For the weekend.  Just got back tonight.  Will post more information tomorrow including pictures.

Come on, let's see the pics/info!

KAC

My apologizies for the some of the bad and/or fuzzy pics!

My trip last weekend took me to Colorado.  I have intended to drive from Kansas to several places in Coloroda but I only ended up going to one place:  The Shelf Road on the Gold Belt Byway.  Started out at Cañon City headed north until on Field Ave.  This is the back way in, the front is way up north near Cripple Creek.  Go here for more details.

Since these are BLM pulbic lands, you must follow what few rules there are but you can both shoot and camp.  The road I took called "The Bank" you definitely need a 4WD and good weather.  Here's some pics of the trail and an open, safe spot to shoot:

The first row shows bowling pins set up in various places.
The second row shows more pins and the homemade steel plates I shot at.
The third row shows the wide open area that was completely desolate, so I could really do some long range shooting.
The fourth row shows pics from my shooting and closer to the targets.

Go here for all the pics. {coming soon}

Since you can shoot at whatever you want just as long as you are safe and you pickup after yourself, I shot two watermelons, once with the AR and the other with a 12ga shotgun.

Here's a pic of my rented 4WD Jeep and my Mossberg 590 shotgun and AR-15.




And the targets I shot at (steel plates, waterjugs, watermelons, bowling pins, etc).

Where to download the videos including the bumpy drive along the trail, more shots of the area and a couple of my bump fire videos:  {coming soon}

Close up pics of the steel plates that I shot at with my AR15 (XM193, XM855, Q3131a, BH 77), slugs from the 12ga Dixie slug, and about a dozen 9mm handgun rounds (Glock 17):  {coming soon}


Above:  XM855 was able to consistently penetrate the steel plate, sometimes XM913 didn't.  Plate is nearly 1/2 inch thick at ~ 50 yards.  (backside below)

Above:  Backside of 1/2 inch thick plate.  Some of the 5.56mm shots didn't penetrate.



Above:  Another couple of larger, heavier 1/4 inch steel plates that only XM855 would penetrate. (backside below)


Above:  The bulges clearly shot lack of penetration by XM193 while the same plate at the same distance, XM855 penetrated.

This is not scientific.  Please visit the ammo-oracle for more details of 5.56mm ammunition.

This particular BLM has a shooting/target range.  It is clearly marked showing places where to shoot and where not to shoot, there is plenty of room between shooting points (several hundred yards), it is unsupervised, you'll need to go down and setup your own targets (you are free to walk down whenever, there is no cease-fire), and the backstop is a huge canyon wall that extended easily 1/2 mile in each direction.  It's a very nice facility, it's mostly clean, it's very private (no one is even near enough to talk to you) and the shooting points are big rocks that you can sit, stand, and/or lean on.  GPS coordinates are:

Entrance/Gate:       Latitude: N38° 31.8153'
    Longitude: W105° 13.1612'

One of the shooting spots at the range is located at:        Latitude: N38° 31.7181'
    Longitude: W105° 13.6857'

Very Cool!!
Thanks for the photos.


KAC

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