WEST YELLOWSTONE, Montana — Inside Big Gun Fun, the daydreams of machine gun and "full auto" curious tourists come to life under the mindful gaze of a man who loves his job.
Everrett Ostler coaches Yellowstone National Park visitors through the experience of firing a variety of automatic weapons. He’s fought off lead poisoning, dealt with drunk tourists and remains an evangelist for both gun safety and thrill shooting.
He grew up in Utah but spent summers in West Yellowstone. His great grandfather bought the oldest hotel in town, The Madison, back in 1952.
Initially, the space that now houses the Big Gun Fun indoor shooting range was home to the personal arsenal of an ex-Green Beret who fortified the windows with metal bars and stockpiled an arsenal of classic firearms.
“He was definitely planning for the apocalypse kind of thing,” said Ostler.
A tour business owner catering to Chinese travelers bought the building, the arsenal and 16 years ago opened it to anyone willing to pay for the experience of firing
For around $65, Ostler will run you through a safety brief, hand you ear and eye protection, then lead you back to a narrow shooting range. There, with the weapon of your choice, it’s time to blast a paper target down range.
Shooters can plink shots one at a time or unload all 25 rounds in a single, adrenaline spiking blast.
“Here you have an original Israeli army Uzi, that was actually made in Israel,” said Ostler, showing off a wall of weaponry.
There’s an MP5, an AK-47, an M16, an M4, a KRISS Vector and a Thompson submachine gun like the one toted by Bonnie and Clyde.
From across the globe, a multicultural march of tourists with itchy trigger fingers comes through the door at Big Gun Fun, and Ostler delights in helping them find their inner Rambo.
“They want to shoot some guns, and they can't do that in their country,” said Ostler. “Unless you're police or military, which even in the military you don't get this option all the time, especially with what we have.”
Big Gun Fun in West Yellowstone sits across the street from the Dude Motel and the Wild West Saloon. (David Madison, Cowboy State Daily) 
A West Yellowstone, Montana, thrill-shooting specialist keeps clients safe while making their machine gun dreams come true at Big Gun Fun. (Jack Davis via Google) 
Everrett Ostler is the ambassador of ammo at Big Gun Fun in West Yellowstone, where tourists from around the world get their hands on automatic weapons for the first time. Here he shows off a lead-free sand round. (David Madison, Cowboy State Daily) 
Everrett Ostler is the ambassador of ammo at Big Gun Fun in West Yellowstone, where tourists from around the world get their hands on automatic weapons for the first time. Here he shows off a lead-free sand round. (David Madison, Cowboy State Daily) 
Jason Nguyen went from video gamer to machine gunner at Big Gun Fun. (David Madison, Cowboy State Daily) 
Big Gun Fun in West Yellowstone sits across the street from the Dude Motel and the Wild West Saloon. (David Madison, Cowboy State Daily) 
Safety instructions at Big Gun Fun. (David Madison, Cowboy State Daily)
Blast Away
As many as 4 million tourists visit Yellowstone National Park each year, and many of them roll through West Yellowstone.
Jason Nguyen from Houston, Texas, spotted Big Gun Fun from across the street at the grocery store. When he headed out for supplies on one of the last nights of his recent trip to Yellowstone, he wasn’t planning on firing a weapon known for its cameos in films like “Repo Man” and “Total Recall.”
“I shot the Vector,” said Nguyen, referring to the KRISS Vector, a distinctive submachine gun known for its futuristic design and unique recoil-reducing mechanism.
A bit breathless with sweat beading off his forehead following his short, impromptu blast session, Nguyen said, “I’ve never shot an automatic before, but I play video games.”
Big Gun Fun welcomes tour buses full of Chinese tourists and RVs driven by Canadian dads looking to experience the freedom of this country’s Second Amendment.
“A lot of Canadians, you know, they can't get a gun license,” said Ostler. “When they come here, all I need is money, money, money.”
On the busiest days, Ostler and his coworkers are loading and reloading rounds as fast as they can all day long, making client turnover feel as rapid as the weapons themselves during the peak of summer.
From The Heart
Amid the hustle of the busy tourist season, Ostler said he has to focus on each visitor to Big Gun Fun and screen them for sobriety and any signs of mental health distress.
Of course, Ostler never wants to hand a loaded weapon to someone who is suicidal. So while projecting a welcoming shooting coach vibe, Ostler also keeps an eye out for any intention to self-harm or shoot others.
As he stands behind each shooter in the shooting range, he’s ready to take corrective action.
“I'm going to grab your arm and you're going down, or I'm going to push directly to the table,” explained Ostler. “You're most likely going to miss. We hope that never happens. It's always a concern in my head, though. You never know.”
“If I see somebody come in here in like the wrong mindset, I don't want to send business away necessarily. But it does help to be like, ‘Hey, maybe not today, man. Yeah, maybe in a couple days.’”
Some clients turn to Big Gun Fun as part of dealing with PTSD because the last time they fired a weapon — perhaps in combat — they killed someone.
“To be around weapons in a safe place and let some loose a little bit, just be here,” said Ostler, who had to overcome his own health challenge in order to hold onto his dream job.
After Ostler worked at Big Gun Fun for a while, he tested positive for lead in his bloodstream.
“And they told me not to work here,” said Ostler. “I love this job enough to keep doing it. I left for three months and went and worked at a tire shop while they figured out their problem.”
Big Gun Fun hired a cleaning crew, which spent five days removing lead contamination from ammo.
“They cleaned out 98% of all that in the building. It was a pretty penny,” said Ostler, who came back to work and helped Big Gun Fun transition to non-lead sand rounds. “And it's more expensive to use the sand, but it is safer for us being in the area all the time.”
The lead is gone but the thrilling allure and adrenaline surge remains, with Big Gun Fun drawing in all walks of life.
“There's a few biker groups that'll come and frequent this bar,” said Ostler, pointing across the street toward the Dude Motel and the Wild West Saloon. “They'll park, they'll have a cigarette because they rode 200 miles to get up here. And they'll walk over here before they go and have a cocktail, which is nice, but they just want to blow some steam off real quick.”
Then there are the curious Europeans, like one family in an RV that stopped by May 4. Ostler thinks they were from France.
One was a man in his 60s, who asked Ostler about each of the weapons on the wall. He hemmed and hawed for a moment before deciding not to pay for the experience of blasting 25 rounds from the iconic weapon of his choice.
As he was leaving Big Gun Fun, the man turned to Ostler and asked, “Where can I buy a cowboy hat, like John Wayne?”
David Madison can be reached at david@cowboystatedaily.com.
