Guncation

It’s summer, baby! Time to load up and head out on vacation. And, wherever you might like to go, you could add in some trigger time, making your vacation that much more memorable and unique.

Here are just a handful of the places to consider. Be certain to check out all the applicable laws for the locations to which—and through which—you’re traveling. I highly recommend bookmarking the NRA-ILA’s State Gun Laws site (nraila.org/gun-laws) and having the Traveler’s Guide to the Firearm Laws of the Fifty States book (gunlawguide.com) handy for this. If you’re flying, check the TSA regulations and airline regulations as well.

ATAC
If you’re a regular reader of this magazine, you’ve probably seen some coverage of ATAC, the Appalachian Tactical Acquisitions Course (tacticalcourse.com). As with Gunsite (discussed next), it’s something of a go-to training spot for me.

Their training is excellent and seems unique in the industry, as they offer small private courses (up to four people), mostly focused on women and couples. The owners, Travis and Ashley Worlock, both have extensive military experience that inform civilian training needs. The Worlocks were both in the U.S. Army Special Operations’ Cultural Support Teams effort, in which women were trained to interact with Afghan women and children as the troops conducted operations. When they retired, they decided to train civilians.

ATAC is situated on a repurposed tobacco farm located in beautiful Shady Valley, Tenn. The owners added a 40-foot sea/land container building that gives students a clean, climate-controlled, learning/break area and bathrooms with real plumbing. Students can now rent a nearby cabin during their training, which is remote and humble, yet comfortable, and which overlooks a small pond. It’s also far nearer to the ATAC facility than other possible housing choices.

The area offers great outdoor-adventure options. Not having enough time to enjoy it all, I only hiked a small trail near the facility (Backbone Falls, with a short jaunt over to Backbone Rock). If I had more time, I might’ve tried the Virginia Creeper Trail, a 35-mile old railroad track that was repurposed into an amazing hiking, running, biking or horseback riding trail and is only 12 miles from ATAC. The Cherokee National Forest is nearby, with easy access to the Blue Ridge Parkway and the Appalachian Trail.

Going out a little further, Bristol, Tenn., is a popular country-music town. The city of Bristol, only 30 minutes from ATAC, is split by the line separating Tennessee and Virginia and has a NASCAR track and many restaurants, some of which have four- and five-star ratings. Nearby Johnson City and Kingsport are also interesting places to stop and enjoy Appalachian culture and tradition.

Gunsite
Gunsite, in Paulden, Ariz., was started by Lt. Col. Jeff Cooper as the American Pistol Institute in 1976 and remains one of the most-well-known training facilities in the country. Cooper’s techniques and concepts were revolutionary in his time and are still well respected
by modern instructors. You’ll hear a lot about him there and maybe even get to tour his home museum. (I enjoyed that tour for the usual reasons, like seeing the armory, library and beautiful view, but Cooper’s unique home-security considerations were truly fascinating.)

Gunsite’s 3,000 acres are filled with ranges and indoor and outdoor simulation facilities that allow their elite instructors to teach an astonishing roster of courses, including everything from basic gun handling to hunting to combat skills. Gunsite’s CEO, Sheriff Ken Campbell (Ret.), emphasized that the courses “are not boot camp. Our primary business isn’t law enforcement or military, though we offer those courses, but regular Americans.” Families, grandmothers and grandchildren included, often attend together, and Gunsite offers courses specific to families and youth, especially for spring breaks and summers.

Arizona’s high-desert climate can be both refreshing (I love the low humidity) and grueling (protecting yourself from the sun and maintaining your hydration are critical). Outdoors enthusiasts may especially enjoy the unique landscape, with hiking, fishing, kayaking, golfing, mountain biking and even eagle-viewing readily available. I tried out a canyon hike, right outside Little Thumb Butte B&B, with other Gunsite Team Tactics students, and found the canyon cooler and more pleasant than ground-level.

Flagstaff and Phoenix are nearby, as is a lot of protected land. Hiking Antelope Canyon, Seguaro National Park or the Grand Canyon (only two hours away) are fantastic options. Campbell recommends the Hotshots Trail through the Weaver Mountains, a memorial trail dedicated to the 19 firefighters who lost their lives in the terrible wildfire of Yarnell Hill in 2013. Additional options include cliff dwellings; Route 66, which has plenty of quirky stops available along it; and Tombstone’s old-West saloons and museums; plus hot springs and legendary stargazing (thanks to Arizona’s darker skies), which is particularly good at the Kitt Peak Observatory. Prescott itself, about 40 minutes away, has a very nice downtown plaza with great restaurants and quaint shops.

