One of the wonderful things about living in Arizona is the huge amount of public lands on which one can shoot — there’s no cost, no lawyer-inspired regulations, and a beautiful view.
One such place is the Coronado National Forest (it’s more of a “scrubby desert” than a “forest”, but oh well). I find myself going up Reddington Road to the forest most weekends and having a great time shooting with friends.
Normally, there’s a few things to shoot at lying around: a cardboard box or two, one of those reflective A-frame road barricades, a traffic cone, etc. One can tape paper targets to these, and they make decent makeshift target frames. There’s also usually a little bit of clutter lying around (plastic bags, cardboard ammo boxes, spent shotshells, etc.) but it’s not usually that bad. I make a point of cleaning up after myself, picking up brass, taking down my targets, etc. I also try to take at least a bag or two of trash out with me, so as to leave the range a bit cleaner than I found it.
I enjoy shooting aluminum cans, plastic bottles, and the like. They tend to burst dramatically, but don’t fragment, making it stupidly easy to clean up. Glass shatters and is next to impossible to clean. Shooting old fruit (oranges, apples, melons, etc.) is fun, and the critters on the range take care of the cleanup for me.
I recognize that most people try not to make too much of a mess, and occasionally are unable to locate every piece of brass, or little piece of trash they created. People don’t often think to bring trash bags, and so aren’t able to take out a lot of garbage at the range. It’s understandable, and I don’t fault them for it; I’ve had such days myself. I just try to make up for it when I head out the next time.
Then there are the real jerks. You know them…they folks who haul an old TV or dishwasher out to the National Forest, shoot it a bunch, then leave it there. People who drink a couple bottles of beer, then set the empty glass bottles on a rock and shoot them, leaving shards of glass everywhere. People who shoot a bunch of shotshells, but leave the hulls lying around. What really gets me are the people who deliberately shoot the signs posted by the National Forest Service asking them to not shoot the signs and please pick up after themselves. Jerks.
In the last year or so, I’ve bagged and hauled about 1,500 pounds of trash from the shooting spots at the National Forest near Tucson. That’s 3/4th of a ton, and it’s barely made a dent in the garbage there. There’s still gobs of litter out there, both big and small. This last weekend, my cousin and I removed about 150 pounds of trash, including a shot-up dishwasher that left fragmented plastic all around.
Is it that hard for people to clean up after themselves? Did their mothers teach them nothing? There are ample signs saying that the National Forest Service doesn’t clean up after people, and that it’s one’s own responsibility to make sure things are picked up.
These few jerks make the rest of us shooters look bad. Indeed, things have gotten so bad that the 4th shooting spot in the forest up on Reddington Road has been closed. There’s a new barbed wire fence blocking cars, and posts saying “Restoration Area”. According to the sign, foot traffic is permitted — it’d be nice to get some folks up to the area to clean it up sometime. Maybe if we can really clean up the place, the National Forest Service will see that some shooters care and will re-open it.
Here’s some pictures of the area:
In order, these are pictures of one of the non-closed shooting areas suggesting how badly littered it is, my cousin Patrick picking up some trash at the site (we rotated between bag-holding and trash-gathering), the newly-closed “Restoration Area” range, and a sign from the Forest Service.
In short, if you want to be a jerk, just trash the public lands where you can shoot for free. The National Forest Service will close those ranges when things get too bad.
Don’t be a jerk.
Update: I’ve started a thread at AR15.com to coordinate a clean-up effort. If you’re in the area, please join in.
Category: Shooting
A Day At The Range
Yesterday, the range was without shooters, and quiet. It also happened to be a gorgeous, sunny day.
Being empty is not a naturally tenable position for a range on a day like that, so this shortcoming was corrected by myself and about 14 other people from the University of Arizona.
Quite a few of the attendees were previous shooters, but there were several people who had never fired any gun whatsoever: our Brazilian-born physics lab TA Regina, my astrophysicist friend Louis and his roommate Brody, fellow physics students Alex and Colin, and several friends of a few of the other attendees (I’m terrible with names). A photographer from the Arizona Daily Wildcat, the university newspaper (which has a greater circulation than many small-town papers), also attended.
