American Festivals Project

Well folks, I’m sorry that the post from the machine gun shoot out has taken so long to get out to you.  It was an exhausting weekend and amazingly the week following has been filled with driving, catching up with friends, a speaking engagement (at a high school mind you), and planning for the next few weeks.  Life on a big project such as this can feel like a full time job!

So last weekend was spent in West Point, Kentucky at the Knob Creek Machine Gun Shoot.  The rural Kentucky setting, coincidentally just north of Fort Knox, consisted small homes set into rolling hills, tobacco crop, and little churches scattered here and there.  I had to take a picture of a sign outside a Baptist church we passed by everyday.  “Aint God Good,” it read.  I loved it how one has no idea if the statement is an exclamation or a question.  But hey, I’m not expecting good grammar when I’m in the home of the World’s largest machine gun shoot!

Knob Creek gun range actually felt a little smaller than what I had expected.  Accessible only by a single lane bridge, there is only one way in and one way out of this well situated range.  If America ever found herself at war on home turf, I’m sure that Knob Creek would be the last place standing.  A woman told me she thought the place used to serve as a bunker for Fort Knox.

When Matt and I arrived at the gates on Thursday (vendor’s day) we were met with a scene reminiscent of a military base.  Giant camoflague military vehicles were parked on the side of the roads, people were dressed in military clothing, and almost everyone seemed to have some type of gun slung around their shoulders.  I thought it was incredibly exciting!

The first people that I met and took a picture of (above) were sitting on the bleachers in front of the gun range.  Without knowing it, I had met some machine gun show groupies!  They had been to almost every bi-annual shoot for the last ten years!  They bring a blanket, find their favorite spot on the bleachers, and just sit and watch all weekend.  Who ever thought watching people shoot things could be so entertaining!

On early Friday morning we arrived at the range and were met with the echoing booms of machine guns.  Literally, by 8am the main range was full of men blasting away at targets like refrigerators, propane tanks, boats, and old cars.  That did more for waking me up than my black coffee.

The weekend event also hosts one of the country’s largest gun shows.  This guy found the perfect device for lugging his machine guns: a baby stroller.  The irony is so thick I could cut it like a stick of butter.

To try to set the scene, I’ve included two of the pictures above.  You would not believe the anti-Obama sentiment!  Supposedly Senator Obama wants to put a 400% tax increase on gun and ammunition sales in the United States.  That would mean the end of the world for a lot of the gun dealers at the machine gun shoot out–and maybe even the end of the event itself.  There was some serious concern over our next president, and some statements made about Obama that I probably should not repeat on this blog…

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PORTRAITS

Father and son. Father served in Vietnam, son served three terms in Iraq.

On the left, a man trying to sell his M-50 for $2,500.

On the right, a husband and wife couple.  “I’m so blessed to have a wife that supports my hobby,” he told me.

On the left, Samantha Sawyer, the 13x woman’s machine gun national champion.  As told by her father, she won her first national championship at age twelve wearing a winnie the pooh t-shirt.

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The fascinating thing about this the machine gun shoot at Knob Creek is that anyone can rent a machine gun and blow some things away–as long as you can reload the gun.  I saw an eight year old shaking violently behind an M-50 as he held on for dear life, firing five seconds worth of ammo for a hefty $100. Some of the lighter weapons rent for a bit cheaper, but nothing is cheap.  Ten seconds on a semi-automatic was usually around $65-$85.  A flame thrower?  You’ll have to dish out $200!  If someone prefers a more environmental experience, they can pay $25 for the Jungle Walk, which takes them through a wooded area scattered with targets that they shoot with their machine gun.

Everywhere you go at the event, there is a lot of noise.  Ear protection is essential.  The earth is usually shaking beneath your feet.  Helicoptors fly overhead.  I found it dumbfounding that this old guy (below) had fallen asleep right next to the machine gun rental range!

Did I mention that the machine gun shoot is really a family event?  It is, really!

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Saturday night marks the climax of the event, where the main shooters line the range for the famous ‘Night Shoot’.  The heavy shooting starts around 5pm and continues through the night with 30 minute shooting sessions at one hour intervals.  I would estimate that 10,000 people filled the street next to the range, lining up hours ahead of time to get a good view of the action.

This event is absolutely crazy.  It’s hard to describe in words or even photographs.  In addition to the big guns, the shooters use tracer bullets which leave beautiful red and yellow streaks in the sky.  There are also barrels of gasoline for the shooters to hit and explode.  When this happens, it sends a ploom of firey smoke shooting a hundred feet in the air.  From where I was taking the pictures, almost a football field away, I could feel the heat of those explosions.  The night sky lit up with flares, tracer bullets, explosions, camera flashes, and a beautiful moon resting over the valley.

This is one event that I feel like a camera can not do justice.  I’m reluctant to link to a video from the event because I want this blog to serve primarily for photography, but I think you’ll get a much better feeling for the magnitude of explosions, sound, and power.  So after you’ve seen the pictures, check out THIS video clip.

I can’t imagine the kind of money that was spent that night.  Some of these guys were shooting contant rounds of ammunition that must have added up to tens of thousandths of dollars.  One of the machine guns I was standing next to towards the end of the night shot 3,000 rounds per minute!  The owner probably shot 15 seconds worth of ammo (about $800) so quickly that you could not even hear individual bullets coming from the gun.  Even with ear protection, the sound and vibrations were frightening.

After two days of constant noise, smoke, and fire, I was spent.  The machine gun shoot had worn my senses thin, but I loved every minute of it.  If you ever get a chance, go visit the event for a day.  I think you will find everyone to be very friendly, safe, and true admirer’s of our second amendment.