Staying Safe at the "Gravel Pit" or other Shooting Spot

While not a shooting spot, our local deserts can have the same sort of dangers. Even a stranded truck should be looked at with suspect. You never know when one of the young idiots will start mouthing off about taking yours.

Worthwhile advice for sure.

One more reason I'm glad to be able to shoot in the country at my home.


However I've often wondered what the chances are a nutjob would wander to a competition and try to unleash madness. To the reasonable man it seems ridiculous entering into an arena where everyone is armed, but senseless folks generally aren't very reasonable from what I gather.

It doesn't worry me when I'm at comps but I've certainly thought about the possibility.

Forget loons and criminals. Mr.and Mrs.John Q Public are menace enough. I have seen a couple, and another time was told of a dude on a mountain bike, come down out of the hills, climb over the barbed wire, amble past the large signs with skull and crossbones on them labeled Shooting Range, ignore the red flags, and walk down the berm (or ride in the case of the mounted idiot) between the 100 and 200 yard ranges while a competition was being shot (obviously, once the morons were sighted, firing stopped but not before they were a danger). In both cases the sheriff escorted them off the grounds for mental evaluation. It absolutely beggars belief.

bring a friend/partner with you whenever you can. besides it is more fun shooting with two then just yourself.

There is a member here many years ago who was found murdered at a public shooting range.

40 or so years ago I never gave shooting alone at the local gravel pit a second thought. Same with riding wheeler's alone.

Then I started shooting at a staffed public range and felt fairly safe.

These days I shoot at a private range behind a locked gate and look over my shoulders.

Last time I went to the local gravel pit shooting area I felt like I needed a flak jacket due to all the moronic boobs shooting in all directions and yelling yeee-haaaaw. Getting jacked for my guns was the least of my worries.

Years ago, I remember reading about a deer hunter being robbed of his rifle by 2 dangerous persons who appoarched him as he
was walking through the forest. He said that they had followed him from the road when they saw him park his car.
And because he was alone he didn't argue with them when they demanded his rifle. Then they just walked away with his rifle.
I can't recall the exact details but I think that he was saying that things could have worked out far worse if they had been wanting to hurt him.

That account has made me very mindful that you must be ready to make a life or death desicion if your confronted by dangerous persons.

I used to work at a gun store. The owner always reminded us to be aware of cars outside at closing time. Be aware of any that followed you, just working at the store can make you a target.
Thanks for the reminder to be aware of who's around you. Better safe then sorry.

labnoti said:

This was from last month: https://kval.com/news/local/sheriff...-dead-near-estacada-determines-cause-of-death

If it was already discussed here, I missed it. I do not have any more details than scarce ones in the linked article. This has the appearance of people that were robbed and shot for their guns.

I'm always mindful that Platt and Matix obtained their firearms by ambushing people that were shooting alone at the gravel pit. They did that at least twice. I also believe Davis and Twinning were shooting in the San Gabriel mountains in the Angeles National Forest that day before Twinning encountered Tidwell in a road-range incident and later Gore and Frago pulled Twinning and Davis over. While those infamous days are best known for the lessons learned by law-enforcement, there are plenty of lessons to be learned from them for civilians if we look for them. Consider Tidwell, Kness, Briel and Collazo -- any one of us could find ourselves in their circumstances.

While we often think of our firearms as protecting us from criminal threats, our firearms can also make us a target. This is especially the case when we're alone in an isolated place and we can certainly be expected to have the guns the assailants want.

Criminals, addicts, and other desperate people can readily trade guns for cash or drugs on the street, or they can use them for hold-ups. They're desirable not only to intimidate victims, but for protection from gang rivals.

My rural town is steeped in the gun culture and shooting throughout our vast public lands is popular. I often shoot alone in various pits outside town that are also used by other shooters. I never approach other shooters. I never attempt to share a spot.

Although I think my choice of guns would be a sore disappointment to a would-be gun-jacker, I think I'm just going to avoid the more popular pits altogether. There are plenty of good places for shooting with safe backstops that nobody else frequents. It just makes more sense to me not to be where someone could expect to find a person isolated and alone with guns.

Another thing I practice is to have a gun loaded with self-defense ammo on my person while I'm there. I may be shooting a rifle, a handgun or a shotgun, but it could have target loads or I might have just emptied it into targets. Alone in the pit is not a place to be caught with only an empty gun.

Click to expand...

SPOT ON POST,and one that I have considered as a REAL THREAT since the 2 turds that shot it out in 1983 with the FBI.

They killed at least 3,and 2 were for guns & vehicles.

I take care to not be unarmed,AND to watch those at my range in case they are not known .

Although I seldom carry a BUG as part of my daily concealed carry, when I am out shooting on public land or even our local "members only" range, I always have a second gun on me. Maybe a pocket pistol, or a second gun under my shirt in a "support side" holster. Also a good chance to practice a few "draw and fire" drills with the back up before heading home.

I shoot at a private range several miles east of town and as far as I know we've never had a problem. I generally go shooting with my wife and it's usually one shooting and one watching at all times.

The below occurred just as I was starting high school, with one of my good friends being a close acquaintance of one of the victims. My friend's brother chose not to go shooting that day...


