By ALEX HORTON | STARS AND STRIPES Published: April 17, 2017
UVALDE, Texas — There is only one place in the world where you can fire a Sherman tank, more than 70 years after it rolled off the production line: deep in the heart of Texas.
The M-4 Sherman, the workhorse medium tank used throughout World War II and into the Korean War, is instantly recognizable from museums, archival footage and the film “Fury” starring Brad Pitt.
Few of the 50,000 tanks have survived the ravages of battle and time, and fewer still are operational.
But the 76 mm cannon on a late-model M4A2E8 Sherman still belches fire at the Ox Ranch in the Texas Hill Country, where DriveTanks.com has carved out space for customers ranging from 10-year-olds to billionaires to climb on, drive and shoot some of the rarest military hardware on the planet.
While similar businesses might allow customers to drive tanks a short distance and shoot without projectiles, DriveTanks.com CEO Todd DeGidio said what makes his company truly unique is the dedication to authenticity with full-power rounds fired on a 40-acre driving course and range tucked away on a sprawling ranch — a sandbox for nearly a dozen tracked vehicles, not far from where giraffes and zebras roam.
“Anyone can shoot a tank without a round. But not anyone can fire a full-power load that someone would have shot in the 1940s,” DeGidio said. “You’re not going to roll up in Houston or anywhere else to shoot a Sherman.”
The company has secured licensing from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms to manufacture rounds and recommission tanks, said John Lindsey, the vice president of operations at Paradigm SRP, the parent company of DriveTanks.com. Tanks are sold with the breech ring cut in half with a blowtorch, he said, making the gun unable to fire. The mechanism, which closes off the explosion after loading a round into the cannon, is restored with ATF permission, Lindsey said.
More:
https://www.stripes.com/go-ahead-shoot-a-sherman-on-texas-ranch-that-s-home-to-military-hardware-1.464042
