Hey Guys,

A friend of mine said a nasty rumor that the shooting area in the Sam Houston Natl. Forest has been closed.

Can anyone confirm or deny this?

Thanks,
CMOS

let me rephrase things...

The Sam Houston Nat Forest shooting area on 1725 is currently CLOSED....

In Sept or Oct, the shooting area will open to the public (mainly for hunters sight in's)

In late Jan the shooting area will close until the next Sept....

So.....from Jan-Sept every year the shooting area is closed.....

and yes it does suck....

sorry for my rambling...that was my place to go shoot and it pissed me off when they closed it for most of the year.....

What's with the open/close open/close?

CMOS

people trashed it out......left all their trash and so they closed it. plus people were bumping and going over the burms.

Damn, I hate it when a few idiots ruin a good thing.

Thanks for the response.

CMOS

Unfortunatly I am guilty of being an idot.  When I started going I saw old targets still up there. I thought it was ok to leave it up there for other people to shoot at. So i left a pc monitor out there.  and other people did use it. that was the only thing i left there.

There is a fellow that posts on ak47.net that goes by Ezra Coli.  If you can find one of his posts, click on his website by clicking on
Head's Bunker.  It has a lot of information on there regarding Glen Donahue who decided to shut the ranges down in the National Forest.
Some of us wrote letters etc but, to no avail.

Guys,

WHO, specifically, made the decision to close the NF range?  Is this person appointed, elected or just hired by some flunky.

It seems to me that we could easily arrange and "ARFCOM Fire Mission" to put some pressure on these folks to open it back up.

After all, WE are paying for those NF's.

Any takers to help out?

CMOS

CMOS, some info:

Steve Rickerson
Acting Forest Supervisor
701 North First St.
Lufkin Tx 75901

...is the person who made the decision according to this.

Glen Donahoe (same address) is the contact person for this decision. At the time that they were considering closure, Donahoe's office was accepting phone comments from the public. My brother and I called and left our comments. We also sent letters to Donahoe, and I notified Ezra Coli of this by email. Donahoe's secretary seemed interested in the fact that on page 89 of the 1997-1999 Monitoring and Evaluation Report, it states that the shooting range was "established to manage Wildlife Management Area rules and still give the public a target area if they do not purchase a hunting area permit. This limits gunfire in the national forest to known sites and helps to prevent individuals from shooting across one of more than 190 miles of pedestrian trails." I used the quote from the report as one of my arguments in my letter. My brother posted this on ARFCOM, but I dont think that the thread received the interest that it should have.

I'd be willing to help out to get the range reopened.

After reading the Closure Report it's going to be difficult to address the issue of people using improper targets and leaving their brass on the ground.

HOWEVER, the way to address this, at first thought, is to remind the NF management that there were never any posted signs stating restrictions on targets or brass cleanup.

How are the people supposed to know what the range area rules are if the NF management doesn't post them?  This would be analogus to getting a speeding ticket on a roadway that had no speed limit signs.  I think this would be at least one good angle to approach them with.  I'm certainly open to others.

Also, if we make any other suggestions, they're going to have to avoid any that would require the SHNF to spend money.  It appears, reading between the lines, that there really isn't any budget for the shooting area (which is a crock because of the heavy usage it gets....)  Once again, gun owners are not well organized or just too lazy/apathetic to do something about it.  If the SHNF closed down the bike trails, you can bet the cyclists would have a fit.

Why don't we?

Any other thoughts?

CMOS

Wow, I never knew there we designated shooting areas in the Sam Houston National Forest.  Is this something new?  

For the last 15 years I have been going to different isolated places out there and have spent many days shooting at metal and paper targets.  I have always made it a point not to shoot across roads and trails and I don’t mess the place up.  

So, have I been doing something illegal, or is shooting outside the designated areas just frowned upon?

I would be willing to bet that Kay Bailey Hutchinson (sp) would be a good person to write a snail mail type letter addressing this issue.
she may not be the actual representative for that area but would possibly be willing to point someone (us) in the right direction in order to move towards re-opening of our National Forest to recreational shooting.

Dan,

Kay Bailey Hutchison is one of our federal Senators, not a Representative.  It would be pretty easy to find who our Reps are for that area (state and federal).

CMOS

Shows how much I paid attention in Civics, Texas history and Government classes in school.