If you are a litterer....STOP!!

[mljdeckard]

http://www.ksl.com/index.php?nid=148&sid=9153008

Let me start by saying, I am a recovered litterer. I've done it all. I have vaporized glass bottles, shredded cars with M855, and exploded propane tanks with API. I have made divots in the desert that will last for decades.

I am NOT a tree-hugger. FAR from it. BUT, what I see, is that where I live on the developed front of the Wasatch Mountains, there's nowhere to shoot anymore. It's all being developed. You have to drive to the edges of the four-county area to find anywhere you can go to shoot what you want, how you want to. The worse news is, when you locate a place, everyone else does too. This is where you have mountains of everything that people think is fun to shoot. This is where the tree-huggers and ANTI-GUNNERS unite against us. If you want shooting zoned and fined out of existence, keep it up. Not included in the link I posted, is a story where the BLM found some shot-up monitors in the desert, and traced the serial #s back to the owner and kicked him in the gut with a fine.

I don't stop having fun, but I do invest two ounces of effort in keeping people off of our backs. MY RULES have formed as follows.

Use biodegradeable clay birds. They cost about the same now and are sometimes the only kind I can find anyway.

Use plastic milk jugs full of water, and pick them up when you are done.

Pick up your brass and hulls. This is just a good idea anyway in case they decide to match up the shooter to someone ELSE'S garbage.

Spread it out. Don't go to the same place every time, and if there is a place that is an obvious litter spot, don't go there at all. Go another 20 minutes into the desert.

Use steel targets you can take with you.

Watch your manners and rules especially when you aren't alone. You don't know if that other shooter has a brother-in-law working for the BLM.

If you must destroy a car, drain the fluids first. If that is a stretch, I suppose it's ridiculous to ask you to remove the glass. Just remember, that lasts forever.

My dad wasn't particularly destructive in raising me, but he never picked anything up either. It was part of his idea of getting out, to be able to do what you want and not worry about a little bit of trash. I had to shake it off and admit that my little contributions are part of the mountain.

We are making good progress. DON'T screw it up by making it easy for the antis to label us littering a-holes.

[sheepdog]

...I know of two range spots here in Tx. that've been closed to shooters due to trash and debris left behind in the last month or two...what we do carelessly can hurt us all...I don't even leave my brass behind and don't shoot anything I don't take out there...trees are for climbing, not shooting....

[fatelk]

I wholeheartedly agree. The place I go out of town in the mountains gets trashed up real fast. People seem to think that since it's out of town they can dump their trash, shoot it up, and leave it lay.

I wish that there was some way to convince others to pack out their trash, but it seems like some folks are going to do the right thing, and others just don't care. I'm not sure what can be done about this, from an "activism" perspective.

[mljdeckard]

I posted it here, because this was all I can think of, thinking maybe other people will realize that just because their dad did it doesn't mean that they have to do it too.

[Nicodemus38]

has anyone here looked at the residue of airsoft? thousands of little plastic pellets priced at 10 bucks for 2,000 at walmart. go through two boxes with your buddies and look at the residue ont he ground. no one seems to be interested in the fact that these airsoft bbs are the ideal size for MOST turkeys, condors, etc to use as crop rocks. and plastic lasts foreever.

[steveracer]

I leave the range I use every time with three or four full 55gal bags of trash in my truck. I bring none, and leave with lots. Every time. I figure I'll clean it up, and other will benefit from it, fine. I WILL NOT trash the place, because it's like heaven having someplace to shoot without some range-rat telling me I can't draw from a holster, or fire more than one round every five seconds, or reload on the move, or transition from carbine/shotgun to pistol, or lay down on my mat, or shoot from retention at two yards, or whatever other BS people have told me over the years.
I have begun to hate organized ranges so much that I drive 50 miles each way out to Oso, (middle of nowhere) and shoot there, just to avoid the strange rules. I clean up every time, no matter what kind of other people's trash it is laying about the place.

Edited to add: We really do need to come up with cheap biodegradeable airsoft BBs. Paintballs are degradeable, why not airsoft?

