Greetings from sunny Phoenix Arizona. I must confess that spending much of the past year in the Netherlands has taught me a new appreciation for clear blue skies - and this certainly is the place for that. What great weather they have here this time of year. I am in town for a week training, between the Shot show which ended last week, and the Florida Open we will shoot next week. Here is one of the biggest IPSC centers in the US, and some of the top GM's live and train here.

Well, as you may know, this is also the location of Dillon precision, that wonderful company that makes the Dillon presses we all love and use. I visit them every chance I get, and this time was in for a real treat:

What is less known about Dillon in Europe, is that they are also one of the biggest manufacturers of the Mini guns. Those fearsome Military 6 barrel 7.62mm machine guns. Rate of fire - over 3000 rounds per minute! What an amazing weapon.

Well, this week Angus Hobdel and I visited Dillon with his Italian Distributor who is in town too. And we were all invited to go out to the desert to test a new power pack for the mini guns.. they usually test fire the guns from the Huyi helicopter that Mike Dillon owns and flies himself. The factory is built on the edge of an airfield, and Mike has his own hanger, holding 2 choppers and about 6 planes he can literally fly out of his back yard - and does.

They often test the guns from the choppers, since it makes the travel out to the desert easier, and shooting the gun from the air helps to keep the barrels cool, so you can shoot more ammo.

Well, we flew out in this military type chopper. Doors wide open, safety cables, rather than seat belts keeping us safe (this is a long cable, not a tight seat belt, so you are not locked in your seat. if you fell out, it would save you - but, you would be dangling in the air...certainly not like a commercial flight...). We met the support truck in the desert test site. They drove out carrying the 30,000 rounds of ammo we would shoot that afternoon.

We were 6 "test shooters" out there, and took turns going up in the chopper to make combat Ariel attack style runs on a row of targets set on the ground. Each shooting a full pack of ammo the gun could feed from, 4,400 rounds!. The chopper made about 6 attack runs each, giving us a chance to line up on the targets several times. What a rush! Hanging out of the doorway of a flying chopper, firing the most advanced machine gun even made. What a fearsome weapon. Certainly, nothing would have a chance on the ground. At a rate of over 3,000 rounds per minute, you can follow the solid dust trail you pick up and correct on the target for a certain hit. Or several hundred hits. WOW...

This was a once in a life time chance, and certainly worth the day practice it cost us.

Thank you, Mike Dillon, for a memorable afternoon.

Regards to all,