Kelsey Creek - Pike's Peak National Forest

OK decided to check this place out after reading the review over at mrdove's site...

So we went to the first "primary" site and it was a friggen disaster and dangerous. At least the 8 or so folks knew enough to stop shooting when a car pulled up! We had a first time shooter with us so I wasn't willing to deal with other dumb butts while doing so. We decided to check out the second site that Dove mentions.. The directions to the primary site were dead on.. 14.8 miles from the junction of 285 and country road 126 for the priamary site.. and just another .5 mile to the second site.

Other than the HUGE amount of TRASH, it wasn't too bad for short range work. There are a fair number of rocks but you can angle off a little and still have a good back stop. The way we were shooting we had a max range of about 70 meters by my pace. There are a fair number of dead trees... if you look at Doves picture of the second site, you'll see a good sized pine that still had green bows on it, well it ain't so green and the bows look like they were shot off. There are about 1/2 dozen stumps of varying sizes that are well and dead.

We spent about an hour at the end picking up spent cases and some of the worst trash; plastics and some metal, but only had 2 big trash bags with us, so we had to stop. Only got about 1/3 of it picked up half way decently. 5 folks with about a dozen big bags could get the rest of it in an hour or so.

All in all it was a decent private kinda area. We were there for about 5 hours and didn't even have as much as a peeker to see what we mad men were doing.

--- note that we hadn't picked up yet in any of the pic's except for the tarp.. that's about half ours, half crap right there where we were standing.

http://www.nop3.com/pics/s2a.jpg

http://www.nop3.com/pics/s2b.jpg

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We had heard a few other shots being fired from across the road so on the way out we checked it out. Just was just about at the same point on CR 126 as the secondary, just on the East side vs. the West.

Now this site looks more like a camping site, the hills surounding it are actually great backstops! The Father and two kids shooting skeet were doing a great job of picking up their spent cases and had a good sized trash bag that looked half full of minor trash. Couldn't tell if it was theirs or if they'd been picking up too. But this place is going to be awsome for mixed distance and may even be good for up to about 120 meters if you don't mind shooting uphill a bit. Checked out the far side of the hill and it's all park land and clear for a long long long long way.

http://www.nop3.com/pics/s3a.jpg

http://www.nop3.com/pics/s3b.jpg

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Mr. Dove, if you catch this review.. first.. THANKS! Second you're welcome to pilfer the pictures and use as needed.

The second spot and your third spot don't look too bad. The first spot is what really needs some cleaning up. Computer monitors, a truck bumper, TONS of just plain trash in the surrounding trees and bushes, thousands of hulls and brass on the ground.....it's pretty bad.

Brian

Quote:

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14.8 miles from the junction of 285 and country road 126 for the priamary site.. and just another .5 mile to the second site.

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Can you give a little more detailed directions. What direction on what road mainly.

Thanks in advance.

From west bound 285 you'll head south on 126. The first site will be a right turn (west side), the second site will be the same... just before the second site, the turn to what I term the 3rd site is on the east side, e.g. left. You have to pay attention to your odometer otherwise, like me, you'll miss em' :)

Use the third site! Keep it cleaned up. There was an excess of brass up there this weekend, but we didn't spend a whole ton of time cleaning up excess this time (it was too damn hot) but it is still an excellent site.

Let us know how you like it!

Thanks. I'm probably going to go out midweek next week. I'll let you know how it goes.

I don't think I found your spot.

It was on 126 and I believe it was a dirt road called N58G.

It was alright, trashed, but alright.

That's a bummer, I wasn't too enthused about the first site so I've stayed away. The third site is pretty damn good for short range work.

Next time I go to that spot I'll snap some pictures.

It too was great for short range work. It had a perfect backstop and the distance to the backstop gradually became longer because of the angle it was at.

I went up here last Friday in my SVO (canyons are FUN in that car!). Ran into a couple of old guys who had spent some serious time cleaning up old crap littering the site - they had filled a small trailer full with things like old dishwashers, tanning bed lids, several buckets of brass/hulls, etc. Wish I'd gotten there earlier so I could've lent a hand. Good guys - they did us all a service. Someone put up a sign at the entrance saying something like "The Forest Service has closed 40 ranges/spots already, don't let them close this one! Clean up your mess! Signed, a Fellow Shooter" so hopefully that'll make a few people think about leaving their shit there to clog up the site.

Still a good place for handguns and closer-range stuff.

Brian