Shooting at the Darrington pit.

[DirectDrive]

@HighlandLofts
Are the pin blocks for spraying on sizing lube ?

 

[Blacktails]

Thanks HighlandLofts . Really appreciate the detailed directions. I'll probably go during the week to check them out sometime in the next few weeks.

 

[HighlandLofts]

I buy & sell range brass. I wet tumble all the range brass and hang the cases on these racks to dry. It gives me a chance to inspect all the cases and I get an accurate count on the brass.
I bought & sold over a ton & a half of range brass in the last eighteen months.
I probably have seven maybe eight hundred pounds of brass out in shed that will go to a new home soon.

This is all what comes off the cases, a dry tumbler never gets all the crude off of the cases.


Another batch of cleaned brass.


I can tumble around a 1,000 pieces of 223 brass in one batch.
I have enough drying racks to hang over 4,000 pieces of brass and will make more drying racks here shortly.

 

[Pewpew762]

From Arlington to the pits.
To get to the 435th Ave pit you go to the shell gas station on the corner og 530 and Sweede Haven Road. (About three miles before you get to Darrington).
At the shell station take a left on to the Sweede Haven Road.
You will go across the stillaquamish River bridge. About a mile past the bridge there is a dirt road off to the right, like a Y turn.
That is the forest service 18 Road.
A mile or so up the 18 road there is a stone quarrel on the left. Go another mile or so and take the first road to the right, that takes you to the pit it is about a mile & a half from.the 18 road to the pit.
It is a double gravel pit, the smaller top pit and the larger lower pit.

There is one real rutted up section, it was really bad last fall and probably got worse since then.
Last fall cars made in & out but I wouldn't take a car down there. I talked with the head DNR guy last October and he said it was slated to fix that road some time this year.
I'll have to give him another call and see what's going on with it.

-----------------------------

To get the the other two pits from Arlington you got into Darrington, at the four corners in town take a left at the other shell station like you are going to Rockport.
About 7 miles or so you will cross the steel deck bridge that crosses the Suiattle River.
Right when you cross the bridge take the first right on the curve. The first pit is the small pit about a mile up the Suiattle River Road on the right.
A little over have a mile more the large shooting pit on the right. It has a yellow steel gate.

These pits are a popular shooting spot, you might have to wait to get a spot to shoot if they are busy.

I generally take my grandson up there shooting every weekend from spring until the snow comes. I generally pick up three to five plastic buckets of junk shotgun hulls and steel rifle & pistol cases.
This week I bought 2,100 pounds of lead for casting and worked on it getting it processed in to ingots.
I was planning on taking Mason out shooting today, but I have to get 500 pound of lead processed for some guys that wanted to get casting bullets.

I buy brass cases if you guys pick up your empties.

View attachment 1147882

Thanks for this ! I will try and find the 435th next time! From your instructions I was able to find the Suiattle pits, made a mental error and confused Suiattle River Road with Suak river road.

 

[HighlandLofts]

Atleast you found the two pits on the Suiattle River Road.
We are planning on going to the 435th pit Saturday morning.
I will know Friday night for sure.
If we do go any one who wants to follow us up there are welcome to go. Probably will be leaving Arlington around 8;30am.

 

[EPS]

Atleast you found the two pits on the Suiattle River Road.
We are planning on going to the 435th pit Saturday morning.
I will know Friday night for sure.
If we do go any one who wants to follow us up there are welcome to go. Probably will be leaving Arlington around 8;30am.

I checked the weather this morning for Darington it supposed to rain but not until around 16:00 .
But that can change check again later but as of right now we are still going.

 

[HighlandLofts]

Mason stayed over to one of his friends house last night, I'll come up when he gets back home. I'll go out and process some more lead until he gets back.

 

[HighlandLofts]

I took Mason to the 435th Ave pit two weekends ago and had the lower pit to ourselves. There was a guy shooting steel targets in the upper pit.
My phone had issues taking pictures so I didn't get any up at the pit.
Masochist for four hours while I picked up around thirteen gallons of spent shotgun hulls and a gallon of spent steel rifle & pistol cases. We get pick up fifteen pounds of brass, mostly 9mm & 223.
Mason shot his AR that RPS gave him, THANK YOU ED.
He also shot the twenty gauge Steven's double barrel, the 357 Ruger GP100, the 22lr Ruger Single-six and the other AR we built.

