How we lose our places to shoot (pics)

[DOC]

I filled up my truck bed with trash when I left. It helped that I had a whole bunch of helpers shooting all my ammo that needed to give some back.
It kinda sucked that it got dark and we were one hand down using flashlights. (not the daytime flashlights)

[jackthewall81]

Where is this range? Cant wait to try out my new DD m4. I will bring trash bags to clean up as well.

[brutal]

While it's nowhere near the problem, sadly even the private ranges have issues with the slovenly. The last few times I was at BLGC, I pulled out several target frames that were all shot to h*ll and just left laying in the lanes. Some seem to also like to shoot armor piercing or steel penetrator rounds at the metal target stands. Even the concrete stands that were placed in some lanes to prevent them from moving to other lanes got shot up. Idiots.

Evidently, there's just too many of these sorts of folks that were never a boy/girl scout, military, or had any sort responsible parental coaching whatsoever because we were taught, and taught our kids, to always haul out more than what you haul in.

[alan0269]

So the family and I decided that today would be a good day to DVR the Broncos game and go shooting, since most people in the state would be watching the game. We went up to the Squaw Pass site, and what we found was pretty disgusting! We had just started cleaning up and picking up some brass that was left by others when Byte Stryke showed up as well. Needless to say he wasn't very happy with the conditions there either. Our families teamed up to clean up a multitude of broken glass bottles, a couple fire extinguishers, a file cabinet, the remnants of a television, along with a lot of other crap that people left behind. We put the file cabinet on top of his Blazer, and filled the back end of it and my Bronco with some of the trash, and we easily could have filled them both up at least two more times.

All of this just confirms that the reason we are losing our public areas to shoot is not necessarily due to the liberals and their anti-gun agenda, but rather by the swine that dwell within our own ranks that can't pull their heads out of their a**es and pick up after themselves!!! Why is it that people clearly have enough room in their vehicle(s) to get this junk up there, but when they are ready to leave they suddenly have no room for it?!?!?

I know this has been said many times before, but unless we decide to police ourselves and clean these areas up every time we use them, we are going to lose them all. While the VOLUNTEER efforts of alxone, Byte, and a few others to try to clean these areas up makes a dent, it is not going to be enough to keep the areas open in the long run.

[alxone]

i have cleaned up a few ranges even down to the last 22 casing (no sh*t) and the very next its trashed again . i was kinda thinking about camping out at squaw for a week or 10 days and being a rang pest about trash . it really burns my butt when i fill up the truck 3-4 days a week and nothing seems to get done . its sad that there are far more litter bugs than responsible shooters

[Danimal]

I have been keeping my eyes open at the ranges that I frequent and about 90% of the crap is coming from young kids and the thug looking types. When I go shooting and I am working up reloads, I am up there all day and I have been keeping track of these idiots.

The mentality is not completly what you would expect. Most of them treat it like a dump because it looks like a dump, and that is all they have ever known. They have no other standard, and being the product of lazy generation X parents the thought does not occur to them. Just telling them that shooting trash and trees is illegal and that there are people watching is often enough to get them to pick their crap up from that day. I have never had any one refuse, and I tell 2 or 3 people every time I am out. If we all confront everyone everytime it will have a much greater effect than just picking up after them. I take as much as I can out with me every time I go, but that will never be enough. We all need to hold people accountable EVERY chance that we get.

[dtbighit]

Well I am as you call a "a lazy gen x parent"which is stupid that even came out of your keyboard,anyway I have children whom are very responsible,and have learned about preservation,they all love the shooting sports and do very well at it,yes its easy to point fingers but if we knew who was trashing our shooting spots I'm sure we would not be discussing it anymore,problem would be solved,so all gen x kids watch out your being watched

[Chaffee2]

We have some of the same problems at the Chaffee County Range also. One of the locals ran into the Sheriff and asked him about the range and some of the destruction happening out here. Our Sheriff said give the office a call and let them know what is going on and he will send out a deputy to hook the slob up.

We can never seem to catch these idiots on our range but if you see them at your ranges try giving the local Sheriff a call. At the very minimum they can give them a ticket for littering maybe even destruction of public property, trespassing and who knows what else.

Until these slimeballs are held accountable nothing is going to change.

[jhl247]

Great Post, it's a shame people don't respect our ranges and national forests