If you've ever seen Rambo, Terminator, any war movie ever, anything by Quentin Tarentino, if you were raised in Amirrrr-ica, if you are humming the star spangled banner under your breath right now, you've probably wondered what it would be like to pull the pin on a grenade and toss it. Just to be clear, we're not talking about any sort of terrorizing or carrying on (if the FBI knocks on our door, there will be a blog entry about that for sure). We're just talking about the adrenaline rush it must give, to pull the pin on a live grenade and toss it over your shoulder, just like they've done in every movie worth watching.
So we set out to try to find a shooting range that allows you to throw grenades. Here's what we found:
First off, it's not easy to just Google search. Most of what comes up is about throwing grenades in Call of Duty, the video game. So it took some digging, but we found our answer. We also found some other really cool places for people interested in blowing stuff up.
Grenades Aren't the Only Way to Blow Sh#t Up
Blow It Up Vegas is a spot in Vegas that allows you to customize your experience and quench the thirst to blow sh#t up. They rig up all sorts of stuff with explosives--stuff ranging from vehicles to watermelons. Then they give you a gun and you blow that sh$t up. They offer a variety of weaponry, including .50 caliber machine guns, sniper rifles, crossbows, shotguns, AND grenade launchers. It's pretty expensive (to shoot an explosives rigged car is around $2,000) and it's highly supervised. Sounds fun, but lots of money, and the closest you get to pulling the pin on a grenade is launching it a safe distance with a grenade launcher. Sounds fun, but we wanna pull the pin.
Take a trip out to Kansas for the Outback Park and Public Shooting Range, where you can shoot anti-aircraft guns, civil war era gatling guns, and grenade launchers also. They are out in the boondocks of Kansas and offer some impressive stuff to shoot and blow up and they'll also rig stuff with explosives, but still no grenades in their mix. For the purposes of this article, if we don't run serious risk of blowing off limbs, we're not interested--onto the next.
Throwing Grenades--Get Your Passport Ready
Photo Credit: Odin Huber (That's a live grenade in hand)
It took some digging, but we found it. And as much as we thought that pulling the pin on a grenade was the American dream, it turns out, it's more the Cambodian dream. They take blowing sh%t up to a whole new extreme. Not only will they let you pull the pin on a grenade and toss it, they'll let you fire off a bazooka, grenade launcher, machine guns and much more, without all that pesky adult supervision. Just remember, check the American "lawyer up" concept at the door. If you blow your arm off throwing grenades in Cambodia, don't count on a lucrative lawsuit. Best to care for your own safety, use good judgment, and do everything in your power to keep all your limbs intact.
Do you know anyone that has ever tossed a grenade? Would you do it yourself? Would do you do this if you were already in Cambodia? What are your thoughts?!