Prospector came for a visit last week and, while here, we drove out to practice our other passion, prospecting. Bet you never would have figured it out that Prospector likes prospecting, huh? Anyway, we were in the Agua Fria River area north of Phoenix on a rought dirt road that leads through the desert and is frequented by a lot of people doing alot of different things. Dirtbikes, ATVs, sandrails and dunebuggies, prospecting, metal detecting, hiking, picnicing, enjoying the river on a hot day. People were also shooting as it is allowed in the area. Almost every activity has some some negative impact on the desert. But the shooters are causing the most visible damage to this particular area and I, for one, am absolutely disgusted at slob shooters. In the several popular areas that people shoot out there, there were targets nailed to trees and cactus, literally mounds of shotgun hulls, brass, broken glass bottles, cans, paper trash blowing all over, shot up propane bottles (lots of them) and freon bottles. In some places the "shooting trash" had been stacked high enough to be near my waist. Scores of Saguaro cactus, many 12-14 feet tall had so many holes in them I wouldn't want to get within range of one deciding to fall. A few years ago one DID fall on a guy that was out with his buddy shooting one repeatedly with a shotgun to try and make it fall. He was successful in bringing it down and also successful in getting himself killed. Good enough for him.
With all of this mess, it doesn't surprise me that more and more areas are being closed to shooting. Unless people start cleaning up after themselves it will soon impact us all. We simply won't be able to shoot in open areas anymore. It doesn't take that long to pick up your brass or hulls, targets, cans and anything else you bring with you. And don't shoot at glass bottles.
While he was here, we also went to the local indoor range I frequently visit. Although they ask you to sweep your brass when you are finished shooting, it looks like alot of the slobs like to shoot indoors, too. When finished, I swept our brass and a couple of the adjacent lanes. There's just not an excuse for all of this. Is it this way everywhere or is it just Arizonans that are turning into idiots?
