I made a thing!

Ian, bless his heart, gave me the gift of a nice metallic target to do with as I will. What I will is a semi-portable target stand I can place way deep in a canyon area of the wash where I can shoot my rifle any time I want without having to clear schedules with a certain neighbor. Or get yelled at*.

I finished the frame yesterday afternoon, and hung the target just now. Kinda like the way it came out…

It might seem strange to need yet another target in the wash – after all this has been right in my yard for around 13 years…


…and I have full access to this…


But there are noise issues there, which translate to scheduling issues in the interest of not alienating neighbors.

Landlady, who brought up my care packages last weekend, wanted to know why I didn’t just set up Ian’s new targets. After all he said I could…





And they’re ubercool to say the least and I may very well borrow at least that Mozambique from time to time. None of those things existed back in the Pleistocene Era when I competed. But leave them in the wash to be exciting new finds for tourists and scroungers? I think not. And Monsoon is coming, and anything in the wash is in danger of washing downstream never to be found again like my (sob) storebought shooting bench. So no – whatever goes into the wash and isn’t driven into the earth and cemented in place** has to be at least semi-expendable. And those are not.

Ergo, Uncle Joel needed his very own sorta portable metallic rifle target – but wow, AR500 is expensive. So it was really nice of Ian to just gift me this one out of the blue.

*While I don’t deny that the neighbor situation complicates my life, don’t take any of this as a complaint. Having a shooter as a close neighbor is probably inconvenient as hell if you value your quiet and don’t happen to cherish the sound of gunfire. More so if your idea of fun is spending a lot of time with a goofy, spooky horse like Coaltrain who shies at sharp noises. My neighbors also have rights and I’m intent on not becoming the problem here.

**And even then it’s not safe…

About Joel

You shouldn't ask these questions of a paranoid recluse, you know.
This entry was posted in Uncategorized. Bookmark the permalink.

5 Responses to I made a thing!

  1. Demented Guy says:

    When I got my land the neighbors would shoot all the time. It could be one in the morning, on a weeknight, hard to go to sleep with a sudden burst of gunfire. The first time I shot on my property after a year and a half of being there, they come over trespassing to complain about me shooting on a Saturday afternoon. I hate to say shit went downhill from there.

  2. Jim Price says:

    I have kind of the same dilemma you do, Joel. I live out in the boonies where I could shoot from my porch if I want to. But out of consideration for my “neighbors,” I don’t. It’s 10 minutes or less to an ideal shooting site where it will bother no one.

  3. Howard Brewi says:

    I can usually shoot in the gravel out less than half a mile from home. The problem is an old yorkie dog who freaks badly if I fire anything bigger than th .357 mag carbine. The .444 marlin has him climbing my wife. Fourth of July is bad too! Oh well.

  4. PNW Refugee says:

    I think your voice just got famous over at Ian’s.

  5. Joel says:

    Nah. Hell, last year I was a featured guest on one video – there was a brief burst of new TUAK visitors and then things went right back to normal.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *