Connecticut Range Brush Fire Sunday ...

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30 cal slob

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So I'm driving to a public outdoor range on Sunday for a little rifle trigger work.

I get to the parking lot at 1 p.m ish and and am dismayed to see a fire engine parked with lights flashing. A sharp feeling of awful foreboding wells up in the pit of my stomach, and I'm thinking "oh chit, somebody got hurt in a range accident." :uhoh:

Then I glance at the range and notice prodigious clouds of smoke billowing right behind the 100 yard rifle berm. :scrutiny:

RSO says tersely, "we're shut down for now, brush fire, tried putting out a small one earlier but it flared up again so we called the FD."

So we're sitting in the lounge, with people piling in, expecting to shoot. After an hour, we're crowding the range gun shop ... if ya can't shoot, might as well shop. :rolleyes: That gets old, so we stare at the butts of the folks shooting in the indoor .22 range.

At around 2:15 the fire dep't says, "just another 10-15 minutes 'till we're done." Hope springs eternal.

So, at about 3:00 :banghead: we finally get the all-clear to squeeze in two hours of shooting. :cuss:

To the jerk who was shootin tracers at the far end of the 100 yard line OVER THE 15 FOOT BERM at the Blue Trail Range in Wallingford, thanks for nuttin.
 
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we roll out to brushfires every couple of days at the range down the road from the station here. tracers every time. but it is a military base.
 
Well, the next time, fire deterrant or water can be used to soak anything beyond the firing bench every morning and every dry season. That way, tracers won't ruin anybody's day and add more CO2 to the environment.
 
tracers every time.

I'll have to see if I can find it. Some years back I think it was the Utah State Police did a study to see if they could get brush fires started with regular shooting. Try as they might they couldn't get one going except with tracer ammo. I think they were even shooting regular ammo into gasoline drenched brush at one point.

Yea found it, quoted here even. I've seen a better webpage out there with photos and such from the experiment.

http://www.thehighroad.org/archive/index.php/t-295776.html

YouTube video of it too: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tVPP9thhnLw

No gasoline afterall....but they did pour molten lead directly on the cheat grass and no fire.
 
I was planning on going there right at that time on sunday. Glad I didn't. I'd be up for a meetup of local members. I'll be there this upcoming weekend.
 
I was there too

I was there Sunday also. I only got to put a half a box through my new shottie. I couldn't take the wait and left.

If any CT shooters are interested in plate shoots try my club the mattabassett rifle and pistol club on saturdays. Pistols at 0900 rifles after. it is alot of fun.

www.mattabassettrpc.com

pete
 
Blue Trails is a phenomenal range.

Pete, you do the plate and pin shoots? Been years. Is Ed, the WWII Pensacola mechanic still showing up? Do you remember Darius? Huge into HK's. Can you PM me if you know what happened to him? I received bad news about him, but not much of it. He was a good man.

-Sans Authoritas
 
is the range open or are they closed down? i was planning on going there tuesday to try out my new mosin and .22 pistol.

hopefully this does not cause too many problems. they are a great range and basically my only option other than going out into the woods.
 
If any of you local folks see a big guy shooting a Saiga .308 with a guitar gig bag for a case, come on over and say hi. That would be me. I usually go in the afternoon, because the brass pickins are better toward the end of the day :p
 
Sans Authoritas said:
Blue Trails is a phenomenal range.

It's a nice facility indeed and CT is lucky to have it.

There are some regulations there that annoy me -

1) No shooting centerfire rifle from a standing position @ the 100 yard line

2) No shooting centerfire rifle @ targets positioned less than 100 yards (example: I'm forbidden from establishing a 50 yard combat zero on my M4).

I'm sure these rules came into place because some careless yahoos made a safety issue of them. It is a range open to the public, after all.

The ranges (outdoor 200 and 100 yard rifle, outdoor pistol, outdoor trap) are a great resource and the Lyman family does an incredible job educating and training new and young shooters (one of the few sponsors of youth shooting in the Nutmeg state).

IMO the clubhouse could be spruced up a little (bathrooms are NASTY) and they really should upgrade the ventilation system for the indoor range to accommodate pistol calibers larger than .22LR.

Would be really nice if they set up a pit so we could shoot full auto again.

Would be nice if there was a "tactical" pit to work on shoot and move drills with a carbine.

Sigh. There's always Metacon.
 
GREAT RANGE, the first range i went to. I would just like to add their prices are 20$ an hour. im cheap and thats a little expensive for me. High Rock in naugatuck is public and only cost 5 for the first and 4 dollars after that. not quite as large or as many different attractions(restaurant, skeet, pro shop, ect) but over all great range with excellent officers.
too bad about that brush fire. i went up and had to wait at high rock but thankfully it was only about 10 min. because all the lanes were filled. thankfully no FD or fires were involved.
 
It is a central location... Pick a day in May or June on the weekend, I will meet you there...

I will bring my Bushmaster and a couple handguns!
 
2 eds

Sans, there are 2 Eds at my club. Both are older and one is a Marine gunnery sageant don't know about the other. Don't know any Darius. I'll ask next week.

We shoot plates with pistols and pins with rifles. It is a blast and everybody is very friendly.

There are some losers but overall you can meet alot of good people at the range.

pete
 
Don't know any Darius. I'll ask next week.
I believe that I knew the guy he is referring to from back when NEOR in Wallingford was running plateshoots. I remember hearing some things back then, but I'm not going to mention what I heard, since 1. it was so long ago I may not be remembering properly (either person or what happened), and 2. I heard it second hand, so I don't know how accurate it was.
 
Pete, aye,

I used to go to the shoots up there, years back. Ed always wears (wore?) a ball cap of some sort, he's in his 70's or 80's. Very cheerful, humble man, often served as a range safety officer. I have a photo of him standing next to me as my RSO.

Back in the day, you used to be able to start the pin shoot from the shoulder. You may remember the day that caused them to pass the knee-jerk rule about having to start from the hip. The whole incident would have been really funny, if they hadn't instituted the rule afterward.

Aye, I heard secondhand about Darius, too. A good man with a wickedly wry sense of humor. See if you can verify, would you, Pete?

-Sans Authoritas
 
I think Ed is still there. last time i went there to use the shotgun field a man in his 70's to 80's came up to check on us and we ended up talking for a while. real nice guy. just came up to remind us not to shoot up the trashcans as somebody had been doing that lately.
 
I'll ask and report back

I'm off to go camping but I'll be shooting a week Saturday back in ct. I'l ask then. Pete
 
tmajors said:
Some years back I think it was the Utah State Police did a study to see if they could get brush fires started with regular shooting. Try as they might they couldn't get one going except with tracer ammo.

And yet, this last summer they banned public shooting on government land after a few wild/brush fires got out of control. They (whoever they is) blamed it on arrant bullets and ricochets causing the fires. Pure BS as you think they would have learned the first time they did the testing.
 
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