Dreamlog 10: The New Gun Range

It was just like any other day in what I presumed to be my hometown. The weather outside was just too hot to do anything particularly fun so I along with a cousin deside to take a trip to an indoor gun range. Apparently in this dream, ammo is still as scarce as it is in the real world so We couldn't take everything we had to the range nor could we spend too much time at the range shooting so we only took a portion that we felt we could waste on paper targets. At least that's what we had in mind initially.

We drive downtown in this car that vaguely resembles the car (Honda Civic 2001) that I used to drive before I lost it in my roll over accident. Everything in this dream seems rather typical otherwise. Most of the sights around my old homw town don't seem any different until we make it to the range. This range doesn't exist in my reality but even then from the outside it looks very unassuming. We park our car and take down our bags and equipment as we make our way into the counter.

I read one of the signs and there are restrictions on specific firearms for this range although not exactly related to legal reasons as we were to soon find out. The clerk told us because of the ammo shortage, they didn't get as much clients as they usually would in normal situations. So they adopted this new system to allow shooting practice without the use of live ammo. Of course, this was limited to a few select firearms that had detachable magazines and specific bore sizes. Generally, AR 15s, AR 10s, AK style platforms, Striker Fired Pistols, Single/Double Action pistols are all fair game though anything without a removable magazine or in an obscure caliber wasn't valid as the devices they had weren't designed specifically to those kind of firearms just yet. This device in particular consisted of something that looked like a snapcap round (basically a bullet that has no gunpowder or projectile used for dry firing) except it was a bit more hefty and wasn't designed for ejection whenever you would charge the firearm (it would stay put in the barrel chamber and had to be poked out via disassembly). This same bullet like device had some sort of sensor at the very tip of where the projectile would be as well as some sort of sensor at the primer end of the cartridge. There was also a short box type magazine that went into your pistol or rifle but it didn't contain any cartridges. Rather, it had various sensors and buttons to allow you to do certain things like increase simulated capacities and ammo types in the magazine. In other words, these devices were some sort of simulation hardware that would be used in front of a screen (similar to a light-gun arcade but more sophisticated and with more emphasis on realism). Rather than using some sort of pre-made gun like you would see in arcade light gun cabinets, these pseudo cartridges and magazines would be universally compatible with your own personal rifle. The hardware and software involved with both the devices and the screen used in this range would apply realistic approximations of a projectiles behaviour based on the simulated values of the round being used, the length of the barrel (determined by the user), and the distance (also set by the user). It was designed in such as way, that even your iron sights and optics would be compatible with the simulation with the only downside being that there was no simulated physical recoil in this particular system. Rather, the effects of recoil were numerically determined (or estimated) based on the type of cartridge and length of the barrel being simulated. I don't think I really know of such a system used in real life.

We are issued these devices and are instructed to proceed into this simulated range. Just like in a real range, there are dividers between each range but rather than some sort of electronic assisted paper target holder in front of you, it's an individual screen (I can only guess it's in some sort of 16:10 aspect ratio but I couldn't be so sure) that was individually specific to each range section so only you would see what was in your range. There was some sort of terminal on the side that let you choose simulated targets ranging from the standard paper targets, to more interesting things like a simulated backyard where you would shoot balloons, soda cans, and wood targets to more exciting simulations that give remanence of many arcade light gun games of the past like a Zombie survival game, a police shootout game, alien invasion, modern warfare type games, and even some more wacky family friendly stuff like carnival game type simulations. The whole experience using that range was very exciting to say the least. The best part about it was neither my cousin and I had to waste our ammo and we were still able to zero in our sights, practice our techniques, and even compete with each other by selection an option to run simulations at the same time as the nearby range section. I didn't think I would want to quit using this range until my dream ended abruptly.

Like I said earlier, I don't think I ever seen anything like this in reality. There are things like VR military sims and the like but nothing that sort of gave you the feel of using the firearms that you are accustomed to. I think that especially in these times, where ammo is not being produced to meet the demands of the public, something like this would be economical and handy for situations where we just don't want to waste any ammo. Would this dream be some sort of "Aha" moment to a problem that I myself have been thinking about lately because I have been craving for some range time but lack the resources to waste any ammo at the moment. If only I had some sort of financial backing to expand on this idea and maybe make it a reality. This thing that I had experienced was like the next generation of light gun games

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