Students can arrange to camp at Gunsite’s campgrounds, which include clean showers, laundry and RV parking, or check out the lodging options on gunsite.com—most of these places offer discounts when they know you’re a student. Gunsite also checks these places to ensure students will be comfortable there.

You can also find Gunsite courses off-site in places like Nashville and Orlando, making it even easier to fit training into your family vacation.

Machine Guns Vegas
Machine Guns Vegas is a unique way to experience the Vegas “vibe.” First, their location is essentially an upscale swanky lounge (think Rat Pack), with leather couches and flat-screen televisions. They offer a suite of shooting-entertainment packages, such as the Gamers Experience, wherein you can shoot some of the most-popular guns from games like Call of Duty or Counter-Strike. For that, you’d fire 25 rounds from an AK47, 25 from an MP5, 25 from an M4 and 10 from a Glock 17, all while a dedicated instructor ensures safe gun handling. Other packages are the Femme Fatale (yes, the guns are pink), Seal Team 6 and Full Auto. They also offer outdoor packages, ordered by price ($199 to $1,200); typically, you get to fire at an old car or a similar target, with the round count increasing with each level. But to make it a full Vegas experience, you can add helicopters, Lamborghinis and construction vehicles into your purchase. You can see all the package options or customize your own at machinegunsvegas.com.

MGV instructors are generous about accommodating photos posed with the guns, and I was impressed to find that they include their own fully edited video of the experience, from multiple range-camera angles. MGV is also veteran-owned, supports veterans with its own associated non-profit (Veterans Training Fund) and hires mostly veterans.

Are these packages a bit … cheesy? Yes, but they are the very essence of Vegas—it’s not exactly where one chooses to go for reality. If you’re spending a few extra days, Vegas’ usual offerings of casinos, bright lights and world-class shows can easily fill your time. To get off the beaten path a little, but stay within Vegas, veer over to Fremont Street, which gives you more of the retro Vegas vibe—I visited it at Halloween for unparalleled “people-watching.” That’s also near the arts district, filled with quirky galleries and coffee shops. A few specific places I found worth visiting were Bauman Rare Books in the Grand Canal Shoppes, where you can breathe in the heady smell of some very old books, and the Neon Museum, where you can learn Vegas history via their neon signs (best visited at dark, of course). For outdoors experiences, try the Mount Charleston trails, including Mary Jane Falls Trail, and the Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area.

NRA National Firearms Museum
If you’re coming out to the nation’s capital, a detour to the NRA National Firearms Museum in Fairfax, Va., to see more than 3,000 firearms in 15,000 square feet of world-class exhibits, is a must. “Hollywood Guns” is one of the most-popular exhibits, featuring the iconic guns we think of in movies like “Dirty Harry,” “Die Hard,” “No Country for Old Men” and many, many more. You’ll see the history of firearms and some of the most beautifully crafted guns of all time. Visit nramuseum.org for more details on all the carefully curated displays and dioramas. The NRA Range is also here, so if you have your firearm, you can get in some rounds.

If you have some extra time to spend in Virginia, I also recommend going to Mt. Vernon, the home of George Washington. Much of the mansion is currently closed for preservation work, but some tours remain available within, and the grounds alone are well worth seeing—there is even a beautiful hiking trail. A lovely place to eat nearby is the Mount Vernon Inn restaurant, or, if you go a little farther, Cedar Knoll (reservations are strongly recommended for either option).

In the D.C. area, of course, you can tour the White House, visit Arlington National Cemetery and explore the National Mall with its excellent monuments and memorials. The Smithsonian manages many attractions, including the National Museum of American History, the Air and Space Museum, the American Indian Museum and the National Archives (home of the U.S. Bill of Rights, which of course includes the Second Amendment). Smithsonian also manages the National Zoo and several outdoor gardens. Each one of these is honestly worth spending a whole day exploring. Many of the attractions in D.C. are free (if we don’t count tax dollars) and are available for walk-ins, but several require arrangements in advance, so check the websites for any that interest you. Fine dining also abounds in D.C., with a number of restaurants, like 1789 and the Tabard Inn, being historic. If you like German food, I recommend Old Europe. (Reservations again are strongly suggested for any of these.)

