culture

The Meari Shooting Gallery in the sports village on Chongchun Street, Pyongyang, is a favourite haunt where people can relish the delight and pleasure of shooting.

Its logo inscribed with the letter “Meari (echo)” centring on a circular target helps everyone understand that it is a shooting gallery.

It has  not only facilities related to shooting including ray gun, rifle and pistol shooting ranges, archery ground, outdoor shooting range, but all conditions for rest such as e-amusement facilities, a shop, restaurant and tennis and volleyball courts.

The ray gun and electronic pistol shooting ranges are places for children who cannot handle weapons. But, in general, the ray gun shooting range is used to destroy the targets including bears, wild boars and deer, running in forests and on snow through a large display screen and prepare them as “small gunners”, while the electronic pistol shooting range is used to make customers who are fond of pistol shooting know the knack of holding weapons and controlling breathing.

At the archery ground, clients can shoot at 10-metre targets, balloons and 30-metre targets at the maximum with archery equipment used by professional players. Here, the clients realize that archery is a more difficult exercise than they thought.

The charm of shooting is shooting with live bullets after all.

There are 50-metre targets in the rifle range and 25-metre targets in the pistol range.

With the help of guides, the clients learn the firing stance, shooting methods and knacks of a bull’s-eye hit and experience various feelings such as the tension from live-bullet firing and the thrill of hitting the target. Clients carefully fire bullets to gain each point and spectators intensely watch the score board.

Everyone wants to be able to get the knack of shooting and to shoot at the real target when they become skilful. The Meari Shooting Gallery has a firing range that satisfies the sentiments of the clients. At the outdoor firing range with 12 firing platforms, the clients can shoot at 25-metre and 50-metre fixed targets with pistols and rifles and live birds like pheasants and chickens with automatic and ski rifles.

The moving target shooting is not easy, but the pleasure of hitting the target with precise shooting is not easy to taste and the place is always packed with clients. They can take home or eat  the game they hit according to their will.

At the outdoor sports ground, visitors spend a good time while relieving their physical or mental fatigue from shooting as they play tennis, badminton and volleyball.

In February 2014, the respected Comrade Kim Jong Un visited the remodelled Sporting Cartridge Factory and the Meari Shooting Gallery to give precious instructions on improving the people’s cultural and emotional life.