Gun range keeping the neighbors under control
Dennis sends us a link to the story of Mike Friend, owner of Fast Machine Gun Shoot, in Wyandotte, Oklahoma, who fired a 105mm artillery round at his range the other day. It struck the home of Gene Kelley who happened to be in another room when the round impacted;
“It’s unbelievable,” Kelley said. “Unless you were here to see it or see the pictures I’ve got, you would not believe how huge this thing is.”
No one was hurt, but Kelley said the damage could have been worse if the shell had not hit a tree limb and then the ground before striking his Wyandotte house.
The shell was fired from a 105mm howitzer at the Oklahoma Full Auto Shoot and Trade Show, but the gun range owner insists the historic weapon was safely fired by professionals in a downward projection.
[…]
“As far as the safety end of everything, we drill every one of our shooters before it ever begins,” Friend said. “We have 30-45 minute drill.”
Yeah, this should have no repercussions in the media. I’d recommend to Mr Kelley that he get his own artillery piece so he can defend himself next time.
Category: Dumbass Bullshit
Good thing it wasn’t an HE round
I always liked the way Willy Pete left its mark
Wtf does that even mean? How can they consider any possibility of hitting anything intentionally or accidentally within the effective range as “safe handling” if they pulled the bang switch??
Did we not learn ANYTHING from the Mythbusters bomb range fiasco??
No. This sounds like the same exact thing happened. The round bounces off the soil in the range and goes air borne leaving the range.
I came here to say this.
MYTH (and house) BUSTED!!
So Mr. Kelley gets his own artillery. Then Mike Friend will need to step it up. Next thing you know, we have a full blown arms race in Wyandotte. Eventually, one of them will acquire an assault rifle that can fire nuclear warheads, and we all lose. Think of the children. Won’t someone think of the children?
They are safe. It wasn’t a Sons of Guns episode.
I can only hope Gersh Kuntzman is downrange of one of those AR-15 nuclear warhead rounds. oh the horror!
WTF!?
Who the hell has a 105 mm for shits and giggles?
Somebody with more money than I have. I can barely keep up with the cost of .45ACP…
Somebody with more money than they have sense.
I usually say “More dollars than sense.”
But I like puns.
Somebody who has the money to buy one, pay the $200 tax, and register it as a Destructive Device.
I hope to hell it wasn’t for personal carry or home defense…..
If I was the homeowner, it’d be mine along with most of the rest of his real property, or at least that’s what my lawyer would be going for.
These dolts hit something 3 miles away with a cannon that can shoot 7 miles without breaking a sweat and call it a “freak accident”.
Un-freaking-believeable.
Read the full article. The round bounced then became airborne a second time.
“[Homeowner]Kelley says he is not against guns, but does think there should be a limit on the size and use of such weapons.” Yeah, I’d draw the line at howitzer too.
Agreed.
“It’s an 88 Magnum, it shoots through SCHOOLS”
I dunno, the founders were fine with civilian-owned cannon, and I don’t see the occasional mishap changing that too much.
Well, the Founders were also fine with slavery. ;o)
The Founders did what was right for their time. Thing is, their time was 200+ years ago. This is the 21st Century, not the 18th. The question to ask is not what long-dead men did for their time. It’s what’s right for our time that matters.
So…is a 155mm appropriate for civilian possession today? That’s the question we should be asking, IMO.
Yes, a 155mm [howitzer] is appropriate for civilian possession today.
One accident doesn’t change that, anymore than one drunk voting changes the ability of the general populace to vote.
The 2nd Amendment guarantees the right to “carry and bear” arms. Good luck on doing either with a 155.
Yes, a 155mm is appropriate for civilian possession today.
It may not be appropriate for my budget, but that’s another question.
The safe use of a canon or firearm doesn’t change with the diameter of the projectile.
Here in Texas we had a squabble with a petty dictator named Saint Ann over a canon. The origin of the “Come and Get It” flag.
