USAF's Air-to-Ground firing range Hardwood Wisconsin

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Sjaak
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USAF's Air-to-Ground firing range Hardwood Wisconsin

Post by Sjaak »

Recently paid a visit to this interesting remote site near to Finley Wisconsin. Next to a couple of fake Migs the ranges contain a few gems which can be accessed after prior permission, but only when there's no live firing in progress (surprise huh:-))
From the control tower the vast site can be overlooked. Parked close to the tower an F4, UH1 and OH58 can be seen

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Looking towards the other direction the ranges can be viewed. Not to be seen from here but hidden in the far distance are some targets. To get there we first had to sign a declaration which waives any USAF responsibility in case of accidents. Mind there's lots of live yet unexploded ammo scattered around the place. On top of this there's also a few wolves and bears in the area. We were informed that both should be scared off by the appearance of people making noise. This still did not give me a very comfortable feeling however!
To get to the targets we were not allowed to take the path straight through the ranges but had to circumnavigate around the area using a dirt road. After about 5 kms the journey has to be continued by foot due to vegetation and soft sandy ground. This still is about a 3km walk. After a long walk however the first T33s show up, some hidden underneath vegetation and some clearly visible in the sand.

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These are followed by 3 very rare F8H's

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This Huey has clearly seen much better days!

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Nice surprise was this EA6A, or what's left of it :-)

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Obviously the "Bear/Wolfe warning"had to be taken seriously!

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And same for the live ammo, not something to accidentally step on :?

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On the way back our rental Sienna which proved King of the road on the highways, wasn't exactly designed for the soft sandy ground and got pretty stuck. Luckily the very friendly USAF staff pulled us out using a 4x4 truck. Later that night they had a few beers on us :P

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We managed to fix the front bumper before handing it back by the way :lol:

Hope you've enjoyed the pics

Cheers
Sjaak
Last edited by Sjaak on 06 Aug 2013, 20:24, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: USAF's Air-to-Ground firing range Hardwood Wisconsin

Post by jp 74 »

Well thats something different, nice report of rare aircraft.
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Re: USAF's Air-to-Ground firing range Hardwood Wisconsin

Post by Melchior Timmers »

Nice!
Any sign of A-4B 142130?
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Re: USAF's Air-to-Ground firing range Hardwood Wisconsin

Post by Stephan Lodewijks »

Nice report!! Wrecks rule!! 8)
Sjaak wrote:Obviously the "Bear warning"had to taken seriously!
Those are definately NOT bear tracks, though... Looks more like tracks of a dog or coyote.

Stephan
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Re: USAF's Air-to-Ground firing range Hardwood Wisconsin

Post by Sjaak »

Stephan Lodewijks wrote:Nice report!! Wrecks rule!! 8)
Sjaak wrote:Obviously the "Bear warning"had to taken seriously!
Those are definately NOT bear tracks, though... Looks more like tracks of a dog or coyote.

Stephan
Must have been a huge dog then:-)

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Last edited by Sjaak on 06 Aug 2013, 18:50, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: USAF's Air-to-Ground firing range Hardwood Wisconsin

Post by Sjaak »

Melchior Timmers wrote:Nice!
Any sign of A-4B 142130?
We found no traces of the A4 so presumably dissapeared..

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Re: USAF's Air-to-Ground firing range Hardwood Wisconsin

Post by Melchior Timmers »

Ok, thanks for the info!
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Re: USAF's Air-to-Ground firing range Hardwood Wisconsin

Post by De Verrekieker »

[quote][/quote]And same for the live ammo, not something to accidentally step on.

Sorry but that's not live ammo but a BDU-33 lowdrag practicebomb.
Blue collored ammo is practice and yellow is live.
But it has actualy a small explosive pipe load but can be harmfull if to close.
I've worked myself on a air to ground firing range.
After the exercise we cleaned the target area up and put them at a special storage place
Very nice report by the way.

Greetz.
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Re: USAF's Air-to-Ground firing range Hardwood Wisconsin

Post by Sjaak »

De Verrekieker wrote:
And same for the live ammo, not something to accidentally step on.

Sorry but that's not live ammo but a BDU-33 lowdrag practicebomb.
Blue collored ammo is practice and yellow is live.
But it has actualy a small explosive pipe load but can be harmfull if to close.
I've worked myself on a air to ground firing range.
After the exercise we cleaned the target area up and put them at a special storage place
Very nice report by the way.

Greetz.
Thanks for the info. Looked pretty scary to me though :lol:
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Re: USAF's Air-to-Ground firing range Hardwood Wisconsin

Post by Sjaak »

Sjaak wrote:
Stephan Lodewijks wrote:Nice report!! Wrecks rule!! 8)
Sjaak wrote:Obviously the "Bear warning"had to taken seriously!
Those are definately NOT bear tracks, though... Looks more like tracks of a dog or coyote.

Stephan
Must have been a huge dog then:-) But indeed is probably a Coyote

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