Some curious phrases I've heard lately....

There have been two curious phrases which I've heard lately: downrange and in-country. They seem to hark back to cowboy times. The cattle are downrange and are in country. They are out to pasture. The first also connotates a sense that something is out of the area. It is out of range and cannot be seen, felt, heard or tasted.

Changing the words to down-country and in-range might actually better reflect the actual meaning intended. There are people or objects now in-range which are targets. Down-country seems to imply to me to be in place. You are now in place and the targets are in range, down-country and in-range.