rant... took my kids shooting today

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Sounds like the area you were in was too populated to safely shoot. Consider going to a controlled range, where safety is enforced. Spending a few dollars to ensure your safety and the safety of others would be a good lesson for the kids.

As for the trash, the only thing that seems to work is community policing. If you see somebody littering, call 'em on it. Take pictures and get as much info as you can. Then, file a formal report with local law enforcement. Change won't happen immediately. But, hopefully, there will be more patrols in the area and the offenders will be run off. Of course, they may just close the area altogether. Either way, it's better than turning the area into a de facto dump.
 
1KPerDay said:
Cosmoline, no... the dirt road runs up the left side of the hill, then over and around a curve and back up the mountain. There are jeep roads crisscrossing everywhere out there.
Click to expand...


One reason target shooting is only allowed at designated ranges on many public lands. Altho we as hunters and shooters would like to think we are the only ones with a legitimate reason to use public lands, truth is, they are called public for a reason. These lands are open not only to hunters and shooters, they are open to hikers, bird watchers, snowshoers and cross country skiers. Just cause there's a good sized hill and some trees to block our shots does not necessarily make it safe to shoot. If there are legitimate trails and jeep roads downrange, it is not safe, and if they are legitimate, I'm guessing folks using them assume their use is safe......at all times.

1KPerDay, I appreciate your frustration....been there, done that. Used to be it pissed me off when I planned on makin' a day of it on public land and someone else had the same idea. Now I realize they too are just lookin' for some place to relax. That does not however, justify them being litterbugs or anal orifices. Public land use is like parkin' spots at the mall during the Christmas season. The good spots are always taken or have someone waitin' close by.

Seems like you made the best of a bad situation. Not only did you enjoy an afternoon of shooting sports with your children, but you taught them safety and respect for the land. They also were shown what type of adult not to be.
 
While the importance of safety is paramount, shooting in the wild has always been a thousand times more enjoyable for me (excluding cases listed by the OP).

I have taken to bringing along an extra trashbag and make it a rule to pack out more than we take in.

In my experience shooters tend to be bigger litter bugs than other groups of outdoors folks and we should make sure we police our own actions or the police will do it for us. (sure the ATV'ers leave destructive trails and snowmobilers noise up the area and disturb the wildlife, but going out to a shooting area in the forest and having it look like a dump is sad and frustrating.)

Backpackers used to be pretty careless and for years they've put energy into an education campaign.

And I appreciate the scout leaders for setting good examples! God bless you folks!
 
There's a favorite plinking spot 5 min from my house. Every couple of trips I take a garbage bag and spruce the place up a bit. It's getting bad though. The last time me and my Grandpa-in law went fishing last year, I was putting the boat on the trailer, looked down and a hypodermic needle was floating by my wader :barf: the cap was on at least.
 
One of the many reasons I joined a gun club with a 560 acre complex of ranges. Wonderful place, but trash still manages to get loose from people, and stuff will get blown out of the trash cans. I always pick up what I can, but malicious slobs aren't really a problem there.
 
A place I often went shooting at while stationed in Kodiak had the same problem. So we would spend a few minutes when we first got there to build a fire. Kept us warm, and got rid of all the crap.
 
Happens in my favorite shooting spot too. I bring my own target stands and take all my targets with me. In the summer, when I know drills are going on (It is DOT owned) property I bring my kids, rakes and shovels and do a clean up because I can drive right up to the berm as the gates are open for the tanks.

They appreciate me doing it, and I appreciate that they allow it. I just clean up after slobs so I can continue to shoot there. I will be joining a club though, getting tired of snow covered shooting grounds.
 
I know exactly where you are talking about. I actually started a thread in here a while ago imploring people that if they are a litterer to please stop.

KSL ran a story a while ago about the BLM finding computer monitors people were shooting out by Tooele, running the serial numbers, identifying the owners, and fining them. They say for every CRT they clean up, it's thousands of dollars. Every tome a hemp-wearing tree-hugger sees litter, it's fuel against us. I'm not worried about the occasional shell casing or real biodegradeable stuff like pumpkins as much, But stuff that should go to a dump needs to go to a dump. When I go out with my boys, we take a couple of garbage bags, and we leave it cleaner than we found it.
 
