Private property shooting?

lonegunman · Jan 15, 2016

It looks like it has plenty of marketable timber, that pays for a lot of improvements. You, the land owner, can pick what tress you want removed and sell them to one of the area sawmills or timber companies. The only real problem is that more than a few logging operations are run by total scuzballs. I'd find a line, mark trees as required and start looking for some honest reputable help to get tree removed and slash piles burned.

I have 120 acres of the middle of nowhere, no trees and nothing but sagebrush and a lot of sun. I sold a 20 ton pile of scrap steel farm junk to fund some of the work. It makes an awesome rifle range, 800 yds from my typical starting spot and nearly 1200yds without leaving the property. No neighbors for three miles in any direction. I only allow invited guests, prosecute trespassers and have worked on my fencing and gates to dissuade visitors.

In spite of what 99% of friends and guests will tell you, they will not help, if they help it is not for long and they rarely pick up after themselves unless you are standing there when they drop it. They will shoot your steel to death, blast the chains and uprights of any target stand and leave the mess if you let them.

You should approach this project as a do-it-yourself, all by yourself endeavor and you won't be disappointed. None of my "volunteers" lasted two days on any fencing, mowing or road improvement project. They all consider their one day of work, enough to warrant a lifetime of free use. I have two miles of fencing and six corners to maintain, gates, 3/4 a mile of road, water guzzlers for game and garbage to remove.

That being said, I enjoy being on my own range at my leisure with no shooting advice from typical gun club putzes.

The Heretic · Jan 16, 2016

I had some of my forest thinned.

Most loggers won't come out for just a few trees - they need a minimum amount to make a profit when bring all their expensive heavy equipment out and getting the permits.

You will pay long term capital gains and a number of other taxes on any timber sold off your property, and the logger will have to get a permit and somebody from the state has to come out and inspect before they can cut anything meant to be sold.

Between the taxes, the repairs to the road, and some repairs/improvements to my property, I spent more money than I made from the timber sale.

OTOH, "arborists" will charge you an arm and a leg to cut trees and then take and sell the trees as either firewood or lumber.

Slash piles are a PIA. You have to pile them up, and then wait for them to dry out well enough to burn, and then be very careful you don't burn down all the other trees (I singed a few of mine that were close to one pile), and then re-stack the pile and burn it again (some of my piles I had to burn 3 times and I still have some stumps that didn't burn completely).

Or you can just leave the slash - which is messy, but it does eventually decompose over a few decades. I burnt most of mine - I only had a few. My neighbors who clear cut had a dozen or more and spent a lot of time and work burning them (I helped them as they helped me with some of mine) - it is a lot of work.

Stangler · Jan 18, 2016

I'm gonna do the work, or close friends. Not looking to log at this time, but we are dropping a couple trees for making a better line of sight. I'll post pictures when we get some areas cleared. Thanks for the input!

70cyclone · Feb 5, 2016

I also work on lasers(for lasik eye surgery 11 years now), used to work on lasers for semiconductor industry. I have 2 boys 16 and 10, married 11 years. Oh and I'm a Ford guy for sure.
Can I come play

Stangler · Feb 5, 2016

We are setting up for a rifle golf style shooting range. I've ordered a number for steel gongs for different distances, gonna be fun. We have picked out a shooting position on top of one hill, and will have targets placed out on the hill facing it. I laser ranged spots from 315 out to 775+. I figure once we have the targets up, we will have a list of people wanting to come play. I will figure out a way to get some of you out there. Just don't want "everyone" out there f ing up a good thing.

Stealth-X · Feb 12, 2016

Sorry if this was mentioned, I'm just running off to work (night shift) so I didn't read both pages.
You might look at Selling a bit of timber. Or using a bit of timber to pay for their trip out with the equipment. They clear an area and get to keep the trees plus however more trees you agree on as payment? Something like that.

I'm thinking like when you tear a house down, people will do it for free and hall it off, IF you let them recycle/sell all the copper and usable scrap.

Good luck,
-Nate

Sgt Nambu · Feb 12, 2016

I am a veteran, father and grandfather, and I have been married, to a woman, for 45yrs come Sunday! My main life goal is to lurk around this site in order to discover where members properties lie! Once discovered I enjoy sneaking out there and frolicking through the woods naked! It is very freeing and exhilarating! And, in my case, very, very perverted!

EVILZ · Feb 12, 2016

Didn't know I had competition...

oknow · Feb 15, 2016

Sgt Nambu said:
I am a veteran, father and grandfather, and I have been married, to a woman, for 45yrs come Sunday! My main life goal is to lurk around this site in order to discover where members properties lie! Once discovered I enjoy sneaking out there and frolicking through the woods naked! It is very freeing and exhilarating! And, in my case, very, very perverted!

Stangler · Mar 1, 2016

Got a 10" gong and a 12x20 IPSC target up at 420 yards. Lots of fun. More to come.

Stangler · Mar 2, 2016

A small video of my friends and I clearing a couple trees to open up a line of sight. We are gonna remove the rest of the tree with 50 lbs of LastManStanind exploding target.