If You Can Shoot On Your Property, I Am Jealous

Second best thing that ever happened to me was acreage in Wisconsin for the Homestead. My own land is zoned to permit Hunting and ranges. I don't drive to a range I walk to it. I've had it forty years now and had one complaint. It wasn't about the range at all just a way to try get at me because I wouldn't give him a variance so he could raise pigs. The best thing happened was my Wife who found the land with a bluff on it which works a natural shooting backstop. View attachment 90539 0[/ATTACH]

It is heaven on earth. Very grateful.

peeplwtchr said:

Check on all counts.

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I agree on not borrowing money for things like vacations, getting a bigger car loan than you can really afford , but are you guys also talking about nobody ever getting a house mortgage, never getting ANY car loan?
B/c unless you inherited a house or farm where you leave from your dad , that is not how society works.
p.s. reminds of those "motivational" posts where people say "if your boss is not appreciating you enough - just quit - it is their loss" - while not explaining how to pay for food and rent

dekibg said:

Pudge, I think you exposed few facts that a lot of us don’t consider when we are daydreaming.
Also, don’t forget by getting older you may need medical services more and more often, or more complicated ones, and those rural areas may have very few resources

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Years ago, I was living in rural Western PA, my folks were living in an economically vigorous central Ohio community. I was bummed about my vehicles and the remarkable amount if work needed on our home, and thinking about what I could earn where they lived. Dad and I were walking the dog that Friday night and he asked about my day, I told him about work, and then about archery hunting with my buddy. He stopped and looked at me and said: "do you know how many people went to work and got to go hunting today back home? None. You really are fortunate." And that conversation changed my perspective. I now live in a house I built where I wanted to live since I was 10. It is basically a working retirement. I walk out my door and hunt and shoot. I've sacrificed financially, but no regrets.

Sure makes life easy with own shooting area. Mine on abandoned rr behind my house. Got steel at 25 50 and 75. Can back up and get 200 yards in cut.

Pudge is right, it's awesome being able to step out the back door and open fire but it can come at a cost. I live at the end of a dead end road backed up against a tall ridge and 90 acres of woods. Two winters ago after a major blizzard it took me 6, eight hour days to dig out, and I have a 3/4 ton truck with a big v plow. The 1/4 mile driveway is great for privacy and being able to shoot, but it really can be a bummer in the winter. I still wouldn't trade it for anything, I just got in from shooting my 10mm and my 22 and my 12 gauge.

Pudge said:

Expect to be the first to lose power, and the last to regain it,

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And don't forget, when you don't have power, you don't pump water from your well. That's okay if you have enough water stored in the basement for drinking and cooking, but you don't want to be flushing the toilet during a power outage. And that's saying nothing about the fact that you're totally responsible for the septic system that the toilet flushes into when you can flush it.
We had to get up and go to the dump this morning too. There's no garbage pickup service out here - at least none that's reasonably priced as far as we're concerned. But that's okay too. The dump is only 3 miles away, and it's on our way to town. Besides, we only have to go to the dump once every 6 weeks or so because we burn all of our burnable trash and put all of our biodegradable trash in the garden. And the tin cans make good targets for my 22 or 17HMR when I'm not shooting at starlings in the currant bushes 30 yards from our rear deck.

.308 Norma said:

.. .you don't want to be flushing the toilet during a power outage.

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If it's yellow, let it mellow. If it's brown, flush it down...

I've only got five acres but it is at the end of the road and I can shoot all I want. Tannerite is also factored in. My nearest neighbor is a quarter mile away. He designs armor piercing cores for the military and he knows where to stand when Cuban cigars magically fall out of the sky and hit one in the head. He is a shooter himself. My next nearest neighbor is a mile away and half deaf. He doesn't care anyway. I have an 8X10' flag on my corn crib and a message to congress which is generic, non-threatening and contains no language that you can't hear on your local AM talk show. The Sheriff saw it and just smiled.

Our farm is our livelihood. The shooting hobby comes in a distant second. My family has been building this farm for generations. It hasnt always been a steady climb. There have been many setbacks.
I have been fortunate to add to it as well.
The farmland provides the shooting range for me. Simple as that.
I only have one neighbor who isnt kin or longtime friend. His 1 acre lot is totally surrounded by my property. I run my power ditcher down his drainage ditch in my field every fall. We get along fine. I shoot regularly. I even host an annual BP rifle shoot at my house for my rifle club. I see my neighbor sets up a target board and plunks away occasionally too.

tark said:

I've only got five acres but it is at the end of the road and I can shoot all I want. Tannerite is also factored in. My nearest neighbor is a quarter mile away. He designs armor piercing cores for the military and he knows where to stand when Cuban cigars magically fall out of the sky and hit one in the head. He is a shooter himself. My next nearest neighbor is a mile away and half deaf. He doesn't care anyway. I have an 8X10' flag on my corn crib and a message to congress which is generic, non-threatening and contains no language that you can't hear on your local AM talk show. The Sheriff saw it and just smiled.