I'm fortunate that I live on a big enough piece of land to do my target shooting on my own property. At least I don't generally have to worry about some drunken clown popping off rounds toward me while I'm out on my place, or setting up right in my line of fire. I've cleaned up a lot of junk people left at campsites, fishing holes, etc. though.
I've always been an outdoorsman and I got in the habit of carrying a couple of extra trash bags in the car when I was a teenager just because of the lazy slobs who leave a trail of garbage behind them.
 
1Kperday - i shoot at that exact same place, when my "secret shooting spot" is unavailable. the reason it's my 2nd choice is because the pelican point place that you are talking about is full of trash and dangerous. garbage everywhere, and people shooting in a very unsafe manner.

i see people shooting guns towards the road and lake all the time. when i do have to go to that spot, i go way up on the south west side of the 'bowl' which minimizes the chances of some idiot shooting me in the back.

oh, and just so you know, the BLM and the county sheriff don't see eye to eye when it comes to shooting up there. the feds really need something useful to do instead of harassing people...
 
Seems ironic, doesn't it? Everyone typically screams about gun ownership with NO restrictions, yet now folks are wanting restrictions on folks shooting because of some slobs.....

I don't know, maybe a national common sense test for gun ownership is in order...not a registration, but something that sows you can go shoot and not be a jerk towards others or the environment.................hmmmmmmmmmmmm
 
Consider it an opportunity to point out the inconsiderate actions of others to your children.

I'm glad y'all did get some good out of it.
 
1Kperday... Good for you telling your kids how unacceptable those people had acted. The last thing this world is another group of kids growing up to think their better than everyone else and that they don't have to do things just because they don't want to or are plain lazy.
 
My choices are limited to shooting in the hills, or driving several hours to find a place to shoot. So I shoot in the hills. Usually this means stuffing at least two, 20-gallon trash bags of garbage before I can even set up my stuff. Plenty of well-holed beer cans, cardboard cartons galore, the occasional VCR or DVD player. I don't mind it in the least. Because when the local sheriff stops by to talk, he sees there is someone picking up before and after they shoot. So when he reports to the Forest Service folks, he can say at least one person is taking care of the place. The brass and hulls get sold to put gas in my tank or powder on my bench. The trash goes in a dumpster. The recyclable stuff gives me about three bucks in spending money; enough to dent the bill of a quality lunch. Heck, last time out I made a friend and split a lunch bill with a guy because he decided to help me clean up a bit.

Carry a couple trash bags with you next time you head out, and a resealable container of some sort to hold brass/hulls. Chuck the junk, save/sort the brass for sale, and do what you can with the recyclable stuff (even if all you can do is put it in your own home's recycle bin). Sure it is a little work; but it makes a difference, and sets a better example than the idiots who left money on the ground.
 
On one hand, yeah, it's disappointing that those individuals were such poor custodians of the environment and such poor representatives of shooting sports.

On the other hand, you should be proud for teaching your children the opposite. As long as people like you keep raising their kids right, there will always be a good egg for the bad ones that stand out so greatly.
 
1Kperday. Sounds like myself, RAMMAC and Stikboy need to head out there again and get together for a shoot. Last we went, there was a car full of teens in a couple of lowered subarus trying to get to the mid point of the hill/plateau. It was funny to see the cars bottom out. They got out, emptied about 300 rounds of an AK in about 20 minutes and were gone. As for the trash, yep it is bad out there. When ever i go out there, I always make it a point to not only pickup my stuff, but to pick up left over crap from others.
 
So this is what karma brings me for my trouble... this morning as I'm driving down our road on my way to work I see a giant mess of trash, cardboard boxes, cans, etc strewn along 2 blocks... followed by our recycle bin. A few beer cans left by the drunken idiots who apparently thought it would be great fun to drag our garbage and recycle bins all over town. I spent 30 minutes picking it all up. I still haven't found the garbage bin. They probably dumped it in the lake.

