I've got foxes in my yard this week that will stop and one will stare me down, and bark, while the others scatter. I think the bold one might be the momma with 4 kits that look nearly grown.

 

Have a turkey and a couple deer that are that way around equipment running.

 

When I lived in Georgia we hunted on a tract of timberland right behind the Butts County police firing range. Where do you think the deer went when they were being hunted? Yep, more tracks and sign on the range than anywhere else in the woods. Once they figure out they aren't being hunted somewhere the critters just don't care.

 

One walked out at the last Woody's DMM on Stage 1. Walked right in front of the 311 Target and back into the woods. It was a cold stage as shooters were switching out, but there were a bunch of teams that had already started the match. Makes you wonder.

 

Reminds me of a thread I started a couple of years ago. Same thing happened. I had the range to myself but was blasting off .338 LM rounds downrange. Then this big turkey came right out onto the firing line and started walking around behind the target boards. Then it stopped right behind my target and just meandered around back and forth for a minute or two. It finally trotted off the opposite direction and climbed the berm and disappeared.

 

I heard his name was "Lucky".

 

What range is that, Chief?

 

Catawba Valley Wildlife Club. I was on the pistol berm at the rifle range.

 

God looks out for drunks, fools, and dumbass turkeys.

 

I wondered if that was where you were.

Back when I lived in the Raleigh area, there was a resident ground hog at our club's range. It was a cardinal sin to shoot at him. He would munch greenery with bullets flying overhead.

 

I wondered if that was where you were.

Back when I lived in the Raleigh area, there was a resident ground hog at our club's range. It was a cardinal sin to shoot at him. He would munch greenery with bullets flying overhead.

One ran behind the archery target as I was shooting before I went to the pistol range. Rainy evening and the critters were out in force. lol

 

ok, So I love telling this story, but this is one of my best stories, and funniest, esp in person, that I have.

When I was with my National Guard unit I was assigned as a M249 SAW gunner. Yep, the Army trusted me to give me a fully automatic belt fed machine gun. This would have been October 2004. We were at Ft. McCoy Wisconsin for Battalion Weapons Qualification. All the SAW gunners went off to the Machine gun range, The officers to pistol and the majority of the BN to Rifle. We were a standard light infantry battalion, 3 companies light, one company anti-tank.

Anyways, we go through all of the zeroing and grouping and such for the M249. There's a good batch of fresh/first time shooters, myself included. So we are out there and we get through the 25m zero and group just fine. Now it's time for the pop-up 'live' qualification of the range. M249s closest target is 400m and furthest is 800m. The one advantage is you have a spotter assisting you with your qualification, they make sure you are engaging the right targets, assist if you are off and such. Normally it's your battle buddy, but since all of our battles were off at the M16/M4 range, we were spotting for each other, mainly the experienced guys spotting for the new guys.

Now remember, this is Wisconsin, this is the national guard, we got some good old northern boys.

About halfway through the iteration, the 600m target pops up. Now, keep in mind, this is with iron sights. as I engage the 600m target, the pop-ups (there's 2-3 standard silhouettes together) drop down, and the dirt behind the target shifts. In the middle of the day, after a number of SAW gunners have already shot, a deer had wandered out onto the range and taken up munching the grass behind my 600m target. Figuring I had already put a few rounds in, and with the prompting of my spotter suddenly yelling " HIT THE DEER HIT THE DEER HITTHEDEERHITTHEDEER!!!!" I learned more in those two 15-20 round bursts of walking rounds into a target than I ever have, or ever would.

Thankfully the Range Control/OIC either completely missed it, or ignored it.

But just goes to show that when animals get used to stuff, they get used to it.