Tuesday

On blogging and other BS

I'm sorry y'all, but I just ain’t felt much like blogging lately. The things I WANT to say would land me in jail, and all else seems spurious by comparison.

I started a post this morning about the most popular Right Wing myths. We’ll see how that plays out. I fully intend to slam the hell out of the typical conservative worldview – that’s for sure.

On another note, I went to the rifle range this last Sunday and found it fatally infected with what I will call safety-itis. Safety-itis is the condition whereby all other thoughts of practicality, common sense, liberty, rights etc. are subordinated to the principal of no one must get hurt under any circumstances. It first found fertile ground in the mind of a mother somewhere, and in recent years has taken hold in society at large (to the eternal detriment of Liberty).

When I first went to this range about two years ago it offered a striking contrast to another range I had patronized for many years. That other range had an incident of a round going over the berm and striking a parked aircraft on a tarmac some two miles away. Management there went absolutely bonkers and put in place the most ridiculous set of rules imaginable, and in so doing destroyed any desire in yours truly to ever shoot there again. Now my alternate range has apparently gone the same sad route.

I guess the only solution is to buy a piece of property and build my own damn rifle range!

8 comments:

Chief Instructor said...

LOL, I hear ya. My former gun club (left for a number of reasons, including what you're talking about) has a huge hill behind the rifle and pistol ranges. On two occasions, shooters have put rounds over the hill (homes are about a 1.5 miles away). Clearly not a good thing, and the shooters should be banned from the range.

Instead, all of us are now, um, were, watched like children and given reprimands when a muzzle broke some imaginary line upwards. I heard the range officer tear into a guy next to me for getting close to this line. It was rediculous. Never again will I shoot at a place with that kind of outlook.

Oh, the two guys that shot over the hill? LEOs! Shocking, I know...

GunRights4US said...

Chief they actually built a series of overhead baffles at several points between the firing line and the targets that would catch any stray bullets.

The rules there now prohibit firing from ANY position other than seated at the bench; no standing, no prone, and no sitting on the ground!

Screw that!!!

I am a 50 year old man, and my mother and father were the only people I allowed to treat me like a child. And they're both dead and gone now.

Ken said...

...i hear ya GR4US...aint been to a "range" in almost a decade...good spots have come and gone,but to me it adds to the attraction...the last couple spots we've 'customized' with separate zones,for different shooting disciplines...all ya need is a good laser rangefinder...

GunRights4US said...

Here in NE Florida, it is extremely hard to find places to shoot unless you know someone outside of town with substantial property.

The other factor here is the flatness of the terrain. There are NO hills anywhere in this part of the country, and unless there's a berm there's no backstop for your rounds.

The typical landowner is all too acutely aware that he may be held liable for anythng amiss that happens on his property.

And finally, I prefer to shoot LARGE caliber rifles at the longest possible distances. Finding a place - even one that is customizable - taking all these factors into account it damned hard.

Diogenes said...

You need to come to SE KY. With all of the Mountain top removal that has happened around here, long ranges are easy to find. And not one of them is a sanctioned or nanny-ized 'range'. Hell, most people just shoot off the backporch if they feel like making noise.

Getting the PSL out around here is easy, its figuring out the distances that has become the challenge.

Western Mass. Man said...

I had the same thing happen at the range I go to (used to go to).
They shut the range down.
Sorry sporting club, no more moolah from me. I expect them to close soon.

Redleg said...

I had the fortune of growing up with access to a hilly and semi-mountainous cattle ranch loaded with ground squirrels, quail, and rabbits which is where I learned to shoot. I started running those hills and mountains with my Daisy Red Ryder, then my Crosman 760, next my grandpa's .22 and so on...complete freedom.

As I reached aduthood and finally joined the Army I found shooting at the range to be one of the most boring things on earth (not quite as bad as golf) in comparison to how I learned. Many friends try and get me to go to the gun club with them and I always say no, I have no desire for all of those restrictions.

The funny thing is I still have a key to the ranch today with free and unfettered access yet my gun club member friends do not want to go shooting at the ranch I have set up targets from 50 yards out to 500 yards at various heights (some shots with angle cosine readings of as much as 77) since it is quite hilly in the area I shoot. There are winding trails and heavy brush with good mountainious backstops for all shots so it is perfect for fire and maneuver and I have steel silhouettes set up for this. And then there is always the opportunity to vaporize ground squirrels. I'm working up a special accuracy load to hopefully liquify one at 500 yards (a man's got to have goals). All in all it is a hell of a lot of fun and I wish some of you were close by to join in on the revelry!!!

I guess my gun club buddies love the rules and conformity as well as the social hob-nobbing of the range. Me, I prefer to shoot realistically.

GunRights4US said...

Well hell Redleg... gimmie your address. I'll be right over!