One of the attendees, John, is a faculty member at the university and a stamp collector. That is, he possesses several NFA-regulated firearms (each of which requires a tax stamp, hence the name) including a full-auto M4, a full-auto MP5 and several other such items. I have but one stamp, and it’s for the suppressor for my Ruger 10/22.
While some pictures were taken, most of us were focused on shooting and having fun rather than taking pictures. I’ve included some of the pictures below. All the pictures from the event can be seen here.
New shooters were started out on the suppressed 10/22, which helped them get comfortable with the mechanics of shooting without having to worry about recoil or noise.
As they became more comfortable with each type of gun, they “graduated” to something new. Many enjoyed the AR (with collapsible stock M4-type rifles being very popular with people of smaller stature).
To those who question the necessity of collapsible/adjustable stocks on rifles, I urge you to look at this photograph. Doesn’t look very comfortable, does it? Regina’s not a very tall person at all (right around 5′ tall) and the fixed-stock, 20″ barrel AR is just too big for her to hold comfortably. An M4gery with a collapsible stock and a 16″ barrel fit her much more comfortably, and she enjoyed it much more.
The shotgun and the AK were also quite popular.
As was the M1 Garand. Alex is a big guy (he’s a former wrestler) and makes the M1 look small.
While many shooters enjoyed the larger-caliber pistols (in this photo, Regina shoots the XD-45), the Ruger MkIII .22 pistol was the clear winner in the popularity contest — a satisfying amount of “bang” and minimal recoil make it one of the most fun guns on the line. I had several people inquire about how they would go about purchasing such a pistol, as they had so much fun with it. I really should get it threaded for a suppressor, as I’d imagine it’d be extremely quiet indeed.
The best is saved for last — a full-auto MP5 (and later, M4) on a private “action shooting” range made for a exciting conclusion to the day. New shooters these days are lucky, getting to shoot machine guns on their first time out to the range. Maybe if more new shooters experience this, we’ll be able to get the 1986 ban repealed?
The only downside to the day was that the Daily Wildcat photographer got too close to the scope on a .308 rifle, got beaned right between the eyebrows, and needed six stitches. Even so, he says he had a great day.
In short: A beautiful day, an excellent range, and people having fun made for a most excellent outing. Top it off with two .50 cal ammo cans filled with brass (most of it .223) and an excursion to the local, non-chain pizza shop, and it ranks pretty highly on the list of “ideal days”.
Firearms Used
– Several Ruger 10/22s (.22LR)
– Ruger MkIII (.22LR)
– M1 Garand (.30-06)
– Several AR-15s (.22LR and .223)
– M4 (.223)
– HK MP5 (9mm)
– Marlin 336 (.30-30)
– Springfield XD-45 (.45 ACP)
– Several Glocks (9mm and .40 S&W)
– Several bolt-action rifles (.30-06, .308)
– Mossberg 500 (12ga)
– Taurus revolver (.38/.357)
– Jimenez J-22 (.22LR)
– AK variant (7.62x39mm)
Hitting the Ground Running
Well, I’m off to a fast start; I start a new blog, and already I have a shooting event tomorrow that I’ll have to write about. In keeping with the principles of Kim du Toit’s Nation of Riflemen, I arrange these events at various times to introduce new shooters to the shooting sports.
I organized a similar event last year — pictures are available here — and it was a resounding success. A variety of students from the University of Arizona, mostly from the Physics and Astronomy departments, attended and had a great time. Most of the attendees were new shooters, and so enjoyed their time at the range that they’ve been telling their friends at the university all about the event.
After a few informal, low-key sessions of “shooty goodness” out in the Coronado National Forest introduced a few more new shooters to the joys of recreational shooting, I figured that it was time for another event at the Tucson Rifle Club. I announced the event on Facebook last week, and invited several students (including the folks who attended the last trip), and now there’s 13 confirmed attendees.
We’ve reserved a private range at the TRC from 1pm-5pm, which should provide sufficient trigger-time for new shooters. There’ll be several .22 rifles and handguns (including my suppressed Ruger 10/22) present to instruct new shooters, as well as a variety of other firearms including an M1 Garand, an AR-15, a Marlin 336 lever gun, a Remington 700 bolt-action rifle, and a full-auto MP5.
This event promises to be a fun one, and I’ll do a full After Action Review over the weekend.