How to deal with totally unregulated shooting area
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Mr.510
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The one place in the woods on BLM land that I shoot that's remained open long-term has a serious 'tank trap' of deep trenches and concrete ecology blocks at the entrance to a high-sided gravel pit with no other access. The tank trap keeps out ALL vehicles and makes it very difficult for people to carry in anything large or heavy. This keeps the larger trash dumped there to a minimum. Every other place I've shot in the woods you could drive a truck onto and down the 'range'. These places were constantly filled with piles of garbage, and none stayed open more than a few years. Depending on the layout and access, of course, if you could get the BLM to block the access road a couple hundred yards from the 'range' the garbage issue will be reduced massively. People that leave garbage on 'ranges' in the woods are lazy and won't carry most large, heavy things very far to shoot them. A lot of the trash dumped on ranges that were previously closed was just truck loads of household trash people dumped because they were too cheap to take it to a real dump. This stops completely when there's a tank trap or serious gate in the way.
medalguy
Member
M1Key I looked at the public and private ranges but they don't allow full auto. That's a deal breaker. BLM is a great place to shoot anything up to .50 cal. and there are good places to shoot 1,000 yards safely. That is, if you don't mind the trash.
There's hundreds of private square miles here devoted to ranching and all sorts of agriculture, nearly all of it is posted, as is mine. All my shooting is done on private property. There's a multi family BBQ coming up soon at a friend's ranch; two shotgun ranges, two pistol ranges and about a half dozen rifle courses ranging from 100-2200 yards.
The nice part about all this is that about 15-20 school age youngsters get together there twice a week for formalized training and competition target shooting. Educate early and often.
It takes leadership, but in Arizona, Game & Fish is more than willing to assist with starting gun ranges. Get support from your county board of supervisors, sheriff, state legislators etc and begin formalizing a plan for a training facility. ....not a gun club.
The nice part about all this is that about 15-20 school age youngsters get together there twice a week for formalized training and competition target shooting. Educate early and often.
It takes leadership, but in Arizona, Game & Fish is more than willing to assist with starting gun ranges. Get support from your county board of supervisors, sheriff, state legislators etc and begin formalizing a plan for a training facility. ....not a gun club.
I've shot FA at Zia years ago. They had an area so designated. Maybe not today due to safety concerns. Since I don't live there anymore, I'm out of touch with that community. There must be somewhere they shoot...
Where I live now (SW part of the state) I just drive 5 minutes to the Natl forest. Lots of open space around here. The county range even allows it.
good luck
M
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mgkdrgn
Member
Enlist the assistance of your local elected congress critter ... that is what you pay them for.
This is a good point.
A suppressor and good electronic earmuffs really make it noticeable.
50 Shooter
member
This is a typical story wherever there's open land to shoot at, BLM or otherwise. Even though I keep my desert spot quiet, plenty of people know about it. When we go out there we pick up as much as we can and burn it in the camp fire.
Problem is, there's to many people leaving their trash to keep up with. It discusses me that gun owners ( not all) do this not thinking of the consequences of their actions. Personally I would like to shoot them for being such idiots. As said numerous times in this thread, these places get shut down because of these idiots!
By bringing in the authorities all it will do is get the place shut down. You can try talking to them and leaving flyers to inform them. Probably get to a few but that's about it. There's those people that you just can't get to listen at all. You can keep contacting the BLM but that goes right back to the same issue about closing the area closed to all shooting.
You can try to get as many of the local gun clubs to come out and do a clean up day. Tell them to bring as many members as they can. This way they can see what's going on and pass it along to the others in their clubs. Hopefully it will help out some but you will always get the dipdunks out there that don't care.
Good luck, hope you can make it work out and cut down on the vast majority of people dumping crap out there.
Problem is, there's to many people leaving their trash to keep up with. It discusses me that gun owners ( not all) do this not thinking of the consequences of their actions. Personally I would like to shoot them for being such idiots. As said numerous times in this thread, these places get shut down because of these idiots!
By bringing in the authorities all it will do is get the place shut down. You can try talking to them and leaving flyers to inform them. Probably get to a few but that's about it. There's those people that you just can't get to listen at all. You can keep contacting the BLM but that goes right back to the same issue about closing the area closed to all shooting.
You can try to get as many of the local gun clubs to come out and do a clean up day. Tell them to bring as many members as they can. This way they can see what's going on and pass it along to the others in their clubs. Hopefully it will help out some but you will always get the dipdunks out there that don't care.
Good luck, hope you can make it work out and cut down on the vast majority of people dumping crap out there.
Mauserguy
Member
Everytime I go shooting out in the desert I alway return with a truck full of trash. I believe most of it is left by dumpers, not shooters, but it's mostly shot up.
The last time I came home with the pieces of a couple of old washing machines and cook tops. I think some home renovator was responsible for that mess. It took me a few weeks, but fed it all into my recycle bin. I assume the trash company can recycle scrap metal stove tops. It's infuriating.
Mauserguy
The last time I came home with the pieces of a couple of old washing machines and cook tops. I think some home renovator was responsible for that mess. It took me a few weeks, but fed it all into my recycle bin. I assume the trash company can recycle scrap metal stove tops. It's infuriating.
Mauserguy
Aragon
member
A very interesting posting. Thanks. Given the scarcity of places like the GF and the amount of time people like you have invested to maintain it, have you ever considered putting together a group that could actually secure it (legally of course) and run it as a range ala Winchester Canyon?
I know it would take considerable investment but I suspect there are a lot of people that would be willing to pay $5-10 to shoot. If the GF was ever lost, it would be a real hit to the shooting community...
Wish I had public land nearby. I did luck upon a fellow who runs a sort of backyard range on his property. You pay a reasonable fee and can bring pretty much whatever you want to shoot at. For a city boy this is the only time I can experience popping cans or shredding old textbooks. But because the owner runs it there we have safe cold-ranges and don't have to worry about the trash buildup too much.
Here's an idea, why not turn the county dump itself into a range? It's already got trash and plenty of berms, and it's probably not too close to much residential property. Of course a practical idea like this probably would never get any consideration.
Here's an idea, why not turn the county dump itself into a range? It's already got trash and plenty of berms, and it's probably not too close to much residential property. Of course a practical idea like this probably would never get any consideration.
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