1KPerDay
Member
First things first: the kids were great. Better than great. My 11 year old boy is hitting about 8 out of 10 hand-thrown clays with a 20 gauge Winchester 1200 now, only his second time out with a shotgun. My 9 year old daughter was nailing plastic bottles with her .22 like it was going out of style.
However, I was quite disturbed by the behavior of my fellow gun enthusiasts. I drove quite a way past the usual outdoor shooting area, generally populated with yahoos and idiots who litter and shoot in every direction and generally make me fear for my life. We found a (what I thought was) secluded area up against a hill and took the time to set up some water-filled plastic orange juice bottles (which we save to shoot, then recycle).
Get the kids geared up, load up, get a few shots off, then two guys in a car drive further up the hill on an access road and sit there. About 100 yards downrange from us. We're all standing on the firing line holding shotguns; there's no mistaking what we're doing. After a minute a guy gets out, walks across the hill in front of us, and walks down into a ravine at our right. I wait about 5 minutes. Then I walk up to see if the driver has any idea what he's doing or how inconsiderate he's being.
I ask if he's shooting. He says no. I ask where his buddy went. He says they were shooting there earlier and his buddy thinks he may have lost something and he'll be back in a minute. I say okay and walk back.
About 10 minutes of us standing there in the snow, they finally leave. So we start to get set up to shoot again.
Another truck drives up the hill. Thankfully they go quickly and disappear around the corner and up the mountain. So after a couple minutes I figure we're okay to shoot shotshells.
Another SUV drives up the road and stops right about where my shotgun barrel naturally points. Guy gets out. farts around for about 2 minutes. Goes back to his car. Starts to get crap out to shoot.
UNFRICKINBELIEVABLE.:banghead: I'm absolutely livid. It's not like this is the only area to shoot out here. There's a billion acres in every direction. Can't find another hill? Fine, let's move, kids. Pick up the bottles, pack up the clays, unload the guns, take out the earplugs and stow the eye protection.
So I spin around, drive down the hill, find another road even further out of the way, drive up for another 10 minutes.
Just before the road ends at a nice backstop/hill, we pass 4 guys coming down in a car. A few seconds later we arrive at the place they just left. I'm absolutely speechless. There is garbage everywhere. A couple of large cardboard boxes that had clays or other junk in them. Ammo boxes. shotshells everywhere. This is on white snow. This isn't an obvious garbage dump. This was a pristine area. And they just dump all their crap at their feet and drive away. I'm so mad I can barely speak. How can people do this? Their parents raised them to believe it was acceptable to do this?? And apparently their kids will do the same? I explain to my kids that there's a special place in hell for these types of people, the same type who refuse to flush public toilets and who throw their cigarette butts and McDonald's wrappers out the window of their trucks.
We finally get to shoot, have a great time, and then when we're all numb from the cold, spend an extra 5 minutes picking up all the crap the other guys left (along with our shells, bottles, garbage, etc.).
I'm seriously disappointed.
However, I was quite disturbed by the behavior of my fellow gun enthusiasts. I drove quite a way past the usual outdoor shooting area, generally populated with yahoos and idiots who litter and shoot in every direction and generally make me fear for my life. We found a (what I thought was) secluded area up against a hill and took the time to set up some water-filled plastic orange juice bottles (which we save to shoot, then recycle).
Get the kids geared up, load up, get a few shots off, then two guys in a car drive further up the hill on an access road and sit there. About 100 yards downrange from us. We're all standing on the firing line holding shotguns; there's no mistaking what we're doing. After a minute a guy gets out, walks across the hill in front of us, and walks down into a ravine at our right. I wait about 5 minutes. Then I walk up to see if the driver has any idea what he's doing or how inconsiderate he's being.
I ask if he's shooting. He says no. I ask where his buddy went. He says they were shooting there earlier and his buddy thinks he may have lost something and he'll be back in a minute. I say okay and walk back.
About 10 minutes of us standing there in the snow, they finally leave. So we start to get set up to shoot again.
Another truck drives up the hill. Thankfully they go quickly and disappear around the corner and up the mountain. So after a couple minutes I figure we're okay to shoot shotshells.
Another SUV drives up the road and stops right about where my shotgun barrel naturally points. Guy gets out. farts around for about 2 minutes. Goes back to his car. Starts to get crap out to shoot.
UNFRICKINBELIEVABLE.:banghead: I'm absolutely livid. It's not like this is the only area to shoot out here. There's a billion acres in every direction. Can't find another hill? Fine, let's move, kids. Pick up the bottles, pack up the clays, unload the guns, take out the earplugs and stow the eye protection.
So I spin around, drive down the hill, find another road even further out of the way, drive up for another 10 minutes.
Just before the road ends at a nice backstop/hill, we pass 4 guys coming down in a car. A few seconds later we arrive at the place they just left. I'm absolutely speechless. There is garbage everywhere. A couple of large cardboard boxes that had clays or other junk in them. Ammo boxes. shotshells everywhere. This is on white snow. This isn't an obvious garbage dump. This was a pristine area. And they just dump all their crap at their feet and drive away. I'm so mad I can barely speak. How can people do this? Their parents raised them to believe it was acceptable to do this?? And apparently their kids will do the same? I explain to my kids that there's a special place in hell for these types of people, the same type who refuse to flush public toilets and who throw their cigarette butts and McDonald's wrappers out the window of their trucks.
We finally get to shoot, have a great time, and then when we're all numb from the cold, spend an extra 5 minutes picking up all the crap the other guys left (along with our shells, bottles, garbage, etc.).
I'm seriously disappointed.