Absolutely appropriate. And with that perfect right goes the rock solid, iron-clad responsibility to not have A MAJOR ATTACK OF ATE UP DUMB ASS, and terrify, maim, and kill innocent neighbors who have the piss poor fortune to be downrange!!!
You should really go back and read some history…
This event makes Gersh Kuntzman’s anus tremble
I think you mean flap. It’s pretty stretched and worn, I imagine.
“but the gun range owner insists the historic weapon was safely fired by professionals in a downward projection”
What the heck is a ‘downward projection’?
Professional what? Clown?
I’m thinking they were talking a flat trajectory which causes Artillery rounds to skip.
We had a round skip on the impact area at West Point and skipped into and broke the water main that ran from the reservoir, through the impact area, up over the hill and down to the town below
I recall a water in a town just tower north of Ft Knox that “fell over” in ’86 around the same time the Gun Bunnies ( not us Tankers thank deity) were out on Donnely Range.
Same deal at Carson when I was there in the mid to late 80’s.
The ADA outfit tried to shoot down the town of Fountain’s water tower with a Chaparral missile.
Maybe NBCGuy remembers hearing about that?
Back in 1982, an artillery battery from 3rd Battalion, 10th Marines shot a 155mm HE round off of the G-10 Impact Area aboard Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune, NC. The round impacted and detonated out by Lyman Road near OP-2, killing the wife of a retired Marine Corps Lieutenant Colonel while she drove on Lyman Road with her 8-year-old daughter in the car with her. The daughter was unharmed.
https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1454&dat=19821007&id=LGxOAAAAIBAJ&sjid=GxQEAAAAIBAJ&pg=5968,1727411&hl=en
“As far as the safety end of everything, we drill every one of our shooters before it ever begins,” Friend said. “We have 30-45 minute drill.”
You keep using that word safely I do not think it means what you think it means….
HaHa
I’m just waiting for one of our friendly TAH Arty guys to come in here and go like this…. NSFW.
Just did. Thanks
I can’t document it, but there was a similar incident in Utah in the 80’s involving an AVALAUNCHER where the round skipped off an icy cornice, landed in a guys driveway. Story was that the explosion blew him across the street. http://www.avalanchemitigationservices.com/
Now you’re all gonna want one!
The Article in question is a year old….just sayin.
McWeasel was banned did ya hear?
Lol really?
For being nuts I assume.
A combination of a bunch of us putting together evidence based letters to them and calling them.
Most of his suspected socks are gone to
Socks? Oh, that does it! I have lots of socks. Now they’ll be suspicious, too.
Someone forgot to check if the range could contain the SDZ and Distance X.
Lack of a certified FDO I suspect
Wonder if any of the morons at that range have any clue on the range and ballistic qualities of artillery are.
An older model 105 can shoot 11,400 meters with a full charge. Every round comes packed with a full charge (7 connected powder bags).
If you don’t remove some of the charges that round has the potential to go that far.
Also some of the older Anti-Armor rounds (HEP-T, High Explosive Plastic-Tracer) only come with 1 propellent bag ( I believe it would go out several thousand meters.
When we fired direct fire the range had to be clear out to Max range, even if the targets were only 800 to 1200 meters out.
nother thing for those bozos tp consider is that those howitzers also have a pnuematic reciol system. If you dont maintain adequete levels of fuid and pressure you may end up with that Cannon tube coming back out of battery and taking out anything behind it or blowing the breech and tube out,
They said there would be no math, dammit!
When I was a kid, my Dad taught me that anytime you pull a trigger, you are responsible for anything and everything that round hits. The responsibility rests squarely on the guys operating the 105 and whoever let them do it.
” The responsibility rests squarely on the guys operating the 105 …”
That there is the key, IMO, but personal responsibility seems to be becoming increasingly rare these days.
It’s the homeowner’s fault for placing his home in the line of fire. If you live next to a golf course, you have to expect the occasional errant ball. If you live within artillery range of this guy, you can expect the occasional stray explosion.
Green Bag vs White Bag???
Oooops
Damn, how do you get insured and bonded for such a range… Oh yeah, nevermind.
