Browns Camp Beaver Dam Rock Pit

[Member 34319]

we would love to go to the wolf creek ones but sadly it is so overcrowded that we never get a spot...and we dont feel like waiting for 2 hours or going at 5am. Last time people even had a canope up and blocked the lanes all day....

Trust me, I know. As does ODF.

But their popularity, combined with the successful campaign to keep them clean by the community of recreational shooters, means we may get more to further the chances of getting a lane to shoot on.

In time...

 

[DrCox]

Hey folks,
Has anyone been out to Browns camp recently? Is it open right now or closed for excavation?
Looking to head out Monday.

Cheers,
DrCox

 

[Mikej]

Hey folks,
Has anyone been out to Browns camp recently? Is it open right now or closed for excavation?
Looking to head out Monday.

Cheers,
DrCox

I would say it IS open to shooting currently. If' it weren't this page would have the closure notice I believe.

State of Oregon: Recreation - Target Shooting

 

[DrCox]

Great resource! Just book marked it.

Thank you so much Mike!
DrCox

 

[antonio97b]

I wish Browns camp wasn't such a dump. It's the longest range place out of any place in the area. My group of friends weee the first one there today and we set out all our targets and quickly we were swarmed by a bunch a bunch of low iq people and crowded out of there. We lost a wood target stand I built to people just shooting whatever they want and someone tried to walk off with the other wood stand I made. People started to shoot behind their vehicle bringing the firing line back further than where we were set up to the point we couldn't retrieve our gear. Last straw was the armored up guy who set up his ar500 ipsc target on the walk way to the right about 30 feet away before blasting it with 5.56 sending fragments flying. But if you know the layout of that place the bouldered ridge sticks farther out so for us on the ridge the target was only about 15 feet in front for us and crap was coming in laterally. I tried to tell them that wasn't a good idea because of the people up on the ridge and they tried to tell me that their target was designed for up close shooting because it had a down angle. Having to explain to a man in LBE that a bullet doesn't stay in a single piece and go straight down like a cartoon and instead explodes radially sending fragments sideways as well as downwards was a bit frustrating because they were insisting they were fine. Beaver dam needs an education course like wolf creek. It has potential to be a great place but people are dumb as rocks .

Sorry. Just a bit of a vent

 

[Knebel]

Sounds like my latest experience with some guy chugging 4 beers in the hour I was there and his finger on the trigger. I believe the cops showed up for that one....

But then there were a group of kids who had an ak that was brand new and the one guy in the group was very knowledgeable and tought everyone the basics of safety and all that, it was absolutly amazing how safe they were...looks can be deceiving sometimes

Dosent help that my wife is afraid of guns and I am trying to get her to use one so she knows how to handle one. I am still looking for a place I could take her where nobody is around.

 

[nwslopoke]

I am still looking for a place I could take her where nobody is around.

It's a place called Thursdays.

 

[aasbra]

I used to enjoy riding dirt bikes up at Browns Camp about 10 years ago, but don't get up there much anymore. I grew up shooting mostly on public lands in the woods of Western Oregon, but farther from the population center of the state. Wasn't hard back then where I was to find a decent, safe spot to shoot. Even then, with fewer people using the land, I always was amazed at how some folks would bring out all kinds of junk, shoot it up, and not clean up after themselves. I was taught by my Dad long ago to respect the land, and others who shared it, by cleaning up after yourself. Most trips out we hauled back extra garbage bags and other larger items that wasn't from our range trip to boot.

After moving to the Portland metro area, and getting back into shooting, I ventured out on several occasions into the public woods on both sides of town looking for a decent spot to shoot with buddies. Every time, we ran into situations similar to the last couple posts describe, or drove for several hours and still didn't find a good, safe spot to shoot. These experiences moved me to join up at a local gun club rather than shooting on public land.

While I do miss getting out into the woods, and also being able to shoot water jugs and steel targets we set up as a kid in the woods, I don't miss feeling unsafe when other people pulled up in the woods shooting spot and weren't safety conscious, or the trash some people left behind.

 

[Lazyfaire]

I wish Browns camp wasn't such a dump. It's the longest range place out of any place in the area. My group of friends weee the first one there today and we set out all our targets and quickly we were swarmed by a bunch a bunch of low iq people and crowded out of there. We lost a wood target stand I built to people just shooting whatever they want and someone tried to walk off with the other wood stand I made. People started to shoot behind their vehicle bringing the firing line back further than where we were set up to the point we couldn't retrieve our gear. Last straw was the armored up guy who set up his ar500 ipsc target on the walk way to the right about 30 feet away before blasting it with 5.56 sending fragments flying. But if you know the layout of that place the bouldered ridge sticks farther out so for us on the ridge the target was only about 15 feet in front for us and crap was coming in laterally. I tried to tell them that wasn't a good idea because of the people up on the ridge and they tried to tell me that their target was designed for up close shooting because it had a down angle. Having to explain to a man in LBE that a bullet doesn't stay in a single piece and go straight down like a cartoon and instead explodes radially sending fragments sideways as well as downwards was a bit frustrating because they were insisting they were fine. Beaver dam needs an education course like wolf creek. It has potential to be a great place but people are dumb as rocks .

