Cal wildfires= bad gunner press

[thorn726]

well just GREAT- front page of today's SF chronicle (the big paper here)

-Yosemite fires article, first paragraph they have to mention that the most recent fire causing problems in Yosemite, burning lots of homes- started by a target shooter..
Fortunately the article didn't insert any politics but i get a bad feeling some anti will try and keep us from shooting in the forest over this

PLease just be extra careful when shooting in a dry area, it really is not cool of one person to destroy thousands of acres and homes, I have a feeling this could have been avoided with a little more caution and closer attention paid to the
FOUR RULES

the four rules apply to EVERYTHING not just animals and people- you wouldn't shoot at a gas pump right?

we all gotta use the same caution in the forest if you live in a dry area....
(obviously this is not an issue if it rains in summer where you are)

 

[hso]

Arid environments present special problems that lots of folks don't normally deal with and therefore don't think about. Obviously it's something we need to keep in mind.

 

[Colt46]

Was there negligent use of firearms?

Or was it just some yahoo that was target shooting do something equally careless with a cigarette, motor vehicle or campfire.
Believe me there are those that don't only want to ban guns. Banning cigarettes cars and campfires are on some agendas.

 

[CountGlockula]

Any more details on the arsonist?

I doubt the shooter was using tracer rounds to start the fire. Most likely took a cigarette break.

 

[W.E.G.]

Sparks from steel-jacketed ammo should easily start fires if fired into a rocky area littered with dry brush.

Lots of things start fires.

Anybody operating a device with the potential to start a fire needs to first be aware of the fire potential, and second, take steps to avoid causing fires.

Either way, I'm sure this incident will still be used to disparage shooters.

Same way any incident is "played up" by those with ulterior motives.

 

[KiltedClaymore]

Steel jacketed ammo should easily start fires if fired into a rocky area littered with dry brush.

HOW?! only way i can think of is if the case sat there for an extended period of time with the heat at a constant temp for the duration. OR if the brush was soaked in jet fuel! cases dont hold heat long enough (or get hot enough in the first place) to start fires.

 

[rritter]

Steel-jacketed bullet hitting a rock and spitting out sparks, which land on dry brush. It's the high-speed version of the old flint-and-steel fire starter

Most of the sparks will be harmless, but given enough of them a fire can start.

 

[KiltedClaymore]

that has to hit at just the right angle

 

[TallPine]

Yeah, like nobody else has ever accidently started a fire before ...

 

[SHOOT1SAM]

My curiosity is.......how, EXACTLY, do they assert that this target shooter started the fire?

I know a target shooting could have started it, but I have not heard exactly how they say he is supposed to have done it; I've only heard accusations/allegations to this point.

Sam

 

[TallPine]

Our "neighbors" to the east (1/2 mile from my property line) have an 18,000 acre ranch that in addition to raising cattle on they also do trail rides and rent cabins.

A couple years back, the group somehow started a fire at the lunch stop on one of their big trail rides. It smoldered and blew up the next day. We had three or four fire departments including a DNRC helicopter ("Huey" type) up there to put it out. No structures nearby, though.

So ... does that make all cattle ranchers and all horse owners and riders to be evil people ??????

 

[Hank Zudd]

with the heat, wind and -10% humidity, a good fart could start a fire. Probably an area that had alot of fuel & not burned in a while.

Yes, I've seen lots of ranges with tall, dry grass, low humidity & fmj rounds lit up; in Kali & Texas.

Hell, in Kali that's why they wouldn't give us the tracer mix when we're shootin' door gunnery; sucks not to be able to see the arc & walk'em in.

 

[KiltedClaymore]

like my area? arizona, the tinderbox of the world. never had anything CLOSE to a fire started my my shooting. or anything else i've done. like playing with fire (scouts with be scouts!)

 

[rcmodel]

The only range fires I have ever seen stated with small-arms fire was started with .30 & .50 cal tracer bullets.

I think the chances of a steel jacket bullet hitting a rock, and making a spark, and the spark falling into tender, and the wind fanning the tender into a forest fire, are pretty far fetched.

It "could" happen, but I'd bet money if a "shooter" did it, he did it with a lit cigarette butt.
Or much more likely, the Catalytic Converter on his truck or car.

We have wheat field & prairie fires every year in Kansas caused by cat converters parked in dry wheat stubble or range grass.

rcmodel

 

[Cave Dweller]

Shooting small propane cans is popular with some groups.
Road flare in the ground, punch a hole in the can with a rifle, get a satisfying little fwoop! But please, if you do this, make sure there's either NO vegetation or the risk of fire is low. for example, on a nicely manicured lawn of someone you don't like (kidding)

But seriously, cheap thrills are not worth someone's house.

