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Military Museum Dragonmans Colorado Springs

Information:

The museum is currently closed and the 2024 museum season is April - November  

Museum Prices: $20/ All Persons Children 5 and under are FREE

Guided tours only during tour season (April - Nov.) on Wednesday's, Friday's and Sunday's at 10 A.M. (Please arrive before 10am) - No one is permitted to view museum without a tour guide -- The museum season will start again April 2024    

If you would like to support the museum please consider making a donation. All proceeds go to the maintenance and item acquisition in the museum and all donations will be rewarded as a write-off for any tax year the donation is made.

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Dragon Man’s Military Museum – Colorado Springs

An iconic attraction in El Paso County covering 260 remote acres, the Dragon Man’s Military Museum is packed chock full of authentic military paraphernalia. Its founder, Mel “Dragon Man” Bernstein, is a Brooklyn-born veteran of the Vietnam War.

Mel is also a licensed dealer in machine guns. The military museum is located next to several other attractions on Mel’s property, including firing ranges, a paintball park, and a go-kart track. War history enthusiasts will be delighted to see artifacts from both World Wars as well as newer wars such as the Gulf War and the Vietnam War.

The museum also houses artifacts from Nazi occupation and concentration camps up to D-Day, with special interactive exhibits to replicate the war experience. Visitors interested in trying out the shooting range can do so with a nominal fee, with the option to use their own equipment or to rent firearms and purchase ammunition from the office.

A variety of shooting range experiences are available, among them being handgun and shotgun ranges, rifle ranges, skeet and clay throwers, semi-auto firearms, and full-auto firearms. The Dragon Man’s Military Museum also offers classes on basic handgun use, concealed carry permits, advanced handgun use, and youth firearm safety awareness.

Admission and Tours

The museum is only open on Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday at 10 am with guided tours available. Visitors interested in the guided tour should register online. Private tours are also available for groups of 20 or more and should be booked in advance.

The shooting range is open from 9.30 am to 4 pm Tuesdays to Sundays. It is open to the public and membership is not required. The Dragon Man’s Military Museum also has a bike parts machining workshop that provides a wide range of services from basic cylinder work to rebuilding motors.

Paintball and Motorcross Bike Park

For guests who are looking for more entertainment and excitement, the Dragon Man’s Military Museum has a paintball park and a bike park. The paintball field is for 12 years up and allows you to organize your own games amongst those playing, with no referees. The bike park is available only for practice, and it is open Tuesdays to Sundays from 9.30 am to 6.30 pm.

Meanwhile, the paintball park requires reservations if players wish to enter from Tuesday to Thursday. On Fridays they are open from 10 am to 3.45 pm, while on weekends they are open from 9.30 am to 3.45 pm. Groups of five or more have to make reservations beforehand.

The cost of admission to the parks and rental of paintball park equipment is affordable. The Dragon Man’s Military Museum also sells merchandise and clothing for those who would like to bring home a little piece of war.

Address: 1200 Dragonman Dr, Colorado Springs , CO 80929

Phone: 719-683-2200

Season: April – November

Museum Hours: Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday at 10 am

Website: dragonmans.com…

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RoadsideAmerica.com Your Online Guide to Offbeat Tourist Attractions

Attraction:

Colorado Springs, Colorado : Dragon Man's Military Museum

RoadsideAmerica.com Team Field Report

Results 1 to 5 of 7... Page of 2 [Next 2 items]

Colorful character Mel "Dragon Man" Bernstein owns a vast private military museum with rarities you won't see anywhere else. And if you have a clean record, he can sell you a machine gun!

On our whirlwind tour of Dragon Man's Military Museum, we spotted a few Elvis-Presley-as-GI photos near one of the armored personnel carriers. Elvis? Was tattooed tough-talking Mel "Dragon Man" Bernstein a fan?

Mel "Dragon Man" Bernstein loves to show off his massive collection of military weapons, vehicles and artifacts.

Visitor Tips and News About Dragon Man's Military Museum

Reports and tips from RoadsideAmerica.com visitors and Roadside America mobile tipsters . Some tips may not be verified. Submit your own tip .

Funny, amazing, wide-ranging (guns, Elvis, Coke machines, hot rods, WWII memorabilia, etc.). We bought some targets and took pictures with Dragon Man. Since we were not going to be there on Saturday (when he gives the two-hour tour), he graciously gave us a 15-minute version. Even so, the 15 minutes was still the highlight of our trip to South Dakota and Colorado -- for our boys and arguably for my wife and me. Unless you're averse to guns, the five minute ride outside of Colorado Springs is definitely worth the trip.

Fifteen minutes with the Dragon Man will give you more memories than fifteen years with a boring man.

