Page 364 - NIXBOOK

When I first started my career there was an old tire house at the range, which essentially a large (and roofless) tire maze which
had been specifically constructed to simulate shooting scenarios indoors. It was basically a bunch of walls and rooms and
corridors made by stacking tires flat on each other up about 9 feet high.

The tires were all centered on posts set in the ground and then filled with dirt but for some reason the whole thing started to
collapse here and there over the years and it became too labor intensive to keep up so it was eventually abandoned. Plus despite
the fact the tires were rubber, there were metal bands in most of the tires that had the disconcerting tendency to ricochet bullets
around once in a great while. But it was fun while it lasted; we would go into the tire house and shoot bad guys (posters or
mannequins) hiding inside around blind corners and rooms. We had some human-sized 3D foam targets we’d set up and they
could hold different things in their hands, like foam cell phones or foam handguns or knives. It was considered bad form to
shoot the ones holding phones.

Most of my coworkers were really into guns and they had small or large collections of personal pistols and rifles. Sometimes
they’d bring a personal gun or two to the range, usually when they got a new one. Most were regular handguns, or subcompact
off-duty carry pistols, but occasionally an Israeli .223 bullpup or long rifle or some other exotic thing would make an appearance.

We also shared the range with several other police agencies, but they all went on different days then we did. Unfortunately we
never got to shoot at any fun targets; just about every time it was just large sheets of paper targets; either black silhouettes or
circles with grids. Sometimes if we were lucky there’d be old bowling alley pins or balloons or metal plates. But never anything
really fun like melons or glass bottles or televisions. Actually the best shooting was at the occasional small metal targets because
they made nice plinking sounds when the rounds hit, so even if we couldn’t see the bullets hit, we could hear and instantly know
if we were on target or not.