 

[SuperNaut]

This is totally anecdotal so take it with a truckload of salt. From what I have heard, when fire depts. are unable to definitively name a combustion source they sometimes name target shooting as a possible culprit. IIRC correctly it is because they often find casings at or near point of combustion.

Now we all know (or should) that correlation ≠ causation, but sometimes the word travels slower in certain circles.

 

[jrfoxx]

My curiosity is.......how, EXACTLY, do they assert that this target shooter started the fire?

I know a target shooting could have started it, but I have not heard exactly how they say he is supposed to have done it; I've only heard accusations/allegations to this point.

Agreed.without an eyewitness or a confession from the shooter, I dont see where they can have any way of knowing it was a target shooter.SuperNaut's explanation seems to make some sense though, so thats a possibility on why they may think it was a shooter.

 

[A man with a gun!]

From what I heard on the local news LE did an interview with the suspect who admitted to have been shooting at rocks. Understand there were two guys and two women involved.

Can it happen? You bet. In the early 90's I worked a large fire that was eventually determined to have been started by a spark generated by a horse's shoe striking against a rock.

 

[sfhogman]

One of my best friends owns a range in Northern California. Recently, a mutual friend of ours started a fire shooting at steel targets. I do not know if the rounds were steel-jacketed or steel-cored surplus. Five acres were burned before the CDF was able to extinguish it using trucks and a helicopter. In the time it took to run to the fire with an extinguisher, it was out of control. This was three months ago.

Ironically, three of four weeks ago the Sonoma County Wild Fire burned most of his ranch. He'll recover, but it'll take time.

And now, it's only lead bullets at his range in the summer.

Jeff

 

[bogie]

Knob Creek has had events where tracers were verboten due to lack of rain.

That's why I don't mind the mud.

 

[GlowinPontiac]

seriously if shooting steel jacketed or steel cored rounds at rocks could reliably start fires then why didn't all of Europe become scorched earth after WW2? they fired millions of steel containing rounds and millions of tracers into the woods!

 

[TAB]

seriously if shooting steel jacketed or steel cored rounds at rocks could reliably start fires then why didn't all of Europe become scorched earth after WW2? they fired millions of steel containing rounds and millions of tracers into the woods!

have you ever been to that part of CA?

A little back ground, last year we had the wetest year on record, every thing was lush and green. this year( seaon just ended) was one of the dryest. On a good year CA is a tender box waitng to go up in smoke, on a bad year, its a powder keg.

 

[Beagle-zebub]

Carbine Williams got his first revolver at the age of either 14 or 12, and wore it to school, where he and some of the other students would shoot into the woods during recess. By his account, this managed to start a fire in the woods.

I might be getting the age wrong--it might have been something like 11, or 9 (it struck me as really young, back when I was in high-school), with the revolver costing $14. How much would a SAA go for in the 1909-1914 timeframe?

 

[cpttango30]

I grew up in Northern Calie. That place no matter what amount of rain it gets is a powder keg in the summer time. The Sierra Nevada Mt. range gets little rain. Most of the rain comes off the pacific falls on the western side of the coastal range Hence the fact that redwood trees get so darn big TONS-O-RAIN.

The Sacramento Valley where I grew up would be brown and dead unless it was watered/ irrigated for the summer. We had a guy across the road from us set a fire off with a tractor plowing a field burned 100 acres in a matter of 30 or 40 minutes.

Plus many of the forested areas of CA are full of tender. Dead pine needles and leaves that accumulate on the ground we (Meaning humans) do not let the fires burn enough each year to keep the fire threat down they also do not do as many control burns anymore because of the tree huggers say it is polluting the atmosphere when we do that. If you let the fuel build up for so long the fires when started get to hot to do anything while fighting them.

My dad worked for PG&E for 37 years he had worked more fires than I can remember people who live out side of towns would cause fires from mowing their lawn, people start many by tossing cigarette butts out the window of cars, I have seen fires started by guys wreaking on motorcycles where the header pipe came in contact with dry grass. So it is not all that hard to start a fire in CA in the summer time.

My step-dad is working on one fire now they had it contained and almost out wind came back and now it is flared back up. Once fires get big they make their own weather.

 

[thorn726]

OF COURSE- all the article said was "started by a target shooter"
it's all abouyt bad press as yeah, like someone else posted, this could have been his cigarette, but all they paper says is "shooter"

got to love it....ok at least if this was posted..
"From what I heard on the local news LE did an interview with the suspect who admitted to have been shooting at rocks. "

if we're gonna get bad press, at least it is probably justified

NOTE some of you are posting replies to the effect of "i don't believe this"

that isn't going to help anyone, and if you feel that way please PLEASE
NEVER EVER EVER come and shoot in California or anywhere west for that matter. If you don;t understand the dry, i don't want to end up running from your fire