I have lost nearby informal areas where one could enjoy such shooting on public land.
If you look how many were available ten years ago in the region and how many exist today most of them have been closed down, and many counties that once had several don't have any now.
I myself enjoy such shooting, seeing projectile effects on different mediums, it is a lot more entertaining than paper. Each shot changes the target, has a visible effect, and different portions of the same target are more or less resistant to rounds. Taking apart actual objects is like shooting in 3D, while shooting at paper is more like shooting in 2D.
However I clean up after myself and don't shoot things that leave toxic materials, like many electronics and some appliances. Nor objects that leave glass or other small particles everywhere even if you clean up the primary item.
What I bring leaves with me, except the bullets themselves.
I often take more trash with me than I brought.
I find typical formal ranges boring, good for little but function testing and insuring accuracy. Not very entertaining.
The indoor ones are the worst. They are loud, cramped, echo, with rules on what calibers can be shot, some on how fast you can shoot. Some want you to buy their ammo at inflated prices. You have a time limit at most. You cannot really socialize with someone you bring because of the constant random booms of others shooting mere feet away.
It allows functional use of the firearm, but lacks entertainment or much enjoyment. You get in, shoot some rounds, and get out.
Poor experiences all around, and probably contributes to why urban areas have far fewer recreational shooters per capita.
The real shame is that some people just cannot handle freedom.
Before they closed down many of the free local outdoor public shooting locations truckloads of debris and trash were removed every year, volunteers removing others' waste because the places that charged no fees certainly were not going to pay the cost.
If/when you find some please advise as many of us no longer clean up other peoples trash.
Well that was the only thing that kept most of those around here open for as long as they were. Lots of volunteers cleaning up other peoples' trash so the government and tax payers were not footing the bill. As soon as the county sees it as a loss of revenue beyond a typical free outdoor area they seriously start to want it closed down.
If it becomes a major loss of revenue because it requires hiring a crew to clean it up due to shooting associated trash, then they close it within a short time.
If they need a hazmat crew operating along OSHA guidelines it gets really expensive.
Since shooting is what is attracting all the selfish litterers and dumpers, ending shooting ends most of the trash and associated cleanup expenses.
Without volunteers cleaning up other peoples' trash they would have closed those in this region years earlier.
In fact many antis had been trying to find excuses to close several down for years, and the primary thorn in the anti's side was all the volunteers keeping the operational costs of such places at a minimum because of their free labor in volunteer clean up.
(They actually had to prevent the volunteers from cleaning up a couple places just to justify closing them because they couldn't demonstrate an inability to manage the places when they were practically managing themselves at little cost.)
