Posted: 8/27/2008 2:35:08 PM EDT
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Howdy all, I used to read a lot, post a little on the site but not much time to do either these days. But I came across something in Las Vegas that made me angry today so I'm venting  Rant on  Been living in northwest Vegas a little over a year and have been looking for a place to shoot without having to join a range. Not much luck since shooting is supposedly prohibited outside of town. Well, I've seen quite a few trucks off of 95 north of town just past Corn Creed Road in the washouts. I always speculated that people were shooting but never got a chance, until today, to go back there and explore. Well, I was right, there has been a ton of shooting back there. How do I know? It's a friggin wasteland/junk yard of shot up garbage and casings. It was unbelievable the amount of shot gun shells littering the landscape. They covered the ground along with empty shell boxes, water bottles, cans, shot up tvs, doors, tanks. You name it, it was there and shot up. It is obvious people go, bring broken things to shoot at, throw their garbage on the ground and leave. It was not just a small section but all the way up and down this washout. A good half mile at least. It made me sad at the state of society. I grew up in Washoe Valley, NV and almost every weekend went shooting with friends and family at the local DG pit. We always picked up after ourselves and so did others. Never did I think "wow this place is trashed" . Of course there was the occasional group of people who left their garbage but it was always picked up by others. Not so nowadays it seems. I am far from a "save the earth" tree hugger. But the amount of trash and litter and lack of regard for the land was pitiful. I see it everywhere around here. Couches on the side of the road, refrigerators, garbage bags, etc. People make the desert their personal dump. It sucks. Rant off Thanks for the forum to rant. You all take care and here's to them finishing the shooting park soon! |
| I went there for the first time this past Monday and felt the same way you do. The place is so trashed, I felt almost silly taking home my trash to dispose of properly. In spite of how garbaged up it is out there, I have never been a litter bug. I will continue to pack my trash out no matter where I shoot. |
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I almost pulled a guy of a car today for littering. I was walking across the parking lot and paused for a car to pass me. The passenger flicked some trash out his window when they passed, and actually hit me with it. Now to be fair, he never even saw me, and it was the wind that caused the bit of fluff to blow back and contact me, but still... However, I saw him, and you know what? I'd bet dollars to pesos that he was an illegal alien. <Blatant profiling ON> 1) He was of obvious Hispanic descent. 2) Wearing a Mexican flag hat 3) Playing blaring Mariachi music on the radio 4) Littering absent-mindedly in MY HOME TOWN!!! I speak fluent Spanish (to my ever-lasting shame), and I truly wonder what his reaction would have been if I stopped him, handed his trash to him, and scolded him: "!Esto no es Mejico! Use la basura, aqui en me barrio, puerco ..." <Blantant profiling OFF> I know that the illegal aliens are not the only ones guilty of causing this problem, but they sure are one of the major contributors 
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Man, I'm WITH you guys on this one! WHAT is wrong with people? I have gone out to some spots and they are TRASHED! I spend about 45min setting up, whatever time to shoot, and HOW EVER LONG IT TAKES TO PICK UP EVERY SCRAP OF PAPER, METAL, SHELL, ETC. off the ground before I leave. I know it's time consuming but it must be done. I also pick up after people that have been there before me. Shotgun shells are the most common garbage left behind. I mean COME ON! You can't spot a shotgun shell on the ground? Pick it up!! If I can strain to spot 9mm casings, you can pick up a big red shotgun shell. The most annoying are the guys shooting glass bottles. LEAVE the bottles at home! Or paint can/spray paint cans on boulders. Atleast if you plan on shooting paint, do it on the dirt so you can mix it up. Defacing a boulder so you can get a kick out of an exploding spraycan is childish. Just saying that all that trash/litter is fuel for anti-gunners to advocate stricter policies on gun control. ie., Environmentally Unfriendly. You enjoy it, I enjoy it! Let's do our part to prevent such laws from becoming effective by taking a moment to pick up after yourself! It's good for us AND keeps America beautiful. |
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I went out that area to shoot once about 5 years ago and could not believe the amount of trash that was out there. I too was quite shocked at the amount of shot shell hulls laying around.!hock.gifhere I will head to the public range outside of Caliente to shoot my rifles. Its covered,with benches and tables, not busy and no trash laying about.Rifle range is about 300 yds I believe and another range for handgun and archery. Yeah the drive is a bit long but I don"t mind |
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Our black powder club used to use Corn Creek. When it started becoming a junk yard, we tried to find other locations. Don't know how that turned out as I lost interest in black powder when I discover my Bushmaster. I did go out there again a couple of weeks ago, trying to find a spot to teach my grandson to shoot. Based on what I saw, that will not be the place I will take him. I want him to learn correctly, including taking home everything you bring. |
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In the "old days", different clubs would would go out and have clean up days. Sunrise Mnt. was one of the places that got a make over about once a year from an old Mt. man club. If I remember right, the Dump on Vegas Vally rd. did not charge them, and the Media usually ran a story on it! But then again, that was then. |
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Lots of the places up here are trashed too. Dont get me wrong, I have left my share of brass in the desert but these people who dump random trash really piss me off. There are a couple spots right in town that as soon as you are out of sight of the main streets there are huge piles of trash. One place looked like a contractor had dumped two or three big truck loads full of shingles and misc building materials. |
I stopped for breakfast one morning two weeks ago & the guy walking through the parking lot in front of me tosses his yogurt cup(fake ass tree hugger) in the bushes right in front of the entrance to the restaurant as he's walking in. There was a trash can not 10 feet away. Fortunately I finished my breakfast before he did--picked the yougurt cup out of the bushes & tossed it in the back of his pickup.
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I have run out of trash bags before I used to bring one kitchen size and that was plenty for me. Now I fill at least one and sometime more fullsize bags |
| Quite a few years ago when I was still a junior leader in 4-H we went to clean up the shooting range in Douglas. This was a LE only range before we cleaned it up, and the reason that we were cleaning it was because it was going to become the Douglas County Public Range. Anyway this range had multiple cars and hundreds of thousands of rounds of brass that our club picked up that day, so after it was all clean the county finalized the shooting range and opened it to the public. But, after about 5-6 years I moved back to Nevada and went back to the range. While the buildings are still stanging there are quite a few bullet holes in the roofs and more garbage than you can imagine from disrespectful people, so now when I go I try to take as much garbage as I can. |
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Same thing at the shooting range in Ely. A shotgun shell reloaders dream! propane tanks, lumber, TVs whatever trash anybody has appears to wind up downrange. I saw some clowns unloading a fish tank to shoot with a shotgun a couple of weeks ago! "This thing's been sittin' in my garage for years, heh heh heh." they said as I drove away in disgust. It'd be better if people picked up what they shot, or at least got together to clean it all up every month or so. Anybody in Ely want to help with a range cleanup day? Or just pick up some stuff when you go out there, you won't have to look very hard. |