There's a lot more to it than the military museum. In fact, you can only tour the museum at one time on Sundays, and only in the summer. I think that makes it even better.

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Gun Shop Guide

For the gun shop connoisseur, dragonman’s military museum.

Over 3,000 guns

Opened in 1982

Colorado Springs, CO

• Private museum owned by Mel “Dragonman” Bernstein
• 65,000sq ft museum on 260 remote acres
• 80 military vehicles, 900 uniformed mannequins
• Open April – November
• $20 Adults / $10 Child Tours on Sundays

Dragonman’s Military Museum 1200 Dragonman Dr, Colorado Springs, CO 80929 (719) 683-2200 DragonMans.com

Dragonman’s Military Museum Colorado Springs, CO

Possibly the best World War Two Museum I’ve seen. A very complete collection with tours led by Dragon Man If you have a chance to experience the Military Museum at DragonLand, you will not be disappointed

Dragon Land is AWESOME If you like guns, or Military history, then you need to visit this place This intro video will be just the first of a series of videos from Dragon Land The BEST Military Museum I’ve seen, and I’ve seen a lot of them Stay tuned for more from Dragonland, the coolest Gun Shop in Colorado

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qwbn31fD9EY

Possibly the best World War Two Museum I’ve seen.

A very complete collection with tours led by Dragon Man

If you have a chance to experience the Military Museum at DragonLand, you will not be disappointed In this video we look at a portion of the WWII Museum at Dragonland Military Museum Dragonman’s Colorado Springs http://www.dragonmans.com/content/mil…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zl6g67T3AV0

Tours are guided by Dragonman himself and are given on Sunday at 10 A.M. ONLY. There must be at least 10 or more people. Please call during the week to put your name on the list at (719) 683-2200.

Private tours are also given to groups of 20 or more by reservation only.

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bn1wJB8n0c6/

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Dragonman and The Colorado Springs Military Museum.

This past July I took a road trip to Wyoming and Colorado to shoot a couple of pistol matches and to The Rockies. One of the stops was in Colorado Springs to see the USAF Academy and other places in the area. There are many things to explore in the area from the mountains to the small towns. Outside of town is Dragonman Gun Shop/Range and is a must see for shooters.

To many folks visiting Dragonmans/Colorado Springs Military Museum might not be a “touristy” thing to do. For shooters and those who love military history this is a must see. The Dragonman is Mel Berstein, a Vietnam Veteran. He has a passion for military history, firearms and things that make lots of noise.

Before we continue, I am sure you wonder how Mel got his nickname. When he lived in NYC, he built a motorcycle that looks like a fire breathing dragon is wrapped around it. The neighbors used to say, there goes the Dragonman. Hence the Dragonman was born and is now a legend in the firearms industry.

When you pull into the property you will drive past a dirt bike race track, a paintball arena and several ranges. You are created by various mannequins and civilian vehicles as well. After your drive up the road that takes a few minutes because Mel’s property is nearly 250 acres, you come to the shop. It looks like a bunker, for good reason; to protect the contents.

Inside the door you will seen hundreds of rifles on the walls, hundreds of handguns in display cases, in the back corner there are dozens of historic fully operational machineguns and through the inner door if it is open is the machine shop where firearms and vehicles from the museum are maintained. You did not misread that, Dragonman has a museum, Colorado Springs Military Museum behind the shop that houses a couple thousand mannequins in military uniforms from all periods of service, thousands of historical military artifacts including hundreds of items Nazi concentration camps, current and recent Veterans have provided Mel with dozens of unique items from OIF/OEF, they are life size dioramas and the center piece over two dozen fully functional armored vehicles and dozens of non-armored vehicles (nearly 100 total). Everything in the museum is operational and ONE HUNDRED PERCENT REAL, they are no reproduction items.

Normally tours are given on Sundays or by appointment, but Mel was gracious enough to take me an abbreviated tour so I could share it with the readers of GATDaily.com. To say the collection is breath taking would be an understatement. I say that having been to many museums around the world. It also sends shivers up your spine when you see the area reserved for the concentration camps.

My tour started with Omaha/Utah Beach and the invasion of Fortress Europe on D+1. These dioramas depicted a command bunker, a medic area with supplies, signal lights, weapons, flares, kitchens; everything that was used on the invasion save for a landing craft or Sherman tank. You could spend a couple of hours just looking at all of the small items here and in every area and still not see it all.

After that we ventured into the Pacific Theater area. You will see antique Samurai Swords carried by Japanese officers, suicide kits complete with cyanide, countless photos and relics from both sides. Take time to look at the original photos from the surrender on the USS Missouri and other action in the Pacific.