I need to find some more 20 gauge slugs.
He loves shooting slugs threw the old double barrel.

The trash we picked up


Beverage night while separating brass.
Three Balckberry/Pear Mike's and fifteen Budweisers.

 

[HighlandLofts]

We went to the 435th Ave pit today. We got there around noon and stayed until 4. We had the lower pit to ourselves again

During the time there three different groups shot for a while in the upper pit.
I bought another H&R Handi-Rifle in 223 and got it sighted in today.
We got the shotgun hulls picked up and aa five gallon bucket & a half five gallon bucket full of steel rifle and pistol cases. And a little less then a gallon of brass.
The weather was perfect.

 

[HighlandLofts]

We are heading up to one the pits up in Darrington for a few hours so Mason can get some shooting in and pick up some more trash.
Will write about it later.

 

[HighlandLofts]

We went to the 435th Ave pit yesterday early afternoon, there were three trucks in the upper pit when we got there, the lower pit was empty and we had it all to ourselves for the entire afternoon. In between shooting I got all of the shotgun hulls picked up in the lower pit. Mason shot the 357 Ruger GP100 and the 223 H&R HANDI-RIFLE. He shot a bunch of milk jugs full of water. He was hitting them shooting right handed and left handed. I also took a bunch of 16oz water bottles full of tap water and he shot them with the revolver.

The rifle he kept them all with in a quarter.
I need to get more ammo reloaded before our next trip.

When they left the upper pit I went up there and picked up all of the shotgun hulls up there. Finely got them all pcked up . There is light at the end of the tunnel.
When I first started cleaning them up it was like a river of spent shotgun hulls.

 

[HighlandLofts]

Another fun day up to the pits on the 435th Ave. When we got there the upper pit was occupied with two trucks so we grabbed the lower pit. A friend and his ten year old grandson met us up there a half hour after we arrived.
I set out table, chairs and target up then did some pick up until they showed up at the pit.
I did more picking up during our breaks of shooting.
Picked up another five gallons of shotgun hulls today in the lower pit.
I had them all cleaned up in both of the pits last Sunday.
We only got to stay for three hours because of family obligations.
The weather was perfect, mid sixties. There was snow up in the higher elevations.

 

[DirectDrive]

That's a nice-looking pit you have there !

 

[HighlandLofts]

It took a lot of time picking up garbage for it to look that nice.

 

[Dirty-30_lever]

scurried down the road to the 435 pit today after driving to the 2 others that were occupied, had the place to myself. Leave no trace

 

[Grendelhunter]

scurried down the road to the 435 pit today after driving to the 2 others that were occupied, had the place to myself. Dialed in some scopes and picked up all my brass. Leave no trace

435 pit?

 

[Dirty-30_lever]

435 pit?

The DNR pit in darrington…

 

[HighlandLofts]

There are three DNR pits in Darrington.
The two on the Suiattle River Road and the one on the 435th Ave that you need to go to from the 18 Road.

 

[Neogeo]

I will be posting here on our trips to the darrington pit. I have going there for about ten years and have been taking my grandson there for close to five years.

We are going there tomorrow about noon, maybe 1 oclock.
The past few years we picked up lots of spent shotgun hulls, steel rifle & pistol cases and regular trash.
I need to take a scrap steel run up to Skagit recycleing on Monday so tomorrow I will focus on larger steel junk people took up there and left along with a few buckets of steel rifle h pistol cases. I have a old refridge, a leaking hot water tank, a few old grills and some items at the house that I will.load up when we get back home from the pit.

If any one is interested in going post on here or send me a pm and I will tell you where we can meet up.

I will be posting all of our trips here for your reading enjoyment and hopefully encourage others to get the kids out to shoot and have a good time up in the woods.

A picture from our last trip up there. View attachment 874981

 

[Neogeo]

hi, thanks for your contribution. My wife & I will help in any way. Have a metal rake (magnet on wheels, you know) I'm sure. Directions from I-5? We'd like to check it out. If this isn't on sorry. New pm me back start one if you will
Thanks,
G