Pyongyang Gun Range
Need someplace to get your gun range fix once President Obama takes away your firearms? Why not consider a trip to the Pyongyang gun range?
An afternoon spent at the Pyongyang gun range is my favorite activity in North Korea. Here you can target practice using pistols and sport rifles, enjoy a few beers at the bar or over a game of pool, flirt with the cute North Korean rifle attendants, and even test your skills against live targets!
For 5 € a shot you can take a crack at pheasants. You get to bring home what you kill, but it’s highly suggested you give the bird to your bus driver as a tip.
Most companies running trips to North Korea don’t include a visit to the gun range on their itineraries – it’s included on all of my custom trips, as well as most scheduled trips with Young Pioneer Tours.
My related Pyongyang gun range posts:
Guns, Girls, and Beer – the Pyongyang Gun Range 2012
Bagging Your Own Breakfast – The Pyongyang Gun Range Pheasant Shoot
North Korea Shooting Range – Guns, Girls, and Beer!
I’m still looking for people to join up with my May 14th – May 23rd Mega Trip: Nampo, Sariwan, Haeju, Kaesong, Wonsan, Kumgang.
The more people who sign up the better deal I can give!
Guns, Girls, and Beer – the Pyongyang Gun Range 2012
Last week I wrote about my return to the Pyongyang gun range and how I shot my own breakfast, today I am presenting a simple photo post showing the remaining pictures from that visit – the ones that don’t involve me killing something! You can find my post about my original 2011 visit to the gun range here.
Lovely Pyongyang gun range attendants.
I bought our North Korean guide Ms. Han a round of shots, she wasn’t the best marksman but I was thrilled that she at least gave it a try.
The Pyongyang gun range bar – my favorite bar is the world!
Bagging Your Own Breakfast – The Pyongyang Gun Range Pheasant Shoot
Dubbing the experience guns, girls, and beer, last summer’s visit to the Pyongyang gun range was one of my favorite experiences of the trip. Having had so much fun there last year I made it a point to include another visit when I wrote out the custom itinerary for my 2012 return to the DPRK – most standard North Korean tourist itineraries don’t include the gun range.
Our visit was approved but this year the girls were prepared for us and remembered our tricks – no photos hugging the girls, beer in one hand and rifle in the other, while in the shooting area! But that was OK, we had other tricks up our sleeves! At 5 euros a round visitors are allowed to take a shots at live birds in a pen at the far end of the gun range. Nobody tried during last years visit, the pen was only stocked with one skinny chicken, but this year the pen was well stocked with plump pheasants, and to temp us further a North Korean man shot and bagged one before our eyes. I wasn’t the first in our group to bag a pheasant, one of the guys hit one on his first shot and made a gift of the bird to our bus driver – the driver was thrilled. After getting a few drinks in me I purchased a 5 euro round for my lucky shot into the pheasant pen, then a 2nd, and a third round – eventually I bagged one!
North Korean gun range attendant with my pheasant.
Me and my pheasant at the Pyongyang gun range.
So you got drunk and shot a pheasant at Pyongyang gun range – now what? Bring the dead bird to the dining hall of your Pyongyang hotel restaurant, pull it out in front of a bunch of horrified western tourists while they eat their dinners, and pass it over to a North Korean waitress – she wont even bat an eye but only ask for instructions on how you want your bird soup prepared for the next morning’s breakfast. Photo above – my pheasant being dished out for breakfast.
Me and my prize at the Pyongyang gun range.
Me and my pheasant at the Pyongyang gun range.
A North Korean man returning with his prize.
Walking out with the gun range attendant to get my bird.
Related articles
- The North Korean Dining Experience (americaninnorthkorea.com)
Guard Duty Pyongyang
Interesting set of photos showing a woman with rifle on guard duty in Pyongyang, North Korea.
North Korea Shooting Range – Guns, Girls, and Beer!
North Korea Shooting Range – Guns, Girls, and Beer – Photo by Joseph A Ferris III
In an online article at Mademan.com, Jordan Harbinger answers why North Korea is better than Vegas. Backing up this claim, Jordan points out such North Korean show stoppers as the Arirang Mass Games, massive propaganda statues, gasoline clam bakes, and my personal favorite, guns, girls, and beer at the Pyongyang shooting range.
Jordan Harbinger at the Pyongyang gun range.
When our North Korean guide asked us if we wanted to arrange a trip to the shooting range we said “Hell Yeah!” The shooting range turned out to be a type of North Korean men’s club, with young ladies in military style uniforms handling the guns, conducting the safety checks, and pouring the beers. This little side trip was not in the tour itinerary and there were some long faces from the other tourists at the hotel that night when we told our stories about this outing.
Neil Strauss at the Pyongyang, North Korea gun range.
Gabriel Mizrahi at the Pyongyang gun range.
American in North Korea 