If You Can Shoot On Your Property, I Am Jealous

Status
Not open for further replies.
We moved out of town in 1971. Lot was 120' X 363' - 1 acre. In 1972 I stacked some railroad ties like a split rail fence cupped shape, about 7' high in the center at the rear of the lot. Put corrugated plastic sheets on the face of the ties and put 2 dump truck loads of yellow sand against the plastic. Constructed a permanent shooting bench on posts set in the ground with right and left handed seats out of 2X6s at 90 yards. In 1987 I put a pole barn between the bench and the sand pile for a blacksmith shop. Back stop still good for handguns. We had several years of fun times though.
 
peeplwtchr said:
I have never been jealous of material stuff, which makes it overly unusual for me to have a pang of jealousy when I see someone with a range of some type on thier property. LUCKY.
Click to expand...
Don't be jealous, some of us waited a long time to get there. If you are young, I can offer advice. Get debt free as soon as you can, buy property as soon as you can. It helps if your better half is on the same page.

Good luck.

Lnk
 
Me to, we used to have a nice farm to do all are stuff. Not as good as going out the back door but was great. No I don't even have a place to shoot other then a paid range that I don't have money for. Still have farms around but they don't like anyone shooting of hunting, seems every time you shoot around here the city people call the cops. Plus people are sew happy these days.
 
Bought 45 acres in the country in '05. Hunting land. Can shoot there but only do so in early and mid summer. Don't want to disturb the deer, Turkey and wood ducks.
I'm only fifteen minutes from my sportsmen's club but an hour from the farm.
 
Took a LONG time to find just the right place and ironically, I still often drive another 25 minutes of Forest Service roads to shoot in cinder-pits.

One of the MANY benefits of no longer living ion; Minnesota, Massachusetts or California though I know at least one person in each of those states who shoot on their own dirt - the rest of what they put up with makes it not worthwhile.

VERY warm and wind free in the winter in those pits. No ricochets, almost a 360 degree berm and sound-dampening to boot.

Todd.
IMG_0305 - Version 3.JPG
 
peeplwtchr said:
LUCKY.
Click to expand...
Lucky? Yes, lucky enough to have been born in the US. I freely admit that fact, one for which I am eternally grateful and will always be.

Meanwhile, my ancestors were lucky to have survived. They had family and friends who did not, dying of starvation, deprivation, rape and murder. Yes my ancestors were lucky. They immigrated to the US (immigration means legally btw) because there was no place else to go.

Lucky. Well, the first house I bought was a condo. I owned up to the thickness of paint on the walls. It cost me about as much as a nice car does today. I kept it up for a number of years and made a tidy sum of money on it. Shooting not an option unless it was rubber bands.

Next house was the dinkiest most pathetic one in a nice neighborhood. Shooting still not an option. Fixed it up and sold after a few years for a lot more money.

Next house was a little bigger. Three acres of land. Enough for a little pool and topless sunbathing, still not so good for shooting. Fixed it up and sold for even more.

Present house is a lot bigger on many acres surrounded by many more. Set up my own trap and handgun range and now I shoot whatever I want whenever I want. Mortgage to be fully paid off the end of this year. Life is good.

Lucky? It's taken me over forty years, all of them living rather frugally, driving ten, fifteen year old cars and eating store brand food. With a forced career change and children along the way there were times I couldn't even afford that much. I survived on food others threw away, so my wife and baby could eat. Nobody ever gave me a doggone thing. I still don't have cable TV.

Lucky, or blessed? You decide.
 
Last edited:
I say your blessed.
I can’t shoot at my house. It’s on 1.3 acres but in a neighborhood. I do have 3 different private shooting spots available to me within 25 minutes or less.
One day I hope to live on enough land to shoot at the house.
David
 
I miss what I had set up on the family farm. There was an old logging road that ran through the woods and I had steel plates hanging at 25, 50, 100, and a few peeking around trees. I also had some light plates on long chains so that a hit would make for lots of movement.
 