2 Killed, 3 Injured in Canyon Shooting Near Boulder; Suspect Captured

BOULDER, Colo. (AP) _ An escaped convict suspected in four slayings, including an attack on a group of target shooters that killed two, was wounded and captured early today after an extensive manhunt, authorities said. Michael G. Bell was shot in the neck as he ran from a bar and attempted to escape in a car, said Boulder sheriff’s Lt. Joe Gang. Officers who had been tipped off were waiting in the car. He was taken to BoulderCommunity Hospital, where he was in serious condition, a nursing supervisor said.

Bell, 36, escaped from the Four Mile Correctional Center in Canon City on Aug. 5. He is suspected of being the man who rounded up five men as they practiced target shooting in the mountains Friday, and then opened fire. Two men were killed and a third seriously injured. Bell also is being sought for questioning in the fatal shootings of a 36- year-old transient on Tuesday in Boulder Canyon and a 20-year-old convenience store clerk in Broomfield on Aug. 15, Gang said.

After Friday’s attack, roadblocks were set up in Boulder and on roads throughout the pine-covered mountains and steep canyons northwest of the city. It was described as Boulder County’s largest manhunt in 15 years. Authorities said Bell contacted someone he knew and asked the person to provide a car so he could escape. Instead, Gang said, the person tipped off authorities. When Bell arrived at the Boulder City Limits, a bar, deputies were waiting in the car he planned to take.

Identities of the two men killed Friday were withheld pending notification of relatives. The wounded were Timothy Bendel, described as in his 20s, who was shot in the head and was listed in serious condition at BoulderCommunity Hospital, and Michael Victor, 22, was treated and released after a bullet grazed his head, hospital official said. Matthew Hickey, 19, who fell while trying to escape the shootings, was treated for a knee injury and released, said Assistant Boulder County Sheriff Dave Voorhis. The five men were in an area of the mountains used for target shooting and motorcycle riding when the shooter drove up in a blue car and represented himself as an off-duty park ranger, Voorhis said. He took the serial numbers of the victims’ weapons and began to march them back down to a road, Voorhis said. ″As the five were going down to the road he began shooting them,″ he said.


The car, which was stolen near Canon City on Aug. 6, was found abandoned in Boulder later Friday. Spokeswoman Liz McDonough of the state Department of Corrections said Bell, 36, was admitted to the state prison system in 1988 and was serving a 12-year sentence for check fraud and theft. She said Bell had an Illinois prison record, including for attempted murder in 1972.

https://www.apnews.com/2e913db0221e010d7b2521fd41361319

Things that happen when you are a teenager set the stage for how you view everything moving forward. I will never be without a loaded weapon at any time at any range, regardless of "policy". It may be concealed, but it's there.

I got shot at twice at shooting spots in the 90’s.

Once in California at Lytle Creek out by Cucamonga (that place used to be nuts) and once north of Phoenix Arizona.

The one north of Phx was a misunderstanding (I think). We were firing into a hill about 100 yards that had some brush over to the right of the hill that we were shooting into. We stopped shooting and had lunch. While we were having lunch a red truck went by on the dirt wash road and kept going. We thought nothing of it.

We started shooting again at a target 30 yards away (.22LR rifles) and about 30 secs after that we took fire from roughly the direction of the brush to our right. Sounded like a .22 rifle. I went prone immediately, but my friend kept running to a ditch several yards away with rds hitting around him. He made it. We stayed there and I reloaded my rifle out of single rds I had in my pocket. A couple mins later that same red truck went by us (about 40-50 yards away) at a high rate of speed towards the main rd kicking up dust. I had my rifle at low ready, but their passenger window wasn’t down and no one was in the bed. I didn’t shoot at it because it didn’t represent a threat right then.

I can only guess that they went over there in that brush to our right hiking or perhaps scouting to around to shoot themselves when they thought we were shooting at them.

Either that or they meant to try their luck with shooting at someone out in a remote place.

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The second time was a carload of gangbangers that pulled up to our shooting spot (all kinds of other places to shoot out there, it was just our two groups on that whole plain).

Something seemed up, like they were going to do something.

They were being really friendly and they didn’t look like guys who were normally friendly, so we didn’t turn our backs. We just waited for them to go away not really keeping up our end of the conversation and not putting our guns down in the bed of the truck.

They finally seemed to get frustrated and relocated to around 50 yards away where they seemed more interested in us than shooting themselves. They had a few people in the car, but they didn’t get out. Just the two guys. I packed up and my friend kept watch. When we were almost all the way done packing our stuff up one of the guys shot at us with some kind of pistol.

We shot back and they took off.

We left and notified the Sheriffs. Never heard anything else about it. Never went back there again. That place was kinda crazy in the 80’s and 90’s anyway.

——

Whenever I’ve gone to a rural place that isn’t a range since then I’ve always carried a pistol and a few mags and had at least one rifle and several mags loaded up.

If I had the rifle I’ve always shoved a couple mags in my back pocket. No more of this loading single rds stuff while laying in the dirt with an empty gun. I didn’t like that at all. Surreal situation.