It's funny how fast your mind works when it has to. It's also interesting [b]where[/b] your mind takes you in certain situations. Here's the story...

That's right, I live on the very edge of town, and one late afternoon while I'm tinkering I hear two bursts of full-auto firing! What the...! The first burst is about 1 1/2 - 2 seconds, then 10 seconds of silence, then another 1 second burst.

At that, all I can think of is what the hell is going on, what kind of threat there is, where I have to put my two loved-ones, and what I should grab to defend us with. (I quickly decided a 20" Hbar AR as some of my other artillery was not available at the time)

I must have thought of an hour's worth of sh!t in 30 seconds! As it turns out, I heard through the grapevine that a big-game hunter who lives on a hill up the road took some of his own artillery out of hibernation that day.

Sheese! It's funny now.

I think my first thought would have probably been....What in the world is that shooting? I wonder if they'll let me play? [uzi]

So, this neighbor of yours hunts elephants with a mini-gun? [;)]

I know exactly what you were thinking.

Shortly after moving into our house about 10 years ago, I was sitting on the back porch one evening just starting to enjoy an adult beverage.  I heard a short series of noises and thought, "no, it can't be".  We live in the suburbs so I was a little confused at what I was hearing.  Then I heard it again - the unmistaken sound of highpower automatic gunfire.  

It was far enough away that I didn't feel threatened.  The wind was coming out of the North that night.  I realized that that the noise was coming from the industrial area just north of our subdivision where the city police department has a shooting range.  I guess the local SWAT team was conducting a night fire exercise.

I still hear them about once a month or so.

Alas, when you can afford African safari hunts, class III ain't no problem, either, I suppose.

Woodpecker??

Hee,hee...every year for the past four or five we get a red-headed woodpecker in our yard.  Beautiful bird to watch and a nice contrast to the bluejays...right up to the time he goes off on the side of my house at 0'dark-thirty in the morning.  Bedroom's upstairs and he's found a favorite spot on the exterior wall just about level with my sleeping head.  That bird's got a good 750 rpm hammer on it.  More than once my first thought has been INCOMING!

Better get that part of your house checked for termites or some other bug infestation!

Chances are, in my neighborhood, any shooting noise is coming from MY house in MY basement...[:D]

Hole in cinderblock wall from my first inadequate backstop at my "in-house range" will attest to that...
...Wife was PISSED ! [stick]

so that is what my neighbors are thinking!


[50]

Did that the first year the woodpecker came around.  The bug guys didn't find anything.  That bird just likes to jerk my chain.  Why that bird likes to peck on exterior marine grade plywood amazes me.  Kids won't let me eliminate the noise.

You ASKED your kids?

-elliott

I've got that beat.  We have a local woodpecker in my neighborhood who's known to peck on the top of an aluminum streetlight housing.  Sucker's brain must have rattled loose by now, but he still keeps trying.   Not the most intelligent bird, I guess.
[img]http://www.stopstart.fsnet.co.uk/smilie/chicken.gif[/img]

[img]http://www.stopstart.fsnet.co.uk/smilie/stupid.gif[/img]

It's a pretty cool noise when he does that.

Speaking of cool noises...yesterday a pair of B-1B bombers were making low approaches for training/shits-and-giggles/pissing off the whiners/whatever reason at my local Air Force Base.  I had a front row seat, so to speak. I'm
at the beach, just a few hundred yards from the runway.  One of them comes on looooowwwwwww, wheels just a few feet from the runway, gets to the far end, points that sucker almost straight up, nails the throttle into full afterburner, climbs FAST, rolls hard left, and I swear he got his wings totally vertical, left one pointed straight down.

Amazing. A bomber that thinks it's a fighter!
A pilot with nads big enough to prove that it flies like one, too!  

The noise in full afterburner was INCREDIBLE.   I think it set off every car alarm in a two mile radius.   I was grinning from ear to ear!  Now, THAT'S the sound of freedom!  

The second bomber did the same thing, but not so aggressively.  

They flew again today, and their training pattern was right over my house.  I got some SWEEEEET pics of them.

Al Qaida doesn't have a prayer against us.  Just seeing those bombers doing their little mini airshow reinforced that belief for me.

CJ

Ha, ha...the Three Mutant Offspring want the shot.[:D]

Arock, you wanna let the mutants borrow my M4??

I want the side of my house left just the way it is, thank you very much![:D]

Just checking.  LOL

Man, I've got one of his idiot relatives in my neighborhood!!  What's up with that?

One day Miz Hun and I were at the Farmers Market smack dab on the edge of downtown Dallas, when I heard clear and definite 9mm full auto fire from what sounded like only a couple of blocks away!

Several strings of full auto fire!

Then, a few seconds later, I heard police sirens screaming toward the scene.

No one else seemed to pay it much attention, but I escorted Miz Hun into safe enough looking building, and then to our car.

I found out later that day that they were shooting some scene for 'Walker, Texas Ranger' that afternoon, involving a shoot-out!

So it was full-auto 9mm firing that I heard!

Eric The(OnlyBlanks!)Hun[>]:)]

Here in San Diego, Californistan one can hear full-auto fire just about every year on Tet, the 4th of July, and New Year's Eve.  Some of our neighbors from Indochina managed to bring some toys with them when they immigrated back in 1974-75.

Welcome to my life, I live about 30 miles from a military base.  The full auto doesn't bother me but those damn 105's or whatever the hell they are shooting sure do jar the house.