Chairman Meow
Member
So I was up at the Holladay gun club yesterday to shoot my new Kimber. I was alone on the 25/50 yard range just practicing presentation and trying out a new box of reloads. This range is off to the far north end of the club and I could hear someone south of me shooting a full auto. They were only shooting little bursts, 10 or 15 rounds at the most. I didn't think much of it until I smelled smoke, looked up and saw the hillside going up in flames.
This range sits at the edge of the Salt Lake valley in the foothills, which are very dry this year, and this fire was moving uphill fast. I cleared my .45, secured it in my vehicle, and ran over to the other end of the range. I work as a programmer / engineer for the Forest Service and as a formality I have to have my wildland firefighter certification, though I have never actually used it outside of training fires. I was thinking aww crap, the news is going to run some damn story about how gun owners lit the whole Wasatch front on fire and then they're gonna close my range. Fan-frickin-tastic. So I made sure the range was closed and grabbed a shovel and started running up along side the fire. I was hoping to get in front of it to dig a line before it got too big, but that hill is STEEP it had already run a hundred yards up the hill. There was no way I was going to catch the top of it, and even if I could it was to big to be uphill of for safety reasons. A couple other guys and I placed lines all the way up the left edge of the fire to keep it from spreading north, but it started taking off diagonally up and left up a second draw, so I ran up there and started a line. After another 100 yards of line I had managed to get that finger of the fire out but the middle finger was running hard and had engulfed about 20 acres at that point. I had been going full steam for nearly an hour and a half and man was I tired.
County fire had arrived and was dragging hose up the hill so I went around them through the black and put out some spots on the other side before heading back down the hill to my truck. I was covered in soot and rather pissed about my day of shooting being ruined. I was thinking that the guys with the full auto (who incidentally did NOTHING to help me fight the fire) were probably using tracers which are illegal in Utah for what is obviously a very good reason. I went and talked to the sherriff and he said he checked out the tax stamps and ammo and it was all legit, just a stray spray of bullets sparked on some rocks or something. In all the excitement I had locked my keys in the damn truck so I had to call my girlfriend and get her to come let me in. On top of that, I melted part of my new Safariland holster, ruined my favorite jeans, got blisters all over my hands from digging with no gloves, and inhaled enough smoke that I have been coughing ever since and think I am now getting sick.
There had been news choppers circling so I figured there would be something on the news about it but there wasn't. I guess that means that county fire got it out before it got very big.
Moral of the story: Thats what I get for skipping out of the office early on a Friday to go shooting.
This range sits at the edge of the Salt Lake valley in the foothills, which are very dry this year, and this fire was moving uphill fast. I cleared my .45, secured it in my vehicle, and ran over to the other end of the range. I work as a programmer / engineer for the Forest Service and as a formality I have to have my wildland firefighter certification, though I have never actually used it outside of training fires. I was thinking aww crap, the news is going to run some damn story about how gun owners lit the whole Wasatch front on fire and then they're gonna close my range. Fan-frickin-tastic. So I made sure the range was closed and grabbed a shovel and started running up along side the fire. I was hoping to get in front of it to dig a line before it got too big, but that hill is STEEP it had already run a hundred yards up the hill. There was no way I was going to catch the top of it, and even if I could it was to big to be uphill of for safety reasons. A couple other guys and I placed lines all the way up the left edge of the fire to keep it from spreading north, but it started taking off diagonally up and left up a second draw, so I ran up there and started a line. After another 100 yards of line I had managed to get that finger of the fire out but the middle finger was running hard and had engulfed about 20 acres at that point. I had been going full steam for nearly an hour and a half and man was I tired.
County fire had arrived and was dragging hose up the hill so I went around them through the black and put out some spots on the other side before heading back down the hill to my truck. I was covered in soot and rather pissed about my day of shooting being ruined. I was thinking that the guys with the full auto (who incidentally did NOTHING to help me fight the fire) were probably using tracers which are illegal in Utah for what is obviously a very good reason. I went and talked to the sherriff and he said he checked out the tax stamps and ammo and it was all legit, just a stray spray of bullets sparked on some rocks or something. In all the excitement I had locked my keys in the damn truck so I had to call my girlfriend and get her to come let me in. On top of that, I melted part of my new Safariland holster, ruined my favorite jeans, got blisters all over my hands from digging with no gloves, and inhaled enough smoke that I have been coughing ever since and think I am now getting sick.
There had been news choppers circling so I figured there would be something on the news about it but there wasn't. I guess that means that county fire got it out before it got very big.
Moral of the story: Thats what I get for skipping out of the office early on a Friday to go shooting.
Lead? Eeek! I am thinking that I was far enough up the hill that I was away from most of that, but you are right there is an awful lot of lead in them thar hills. Is there a doc on this forum?
