# Desert Shooting...



## AZ Outlaws (Dec 3, 2007)

I've just started looking throught this "Arizona" forum and see some of you head out to the desert to 
do your shooting. I don't want to seem like I'm on a soap box or something, but I hope everyone that 
goes out to shoot in the desert, packs out what they take in... shells, brass, targets, trash etc, etc.

One of the Jeep clubs I belong to joined up with a bunch of other clubs (4wd, ATV, Dirt Bikes, Hikers, 
Horseback Riders) earlier this month and did a huge cleanup of the Four Peaks Road area. You would 
not believe what they took out of there and how much of the garbage was associated with shooters.

If we don't police ourselves, the Greenies will do it for us. They're looking for any excuse to close off 
areas, and trashing the place is one way to get the trails closed. Another is people who head off on 
their own and blaze their own trails.

Let's make sure we pick up after ourselves and *Tread Lightly* when going into the 
back country.

Here is a pic of just one small area they collected a lot of garbage. As a 4wd enthusiast, I was appalled, 
but I was really embarresed to be a shooter when I saw all the shells and casings that were raked up in 
just this one area alone....


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## AZ Outlaws (Dec 3, 2007)

What's this? It's been a week since I posted this thread and not a peep out of you guys that are out 
shooting in the desert. I hope that doesn't mean you're not picking up after yourself....


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## TOF (Sep 7, 2006)

Not all Arizonans shoot in the desert nor do we all need schooled on picking up after ourselves. That said I applaud your cleanup efforts, been there/done that.

I hope your club is very carefull where your tires roll also. New tracks are just as damaging as the trash.

Enjoy our desert.

:smt1099


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## AZ Outlaws (Dec 3, 2007)

TOF said:


> Not all Arizonans shoot in the desert nor do we all need schooled on picking up after ourselves. That said I applaud your cleanup efforts, been there/done that.
> 
> I hope your club is very carefull where your tires roll also. New tracks are just as damaging as the trash.
> 
> ...


You are right, not all Arizonians shoot in the desert. And no, not all need to be schooled on picking up after their selves, but there are enough that do and they are trashing our public lands. A little reminder never hurts and I hardly consider what I posted was schooling.

Thank you for the applaud.

Been there and done that? Great! There's always another cleanup that needs an extra body to help out.

Yes, tire tracks are just as bad as trash and as with shooters in the desert, there are good four wheelers and bad.

Yes, our club, as with most sanctioned 4x4 clubs, practice Tread Lightly to protect the land we use. Many folks also attend Land Use meetings, clean ups etc to help keep our public lands open. The Greenies are doing their best to close it down.

And for the record, I wasn't pointing a finger at only desert shooters. I was asking them to pick up after themselves. I also made mention of the four wheelers who blaze their own trails and asked everyone to Tread Lightly.

Thanks for your inputs and I didn't mean to offend you, as it seems I may have touched on a nerve....


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## jpserra (Dec 21, 2006)

I used to shoot in the desert in California and my buds and I used to police our site(s), with some really strange looks from other shooters along the way. The novices didn't get it. The professionals, trained personnel and serious gun advocates could understand the ramifications, but the average joe had no idea this was a necessary issue. Just look at the state of ownership, carry and available shooting spots in California now. San Diego County went from 128 ranges in the late 1980's to 5 registered ranges in 1992 when I left. 

JP


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## TOF (Sep 7, 2006)

AZ Outlaws said:


> You are right, not all Arizonians shoot in the desert. And no, not all need to be schooled on picking up after their selves, but there are enough that do and they are trashing our public lands. A little reminder never hurts and I hardly consider what I posted was schooling.
> 
> Thank you for the applaud.
> 
> ...


You did tweak a nerve and I probably should not have responded quite as I did. I live in the Coconino National forest where 50% of the Jeep trails and roads are to be closed next year. As I understand it, we will no longer be able to drive off road to pick up down game such as large Elk either. All because of 4 Wheelers and Quad riders tearing up the back country as they have in the 4 Peaks and other Desert areas. Not because of the trash which we have a little of and clean up from time to time, because of the erosion caused by drivers that don't know when to back out rather than dig 12 inch ruts with their lifted 4 Wheelers. I am not against 4 wheelers, I own one so I can get around when we have 2 or 3 ft of snow on the ground. I hope your club does tread lightly and wish a few more would.

Enjoy but don't destroy.

:smt1099


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## neophyte (Aug 13, 2007)

*rant*

lAZ Outlaws: Sir; and your faction should be applauded.
Sir; more folks need the responsibility of observing 1 planet for us all.

Not acceptable, Muck it; somebody owes me something and they [who-ever-they-are] can be the "trash crew"

NC has adopted 'roadside clean-up' with DWI's. I personally like the concept.
We too have 'inmates' doing clean-up.

Sometimes it appears that the "inmates" are competing with private enterprise with these clean up details. I see the 'inmate' as a working commodity that should be earning his right to eat, sleep, clothing, roof overhead, medical, and what-ever else it takes to keep contained.

Having proposed this concept to NC Senate, House, and anyone else who happens to be around. Use the Prison system inmates to help all of us clean up parks, rivers, streams, and again, whatever else. They are paying and learning about working for these privileges.

Citizens that are caught making the mess and not cleaning it up; fall directly into a "MUST" clean-up for 40-60 hrs. Be tough and to the point.

Thanks


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## AZ Outlaws (Dec 3, 2007)

TOF said:


> I hope your club does tread lightly and wish a few more would.
> 
> Enjoy but don't destroy.
> 
> :smt1099


As I stated before, the vast majority of 4x4 clubs do practice treading lightly. It is the yahoos who go out there on their own, with their beer drinking buddies, that do the most damage scaring and trashing our public lands that is giving the Greenies the ammunition they need to get areas shut down.

One thing I have noticed, is that none of our forum desert shooters have spoke up to acknowledge the problem one way or the other. I can see were it would be a tedious task cleaning up all that expended brass after a day going from target to target with some of their styles of "spirited" shooting.

Without getting into an arguement on who is doing what to the land, please everyone, just take my first post as an eye opener or a friendly reminder to clean up and not scar the land. I'm getting too old, fat and lazy to hike twenty miles into the back country to see the many sights I've been able to see in my 4x4.

Thanks.... :smt023


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## neophyte (Aug 13, 2007)

*blamed*

All are blamed for the actions of the few.


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## Teuthis (Apr 9, 2008)

*Desert Shooting*

I agree with you AZ Outlaws. But we have a problem throughout Arizona with people trashing our highways, deserts, you name it. What we need, I hate to say it, are some strong anti-litter laws with teeth. I would like to see some strong medicine for people trashing the desert with shooting debris and making all of us look bad.

Down here in the south, we have hoards of Mexicans coming up and down I 19 tossing out all kinds of junk and trash. We have illegals and smugglers leaving piles of junk in cashes out in the desert. We also have numerous careless and uncaring construction types dumping, and letting things fly from their trucks, purposely and not. It can be a mess.

What the group did in cleaning up is admirable. I wish more people in Arizona were responsible and caring of nature.


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## GTD (Dec 19, 2007)

Leave no trace! These are words every outdoors man or sports enthusiasts should live by. Weather your picking up your dog’s shit, shell casings, or empty containers that housed worms. Unfortunately not enough people practice “leave no trace”, that’s why I increasingly see more places that don’t allow dogs, in Arizona it maybe shooting.


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