an elecrical pole transformer blowing up for a gun shot.



But I guess when you have people whose only knowledge of guns is from the news. But come on the 2 noises are nowhere close to the same. And this isnt no big city metropolitan area. This is small midwest town.

i lived in herrin for a time great fishing around that area. never did any trapping but fishing was amazing.

Yeah Crab Orchard and Devils Kitchen have some good fishing. Little Grassy lake did too but they have drained it completely due to needed repairs on the dam, and have not given a timetable as to when or if it will be repaired.

they actually sound a lot like a black powder cannon

it is a low velocity explosion

the blow away fuses sound like a small muzzle loader shot , again a low velocity explosion , with no sonic crack

once you hear a couple you can tell them really easy and you know what direction it came from a short drive and you can find the blown fuse

last spring we had a few squirrels get into them and I was getting good enough if I was out in the yard working I could hear it , go for a drive and call it in before the peoples house it was that was without power.
the water and light guys love it when you can give them an address strait off and tell them it is a fuse , they can run over and have the people back in power in about 30 minutes.

even trained one of the local cops to spot them because after hours our cops get the call for power out then dispatch the water and light lineman , it was a Saturday and I was working in the yard when I heard it , took a guess at about 300 yards south west and was a half block off , I figured it was a squirrel but didn't see one on the ground , water and light found it on top of the transformer partially cooked like they normally are. it blows the hair right off the hide from contact point to contact point.

they upped our line voltage a year ago and we have been dealing with a lot of these since as they arc further now with more voltage.

now why a gun shot would be a concern in a truly small town is weird

we are small enough that you easily hear a legal shot outside town clear across town on a quiet morning

dove season opener at dawn was like a skirmish had started just outside town for about 10 minutes


when we have new people move to town we do have to remind them , it is legal to shoot across the street from the high school if you own the land or have permission to hunt on it , yes it is a field , soy beans some years corn others.

my guess it in Herrin the school is a bit further in town and Herrin is also not a small town it is over 12K in population

in WI under 10K starts rural
but really under 5K is more realistic
the 2 largest towns in Green county are 9500 and 3200 and we think of 9500 as the city I mean has the Walmart the farm & Fleet and the court house.

As a power lineman we hear the gunshot description regularly. The fuses protecting the transformer can get pretty loud depending on the size of the fuse and available fault current. If I’m dealing with big fuses and a potential fault. I put ear plugs in

not to say small towns can't have stupid things like drive by shootings had one a few blocks over , one of my sons friends got his truck shot up while he was in it , the bullet that hit the radio just barely missed him

there are stupid people everywhere and the 19 year old that shot at him thought T was making moves on his girl friend who is also a peice of work , so the idiot followed him home from his job and mag dumps a 45 into his truck as he gets to his house., T floored it an ran , calling the police when he was about 2-3 miles away.

the real issue is people don't actually know what a gun shot sounds like

it would be a great training tool to put a class of students behind a burm about 300 yards out and rip about 10 rounds over their heads slow fire then 10 fast , it would probably be too traumatizing even though it could be done 100% safe
then they would know what real incoming rifle fire sounds like then let of a few mags of pistol from near by and in the next room situation in 1 , 2 and 3 shot rapid fire.

you just can't get the sound from TV microphones don't give you reality because it

then with that education the would know what to listen for and how to identify it , and react with less time and confusion.

but we already have to limit drills to not traumatize students so , these educational tools don't ever happen.

I live about 6 miles away from this town. Our intermediate school and junior high are 1/4 mile from a hunting lease that get duck hunted pretty regular during the season and so far no lock downs because of it. But even here in small town, the number of hunters/shooters has dropped dramatically over the last 10 years. Part of that is the fact that government aide is easier to get so you can guess how the towns demographic has changed.

You'd be amazed. I live in a somewhat rural town for NJ, a lot of gun owners. Without fail whenever transformers blow, or something even remotely sounds like a gunshot, there is always one or two who think it's people shooting. Which, it could very well be! Since COVID we have had an influx of folks from urban areas who aren't used to.... coon hunting at night or waterfowl early in the morning or folks target practicing on their own property.

Not my town, but a few towns over there were people that bought property that was up against a farm. They were sending off crop cannons, and the new people called the Game Wardens, who said they were within their rights and not really their deal. Then they tried to go speak to the farmer, who slammed the door in their face, so they then called the local police, who said nothing we can do, totally legal. The lady ranted on FB about it... and then ranted even more when everyone stood up for the farmer and she was upset no one understood her plight that the farm "made too much noise."

The goal is to make children so terrified of guns, that they willingly vote to give up their Second Amendment Rights as adults. Running frequent drills and intentionally overreacting to minor events is a great way to build fear in children. Suspending children for just playing guns with their fingers, or even saying bang and having no tolerance of even the mention of firearms at school, also builds fear.

Keith

If you look at it like.....

You have a couple hundred youths under your supervision, do you risk it?

Ps,
If they didn't err on the side of caution and were wrong, they'd hang'm.

we got a bunch of NY transplants during Covid. they could move here and buy our "cheap" houses for 1/4 of what their rent was. then not understand how to take care of a house.
we had to do some explaining that town is 12 blocks wide and that the people who own the land to either side of town are completely withing their rights to hunt it , shoot on it , and night hunt.

we were getting complaints about shots at night

so we explained you can hear a shot well over a mile on a still night and that is when people are coyote hunting , completely legal and legit.

so if you don't like redneck utopia , feel free to move back where you came from because here we like it like this.

oh they would also complain about the fire siren and train horn
again , go back where you came from

it was actually sort of funny , the fire siren , so many women in town said , oh that is the prayer siren , you send up a prayer for whom ever is in need when the siren goes off.

had someone asking about how to get here from O'Hare air port , we told them , you rent a car or don't bother visiting. if you can't drive you do not belong here. 20 miles in every direction of corn. so you drive or your don't live here.
even the Amish hire drivers most of the time.

Yep.

absolutely correct , put it on the police to check it out and make sure it is not

WI has gone to new terminology , there are stages of "lock down" although it is not called that any more for most of the stages

the first is , outer doors locked no one comes or goes
this is if there is say a police chase in the area of the school.
students unless they are trying to come or go during school hours like for doctors appointments won't even know typically this is happening. till it is over and a press release issued.
outer doors should always be locked with some sort of a buzz in type entry controlled by the office or a security person any way.

second is inner doors locked holding students in class rooms , this is for if the police may be conducting a search in the school or investigating a call in. anything where they don't want the students in the halls moving.
if the event happens mid class period , again the students should hardly know it is happening as all doors should already be locked all the time. it is only if they have to hold in class room during a passing period they would hardly even know it is happening.

third is students moved to hard corner of room out of sight lights out quiet , this is a shelter in place
students obviously know this is happening.

there is also evacuate , should it be a fire , gas leak , or other reason that the school has become unsafe

Years ago, Herrin had a strong Italian culture. About once a year my step dad would make the trip there to buy authentic Italian sausage and Lasagna noodles to make his homemade Lasagna. I grew up a little east and south of there.

The last one I heard blow was a three phase pad mount and it was more like the cannon sound Pete said, it was the fire ball with it that was exciting, the power company said the line was hit with lightning and it went to the transformer.