Changes on the Ranges of Argghhh!

This past Mother's Day weekend was the opening of the Farmer's Market for SWWBO, and a time for maintenance of the Range and Arms Room of Argghhh! Needful stuff, as this shot of Firing Point 4 -the 150m berm - shows.  The current state of play is four firing points.  FP1 is a 50 foot one, shot from the covered deck on the Castle Bailey  FP 2 uses the same target location, but is on ground level and serves as a 0-30 foot range for pistol.  Targets have to be lower when configured this way, to ensure that rounds are impacting low on the backstopping hill, so there's little chance for a dangerous richochet.  The new target stands provide for that flexibility.  The old target stands, seen below, did not - plus they were a maintenance nightmare and made it a PITA to mow. 



While I was fiddling with the new target holder, a squad of the Guineas of Argghhh! were out doing a TIB sweep (Tasty Ingestible Bugs) while out providing security.

The new stands are portable and variable for height, by virtue of the fact they use 1x2 furring strips ($1.00 per 10 foot length at Home Depot).  See the pic below. They're quick and easy to set up and take down.  This one is sitting up on the table in a wind test.  It stayed upright in 15mph gusts, and a sandbag to two would take care of anything else.  Barely visible between the legs of that stand are two white blobs, which mark the location of the impact area for FP 3, the 50m station. FP1 can also be used with the impact area of FP3, and it then becomes a 60m range.  The target stands are made by Blue-Arc, and I got them from Midway USA.  Can't gripe about Midway - ordered 'em in the early afternoon, they were delivered 180 miles away the next day.  I've known Midway since they were established back when I was in high school - their specialty when they opened was making ammunition and dies for obsolete calibers.  When they closed their retail operation in favor of the mail-order empire they've built, they sold off their test weapons, and the Arsenal acquired two of it's earlier pieces, a Danish Rolling Block and a french Mas 36 (pre-war version).

 I'm going to get the multi-target extension, methinks, and that, along with the other portable target stands I've got, should provide plenty of target holders for the 3rd Annual Celebrate the Second on the Fourth gathering at Castle Argghhh!  I'm considering adding a table for FP 4, which would make a 100m point, and position it such that it could be used even while FP1 & 2 were in use.

And since this is such a "Castle" post - I'll close with a shot of the Ducks of Argghhh! conducting a TIB sweep of their own, on the approaches to FP4.