The 36 pit fire springs immediately to mind about bozo behavior even in a designated shooting range.
kmcdon yeah, the assholes are a problem everywhere. Up around Mount Hood there are roads that have been closed because people were not bothering to drive all the way to an okay-for-shooting area, but just pulled off at a wide spot and sprayed the trees until they started falling over (there might have been a target, but by the time the forest service people went by there was nothing left except mowed down swaths of trees. (This was along NF45, if you’re at all familiar with the Mount Hood National Forest; when the 36 pit fire happened it gave them the excuse to close the road for “fire remediation” and it’s still closed with an ongoing variety of reasons.)
I’m all for people shooting at private ranges. There’s no inherent need to be on public land. There’s no point in trying to play No True Scotsman regarding responsible gun owners.
Subsistence hunting is different. I don’t do it, but I get that it is very important for some people.
I’m not going to pay some private rangeowner when I already pay taxes that go towards national forest land, where shooting is legal, regulated, and has been going on since before that land was designated public.
Especially when it can be done in a safe manner as explained above without infringing on anyone else’s safety. These spots are well known, have good backstop, have been used for years, and are far enough away from any established trails of any kind to ensure the safety of all parties who use the forest.
There’s no inherent need to ride bikes, camp, hike, or do anything on public land really, so I don’t get the argument.
That being said, fuck every single irresponsible gun owner who disregards these basic safety guidelines, doesn’t pick up their trash, and generally tarnishes the reputation of the responsible ones.
Yep, and then we all get to pay money to clean up the lead contamination from people distributing it out the ends of their guns for fun. (E.g Browns Camp)
Yeah that’s what I was gonna say. Even if we accept that a spot is 100% safe, my fuck you still stands on account of lead pollution and noise pollution. It’s just an incredibly obnoxious thing to do in an area where there are other people and animals.
BTW I was a competitive target shooter for 20 years. Pretty sure I fired 10x more shots than any one of you.
I don’t have a problem with people shooting in the sort of “natural” ranges that one finds close to the road in many DNR owned areas. I have an old Mosin, and it’s fun to do some iron sights shooting with it now and then, and scott has a bunch of black powder guns that are fun (if tedious) to shoot. I don’t think that these activities are inherently bad, and honestly if an area is open to shit like 4x4s or dirt bikes…the noise argument doesn’t really fly.
HOWEVER - while all my gun-nut cyclist friends (there’s a lot in Seattle, oddly) are really into safety and always making sure there’s a hard rock/gravel backdrop, I think shooting should be limited to designated areas only (just like you can only use dirt bikes in designated areas) and heavily fined outside of those - and those areas should be well away from ANY trail. Essentially this would cut down the number of spots to a handful, and I’m just fine with that.
There are so many fucking idiots. I’ve heard shots fired waaaay too close to me in Capitol Forest, in an area I know for a fact doesn’t have anything approaching a good enough backdrop. On Point83’s annual bike camping trip a bunch of us came too close for comfort to being shot when these moronic hicks were firing down the end of a road despite the clear presence of a trail…like, they were literally firing down the trail.
Well I hate 4x4s and dirt bikes with a fiery passion too, on account of noise pollution and soil erosion. They should be banned from 99% of forest areas IMO. AFAIK they are, in this country.
I mean, I’m with you there. I think land management often must appeal to broad recreational interests to keep popular support tho
My hatred is generally focused on horses, because they’re everywhere here. They destroy trails, shit everywhere, move invasive species around, and equestrians are some of the most successful anti bike organizers.
I don’t mind horses on trails. Trail riding is uncommon here so I have only come across them a handful of times over the years. In any case, at least they’re not noisy.
A modest proposal: we should ban horses, firearms, and OHVs to the same small areas and see how it all shakes out.
(Seriously, this is a fundamental conflict between the REI “wilderness is for peace and quiet” set and the Cabela’s “wilderness is for killing, drinking, and fires” mindset)
Yeah thats all true. But I am so glad I have never come across dirt bikes or hunters in the bay area. Actually I have never seen those things where i have gone in the sierras either.
Every group seems to hate the other groups on the trails. But at least the loud and potentially deadly groups seem kinda legit not beneficial to others