Anyone else see this?  About 3 dozen fire trucks and police up at the shooting range on Lefthand canyon road, about 3.5 miles from Highway 36.  I could see flames from the road.  Looked like a big friggin deal - smoke over the whole valley?

Looks like the shooting range is toast....

Yup and the initial report is that it was a shooter using tracers. Probably reported by the off-roader with the home-shopped catalytic converter that actually started the fire. Wondering about the fallout from this - frankly, I'm out of places to shoot unless I've moved up on the BRC's waiting list by a whole helluvalot.

It started just over the ridge from the bottom of the "canyon" where everyone is shooting at.  There were about a dozen kinda shady looking guys bump firing AKs and such in the direction that the fire started.  They (and most everyone else there) left in a hell of a hurry (didn't say hi, just walked out), after I noticed everyone bugging out I then noticed the smoke.  

It may have been from a 4x4 and the trajectory of any tracer would seem to support it as it is hard to hit a reverse slope from low elevation....but I'm not going to rule it out.

Tracer rounds were my hypothesis as well, however I saw nobody shooting tracers while there.  

wow i saw it on the news... i've never been to left hand canyon but it sounds like i did not miss much... not to mention how unsafe it is there...

anyone know if the areas just up the road a little ways are still open to shooting after all of this?

Quoted: anyone know if the areas just up the road a little ways are still open to shooting after all of this?

Unknown.  Will check in a week or two.

Wow. Last time I was up there (couple months ago), the main shooting area (ie the ditch with the hill behind it) wasn't exactly ready to burst into flames... just a lot of dirt, so you could shoot tracer all day long if you wanted to waste it on that. If it was really a shooter that started it, they must have been doing something that was just begging for trouble, and/or shooting somewhere other than the main area. I'd be more suspicious of the 4x4 guys... I've always seen much higher numbers of them up there, and they're the ones dragging the engines and exhausts of their homemade contraptions through the brush.

Who knows... it could have even been a careless smoker. That reminds me of the time that I was up a little North of that area on 36 and saw a lit cigarette butt fly out the window of a Hygene Volunteer Fire Department truck, towards dry brush on the side of the road. Needless to say, they lost any respect I had for them.

Hope they rule out the shooter with tracer. This might be a bad news for us shooters

Was told by a forest ranger that all of left hand canon is
CLOSED to all shooting at this time. And that the grasslands
are being shut down do to the fire danger. I am only telling
you what I was told by a forest ranger and didn't question
Him. I just thank him and pack up my gear and left the area.

Yesterday, 7 March, at about 4pm I drove up LH canyon and stopped at the entrance to the shooting area.  I wanted to see if the burned area was visible from the highway.  I could not see any result of the fire (burned trees, grass, etc) but with my passenger window down, I did hear shooting.  

I did not drive back to the shooting area and did not notice any "closed" signs near the highway.  Also, there were three vehicles parked in the turn-off along the highway right there at the entrance.

any update on whether or not lefthand is actually completely closed to shooting?  I want to shoot this weekend.  I guess I'll just head up there and see whats going on.  

Went up shooting today and the first range on your right as you are heading up Left Hand Canyon road is open for shooting.  That must have not been the area that burned.  I didn't check any of the areas up further, maybe those were the ones that caught fire, I don't know.

Quoted: Went up shooting today and the first range on your right as you are heading up Left Hand Canyon road is open for shooting.  That must have not been the area that burned.  I didn't check any of the areas up further, maybe those were the ones that caught fire, I don't know.

Negative, the range you were at was the one that burned.

I went shooting last week.  Heavy snow fall in the area has negated the fire danger and (hopefully) helped BLM and the Lefthand Fire Protection District to forget about it.