Journalist describes the trauma of firing an AR15 for first time.

[discntnt_irny_srcsm]

5. Hmm...

At 17 I was a 135 lb skinny kid. I learned to fire an M-1 Garand. The first step was to spend 2 days with my friend and instructor reloading several hundred rounds of .30-06. I got an education in the chemical and mechanical details of the bullet. After each in the reloading there was a loud and clear announcement that the smoking lamp was out. Then came some basic education at the indoor PANG range: basics, more safety instruction, how to avoid M-1 thumb... all this after firing .22 M-1 training rifles for months. We went to an outdoor range to fire the Garands. Firing .30-06 in 50 ft indoor range with brick walls and concrete ceilings and floors is a bad idea even with the earmuffs. But with firing disabled we have an exercise indoors to get used to the kick of the rifle. Laying prone in a shooting position with the firing mechanism disabled, my instructor walked around in front of me and kicked the end of the barrel.

Short story, the muzzle energy of Garand was more double that of the AR. We reloaded 220 grain .30 cal ammo. IIRC the more than double figures compare 77 grain .223 compared to 220 grain .30-06 at 1300 ft-lbs (and change) to about 3000 ft-lbs, respectively.

My memory is that the kick of the M-1 was considerable but fell a bit short of Mr. McCallum's AR dramatics.
BTW I didn't miss the "assault rifle" mistake in there either.

I'm thinking the author's previous shooting experience may have been limited to paintball.