locations up to 100 yards and consisted of foam torso, popups, steel, tannerite, two cars and a gong. IraqVeteran8888’s Eric Blandford kept constant communication with the shooters through a loudspeaker system to notify the shooting range to halt shooting at various time intervals for the resetting of targets.
IV8888 YouTube Range Day was a terrific outing and a great example of solidarity within the firearms community. SDI was proud to have been a participant and honored to have attended such a professional and positive event.
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