Mikey, mikey, mikey. You are so dumb.
Get rid of toys you don’t really understand, and don’t buy any more of them.
If it was my house, I think I’d be equal parts pissed off and impressed. Plus, there’s bragging rights involved. Imagine going to work the next day and saying, “Guess what, guys? My house took a fuckin’ 105 round yesterday!”
Still, they’d better pay for the damage, and maybe reconsider whether or not their range is really suitable for artillery.
No. You know what he did? He went to work the next day and said something like this:
‘I used to support gun rights. I always believed that most of the gun owners in this country understood the grave responsibility of owning a deadly weapon. Well, not anymore. I’m lucky that the wife took junior to his soccer practice like usual, or I’d have a dead wife and kid because some damn fool with a big-assed cannon and a hard on turned my house into a pile of kindling! They just lost my vote — permanently. When I get done, no swingin’ dick in this country will own so much as a water pistol!’
Remember: if a person has a good experience, they tell two others. If they have a bad experience, they tell ten. And sue you out of existence, when you’ve blown up their house.
… And where were you when this happened Corporal Agarn?
“Safely fired in a downward position.”
Clearly it wasn’t.
“Professionals”
Clearly not.
Yeah. Somebody needs to check their head space and timing again, I’m thinkin’.
BWAHAHAHAHA !!!
Now THAT is funny !!!
Bragging rights for certain. He should get an ARCOM just for living through it !!!
Damn that is funny !!!
If that had been my house, I would, in the near future, be the proud owner of a gun range — and a 105mm artillery piece.
^5
Professional is only half a word.
When I was younger and more ambitious (or more grandiose probably), I said I wanted to own enough land to be a 105 range. I didn’t realize how ambitious I was.
And, wow, you bounced a round into someone else’s house?!?!
And reading the (yes, year old, but 1st I’d heard of it) article, it sounds like they thought they were aiming down into a valley.
To the rear of the piece, face away from the piece, move.
Next time they will be required to use a BFA.
Now if we can just focus the attention of the leftists gun grabbers on 105 MM Howitzers instead of hand held weapons…we’re golden!!!!
There was a rumor in the late 90s at Fort Stewart of divarty, or more likely an arty unit from the 48th bde, that disrupted a church service by planting a round in the church parking lot during services. Probably a guard unit given it was a Sunday. I never confirmed the rumor, though. It was like the guy in basic that tried to kill himself by throwing the buffer out the window the rotation just before you in basic or AIT. Never found an eyewitness to either incident. Still, I believe the arty incident occurred. Some of those churches are just off post at Stewart.
This event occurred two years ago, not last year. Mr. Kelley didn’t sue and, as near as I can tell, remains a 2nd A supporter. He didn’t go off the deep end about the crazy incident…
I had to laugh when I saw where this occurred. I am a proud member of Wyandotte, OK. I graduated HS there and my parents still live there. Go Bears!
It’s actually quite remarkable any house was hit during the firing. The town population hovers around 300 and most of that is spread out over large farms. If you ever get the chance to go, then go on a Friday football night.
I’M RADINGALLOF THIS ABOUT FIRING THESE BIG WEAPONS, I DID NOT SEE ON IOTA OF SAFETY ANY WHERE. WITHOUT PROPER SAFETY PRECAUTIONS. TERE IS THE PRACTICALITY OF A SERIOUS ACCIDENT. BUT IT SEEM BY THE TALK HERE THAT HAS TO GO WITH THE TERRITORY, SO THERE MUST BE A PRICE OF FREEDOM CONTRACT SOMEWHERE. THESE TYPES OF DISTRUCTIVE WEAPONS SHOLD NOT HE PERMITTED WITHIN ANY INHABITED AREA. BEING RETIRED AIR FORCE COULD I USE THESE RANGES FOR BOMBARDMENT PRACTICE FOR FORMER B-52 CREWS I’M SURE THEIR TRAINING AND SKILL, IS UNPECABLE. WHAT COULD GO WRONG.