After that we breezed through the Korea, WWl, Vietnam areas taking time to look at the vehicles used by the troops in The War to End All Wars (WWl). They are all over 100 years old and still run. One of the mannequins is a horse with WWl as it would have been use by cavalry; this war was the transition from horse cavalry to motorized cavalry. Again the small artifacts are endless and must be seen.

From there we went into the area commemorating our time in SE Asia from Desert Storm to OIF/OEF and ongoing operations in the GWOT. What is amazing about this area are the artifacts including one of Saddam Hussein’s scrapbooks. The troops from the 4 th ID operated with special operation forces searching for Hussein and they donated it to the Colorado Springs Military Museum. Many of the uniforms of the Iraqi Republican Guard come complete with bullet holes and stains. To say the artifacts in this room are breath taking is an understatement.

We finished the whirlwind tour in the Nazi machinegun bunker. This area is the most chilling because of items from The Holocaust including uniforms from the death camps, manacles used to move the victim’s bodies and the cans of Zyklon B that was used to gas Jews, Gypsies and any other group the Nazis sent to Auschwitz, Treblinka, Dachau, Sobibor and others. You will find items the Jews used in the Warsaw Ghetto to fight the Nazis and just to live. This area will give you chills. If you take the tour, make sure you get photos of these items. We must ensure the world remembers how evil man can be.

We finished the tour the most unique item here or anywhere in the world. This is an engraved/inlayed serial numbered belt buckle (#1) of Hitler’s personal body guards. What makes the buckle unique is that it is a three barrel 22short pistol. This last ditch pistol gave the guard three up close and personal single shots to protect Hitler. Like all other German firearms the workmanship is amazing and precise.

To say this is a brief description of Dragonman’s and Colorado Military Springs Military Museum is an understatement. I could post all the photos I took and they would not show a tenth of the sights. If you want to see the museum it is open on Sundays at 10AM March through November for tours or if you have nineteen friends you can schedule a tour. Dragonman has events throughout the year at his compound including his annual machinegun shoot, this year it is September 14 th and 15 th .  You can get information about the shop and museum at https://www.dragonmans.com/ For videos search facebook for Dragonman or Colorado Springs Military Museum, you will be amazed. In closing I assure the museum is worth the trip, I plan to make another road trip so I can get the full tour.

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Dragonman's

Review Highlights

“ Mel has a vast knowledge of his surroundings and you can tell the pride he takes in showing it to the public. ” in 7 reviews

“ Dragonman's is an integral part of Colorado Springs ' unique culture, and is unlike any other place on the Front Range, or even in Colorado ” in 3 reviews

“ Went to Dragonman's public range recently on a Sunday and it was crowded but very well organized, so the crowds didn't bother me. ” in 2 reviews

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1200 Dragon Man Dr

Colorado Springs, CO 80929

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At the museum, can you hold antiques?

Most of it is rare and very expensive so touching the exhibits and frowned upon.

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My boyfriend was so excited about taking this tour. He had a really good time. We love walking through war museums and learning more about war history. My boyfriend is also a huge gun nut, and loves learning the history behind all types of guns. The tour was interesting; however, it was hot, crowded, rushed, and 2.5 hours long. You may ask how I can describe it as "rushed" when it was over two hours long. That's because there is SO much so see! So much to see, small spaces and a tour group of 60+ people with one tour guide (Dragonman himself) is a bad combination if you are looking to take your time to look and read everything there is to see. I would suggest a smaller tour group, more frequent tours, an intermission at some point, and the availability to walk through the tour and take your own time. We could have spent all day there if allowed, and would have been happy to pay more to do so! Overall, Mel/Dragonman is very knowledgeable, his whole site is amazing, and my boyfriend had a great time. I will add-- if you're looking to socially distance I do NOT recommend taking this tour at the present time. Like I said, large groups, small spaces, and no mask requirement so most weren't wearing masks.

Cool place, I like the signs! The guy that checked us in was nice. They have targets & even machine guns for sale. The range is pretty big.

I was disappointed in the lack of Vietnam War Army Aviation (helicopter) artifacts. Being a ex crew chief/door gunner, I hope to see more in the future.

So worth the trip if you're in Colorado Springs. Everything is authentic. He said 95% of everything still works. Very cool.

I went in there to buy a gun, this young girls who answered phones tried to be helpful, I told her I needed to speak to someone that was more informative. She tells this older gentleman that I needed help, he was rude to her about answering the phone, anyway, he bluntly tells me he's busy and basically wasn't interested. He told me that maybe the guy over there could help me, he just stood there. They let me just walk out. So, unless you know exactly what you're looking for, don't bother with them. I'm not sure they need the sales anyway. They were just rude!