Be sure to carefully review the gun laws for the area—they vary widely between Virginia, Maryland and Washington, D.C.

NRA Whittington Center
The NRA Whittington Center, located close to Raton, N.M., near the Sangre de Cristo mountains, offers a happiness buffet for the Second Amendment community amid stunning scenery. Training and events encompass many disciplines, including pistol and rifle courses, vintage firearms, sporting clays, cowboy lever-action, long-range precision shooting and 3-gun. The annual Women’s Wilderness Escape is an extremely popular NRAWC offering, as is the Adventure Youth Camp program—in fact, be sure to sign up early for either at nrawc.org.

Unfortunately, the Frank Brownell Museum of the Southwest is temporarily closed for upgrades, but if your trip isn’t immediate, be sure to check it out. The facility, once re-opened, will give you more than 6,000 square feet of world-class displays on Native Americans, Spanish exploration and colonization, the Spanish-American War, the American Civil War’s effect on the Southwest, the Old West and other major historical events—along with “gunquariums” showcasing hundreds of incredible firearms.

Students can stay right on site in an array of cabins, RV campsites and “primitive” campsites.

Ox Ranch
Ox Ranch, located in the Texas Hill Country, is an everything-you-could-ask-for guncation destination. First, there’s hunting, including exotic hunting. Maybe you’d like to get a whitetail deer, or maybe you’d like one of the other 67 species listed on their website. Maybe you’d like to hunt in a giant blind, complete with a poker table and air conditioning or to try night hunting. Whatever you choose, you’ll hunt with a guide, be guaranteed an opportunity at the animal and stay in luxurious accommodations with meals prepared by an award-winning chef.

Besides hunting, at this 18,000-acre ranch, you can drive a Sherman tank, shoot machine guns or skeet, go 4x4 off-roading, feed giraffes, search for arrowheads and dino tracks, hike, swim, fish and more—go to oxhuntingranch.com to see all the options. I haven’t been there myself, which may be good, since I suspect I’d never want to leave.

Other outdoors options include Garner State Park, Eagle Pass, Lost Maples State Natural Area and the Frio River, all great places to hike, fish, kayak and swim. The Devil’s Sinkhole is one of the largest vertical caves in the world and is home to Mexican free-tailed bats. Go at dusk to watch them emerge en masse from the cave … if you’re into that kind of thing. Kickapoo Cavern State Park is yet another place to hike and explore interesting caves. And don’t forget the Texas Hill Country Wine Trail!

Paramount Tactical
Paramount Tactical, located in Summit Point, W.Va., offers the usual (though higher-quality than many) training options, such as defensive handgun and tactical carbine courses, and the unique, such as high-performance evasive driving and off-road driving. Threats encountered while driving, including road-rage incidents, carjackings and other robbery attempts, seem to be increasing and are a mostly neglected area of tactical training. How do you learn to escape a pit-maneuver attack? What do you know about vehicle-related ballistic considerations?

The lack of such training options is partially because it’s difficult to find a place to practice defensive vehicle skills, but Paramount’s facility has a nationally rated racecourse dedicated to this purpose. Another reason for neglect is that it’s difficult to find trainers who possess these skills, but Paramount’s are all “high-level operators” (think special ops). They also train high-level operators who might need these skills (think Secret Service), but recognize the need in the civilian market as well. I haven’t yet taken the driving courses, but I did take a course on accessing your gun safe in realistic scenarios and found the instructors incredibly knowledgeable and patient. You can find their courses at paramounttactical.com.

Admittedly, the facility isn’t that near to a major city (though it’s not terribly far from D.C.), but if you like a lower-key vacation, as I do, it might be ideal. Nearby Winchester, Va., has a charming downtown with fun shops and restaurants. The town was first settled in 1732 and considered important in the Civil War, so it’s great if you like history. This includes George Washington’s Office Museum (1755-56) and the Shenandoah Valley Civil War Museum. For more-recent history, the Patsy Cline Historic House (1948-57) is worth a visit. Winchester also hosts the Shenandoah Apple Blossom Festival each Spring and the Shenandoah Valley area itself offers beautiful scenery and outdoor-activity options, with many interesting limestone caves and caverns to explore, including the very popular Luray Caverns. Harper’s Ferry is another charming historic town with delightful restaurants, shops and historical sites, as well as fantastic outdoors options, like hiking along the Potomac. (Parking can be a real challenge, but buses come in from extra parking areas—just follow the signs.)

