1. Shooting on private property is the best.

2. My brother in law loves big guns, the higher the caliber the happier he gets...except for my little .22 pistol.

3. My brother in law has friends who have far nicer gun collections than I do, and at a far younger age than me!

4. Shooting on private property is the best.

5. AR-15s with bull barrels and chambers don't like reloaded .223 rounds. Not my gun, not my ammo, not my jam to fix.

6. Some target stands, 1x2s, cardboard, and paper plates make for some creative setups!

7. Shooting on private property is the best.

8. A Winchester 1300 Defender is actually a decent gun for shooting makeshift trap.

9. That same 1300 Defender loaded with game shot will make a coffee can just about vaporize at home defense distances.

10. Did I mention that shooting on private property is the best?

The final count today...14 pistols ranging from .22lr through .44magnum, one AR-15, one 12 gauge shotgun, and one Mauser 98k. About 2000 rounds of ammunition ready to go (no, we didn't go through nearly that much). 100 paper plates. Multiple bottles and coffee cans. 4 shooters.

Ah, Saturday at the in-laws.

And I even got my draw down to well under 1.5 seconds.

-Mark

Sounds like fun!

But...
That means your personal Tueller circle is now under 15 feet?

Sounds like a lot of noisy heaven. Add a couple good cigars, and afterwards, a steak, a couple great beers or some rum, and I think you described one of my perfect days.

Selurcspi kept telling me, "Speed, not haste" at the last steel shoot, and I took that to heart. I was coming out of the holster plenty fast, but I wasn't controlling my extension, costing me a lot of time on acquisition. I simply slowed that down a little bit and everything got a LOT faster.

From holster to 2 shots on target at 21 feet = 1.29 seconds best time.

Now, the trick is to be able to repeat that cold. Guess I'll just have to spend more time up there.

It really did make me realize just how little actual practice most of us get drawing from a holster unless we have an outdoor place to shoot...

-Mark

ETA - And no steak after, but we did get a huge family meal with my mother-in-law's ham and scrambled egg fried rice (don't knock it until you've tried it!), fresh fruit salad, home baked bread, corn-on-the-cob right off the fields, finished with home-made apple crisp with milk right from the bulk tank. It's a farm family, so it was all in farm quantities.

Sounds like a excellent day!

BTW- I like the Squirrel addition to your avatar, Andrew.

Sounds like a damn fine day.

Darn, I don't have any in-laws like that. That was a great day.
Jack

It worked out really well. My father-in-law has been changing over some fields, and as those of you with farm backgrounds know, that means clearing rocks. So what do you do with big rocks? Dig a big pit for them. And then build your son-in-law a huge berm using the dirt from digging the pit.

We've got a range now set up that goes back to about 50 yards. He's going to be taking the tractor at some point and clearing that back to about 100 yards. Berm is about 15 feet high, 15 feet deep (and VERY wide, lots of room for multiple shooters). Behind that is about 100 yards of thick, solid, dense brush. From there, it's about a mile to the nearest road. Closest structure is over a half-mile away, and is not in the line of fire.

I also found out at dinner that there is a friend of the family out in that neck of the woods with a 400 yard rifle range on his property, all set up with shelter and tables.

The best part is that there are no plans to ever use this part of the property for actual growing, so we can customize it to our heart's content.

And I've officially got use of the new shop for reloading whenever I want.

That is all worth a 90 minute drive.

-Mark

The view from my deck.



100 yards to the berm in the background. The closest place behind the berm is about 2 miles. As you can see by the laptop on the table, I occasionally work from deck in nice weather. (Yes, as you can also see, I have protection handy too.)

Oh! Just minutes ago, I just nailed a woodchuck from the same deck with my Ruger 77 Hornet. He was off to the right of the picture at about 90 yards in my wife's flower garden. She hates the holes they did in her garden.

Wow, that sounds like an awesome place to shoot. Growing up my grandfather had a small farm and we used to shoot shotguns at cans that my dad and grandfather would throw up from behind the tractor shed. Nothing that would be suitable for rifles though. Just wasn't enough acreage.

My uncle has let us shoot in his "back yard" when we stop to visit. I know how much fun that is! Its great letting him know we're coming, he'll hop on his riding mower and clear a 100yard path to the hill. His only stipulation is he gets to laugh at us shooting his .44.

It is too bad he live over 5hrs away.

Glad you had a great time Mark!

Ahh.. brings back <great> memories of days when I lived a few hundred miles west of MN... but I have to say, we would get together on public land....

So Mark....does your wife have any sisters?