Incredible experience if you are remotely interested in the history of the US Military! He's always adding new things and this is one of those experiences that makes you proud to be an American!

Range gets the job done. The range master was friendly and helpful as this was our first time at Dragonman's. The intervals of fire and ceasefire weren't terrible like others suggested. Plenty of pallets available for your target. Extra targets and ammo available for purchase at great prices. Covered and non covered lanes. And don't forget to get your camera out for the spectacle as you enter. It's one you won't forget and gets the point across that there is zero tolerance for trespassing. Will definitely be back

One of the most amazing placed I've ever been to. The military museum tour is incredible and one of the most educational and in-depth tours I've ever attended. It's like the Smithsonian of the Rockies. Great shooting range and awesome people.

I love Mel's place. One of the most extreme places you will ever visit and full of local color (the shot up and strafed--with twin fifties!--vehicles that line the road in are a plus!). One of the few gun shops with its own range on-site. Dragonman's is an integral part of Colorado Springs' unique culture, and is unlike any other place on the Front Range, or even in Colorado. Worth a visit, and a purchase.

Unbelievably awful ownership. There's no concept of customer service. Owner is outright rude for no reason. I will never come back and I would caution anyone who considers coming here to check other ranges nearby. Avoid this place like the plague.

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Colorado Springs Military Museum - All You Need to Know BEFORE You Go (2024)

• Tue - Tue 10:00 AM - 4:00 PM
• Thu - Thu 10:00 AM - 4:00 PM
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Meet ‘The Most Armed Man In America’ And His Insane Arsenal

The video starts innocuously enough. A bearded gentleman waddles into a room covered floor-to-ceiling with guns and ammo belts and...

By Jared Keller | Published Apr 4, 2017 5:33 PM EDT

• Tech & Tactics
• Military Life

The video starts innocuously enough. A bearded gentleman waddles into a room covered floor-to-ceiling with guns and ammo belts and introduces himself. “I’m the Dragon Man, from Dragon Land,” he says, with a slight New York accent, his arms sleeved in tattoos, “and today we’re going to explain why they call me The Most Armed Man In America.”

What follows is a tour through an arsenal that’ll make your jaw drop: 3,000 working firearms, 88 military-grade vehicles, and hundreds upon hundreds of mannequins festooned in military uniforms.

“Everything works. Nothing’s fake,” the Dragon Man says. “Because this is a private collection, not a government museum, everything can work.”

The Dragon Man was once Mel Bernstein, a wimpy Jewish boy who used to get his ass beat on the streets of Brooklyn. But after a brief stint working on weaponry for the Army at Fort Bliss during the Vietnam War, Bernstein opened a motorcycle repair shop in Long Island, where he earned the name “Dragon Man” for “pop wheelies on the Harley that he fashioned with a fire-breathing dragon head,” as the Colorado Springs Gazette reported in a lengthy 2017 profile.

In 1982, Bernstein and his wife Terry Flanell moved to El Paso County, Colorado, where Bernstein set to work on his massive collection of firearms and military vehicles. For the last 30 years, he’s owned and operated “Dragon Land,” the sprawling 260-acre shooting range and military gallery, overflowing with high-powered weaponry (he has a Class III federal firearms license) and military memorabilia from World War I through Vietnam.

Among the most impressive items in his collection: a 65,000-square-foot military museum with rooms for every country that’s gone to war with the U.S. between World War I and Afghanistan; more than 150 M-1 Garands’ six “brand new” 1000-pound bombs; a baker’s dozen of .50-caliber machine guns; 48 swords (including a Japanese “suicide sword”); and his infamous motorcycle, now equipped with two Colt 9mm submachine guns. Oh, and a 40-ton Russian tank:

Photo via YouTube

Now 71, Bernstein now operates Dragon Land alone: In 2012, Flanell was killed in a freak accident after being struck by two smoke bombs, moving at 150 mph, that were part of the special effects for a reality TV show on the Discovery Channel . “I've been running this rifle range for 30 years and no one's got hurt, because it is very safe here,” Bernstein told ABC News at the time. “Out of eight days of filming, it happened in the last 30 seconds, the last frame. And it happened to my wife.”

So what does the Dragon Man do during the day? “I have weapons so big I can’t even shoot them here,” he jokes in the video. “I’m going to have to wait until something big happens in town.”

Jared Keller is the former managing editor of Task & Purpose. His writing has appeared in Aeon, the Los Angeles Review of Books, the New Republic, Pacific Standard, Smithsonian, and The Washington Post, among other publications. Contact the author here.

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