Staccato Ranch and Staccato Vegas
You might know that Staccato makes nice handguns, but perhaps you don’t know that they offer training in two locations. Staccato Ranch (staccatoranch.com) is in Florence, Texas, near Austin, and Staccato Vegas (staccatovegas.com) is in Pahrump, Nev., near Las Vegas.

Matt Schweitzer, Staccato’s executive vice president, told us they’re trying to “blend a country club and your favorite gun club into one—it’s safe but we make sure it’s a lot of fun.”

Here, you can receive training at any level from top-tier trainers like Dan Carlisle. Besides a roster of ongoing classes, they will cater to your training desires, from the most basic (like how to conceal) to the most advanced (like long-range precision). You can even just get guided range time—essentially having an instructor with you as you shoot to help you reach your goals. Probably the most-unique experiences they offer are “havoc” courses, shooting scenarios set in hill-country or high-desert environments. And yes, they’ll rent you a Staccato for the courses.

While located near Las Vegas and Austin, they aren’t actually in them. No worries: Staccato will happily pick you up in a Sprinter van—or help you arrange helicopter transport. You can stay right on site in B&B style housing, which accommodates up to eight people. Full-time concierge services will cater to your group’s needs, including stocking your house with groceries before you arrive.

I’ve already talked about Vegas and the Hill Country of Texas, but not about what you can find in Austin. The motto “Keep Austin Weird,” coined by Red Wassenich in 2000, seems to define the city; for example, you can go to the Cathedral of Junk, an art installation made from … well, junk. You can enjoy great restaurants and great music on Sixth Street, which is closed to vehicles Thursday through Saturday night (there isn’t room for cars with this kind of pedestrian crowd). The Elysium and Stubb’s Bar-B-Q are two of many well-known live-music locations—and Austin’s local music scene is truly worth experiencing. I also recommend going to Antone’s Nightclub, where Texas’ most-iconic blues-rock musician Stevie Ray Vaughan often performed, and to the Texas Music Museum.

Moving from the cultural to the natural, hikes on Mount Bonnell and the Barton Creek Greenbelt Trails are nearby. Lady Bird Lake is a great place to kayak or paddleboard, or you could visit Mayfield Park right in the city, which has free-roaming peacocks in a beautiful garden.

Thunder Ranch
Another highly respected training source is Thunder Ranch in Lakeview, Ore. The founder, Clint Smith, is a retired U.S. Marine, Vietnam Veteran and former law-enforcement officer, including SWAT and firearms training, who also trained with Jeff Cooper and later became the Operations Manager for three years at Gunsite before setting up his own training facility. His wife, Heidi, is a former deputy, EMT and TEMS medic.

I haven’t been to Thunder Ranch myself, and one reviewer indicated that they experienced a “drill- instructor” teaching style, so consider that if you have someone who is particularly timid about venturing into firearms training; however, Thunder Ranch does offer every level of instruction, from a new gun owner’s first shots to ultra-tactical military team training, and I was assured many couples and families come to train and have a great time. It seems that it would be a top-notch place to learn, and an even better place to refine existing skills.

Like Gunsite, Thunder Ranch has outdoor ranges and shoot-house facilities. Urban Rifle is a very popular course, but the class list includes handgun, shotgun, team tactics, hunting, low-light, trauma, vehicle defense and long-range. Their website, traintr.com, was under construction when I tried to peruse it, but it should be active again before you get this issue. Even if not, their social-media sites and email ([email protected]) are active.

To get there, most people fly into Reno-Tahoe International and drive about three hours. You can stay in Lakeview itself, at hotels, B&Bs or RV parks or even stay at hot springs with an intermittent geyser, plus lakes, streams, trails and national forest are nearby. Check out the Outback Scenic Byway, if more driving is your thing. And Crater Lake, the deepest lake in the U.S., is not to be missed.

In Reno, check out the Truckee River Walk and the National Automobile Museum. A thriving art and nightlife culture can perhaps be best enjoyed in Midtown, Virginia St. or the July Artown festival. The Reno to Tahoe trail is 114 miles of multi-use beauty, and Lake Tahoe itself is a popular destination.