"Tourist trap!"

Ling say, "All your .357 Magnum are belong to us!"

Oh well, at least you still know where to go and when to be there!  [:)]

I live near Waikiki but don't speak Japanese.  I have, however, been to this place so I can translate by recalling my experience.

The banner [b]should[/b] say: For the price of a new .22 handgun, you can come to our range and shoot a box of ammo through a .22 handgun because all we have is .22s.  We will charge you an assfull of money to shoot at our worthless range because guns are illegal in Japan and you are in America.  We know this will probably be your only chance to shoot anything other than an airsoft gun in your life so we intend to take full advantage of this opportunity to rape your wallet.  Be sure to tell your friends.

All those hieroglyphics say: "This is POOR trigger discipline! Please make a note of it!"

This is funny. My wife & I just went to Waikiki last January and noticed the fliers. It was a rainy day, so we wandered through the mall looking for it (didn't take much effort). Our thought was that a little indoor paper-punching was a good way to spend a rainy day & figured we'd just rent some range guns for a bit.

Wrong.

The salesguy at the front desk seemed nice enough but apparently took his job *very* seriously. He explained in quite sober tones how we'd have to buy a "package". Basically, an "instructor" stands over your shoulder, recites Basic Safety 101, and essentially does everything except pull the trigger. The cheapest one they offered was something like $30 for 10 rounds of frigging .22.

Trying to be equally non-jerkish but definitely being amused, I named the makes & models of the guns on display (I think it was something like a S&W 686, a Ruger P94, a 10/22 and a Buckmark or 22/45), and explained that I either currently own or have owned each of them at one point or another, thanks much, and that we normally drive into national forest land for a few hours of shooting whenever we feel like.

I then offered to let him look me up if he ever visited Colorado and I'd let him shoot a lot more (and better) than what he had and I'd only charge him for ammo. [:D]

Darealikt, you got it right. We noticed that the street hawkers passing these out pretty much totally ignored the haoles and almost always zeroed in on the Japanese tourists. I made it a point to walk slowly right past them & they still didn't even *try* to hand one to me.

When I was in Hawaii I visited a "Shooting Club" yeah right! They had about 5 lanes that were about 20' long and had a .22 rifle or pistol CHAINED to the shooting table!!!!!

After you went through a safety orientation of having their instructor point several firearms at you and the rest of the class, you were free to shoot. Ammo was 50 rounds minimum and they charged a buck a round.

Yes that was $1 per 1 round of .22, can you say raping the customer!

Needless to say I didnt do any shooting in Hawaii.

And you would expect this in a movie poster, but this is a place where they're SUPPOSED to show you how to shoot safely...........

I've lived in Hawaii my whole life and that club-if you can call it that-is nothing more than a business to rob Japanese tourists of their money. They haven't been doing that great since 9/11. Had to lay off some workers due to decreased tourists. No local would be crazy enough to go there.

I've been to that "Club" also, just to look, and indeed the .22's are chained down. The Waikaiki is full of Japanese tourists, who have long dreamed of shooting a "REAL" gun, and they usually have big bucks to spend.  

I've also been to Guam, where there are far more of these clubs, as Guam is a much cheaper destination for Japanese tourists, and is overrun with them.  In Guam, the shooting clubs have vans that will pick you up at your hotel.  Again, the .22's are chained down.

Pinetop

This place is above a strip club.  My recomendation is that you avoid this place and the club below it.  

A few years back at my local indoor range, the now-closed Santa Anita Firing, Monrovia, Calif.(20 miles east of L.A.), they were hosting a shooting session with tourists from Japan. Like typical tourists everywhere, they were busying shooting guns, and taking pictures of themselves with the guns and some actually shooting the guns. Many of them really actually rolled up their targets and took it with them when they left the range. From what I could see, many of them wanted to hold and see guns that they see in American movies, such as Dirty Harry's S&W Model 29, the Baretta 92 from Lethal Weapon etc. They also looked the 44mag Desert Egle, and was really surprised on how big and heavy it was.

You can still shoot in Hawaii, but not in Waikiki, the tourist trap.  I used to shoot at Kakaako Range- a few miles south east of Hanauma Bay going towards Waimanalo/Blowhole.  It is an outdoor range with rifle, pistol, and skeet sections.  The only shitty thing was that it was all SLOW FIRE and the range master would get tyranical on your ass if you shot rapid fire, even with a 10/22.  Glad I moved to NV.

I was flying back to SF from Japan several years ago, and the Japanese guy sitting next to me said he was on his way to Silverado to play golf over the weekend. He bought this package deal for something like $10,000, that included a wine tour, hotel stay, and some other BS. I thought the guy was friggin' nuts. Really nice guy, but $10,000?

Did they have an outdoor range at one time?

I remember as kids, living in West Covina at that time, we used to go shooting somewhere up there at this range that had an underground walkway to get to the target stands. It was totally cool because there was no ceasefire or any of that BS.

The last time I went was in like 1972, during that short period of time when chicks were more important than guns.

Nope not the same range. This range was opened sometime in 1986. I believe you are thinking about Fish Canyon in Duarte, Calif.  range has a rifle 200-yard where you walk 300 yards down range and behind the targets, and you take down and put up those huge targets. I guess if you were younger and smaller it would seem like a tunnel.

RE: Excessive range fees for the Japanese Tourists - You've got to remember that these people are newbies with zero experience shooting a firearm. I for one would want these folks to shoot only 22LR. I believe a Japanese tourist was killed at a Hawaiian range accident. I believe he had jam, and turned the gun around to fix, then bang!