Thanks guys! You're a credit to humanity! :banghead:
 
What I don't like at ranges are big fat rednecks.

I have nothing against farmers, hunters, and outdoorsmen, but when guys drain beer and hit the cans out onto the range with baseball bats and golf clubs, I can't stand it.

Especially when they fire nonstop, and being drunk, miss the cans.

My definition of redneck includes the words "obnoxious, ignorant, slob".

If you're reading this you know who you are...
 
im right there with you. when i was younger i was very ignorant and left

garbage behind. as time has gone on i have since found that to be more than

unacceptable and find myself picking up other shooters garbage! last week,

between the 8 inches of snow, i was at my new local shooting range. the

place in question was the norris police department watershed firing range.

if you havent geussed already it, its ran buy the norris police department.

its not much of a range, 200 yard-100 yard-50 yard and a off to the side

25 yard pistol range. the place is very clean and in good shape and

unattended leave the cleaning up to the shooters.

i got there about 230 or so and made friends with the two gents to my

left and had the "wacha got there?" conversation. we head down range and

post up some targets and ease on back to the benches. when we got back

three guys had shown up and were unloading gear and speaking in a louder

voice than normal. we waited and let them get set up, they asked if they

could head out and set up some targets. to mine and the other two gents

horror there targets included and half full 2.5 gallon propane tank :what:! one

of the "hoods" said that it was going to make one hell of a pop!

the two guys to my left have now started packing everything in

without firing a round, very smart. i stayed due to a up coming alabama trip

and desperatly needed to finish my load work up and i was a bit curious, very

stupid. i did make a coment to them, you know thats not a great idea in fact

that very stupid and dangerous. i got the tipical go to hell look from all three

of them and they went about there buisness as did i. some time passes and

we are all ready to shoot, at least they were. my ear plugs dident even swell

up in time for the lead onslot they gave this tank. three younger than me's

with a glock with a 30 round mag, a big box store shotgun and a ar15 tac'd

out just like the games they play online. yall they gave this thing hell for all

of 15 seconds like a fat man on a taco! thankfuly there was no fireball and no

rat chasing just a psssssssssst! this made them very angry and they took

there frustration on the ground 10 or so feet infront of them!!!

at this point i have takin precautionary messures and was in my truck

calling they locals to inform them of what was going on at there range.

they SAID they would get right on it:scrutiny: but dident ever show. so i

wrote down there tag number and waited for 30 mins for them to finish up.

they packed in there guns and headed out, leaving trash everywhere. coke

cups,empty boxes of bullets, shot up tank and targets and a few empty packs

of cig's. i went about my buisness and dialed in my rifle and tested my loads.

as i was packing it in and fighting off frostbite, i couldent help my self and

cleaned up there mess and dumped it in the trash ben's four feet from where

they were shooting, tank and all.

if that was what i was like when i was younger, i wish someone would

have kicked my ever loving ass for being so disrespectfull. in the end between

4 different ranges i have and do frequent not including public land there are

morons at them all. just dont forget to duck and cover!
 
I'd fine another shooting spot if there are constantly people moving into your firing area; that's just asking for problems.

The littering thing, unfortunately is very common out here. I've never been able to comprehend how people will drive out in the desert out here, and I'm talking WAY out, and throw entire kitchen trash bags full of trash, ovens, couches, cars, you name it.
I can't figure this out, as the city dump is literally near the entrance they take to the desert, costs about the same they're spending in gas to drop off their trash. I mean really, drive 3 miles out in the desert to throw out your baby diapers and kitchen trash?

We also have some areas that a lot of people use as shooting areas and they will completely destroy the area. I'll typically pick up the larger things and toss them in my truck and throw them away in my dumpster when I get home, and pick up other's brass while I'm out there. Thankfully, there's some group that will rent a large dumpster (HUGE) and a Bobcat and clean up the whole area to the point it actually looks like the desert and not a trash heap :)
 
You can't fix stupid.
I gotta say though, since I was born in GA, I am a redneck. Categorizing morons as rednecks just eats at me sometimes.
They are moronic slobs, plain and simple.
 
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