Hey not ALL shooters do that. Used to go out there and pick up WAY more brass, "targets"
, and shell casings than I used. You know, being responsible…
I agree that there are some (a couple maybe?) of responsible shooters, I own a safe full of guns and when I have shot them always brought home bags of trash. After the Feb cleanup I was very disappointed,,,
, talked/showed pix to a bunch of gun professionals that populate this complex, including a S&W rep. Got the same old story about how gun owners are great “outdoors men” that do everything they can to preserve our public lands. It common to use tarps under the targets and at the shooting position, so everything can be simply picked up and carried home. Ether they are very naive, don't get out much or are living in denial.
Talked to a long term buddy who lives guns, is a big wheel in a local club, does tons of gun work, tried to get him to start a thread on the local forum about the problem. His reply was basically that no one wants to hear that s*** and it’s not that big of a problem. So went to some forums, searched, found lots of good gun mods, shooting tips, a couple that were pissed because their favorite shooting spot had been closed, etc. Nothing about cleanups, techniques for minimizing impact, etc.
In the wheelin world, it’s hard to open a magazine, go to vendor sites, etc, without seeing Tread Lightly, pack out, now days poop in a bag and haul out, etc. So grabbed a stack of gun magazines from next door, went through them, didn’t see anything about taking care of shooting sites, etc. IMHO the decision has to start from the top, in my experience the ones that I have talked to are too busy making quick $$$ right now to worry about it.
I would like to think different, but the evidence is on the ground, easily viewable. I get out as often as possible and have never seen a shooter using a tarp,,, EVER! In fact they have the capacity to carry all manor of huge junk out there and place it way out on a hill for all to see and ZERO capacity to haul anything home, toss the beer cans, shell boxes and everything else on the ground and leave it for someone else to deal with. If the shooting community gave a s*** some things would be very easy to fix, like targets, they could easily be made with water soluble binder and paint so they would disappear after a rain, instead of brightly painted terracotta that’s a blotch on the landscape for years.
Sorry, but shooters get grouped, just like wheelers (responsible or not) get grouped into ORV. Believe me would like to be proven wrong, would love to see a trend where shooters cleanup their act, organize or even attend cleanups in significant numbers, etc. But until then I’m calling a spade a spade; IMHO shooters are one of if not the biggest threat to our continued use of public lands.
