I also really enjoyed meeting everyone and would happily do it again, although I feel it should be on an occasional basis rather than anything more regular.
In response to your question as to format I would either vote for another drink. Alternatively, assuming someone has the necessary space & permission, how about a “zeroing” session where we can see what different set-ups we all use. We could follow this with a drink and I think the “zeroing” session will have created a few lively lines of discussion.
Another idea I have would take us into different territory – I have a clay pigeon simulator (see
http://www.dryfire.co.uk/ if you are interested) and we could hire my local church hall (just by the John Radcliffe hospital in Headington) and play around with it for a while (I would struggle to accommodate 7 of us in the room I use at home and the church has ample parking). As it is laser shooting this would allow us to drink a little at the same time as shooting and we could organise a takeaway as well if desired!
My partner would feel the same as yours…
Neal