Range Clean Up

Out here in flyover country, or tourist trap, or playground (call it what you will), we have several open, free, and very public gun ranges. There are several around the Hills, the most famous and used one is Beretta Road.

The down side to having these free public ranges is that people think they are their personal target dumping grounds.

Yesterday (that would be June 12th for those keeping track at home) we had a Shoot-N-Clean Day out at Beretta Road. 7 folks showed up, ranging in age from 13 to around late 30's-early 40's. We shot a bunch of different stuff, from AKs in almost every caliber imaginable (5.45x39 all the way up to 12 ga.) to a trap gun to an AR and a 1911. Oh, and one guy brought out his registered FA Uzi in .22.

After the shooting part of the day was over, about 2 hrs after we started, the serious side of the day began, the cleaning part. Aside from the usual stuff folks will use as targets like empty milk and water containers and pop cans, we ran across some, shall we say, interesting items used as targets. We found the equivalent of 7 old TVs that had been shot up (some still mostly intact, others literally in pieces), one computer, 2 monitors, 2 microwaves, a bed, a sofa, part of a boat, half a rack of storage shelves, one either dishwasher or stove (it was partially submerged face down in a creek so we couldn't really tell), a section of exhaust pipe, a light bar from an emergency vehicle complete with inventory number, and enough particle board to make 4 or 5 cabinets.

It's also not unusual to find used condoms and broken beer and licqour bottles laying around the area either.

This is the result of our work, around 5 hrs worth:

The grayish white stuff on the tail of the trailer in the above pic is the remains of a bed we picked up. We also picked up the tattered and ruined remains of a sofa.

Another view:

What you see here is the tip of the iceberg. We only grabbed the big stuff. Not only did we fill the bed of this trailer, the bed of the truck pulling it was full as was the bed of another truck. I brought back 2 bags, as most of what I picked up found its way onto the trailer.

Oh I forgot. We even found a door. In one range we found what appeared to be the remains of somebody's divorce. Broken plates, picture frames and embroidery.

The one things that sticks out in my mind as the worst thing we found was in a creek bed behind one range: there was a plastic bag with the remains of a dog in it. That struck me as wrong on soooo many levels. I certainly hope the animal that was inside was already gone when that sack went into the creek. If it wasn't, I hope whoever did such a cruel and ugly thing roasts in the lowest levels of Hell.

But that, folks, is what we have to deal out here. Some folks are good about picking up after themselves and others not so much. Mostly not so much as you have seen.