Bill_Rights
Member
How does a city-dweller or suburbanite find open land to shoot on? I would be willing to pay for the privilge!
I live in the Virginia suburbs of Washington, D.C, because of my job, and there are a good number of decent ranges and gun clubs around, some not too expensive, either. BUT I AM SICK AND TIRED OF RANGES! If I punch another hole in a paper target, aside from sighting in a scope or basic proficiency-maintenance drills, IT WILL BE TOO SOON and ONE TOO MANY...
I want to be able (and maybe more importantly, introduce new shooters) to shoot plastic jugs of water, rotten fruits, broken toasters, golf balls on the ground, tennis balls swinging from trees, rolling drum lids, ... the mind runs wild. Oh yeh, Coke cans. The problem is, on a range, nothing runs "interesting", much less "wild".
Seriously, I think new shooters need to see the destructive power of impacting bullets. Just "punching paper" gives even me, a guy who has cleaned his own killed game, the impression that a full-power .30 Cal rifle (.308Win, .30-06. etc.) is no more powerful than a pencil poked through wet toilet paper. This is a dangerous misconception. It is an idea that needs to be dispelled by actually blowing some stuff to smithereens once in a while! (Rambo movies are good but not real and not good enough.)
An example of how powerful modern rounds are: Once when we were visiting at a far-away relative's farm, I wanted to capture some shot bullets, to show my kids how they expand and so forth. So I shot my trusty .45 ACP into two big-city phone books and a MidwayUSA catalog all stacked together (~ 5 inches total thickness) from about 10 feet distance, fully expecting that the FMJ would be stopped and the hollow-point would flare out and go nowhere, maybe an inch or two*. Then I could teach them the lesson about how the solid jacketed bullet penetrates deeper but cuts a smaller hole while the HP mushrooms, blows a bigger hole but does not penetrate much. WRONG!! DOUBLE WRONG!!!! Both types of bullets (both 230 grain, 850 fps regular .45 ACP loads) blew completely through the phone books with plenty enough power to kill on the exit side (judging from the rut in the dirt they produced, which was about the same as pointing the pistol at the ground and shooting) and produced fist-sized tear-outs on the far side of the stacked phone books. THIS WAS A HUGE REALITY CHECK FOR ME, never mind about the damn kids. Can you imagine shooting a person with such a devastating projectile? I can't, but I will if I have to. It is going to be a giant, bloody mess, though...
You CANNOT get this experience at the range. Hence my question.
How do you find open ground to shoot on? Has anyone tried posting a Want Ad in a local paper, such as "WANTED: Farmer with open land to allow me to shoot - will pay $100/year up-front for the privilge. NRA member, safety first!"
Maybe in AutoTrader or PennySaver rag? Maybe on Craig's List. Has this ever worked? What can I try? [Or will the first call I get be from the police or the Sheriff?]
* Remember the old movie in which the Preacher was saved from dying by gunshot because the bullet lodged in his Bible, which he was carrying under his coat? (Read on....NOT!!)
I live in the Virginia suburbs of Washington, D.C, because of my job, and there are a good number of decent ranges and gun clubs around, some not too expensive, either. BUT I AM SICK AND TIRED OF RANGES! If I punch another hole in a paper target, aside from sighting in a scope or basic proficiency-maintenance drills, IT WILL BE TOO SOON and ONE TOO MANY...
I want to be able (and maybe more importantly, introduce new shooters) to shoot plastic jugs of water, rotten fruits, broken toasters, golf balls on the ground, tennis balls swinging from trees, rolling drum lids, ... the mind runs wild. Oh yeh, Coke cans. The problem is, on a range, nothing runs "interesting", much less "wild".
Seriously, I think new shooters need to see the destructive power of impacting bullets. Just "punching paper" gives even me, a guy who has cleaned his own killed game, the impression that a full-power .30 Cal rifle (.308Win, .30-06. etc.) is no more powerful than a pencil poked through wet toilet paper. This is a dangerous misconception. It is an idea that needs to be dispelled by actually blowing some stuff to smithereens once in a while! (Rambo movies are good but not real and not good enough.)
An example of how powerful modern rounds are: Once when we were visiting at a far-away relative's farm, I wanted to capture some shot bullets, to show my kids how they expand and so forth. So I shot my trusty .45 ACP into two big-city phone books and a MidwayUSA catalog all stacked together (~ 5 inches total thickness) from about 10 feet distance, fully expecting that the FMJ would be stopped and the hollow-point would flare out and go nowhere, maybe an inch or two*. Then I could teach them the lesson about how the solid jacketed bullet penetrates deeper but cuts a smaller hole while the HP mushrooms, blows a bigger hole but does not penetrate much. WRONG!! DOUBLE WRONG!!!! Both types of bullets (both 230 grain, 850 fps regular .45 ACP loads) blew completely through the phone books with plenty enough power to kill on the exit side (judging from the rut in the dirt they produced, which was about the same as pointing the pistol at the ground and shooting) and produced fist-sized tear-outs on the far side of the stacked phone books. THIS WAS A HUGE REALITY CHECK FOR ME, never mind about the damn kids. Can you imagine shooting a person with such a devastating projectile? I can't, but I will if I have to. It is going to be a giant, bloody mess, though...
You CANNOT get this experience at the range. Hence my question.
How do you find open ground to shoot on? Has anyone tried posting a Want Ad in a local paper, such as "WANTED: Farmer with open land to allow me to shoot - will pay $100/year up-front for the privilge. NRA member, safety first!"
Maybe in AutoTrader or PennySaver rag? Maybe on Craig's List. Has this ever worked? What can I try? [Or will the first call I get be from the police or the Sheriff?]
* Remember the old movie in which the Preacher was saved from dying by gunshot because the bullet lodged in his Bible, which he was carrying under his coat? (Read on....NOT!!)