I miss this:
Meshooting16Sesty.jpg
We rented the old house on a farm, I am glad the boys got to spend their formative years there. One summer I was not working, I spent every day shooting with my older son, we shot up a couple crates of surplus 7.62x54R from this and a couple other Mosins. It was @ $50 a crate at Sportsman's Guide, and I bought a crate a month then.
 
here in SE Wisconsin trying to find enough land to shot on is as hard as trying to find public access to the lakes and rivers. These days all that land is privately owned and the land owners are not very friendly. The farms are all being sold off and subdivided so even when there is an open field you still cannot shoot because there are still houses too close..

Then I was a young man there were two neighboring farms that had small deep gravel pits and the farmers would let us shoot as long as we didn't get reckless and cleaned up after ourselves. Today those pits have been filled and some very pricey homes in their place.
 
We have 45 acres that's several miles out of town, can shoot whenever I get the urge.
 
LNK said:
Don't be jealous, some of us waited a long time to get there. If you are young, I can offer advice. Get debt free as soon as you can, buy property as soon as you can. It helps if your better half is on the same page.

Good luck.

Lnk
Click to expand...
I can't say enough to support this advice. Spot. On.
 
v35 said:
Lucky? Yes, lucky enough to have been born in the US. I freely admit that fact, one for which I am eternally grateful and will always be.

Meanwhile, my ancestors were lucky to have survived. They had family and friends who did not, dying of starvation, deprivation, rape and murder. Yes my ancestors were lucky. They immigrated to the US (immigration means legally btw) because there was no place else to go.

Lucky. Well, the first house I bought was a condo. I owned up to the thickness of paint on the walls. It cost me about as much as a nice car does today. I kept it up for a number of years and made a tidy sum of money on it. Shooting not an option unless it was rubber bands.

Next house was the dinkiest most pathetic one in a nice neighborhood. Shooting still not an option. Fixed it up and sold after a few years for a lot more money.

Next house was a little bigger. Three acres of land. Enough for a little pool and topless sunbathing, still not so good for shooting. Fixed it up and sold for even more.

Present house is a lot bigger on many acres surrounded by many more. Set up my own trap and handgun range and now I shoot whatever I want whenever I want. Mortgage to be fully paid off the end of this year. Life is good.

Lucky? It's taken me over forty years, all of them living rather frugally, driving ten, fifteen year old cars and eating store brand food. With a forced career change and children along the way there were times I couldn't even afford that much. I survived on food others threw away, so my wife and baby could eat. Nobody ever gave me a doggone thing. I still don't have cable TV.

Lucky, or blessed? You decide.
Click to expand...

I have a similar reaction when someone tells me how lucky I am to make my living as a Captain, being on the water and driving boats for a living. There's been some luck, being in the right place at the right time to land a good job, but there's been a lot more drive and determination, sweat and sacrifice than luck involved.
 
My range has been closed for 2 weeks now. I wish I had some land to setup a pistol range. Hopefully some day in the future I can have some recreational land.
 
I'd say I was lucky to be given the opportunity.

The rest was a bunch of hard work, saving and remaining focused on a goal. Now I've got a pretty cool home range, my friends and co-workers are jealous.

Right up until next month when the mowing starts....
 
Circumstances and priorities. I too am blessed with a perfect spot to shoot. A deep valley with the highest point in the county as my backstop. Neighbors there that also shoot, so are not alarmed when they hear me shoot. Local Sportsman's trap range is about a half mile away as the crow flies so hearing shooting on a regular basis is the norm. For those of you folks with no place of your own to shoot, make time and make sure, if and when you do shoot, you shoot safely.
 
I say your blessed.
I can’t shoot at my house. It’s on 1.3 acres but in a neighborhood.
Click to expand...

1.3 in a neighborhood would likely get you 10x’s that amount “in the sticks” depending on the neighborhood more, sometimes a lot more.

#3 nailed it.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Similar threads

D
  • Locked
Is property important enough to shoot for?
2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
Replies
209
Views
8K
Larry Ashcraft
Larry Ashcraft
E
  • Locked
Good Grief! Gun Club Politics!
2
Replies
26
Views
2K
akodo
A
Howland937
  • Locked
Shooting facility preferences?
2 3
Replies
58
Views
2K
FFGColorado
FFGColorado
4
  • Locked
Setting Up Personal Shooting Range on Rented Property
Replies
10
Views
2K
gym
G
I
  • Locked
Shooting "outside" ranges
Replies
16
Views
900
gunlaw
G
Back
Top