Chapter 319

Rested but sore from all the fun last night, Lorrie, Vicky, Ching Lee, Marcy and I met Jake in the super hangar at 9. Jenny needed to finish up the project she had been working on for the task force at home. Jake was positioning the bullet stops end to end, tight together. I liked the final product they had built. Jake and Bob had improved on my hand-drawn blueprint.

When he had them in position, the girls and I stapled targets on the oak lumber. By the time we finished, Bob had called my cell to tell me that he and his foreman were in the restaurant.

We met Bob and his guys for coffee, and then went to the armory to get one of the Barrett M107 rifles, a field box of ammo and hearing protection. I was sure everyone would want to shoot at least a couple rounds.

Jake carried the rifle, Bob the ammo can (I was glad of it) and put it in the back of the Suburban along with the thin exercise mat to lie on. That dog-gone thing weighed 30 pounds and the ammo can was just as much.

The half-way sliding partition was 600 feet from the end doors or 200 yards. 200 yards was a good distance to see how the bullet stops held up.

The Barrett M107 was the rifle of choice by the Coast Guard for knocking out the engines of drug-runner boats. The 50 caliber round would go through the cast iron and aluminum engines like sliced butter, instantly destroying them. It could also penetrate a brick wall.

It was semi-automatic that allowed precise control from the Coast Guard choppers - one shot per trigger pull - unlike the belt-fed 50 cal that shots a dozen rounds per trigger pull, even if you were fast on the trigger. Those dozen rounds could lead to a lot of collateral damage from a bouncing chopper and gun mount.

The M107 was a favorite for snipers and used by many countries. It was also one of the weapons that the current administration had sent to the Mexican drug cartels in the Fast and Furious fiasco.

With proper training a sniper could make a kill shot at 1500 yards with ease.

After we lugged everything we needed from the Suburban, I started setting up to shoot. I put the mat on the floor by the divider and then handed everyone a pair of those disposable ear plugs and then a pair of industrial clamshell type hearing muffs. The reason for all the hearing protection was the M107 was one loud mother out in the open and I expected it to be worse in the closed-in hangar.

I pulled the 10 round clip from the gun and opened the ammo box. I handed Jake a round to look at and pass around to give everyone an idea what this bad-boy could do while I loaded the clip with the expensive rounds. Buying them in bulk and wholesale, they were $6.95 a round, not something that you went out in the back yard and shot a hundred rounds for shits and giggle.

With me lying on the mat, the tripod adjusted and the rifle pulled tight to my shoulder, I squeezed the trigger. Damn, that thing still had a kick even though it was supposed to be recoilless. Even with the double hearing protection it was loud. I shot two more rounds then let Vicky be next and then everyone else. I loaded another clip, flinching every time the gun fired.

We rode to the bullet stops to see if any bullets had gone through the first plate. With a light I looked at the back of the plate. It looked good - nothing had come through - but the heavy oak lumber on the front was taking a beating. It would have to be changed out often and we would have to be diligent positioning the target in different spots each time. The bullet stops passed the test.

I was confident that the bullet stops would handle anything that we shot at it in our normal course of training. It would be rare for the 50 cal to be used in any of the training courses. I just wanted it to test the stops. The 308 sniper rifle, M4 and M16 was my weapon of choice for the Rapid Response Team and what they needed to train with.

The miller farm was adjacent to the airport. We drove out into the field behind the super hangar and then to the right in the field of wheat the farmer had planted as a cover crop. The property was offset from ours somewhat. It was a good thing. It allowed use of the access road to the fuel farm and maintenance building to get to the area where I wanted the training area put.

I wanted it as far away from the runway flight paths as I could get it. That turned out to be almost a mile. The site would also be blocked by woods from the highway - another good thing. A high razor-wire topped chain-link fence would be needed just to keep out any hunters who might accidentally wander in the woods - even though it was posted - or just plain nosey people.