While in Korea, wife and I took quick trip to a shooting range (Myeongdong Shooting Range) in Seoul. Coming from a background of training and attending shooting ranges in the USA, things were quite different in a country that is not 2A-friendly.
Mind you, Korea has some of the strictest firearms laws in the world, but there are ways that civilians can get hunting license(s) for shotguns and some animals. This isn’t intended to be a debate or opinion piece on firearms in various countries, nor is this intended to be a political topic. No, this is more an attempt to describe how a shooting range operates in another nation, where firearms are strictly controlled. Also note, Korea has mandatory military service, and almost all adult males have training firing rifles only. (no pistols).
The overall feeling I had? there’s 2 main sentiments :
I. let these poor guns run free! look at how they enslave and lock these poor poor guns up!
II. an overwhelming feeling of riding an amusement ride… rather than practicing at a firing range.
Here are some of the highlights that stood out to me, as someone familiar with American shooting ranges :
- If you get to a range late in the day, you might be told there’s no more ammo. how is this possible? When the day starts, police bring ammo to the range in armored trucks. They provision the ammo out, and count every round. Throughout the day, every bullet is inventoried, and when shot, all casings have to be saved and returned back to inventory. The business is ONLY permitted X amount of ammo for the day – depending on market conditions. At the end of the day, police return, and the business has to return the ammo, along with every spent case, and the total must equal the same amount as what the police brought. failure to do so… results in a massive investigation and potentially shutting down the business.
- Ranges have a surprisingly large variety of firearms for a culture that is strict on guns. every range we went to had around 100+ different firearms, spanning history and time and calibers. This includes pistols and rifles. The majority were in pistol calibers. 9mm AKs, AR9’s, .45ACP PCC’s and so on. Very few had actual rifle calibers or shotguns.
- they had relatively obscure calibers too (more like harder to find calibers like 7.62×25… I know it’s not rare, but not many ranges in USA stock this for their customers to shoot).
- Tourists must bring passports. Locals must have ID (such as drivers license).
- Only 1-2 people are allowed in a shooting area. Regardless of whether there’s 2 or 12 lanes. Only 1-2 at a time. you shoot your rounds, and get out.
- Most of the rentals were around $30-40 for 10 rounds. there are options to shoot 800+ rounds for around $3,500… however, this requires range to shut down and requires reservation and preparation in advance.
- the weapons are chained up and unable to be pointed anywhere except downrange (yes, this affects your ability to aim properly. they use heavy bicycle chains, that cannot be spun around or moved outside of a few degrees. if someone “acts up”, the chain gets yanked, and the weapons are all immediately removed from everyones hands… with force). you stick your hand through a plexiglass opening to hold the weapon. And, yes they dangle it in mid air…. as in it could potentially be pointing back at you, however the slide is locked back and chamber open with no magazine.
- Inside a shooting lane, you can take pictures, or have staff take pictures… however, you will be escorted by staff, and someone else already has set up the weapon for you prior to entering the range.
- Weapon loading and unloading is done by staff. You step back after finishing, and they collect the brass (see my point about inventory above).
- Everyone in the range is required by law to wear some form of body armor. this usually consists of lvl IIIA soft armor at best. they provide it for you, and put it on, but there’s not much attention to having it properly worn. it’s more about “checking a box” to have it on in case of an inspection.
- A LOT of couples. Koreans seem to treat this as a first date type thing.
- the targets can be set anywhere, but the staff is generally pushing for you to use a 15 meter distance (roughly 15 yards).
- Korean males especially can shoot surprisingly well considering they have never handled pistols or it’s been decades for most to ever touch one. As wife and I are avid shooters, yes, the staff was impressed with my wife’s ability to handle a firearm (she competes with CZ’s and is Korean herself)… the range we went to, never saw a Korean female that can shoot well. HOWEVER, we saw other males’ shooting…. and they were surprisingly accurate. Most were keeping 8inch-ish groups at 15 yards (again, these are folks that have never handled pistols, but have been around rifles for military service)
- The staff was surprisingly NOT friendly. not rude at all, and the actual RSO that was helping us was chatty and curious about firearms we are familiar with…. but the majority of the staff had no interest in firearms, and when I asked about different calibers, they kept reverting back to the menu… rather than understanding the weapons and respective calibers themselves. There was very much a vibe of “move along folks, take your ticket, shoot your shot, and get out… NEXT!!!”
- the staff did NOT carry firearms on them either. Likely due to how it’s built out, there’s almost zero chance of someone “acting up” and using one of these firearms to hurt people.
- they do pat you down just in case, as soon as you enter the facility to ensure you are not carrying anything that could be used as a weapon or barrel/firearm with the bullets that are there.
- all of the firearms were very well maintained, but not as clean as I was expecting. In america, I often find sights or screws a bit loose, grips loose… something not necessarily tip top shape… But here, none of that. every firearm… was zeroed perfectly, and all the screws/springs, accessories were set… but the guns looked like they were used all day every day, and hadn’t been cleaned in years. I get the sensation they clean them when they start to jam. Definitely well oiled.
- when you go in, after you select your weapon and caliber (many guns have multi caliber variants…. such as 1911…10mm/.380acp/9mm/.45ACP), there’s a solid 30min to 1 hour wait until it’s your turn.
- after you are finished, staff reviews your target and they using a scoring system to show you the rankings for you and peers of those that have shot throughout the day.
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There’s only 1 door on the range entry. In USA most ranges have a 2 door system, with a small room / buffer in between to mitigate sound. always one door has to be closed. In the Korean range, there was just 1 door. so when it opens, and someone fires off a shot… the sound goes through the ENTIRE business. often damaging everyone’s hearing that’s sitting in the lobby.
Overall it was interesting. I’m glad we went. I wouldn’t do it again. It felt creepily neutered and sad. I was left with an unfulfilled feeling after. However, there are a few things I could say were interesting, and that other country’s ranges could benefit from. The variety and attention to detail was pretty amazing.