Monday, January 31, 2022

Boondocks to Close

 It is a sad day in the Jackson metro area.  Boondocks announced on Facebook: 

Two and half years ago, when Mark and I listed Boondocks FTA™ for sale, we wanted to find new owners that could help Boondocks FTA™ expand and grow into the finest firearms training in the
country! Although we have had several interested parties, a new owner has not materialized. While we are still hopeful a new owner can be found, we have made the very difficult decision to cease operations. The last class date for Boondocks FTA, LLC will be April 24th, 2022. If you are scheduled for a class after this date, we will contact you to either move you to an earlier date, or refund your money. For our Annual Alumni members, if your membership expiration date is beyond April 24th you can get a prorated refund, or use the remaining balance as a store credit in the Pro Shop. We will continue to maintain our current business hours and Alumni Range hours through Sunday, April 24, 2022. We will keep you updated with any changes as they happen. The past 7 years has been an amazing journey and we have met so many wonderful people. We are humbled by the fact that we have been a small part of helping thousands of people become better prepared to protect themselves and their families.
Please continue to train and stay safe!
For questions, please contact our Office at 769-972-2382.
Kim & Mark Condon

42 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thanks to the training I received at Boondocks, I feel confident that I can handle myself if a carload of armed saggers and moptops that roll up on me. I have drilled for this. And they can’t shoot for shit.

Anonymous said...

Some lender just puckered up.

Anonymous said...

A real shame but the reality is that they priced me off the property. I would have loved to had sent my wife and daughter to them for training but as I said....to damn expensive. So I used my own military training and taught basic firearm stuff my self. I suggest leasing it out to bowhunters. They will pay out the ass for a place to hunt. Run the business during the off season.

Anonymous said...

A great day for Lumumba and the gangs of merry thugs.

Anonymous said...

Anonymous Anonymous said...
Some lender just puckered up


...says someone who is not familiar with Mark and Kim. I hate this didn't work out for them.

FTA's are pretty hard to get going if you don't have a government contract or the mystique of a Jeff Cooper to build on. They did their best to put together a top-notch facility and I'm sorry it didn't work out.

Kingfish said...

No nearby lodging or hotels probably hurt. Wish it had a range. Always thought they were cheating themselves by not having a shooting range.

Let's be honest. For all their bluster about guns and the second amendments, the necks are cheap when it comes to training.

Anonymous said...

@11:44 is another tough guy. Try not to get your tough ass killed.

Anonymous said...

@12:03
The local richers are the one who need training the most since they are the primary targets!

Kingfish said...

Not approving any comments knocking Cliff.

Anonymous said...

Been wanting to go to as a refresher, I held off too long now. I got the freebie training from BlackWater/Xe/Academi or whatever they are now in Moyock.

Anonymous said...

12:41 : The fact they couldn't lure in Hinds Sheriff less than a mile away.....and betting odds tell me that is what they were banking on. Local. I guess they forgot about the Jackson free location with the poison lake for law dogs. And you are right, "necks" paying out the ass for gun training is a bad business model. Not sure I like your tone KF.......Bluster ? Second amendments ? Almost reads like a triggered liberal. I guess you won't miss the gun show.

Anonymous said...

12:49
If you don’t stand up to evil then you will cower before it and die 1000 deaths.

Anonymous said...

1:06 : Wow. Go get em Neil !

Anonymous said...

Thread closed I guess.

Anonymous said...

What the hell has 'lodging and hotels' got to do with local firearms training? Lemme help.... not. one. damned. thing.

Once again, Kingfish pretends to know it all and knows nothing.

PS: This post won't see the light of day.

Anonymous said...

But where will all the Gravy Seals go for their role playing now?

Anonymous said...

The average gun owner is about as interested in training as the average car or guitar owner. They know the minimum to get by unless they do it for a living and even then typically train to the minimum standard required.

Anonymous said...

I'm a shooter and could tell there was no way they would be profitable.
Went there only once over the years and I shoot every few weeks in general and don't own land.
Too many restrictions on shooting there - RO always there, etc.
Poor "membership" arrangement in general.
Clinton area isn't a tourist destination.
Local rednecks (myself included) prefer to train and shoot on their own land or a friends.
Landing a law enforcement regular training program would obviously be mandatory for it as a business venture.

I do hate to see them close though.

Anonymous said...

Great place that served the much needed service in our community. Hate to see this close.

I took several classes there and learned alot. As for Cliff, he was a great resource and was very knowledgeable.

Anonymous said...

3:15 : Yeah, that comment from the KF was more to do with personality flaws. Much like the talking just to hear his own voice. I have a son with the same issue. Lol. God loves us all. ;)

Anonymous said...

Re: the question about what hotels & motels have to do with anything - there are numerous regional & national shooting competitions that draw hundreds if not thousands of entrants - Boondocks is an ideal site for many of them, but those competing need places to stay & restaurants to eat in.

Anonymous said...

@12:41 yeah cause liberals are the only ones who authorized to speak that way. Much easier to put everyone in a box that what hunh?

Anonymous said...

Right...in light of all the negative comments about the bidness, let's gather up and blame the closure on motel rooms.

I'm in the dark on this one, but can you mention just one of the events that drew thousands of shooting entrants to the Jackson area in the past three years? Unless you're Kenny Stokes, the gun shows don't count.

Anonymous said...

We met Mark and Kim right before they purchased the land/site.
Their vision was big! They knew the chances they were taking, they also knew of some of the challenges coming to them.
Great people. I admire their effort and wish them both well.

Anonymous said...