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I like the flag, and your sign!

Somebody asked a question. I offered some hints. They didn't just come to me in a dream or hear them on the radio or at the water fountain. I didn't read them some where on the internet. I did it. I LIVED it, EXACTLY. No one ever GAVE me a nickle. I never inherited "Daddy's or Grand Daddy's farm, a share of it, or his little red wagon."

Part of this week end's project. Blocking out the public from access to my place.


If you want to be like everybody else, then do what everybody else does (how society works). If you know so much about society then you surely don't need MY HELP or advice. Do what ever you want.

This is MY logging operation.



None of that is borrowed and I don't share it with any banks. I hear that isn't how "society" works though.

While "society" goes in to town and pays Anytime fitness to pretend they were working all winter, I was getting my exercise at home and FREE GRAVEL at the same time. Shoveling gravel in the creek bottom in to 5 gallon buckets and carrying them up the drive way to fill in pot holes and then I liked it so much I just kept it up all winter and now have a flat driveway with better gravel than I got when I bought a truck load from the gravel pit.


I hear that isn't how society works though.

The deer were out in force this morning

Our place will be for sale in 3 years or less. Beautiful 4 bedroom 3 bath house on 40 acres mixed creek bottom, woods, and 17 acres of prairie grass and food plots. Pistol range behind the 1909 barn, 250 yard rifle from the driveway to the west. We watched 12 deer move through while eating supper last night. I heard rooster ring necks calling in the prairie all day. Good numbers of turkey and quail too. 1/2 mile from state rec area with 2 lakes and 1300 acres of habitat.
It’s in Illinois and the taxes keep going up, the economy sucked before the rest of the world crashed. I love it but it’s getting to be too much.
Our next place will be smaller, less maintenance, and in another state. I should probably shoot as much as possible while I’m here, less ammo to move. Worked hard for this place and on this place and it will sell for a fraction of what it should be worth.

Hooda Thunkit said:

If it's yellow, let it mellow. If it's brown, flush it down...

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And if you have a 5gal bucket and a creek behind the house you can flush to your heart’s content.

Kingcreek said:

Our place will be for sale in 3 years or less. Beautiful 4 bedroom 3 bath house on 40 acres mixed creek bottom, woods, and 17 acres of prairie grass and food plots. Pistol range behind the 1909 barn, 250 yard rifle from the driveway to the west. We watched 12 deer move through while eating supper last night. I heard rooster ring necks calling in the prairie all day. Good numbers of turkey and quail too. 1/2 mile from state rec area with 2 lakes and 1300 acres of habitat.
It’s in Illinois and the taxes keep going up, the economy sucked before the rest of the world crashed. I love it but it’s getting to be too much.
Our next place will be smaller, less maintenance, and in another state. I should probably shoot as much as possible while I’m here, less ammo to move. Worked hard for this place and on this place and it will sell for a fraction of what it should be worth.

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Sorry for you. It’s a shame when people and politics ruin what you spend a life building. They have done the same thing to where I live. They bring their liberal crap and ideas of how life should be. Some who are fools call it progress. Good luck with your new place.

Kingcreek said:

Our next place will be smaller, less maintenance, and in another state. I should probably shoot as much as possible while I’m here, less ammo to move. Worked hard for this place and on this place and it will sell for a fraction of what it should be worth

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I have a friend that moved to Southern Kentucky. Land there is really, really cheap compared to here.

If I were moving to a friendlier place, I’d consider northern Tennessee or that Kentucky area.

You could shoot bows or crossbows in SOME of the urban settings.
I would do that if I couldn't shoot my guns. I get a great deal of shooting satisfaction from my recurve. It is nearly silent. I hunt deer with it also (when my crappy shoulder allows), otherwise, it's the crossbow. (Also fun to shoot).

If you don't have property why not go around to farms around you and ask permission. Trade work for permission to hunt/shoot. Be respectful and safe. Clean up your mess and CLOSE any gate you open. Worth a shot. It's what I did when living in NC.

I described this bullet stop in post #2 but here are the photos. Hard to see in the photos are 2 horizontal wires between the fence post to hang targets on with clothes pins. The bottom of the targets will be about 2 feet above ground.
Bob
WB8NQW