[shotgunjoel]

Edited to add: We really do need to come up with cheap biodegradeable airsoft BBs. Paintballs are degradeable, why not airsoft?

They exist, and they aren't much if any more expensive, for some reason they haven't caught on.

[wilkersk]

I always manage to bring back a truck load of trash, brass, and shotshells. Even got to dump at the transfer station for free a couple of times, after explaining what I was doing.

[Yikes!]

Please remember... cigarette butts are litter too. On the range and on the street.

[HOME DEPOT GEORGE]

Only if you smoke cigarettes with filters

[steveracer]

One of my biggest pet peeves is the butt-out-the-window thing. Also at the range. People who do this crap have obviously never had a Gunnery Sergeant in their face for it.

[mljdeckard]

When I was in 3rd ID in Germany, one day I saw a guy in full combat gear on the street, he would move out of the way for cars and then go back to the middle and stand there. I went to ask him why, he pointed at the drain, and said; "The SMAJ caught me throwing a butt in there. I have to guard it all weekend." I walked away.

[wilkersk]

You would think that with all the multi-billion dollar wild fires in the news the last couple of years, people would be more concerned about tossing lit ciggarettes out in places where there is plenty of class A fuel ready to burn. Yet I constantly see people flipping their butts into the tall grass, leaves etc...

No faster way to ruin a good remote shooting spot than to burn the forest down around it.

[Tim the student]

mljdeckard, good thread.

[mcdonl]

Excellent thread. I like to shoot goards, rotten veggies my wife wont cook, crap apples, etc... the critters eat them up after too. Crackers are another good one.

[Sheldon J]

I'm one of the lucky ones... I have my own range and when it gets messy I just take out the tractor with the end loader and neaten things up a tad...
However when shooting someplace that is not mine it has always been considered good form to pick up after myself at the end of the session trying to leave things as I found them, or better....

[WardenWolf]

I try to clean up my shells and hulls, assuming I can find them without too much trouble. I use autoloading AK-based firearms primarily, and they tend to send the spent casings a long ways. I'll grab the ones I come across, and that's about all anyone can do.

[steveracer]

The brass isn't going to be a big deal. The plastic, however...

[mljdeckard]

Yeah, if all we had to deal with was some old brass, the tree-huggers wouldn't have much to complain about. Also, pretty much all of the AK ammo I use is steel cases, and I'll be surprised if it lasts more than two winters under the snow anyway.

[sheepdog]

"...Let no one say, and say it to your shame,
That all was beauty here before you came." Can anyone tell me where I learned that little ditty????

[MD_Willington]

There was a gravel pit closed near Genesee, ID. Same deal, everyone left their crap there after shooting so the owner told everyone to get lost.

[NVCZ]

When I was about 10 yrs old I spent the summer with my uncle who owned a little bit of land in Northern California (when it was a good state). The first day at the trailer he brought out a little Beretta .22 semi auto and taught me how to handle it safely and handed me a brick of ammo. He pointed to the side of the trailer where there were cases of empty bottles.

Told me to take as many as I like and set them over at the pit and blast away. He went in for a nap, and I killed a half dozen cases of bottles. Man that was fun. Later when the shooting was done and he woke up he came out to see how I did. He was as happy as I was about how my first real shooting day went.

Then he told me "Now go clean up all that glass".

I did, and I learned my first lesson in gun responsibility.

You are responsible for what you shoot.

To this day I clean up after myself and others at the outdoor ranges I use.

I taught my son the same lesson.

My uncle is long gone to the other side, but his legacy and lessons live.

Thank you Uncle Bill...

NVCZ

[Mp7]

By the way of the highroad - as i perceive it -
if you´re not able to take responsibility for your actions
including picking up your trash
you´re probably not fit to own guns ...

... i remember walking the appalachian woods ...
you could easily find stoneage arrowheads in the ground.
Which is nice.

There were 12ga shells every few yards too.

[millertyme]

Sheepdog - that sounds like Dr. Seuss

[THE DARK KNIGHT]

I have vaporized glass bottles, shredded cars with M855, and exploded propane tanks with API. I have made divots in the desert that will last for decades

Please, Please, PLEASE can I spend a weekend with you this summer?