It's hard to guess how the Boondocks property could be used in the future - it's zoned specifically for the type of business Boondocks operated - it's not zoned for residential development. I'm thankful for the top-notch instructors & staff who taught me so much.

Anonymous said...

KF is actually right on his assessment

Anonymous said...

As long as facts are being faced, let's face another one. A few hours a year (or even a month) "training" on a for-profit range or other "academy" isn't really training, it's shooting a weapon while fantasizing about confrontations that rarely (essentially never) play out remotely as imagined by the "trainees." Lots of folks have plans until they are taking incoming fire. The vast majority of them are in the various armed forces and as most of those folks will attest when being fully forthcoming, even their elevated level of not-for-profit training didn't fully prepare them for it. The best way to deal with a potential gunfight is to run away and not get into a gunfight. The second best way is to shoot first and not get into a gunfight. Everything in between those two choices is pretty much a pick-um...from a very long list of very shitty choices.

Motel 6 said...

Thanks Kingfish at 9:59. Tons of people coming into the area to competitively shoot, in fact thousands....and nowhere to 'lodge'. Right.

Anonymous said...

'Not approving any comment knocking Cliff' but OK to refer to a wide range of white folks as 'necks'. Got it, Kingfish...thanks for being you.

Anonymous said...

@10:58 PM
I wouldn’t expect a coward like you to understand that a few brave individuals standing up to the bad guys, makes the bad guys think twice about victimizing society as a whole. It reminds them that not everyone is a pushover (like you) and armed resistance is a definite possibility. You would understand this if you had ever stood up to a bully before. But you definitely give off the vibe of a lifelong coward.

Kingfish said...

Wasn't me. Was doing cardio at the time. Try again.

Anonymous said...

Exposed me to much more than I can perform. took every class and many nationally recognized best instructors. Sad even if inevitable. Mississippi and the entire USA wants the best instruction, virtually free, and then will not invest the time and $$$ to really develop needed concealed carry skills. Avoiding blood on the floor and ground takes effort. Local indoor ranges best kept secrets.

Anonymous said...

"Lots of folks have plans until they are taking incoming fire. "

"Everybody's got a plan until they get punched in the mouth." Mike Tyson, noted philosopher and pugilist.

Anonymous said...

"I'm trained and packin', man! I'll blow a sumbitche's head off and feed it to him!"

Right...as soon as you shit your britches and stop crying. And even though you shot yourself in the foot, you can tell the ambulance attendant somebody else must have.

Anonymous said...

It's a shame that a place isolated for the purpose of shooting guns is closing. I'm a landowner. Have hundreds of rural acres. My husband and nephew hunt deer on our land. We DESPISE assholes who go to their or their friends' little two acre plot to blast their firearms or target practice or fantasize that they are Navy Seals or Marines or whatever they're doing all weekend long while true hunters are trying to hunt. You weekend warriors are a noisy, irritating nuisance to the rest of us and you scare off the game with your silly little target practice. Hope to God someone will reopen Boondocks for the jockstraps so the rest of us can enjoy our rural tranquility.

Anonymous said...

A hero will only die once. While a coward will die a thousand deaths.

Anonymous said...

@8:47
I have a cheap AR that I have converted to .22LR with a CMMG conversion kit. Upon the trigger of this AR, I have installed a Gatcrank. I inherited 1,500,000 rounds of .22LR from my father in law. He didn’t do a good job of maintaining the temperature and humidity of the ammo so I enjoy going out on my back 40 and exercising my arm by cranking out about 10k rounds starting around 8am on Sunday morning and collecting the brass in a net. Perhaps you are hearing me!

Anonymous said...

We didn't have all these comments when the strip bars closed and the billboards came down. What's different? Business models fail. And we move on.

Anonymous said...

About those thousands of participants wanting to engage in competition in the Metro (but for want of a place to sleep)...I'm still waiting for somebody to identify them or an organization they represent.

Brannon said...

Sad to see them go. Im sad for them, but wish them well in the future. I guess some people on here cant do that, can they? Sure, it was a little expensive, but Im sure its expensive to maintain and run a place like Boondocks also, so there you go.

Anonymous said...

These comments denigrating "rednecks" - including yours, KF, for not being smart enough to go spend a big wad of cash to get properly trained, while partly true, also ignore the fact that there are plenty of "necks" as you call them who shoot and carry regularly and very likely know what they are doing with their weapon. No doubt many of us would benefit from some training, but there is only so much money to go around, especially recently wig the rampant inflation caused by the criminals running this country.

The derogatory remarks are a bit misplaced. There is a large minority of Mississippians out there carrying every day, most of them not formally trained. There are occasional news stories about someone doing something foolish or accidental with their weapon, but statistically, most of us are law abiding, careful, and safe.

To those who scoff at the idea of one armed man running off a carload of carjackers or other possible scenarios - fighting back almost always is the right choice. What's your plan? Give up the car and let these piece of crap thugs win, so they can rob someone else tomorrow? Hope they don't just shoot you in the process? We could shut down a lot of crime if the majority of citizens were armed and fought back. The fact is criminals want easy targets who don't fight back. Just drawing and shooting will almost certainly run off any who aren't killed. Criminals don't want a gunfight.

Anonymous said...

KF - I find your derogatory use of the slur "necks" ironic and hypocritical since you delete any comment even slightly derogatory about African Americans. You and every other rational person of any race who doesn't have his head in the sand knows that Jackson's problems are due to Jackson being a majority black city run by blacks, but God forbid anyone actually say that anywhere other than behind closed doors in hushed tones. Hell, I know some decent black people who will tell you the same thing.

I'm sure I wasted my time typing this but maybe you will at least consider what I'm saying before you delete it.



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