Sorry. Just a bit of a vent

Don't blame you for the vent. When I go to the quarry I always go early on the weekends or go during the week. I stay until there get to be too many people. If Id seen someone drinking and shooting I would have been out of there quick. Most people are there for fun and are safe. I always pay attention to who is around me. Too many people and they are walking behind me, behind my car and coming around.....no, I'm gone.

 

[Knebel]

Don't blame you for the vent. When I go to the quarry I always go early on the weekends or go during the week. I stay until there get to be too many people. If Id seen someone drinking and shooting I would have been out of there quick. Most people are there for fun and are safe. I always pay attention to who is around me. Too many people and they are walking behind me, behind my car and coming around.....no, I'm gone.

I am 100% with you on that. I tend to just be to the side and mind myself and try not to be around others too much the few times I was up there but that said I also have social anxiety lol. I get uneasy too with people too close or behind me, afterall you could be dead within a second if someone is careless enough. Our friend who joined us that day actually called the cops because of the drinking guy who handeled the guns preeetty unsafe. We left because of that too.

 

[Lazyfaire]

I am 100% with you on that. I tend to just be to the side and mind myself and try not to be around others too much the few times I was up there but that said I also have social anxiety lol. I get uneasy too with people too close or behind me, afterall you could be dead within a second if someone is careless enough. Our friend who joined us that day actually called the cops because of the drinking guy who handeled the guns preeetty unsafe. We left because of that too.

The quarry is patrolled by the Washington Co Sheriff's office out of Forest Grove. Never seen a statie there ever

 

[Knebel]

ImI not sure, i think that dispatch put us through to ODF and they said they would handle it and send someone. I don't know what exactly happened after that since we left. I am not big on calling the authorities really but when I have to worry about someone potentially blowing a slug into my friends and family... well then I support it. But good to know who to contact next time. Those people give the responsible ones a bad reputation.

 

[Lazyfaire]

ImI not sure, i think that dispatch put us through to ODF and they said they would handle it and send someone. I don't know what exactly happened after that since we left. I am not big on calling the authorities really but when I have to worry about someone potentially blowing a slug into my friends and family... well then I support it. But good to know who to contact next time. Those people give the responsible ones a bad reputation.

I would have zero problems calling the sheriff about this. Not correcting you, but I view the sheriffs as good people. They have a purpose in our society to be the buffer between society and "the bad guys". We, as POTG, should never stand for such stupidity as drinking and shooting at a public place. Calling him out invites trouble for all, so we leave (I would too), but others stay behind. The authorities should be called on him, to protect us all from his ilk. Such people taint us all.

 

[284guy]

This is why people should join gun clubs, so they can get away from the scum that plagues places like this. Took my son out there a couple years back picking mushrooms, dressed in hunter orange, to find bullets flying up an att trail, not even in the shooting area. Some drunk guys "logging" as they called it, trying to shoot down trees. Most gun clubs cost around $10 a month, which you'd burn more than that in gas with one trip to these dumps.

 

[DirectDrive]

I haven't been there, but judging from the pics from the last cleanup it looks like it could be dangerous.
I can't imagine trying to service targets downrange while undisciplined shooters play with their guns back at the line.
What's the method, run down there in your rig and barricade-park while you work targets ?

 

[Mikej]

I haven't been there, but judging from the pics from the last cleanup it looks like it could be dangerous.
I can't imagine trying to service targets downrange while undisciplined shooters play with their guns back at the line.
What's the method, run down there in your rig and barricade-park while you work targets ?

Nah, there's boulders block anyone from driving into the pit.

There really are a bunch of trashy people that shoot there. The shotgunners are the worst....Leaving all their hulls around. We cleaned that place to the point of immaculate early in August last year. You were hard pressed to find a shotgun hull, even in the boulders at the bottom. It was all messed up by mid October when we went looking for mushrooms. Damn pig shotgunners!

 

[Knebel]

Well usually it works pretty well if someone calls cease fire walking downrange. I noticed that pretty much everyone goes downrange then to set up stuff but you still have people to point their guns down range (I usually unload and shoulder my rifle or point it up if i wait for someone to come back up)...others dont... I rarely set up targets for that reason, there is often is enough trash to targetshoot :/

 

[SparksFly]

Was just up at Browns Camp today with a friend and drove around to some of the other ranges since people where shooting at the quarry and picked up a bubblegumload of garbage. 6 helium/other cylinders, 4 mini propane tanks, and a rim off of a Toyota Corolla. We then drove some of the logging roads and picked up close to 6 or 7 hundred pieces of misc. brass and at least a few hundred shotgun shells. The place was (and still is) a mess.

 

[Lazyfaire]

I would not be surprised to see this area be closed to target shooting with the next 1-2 years due to the constant mess. It will be too bad as many people cannot afford to belong to clubs in which to shoot a distance (this is 215 yds). I've used it in the past but was always appalled at how trashed it was.

Kudos to those who have gone out to clean it up over and over.

 

[Idaho44]

ALL of the shooting holes around Boise suffer the same degradation since the HUGE influx of west coasters and others. Places that were once known to only a few have been trashed and the uptick in road kills by the fast and furious (young, old and retired) is witnessed everyday! How fast do you have to be going in a 35mph zone to split a deer in two???