gun | American in North Korea

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!

June 7, 2012 | Categories: Girls, Guns | Tags: Asia, DPRK, entertainment, girls, gun, Gun control, photo, photography, Pyongyang, Shooting range, travel, uniform | 6 Comments

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.