Posted: 3/10/2003 7:35:17 AM EDT
|
Sloan Update: Hi Guys, Here is an update on the Sloan situation as of last Saturday; I went out to break in a new AR upper and met Ranger Crayton and his significant other, Jill who also works for the BLM. I was going to shoot at the pit and found out the following. Yes a construction company is working there and yes they have put in 24hr security. After speaking to people from the construction company I found out that they have not decided if they are going to open it or not. The geologists are still evaluating it and won’t be done with the tests until this coming Friday. It seems that with all the road construction going on I15, they are opening all the gravel pits in the area. I got the appropriate phone numbers and I will follow up on Monday the 16th to find out if the pit will be opened and for how long. As for the security, it seem that they had some equipment badly shot up last week. When I got there I got the same line others have gotten about it being off limits etc. When I asked the construction manager if they had leased the land yet, he told me no. They were still doing tests. I informed him that it was still public land and the security guard was there to guard the equipment and not the land. Ranger Crayton backed me up and since work was wrapping up for the day I went ahead and shot there for a couple of hours. Now for the future; two things may happen this Friday. 1. The construction company may decide not to open the pit, remove their equipment and that’s that. 2. The construction company decides to open it and it will be lost for several months at least. As for options in the case of the latter, we have a problem. According to Ranger Crayton, no other gravel pits exist in the shoot zones that would handle a group the size that showed up last month. There are still plenty of places to shoot but none would safely handle 25+ vehicles backed up to a line. Apparently there is a place between Sloan and Jean that the ranger thinks would be good but it requires a permit for groups over 50 persons. This may or may not work depending on liability issues etc. Here is what we can do in the next couple of weeks. I am going to go take a look at the Jean site early Wednesday morning on my way to LA. Ranger Crayton is going to be out of town all this week but I will go to the BLM office and meet Jill and another Ranger (forgot his name) to look at some maps for alternatives. They are more than willing to help especially since I think they want to join us for this months shoot. I will probably go to BLM Friday afternoon or early next week. If any of you want to join, just email me at [email protected]. I will of course post any info I get and you guys can decide what you want to do. Well, that’s all I know as of now. Any comments or suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks, Richard |
| I know of an old mining operation but it is north and a little farther away. It has AMPLE places to park, 25 cars wouldn't even come close to crowded and has plenty of shooting area. I have checked with BLM and it is good to shoot on, it's about 15 miles north on hwy 93....that's 93 not 95. Look to the right hand side and you will see an area where the land has been mined for gravel, it's easy to see. There is cell phone coverage there and even a heli-pad, it couldn't hurt to have one of those just in case. |
|
Good News Guys!!!!!!!!!!! It looks like the pit is ours again! I went up to BLM today to meet with someone in the recreation administration dept. We had a long discussion and he answered many questions. I walked out with a TON of maps, forms and brocures. I then went down to Sloan to check on what was going on there and was met with a beautiful sight..........about 100 tons of heavy equipment heading out on semi flatbeds!! Once I got to the pit it was completely empty. The only person left was the BLM geologist who was looking at the cool 10 foot high rockpiles left along the base of the mountain just waiting for us to set targets on. The construction left some great new target areas all along the line. So it looks like things are cool for the 23rd (and Tues night for that matter) Now for the proviso: I have not yet spoken to the guy at Rinken Construction so I guess there is no guarantee that they will not set up again next week but from the looks of that convoy heading out this afternoon, it does not look likely. I will call them on Monday and if there is any news, I will post of course. I had intended to post here a detailed report on my BLM meeting but I think I will not waste bandwidth here since it looks like we can shoot at Sloan. Sufice it to say that we have LOTS of options should we need or want to explore them. In fact, it looks like there might be some even better sites out there. I will bring all the info with me on the 23rd and we can discuss over Mrs. Bigfoot's corned beef and cabbage. Well thats all I got for now. If you have any question, just ask 'em. Later, "(f)rickinvegas" |
