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Redneck engineering at it's finest!

Saturday, February 25, 2012
(Don't forget about the contest!)

So I went skeet shooting with Sir and some friends on Wednesday night. The gun I used last week, a 12-gauge o/u Stoeger, was available, so I rented it. When the lady handed it to me, I noticed she had to tighten the forestock (or whatever it's called).

Well, took my first shot, went to reload, and suddenly had three pieces of a shotgun in my hand. LOL

The range officer said, "Um, I think you should go get another gun."

Well, unfortunately, they didn't have any other 12-gauge o/us. They only had 20-gauge (I'd already bought three boxes of 12-gauge shells and opened the first box) or pump-action.

Ugh.

So I had to share Sir's gun (also a rental) that I wasn't fond of.

By the time we hit the third station, a guy comes rolling up in a golf cart and calls to me. Voila! A little electrical tape later...

Sir looked at me and said, "You're not seriously going to shoot that, are you?"

Being the good little redneck I am, I said, "Watch me." It was worth it to watch His eye twitch. LOL (I figured they wouldn't bring it back out if it wasn't safe to shoot. Cosmetically challenged isn't dangerous. LOL)

The only thing better would have been if they'd used Hello Kitty duct tape on it. LOL

Yes, I shot it for three rounds. Good ole' redneck engineering never let me down yet. LOL

Everyone has to have stories from their life about someone...eh, modifying or repairing something on-the-fly (but not exactly to manufacturers' standards LOL) to make it work/last/hold out a few more miles/get by until payday. What are your stories? (No, they don't have to be firearm related. LOL)

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19 reader comments:

  1. I had a cousin who duct taped his front bumper on because a cop stopped him and informed him it was against the law to not have a front bumper. I would love to have a picture of what it looked like! lol...

  1. I had a mid 80s Mustang that had parts of the engine held in by duct tape and parts held in by zip ties. My daddy is an Okie and learned some of that redneck engineering from his daddy.

  1. Shaseli said...:

    I was traveling in Africa with my family when the van we were in broke down. With no tools, duct tape and some card board my father (who was a mechanic) got the van working enough for us to get to the next town

  1. I think we've all MacGuyver'd something at one point. I've duct taped broom handles to the broom instead of buying a new one. I've even created shelves with a piece of cardboard box and clear tape. In Dominican Reupblic, where I'm from, the ingenuity and creativity to extend the life of househhold items is endless. Between duct tape, a hot glue gun, krazy glue, zip ties and gorilla glue you can 'salvage' and extend the product life of mostly anything. lol

  1. You are soooo funny ! shotguns.... Hello Kitty Ducktape hahhaha :-) You should be on Fetlife.com ;-) Greetz, Leilah

  1. TTN said...:

    Your story reminds me of our kids' eyeglasses. With active kids, we can't afford to buy new glasses all the time, so creativity with tape & superglue is a must.

  1. Pat said...:

    There is an old saying I think is appropriate: if it moves and it shouldn't, use duct tape on it; if it should move and doesn't, use WD40. No household is completewithout those two items - grin.

  1. Nikki said...:

    Growing up I thought thats how you were supposed to fix everything. My dad would put McGuyver to shame with how he "fixed" jimmied everything. We always had a large supply of duct & electrical tape at our house. I have to admit though that my dad loved his guns way too much to ever tape them...he would have just given it a proper burial ; )

  1. Nay Nay said...:

    My dad and now my husband swear by the saying "If it moves and it shouldn't, use duct tape on it; if it should move and doesn't,use WD40.
    My husband fixed the water heater leak with the duck tape and unstuck the bathroom window with WD-40. He learned those tricks from my dad. LOL

    reneebennett35(at)yahoo(dot)com

  1. redjuliet said...:

    I'm not very handy but my cousin is the King of redneck fixes. He carries twist ties, duct tape, pocket knife and other things that I don't know the name of in his truck! I can't tell you how many times he's fixed something that I would have thrown away!

  1. Ratatosk said...:

    Me husband bought me a '73 vw thing last year and on the cross country road trip back home with it there were a few issues including an engine fire. His cousin yelled turn it off, but my husband had, and had pulled the keys. They got it fixed, but to start it, had to Hotwire it. I still don't have keys. Is it weird my 8 year old knows how to Hotwire a car?

  1. Tammy said...:

    Growing up we raised chickens and my mother and brothers and sisters had to take care of them (4 chicken houses full) I will never forget one night a storm was coming up and my mother and I had to go to the chicken houses to roll up curtains before the storm got there. In one house one of the long chicken waterers had sprung a leak and it needed fixing so we grabbed the duck tape and while we was fixing it the power went out Ugh! (no flashlight) remember the digital watches with the lights built in to read it at night, that is what we used to see and feel how to fix that chicken waterer. I will never forget that.

    Tammy
    barefootokie@centurylink.net

  1. Vanessa said...:

    I am glad the term 'McGyver' seems to be universal. My husband is also nicknamed this. One example is one of our daughter's broke the ignition barrel on her car on a sunday.. nothing was open and she needed to get to work.. so my husband in his McGyver mode pulled out the ignition barrel, filed the brass end of an internal tap, which would then turn the igntion to on but there was a lock mechanism that stopped the motor's ability to start so he added in a bypass to the bonnet release button. So after turning the tap to on, you then needed to press the bonnet release button to start the car. This was supposed to be a temporary measure. Even after our daughter bought another car and we still had the car and used it, it was driven for another 60,000miles it is still started using the tap and the bonnet relese button! It became a family story sure to cause much rolling on the floor laughter!

  1. My favorite redneck "rigger" job wasn't something I did but something I saw that I will never forget. I was actually in Florida at the time near clearwater beach and took a picture to share with my fellow rednecks when I returned to NY. Someone had used a latch and a padlock to keep the passenger side door of their 1970ish pick up truck. I almost died laughing when I saw it. It was the perfect redneck story to tell everyone at home and I give the owner credit for their creativeness.

  1. Toni said...:

    I had to bungee my drivers door shut, because my wonderful son backed my Explorer out of the garage with the door open for some dumb reason and bent my door forward and took out the tracks of the garage door. All to get his motorcycle out. Needless to say he learned a few new curse words that day and lost the use of his motorcycle for a long time.

  1. Oh I love it. The saying at our house is there is nothing so permanent as a temporary fix. Just ask the duct tape and trash bag covering the missing tile in my bathroom for 3 years. But I think shooting a gun put together with tape might have made me a little nervous.

  1. Naiana R said...:

    I don't know how many times my dad has fixed something with duct tape, super glue, and other nick knacks. We've had cars, bathrooms, lamps, everything you can possibly imagine temporarily, read permanently, fixed like that. It always made me laugh at my dad's ingenious mind, lol. I sure miss those days.

  1. R said...:

    I think it's very cool that you used the gun anyway. At some point I'm sure everyone has rigged something to get by with.

  1. Those are great stories! :)

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    Pat
    Vanessa

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