Here are some samples of the fun enjoyed by UGCA members and their guests.
While it is an interesting academic exercise to debate the relative merits (or flaws) of famous old or new firearms, the best information comes from actually firing them.  UGCA members bring a wide variety of guns to these sessions and everyone usually gets a chance to share in the experiences.
(This is also a chance for people with no shooting experience to learn how to safely handle a gun under close supervision.)

If you collect guns, we invite you to join UGCA.
Membership benefits include for free admission to all UGCA shows, reduced table rates, and a great newsletter.
 Click here for membership information and application

Copyright 2000 by Utah Gun Collectors Association.  All rights reserved.  Box 711161, salt Lake City, UT  84171

Let's go to the UGCA Picnic and Historic Arms Shooting Session, August, 2000

CC and his Model 1842 .54 caliber pistol.  Many of these were used in the Civil War

GF firing the Model 1842.  With many years experience as a competitive pistol shooter, GF did not like the trigger pull or sights and really didn't like the muzzle loading process!

CC with his Colt 1860 "Army" .44 caliber percussion revolver.  These were widely used in the Civil War.  Today we experienced a "chain fire" where more than one chamber discharged as the flash from one shot got into the powder charge of an adjacent chamber.
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The Colt Single Action Army, cavalry arm of the Indian Wars and still selling well after 125 years.  This one was made in 1882 as a "Frontier Six Shooter" in .44-40 caliber, and is fun to shoot with black powder loads.

revolvers are not all that different today.  This young lady had never shot a gun before but had a great time with a variety of types, assisted by her grandfather, a well known sculptor and surgeon..

Not all political candidates are anti-gun scoundrels.  jd is the Libertarian party candidate for US Senate, and proud owner (and operator) of a Browning High Power 9mm pistol with tangent sight and shoulder stock.

Another member's pistol with a shoulder stock, this one a Mauser "Broomhandle."

Now that .41 rimfire ammo is being made in limited quantities, you can see one of the Remington double barrel derringers being loaded.......and fired.

The owner reports it is more powerful and accurate a combination than most people believe.

Introduced in 1949 the innovative Ruger Mark I .22 caliber target pistol is still a favorite among serious competitive shooters. This one has the long heavy weight barrel and a compensator to minimize the time to get back on target.

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Another young lady, already proficient with a .22 rifle, learning how to safely shoot a revolver with instruction from her Dad.

Side arms of the Evil Empire- a very early 1936 dated Russian Tokarev pistol, and a later Russian Makarov.

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A Thompson-Center "Contender single shot pistol (left) and a Stevens single shot .22 rifle and a tiny Remington-Elliot .22 "Vest Pocket Derringer" (right top and bottom)

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A large caliber S&W suitable for hunting, and a Ruger .22 with M1911 .45 type grip frame.

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Serious competitive shooters enjoy the challenge.

GL is an accomplished artist who does fine firearms engraving work.  He says "Life is too short to shoot an ugly gun."  Here is his custom made bolt action rifle, suitably engraved, of course.

Note the beautiful tiger strip grain to the wood, the engraved receiver and jeweled (or engine turned) bolt.

and like many rifles, he has the intended quarry on the floorplate in high relief gold

Now the .240 Weatherby Magnum is a hot round, but no one else thought it adequate for dinosaur hunting!

This young lady became very proficient with a Spanish American War era Krag Carbine.  Like most others who have ever fired a Krag, she commented on how smoothly the bolt operated.

Steve is a police officer who seems to enjoy the punishment of firing the .303 British "jungle Carbine"

This member has his Ruger 10/22 rifle with a carbon fiber barrel.  This really reduces the weight of the rifle.  These barrels are made in Utah by a company that uses the identical technology for making artificial limbs!

This young man is a foreign exchange student from Germany living with one of our members.  He had not previously fired a gun, but enjoyed trying all the different types today.

This awesome rifle with the heavy barrel and huge scope is a single shot .22 rimfire built for extreme accuracy.  Let's see YOU hit a target the size of a pencil lead from 50 feet away.

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The metallic silhouette targets were popular and the metallic clang and visible bullet splatter made hits easy to spot (and misses even more obvious).  Periodic repainting was needed.  Iron ram is tough, no matter how it is cooked.  Will PETA show up to protect them?

Some happy shooters coming back from changing targets.

A young lady with a .30 caliber M1 carbine.  Everyone liked the carbines (about three were brought by different members).

The .303 Lee Enfield Number 4 Mark 1 battle rifle of WW2 was highly regarded as a bolt action military rifle.

The Colt AR-15 and copies are needed for "service rifle" class competition.  These semi-automatic rifles only fire one shot each time you pull the trigger.  The military M16 rifles look nearly identical but are true assault rifles, which can be fired full automatic (machine gun).

A young lady safely and correctly firing a .22 caliber single shot rifle.

"Doc" is a Harvard trained M.D. fascinated by history.  He is setting up his WW2 Japanese Type 99 machine gun (complete with telescopic sight). SInce Japanese ammo is impossible to find, he had it converted to shoot .308 ammo.

Doc with a Genuine assault rifle- the German MP44, a late WW2 development using mostly stamped parts and a intermediate size cartridge in a rifle that can be fired either full automatic (machine gun) or semi automatic (one shot each time you pull the trigger.  Doc has to reload every single round he fires in this.

Originally made for military use, the Reising .45 ACP submachine gun was later used by many police departments, and this one came from a Police Department in Illinois.  The owner, a lawyer with the Department of Defense Criminal Investigation Division,  says "The more I shoot this the better I understand why the Marines wanted to get rid of them."

This is a WW2 British STEN gun in 9mm.  These were simply made with only basic tools at a ridiculously low cost.  They function pretty reliably despite their crudeness.  Most had metal frame buttstocks, but this is a scarce version with a wood stock.

Probably the finest submachine gun in use today, the Israeli designed UZI 9mm is great fun to shoot.  The H&K MP5 owners may disagree, but they paid much, much more for their toys.

Our lawyer friend with another submachine gun, this one a S&W Model 76, one of the prototypes of the model used by Navy SEAL teams in Vietnam.

The AR-180 has a top drum holding a lot of .22 caliber rounds.  These are well made and reliable and lots of fun to shoot.

but it sure takes a lot longer to fill the drum magazine than to empty it!

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