Whats wrong with WA shooters?

[Truenorth]

Just spent 3 days camping in the Snoqualmie National Forest and I was ashamed at what I saw. Several friends came up from oregon and couldn't believe it either.

We brought shotguns, pistols and .22's but didn't feel like shooting much at all after what we saw.

In less than one single week of the forest service road opening the fire pits are full of plastic and trash. Beer cans, Monstrer energy drinks and redbull cans everywhere.

fresh shotgun shells buy the thousands are in every campsite and just about every viewpoint and dead end road we checked out. Broken orange shooting clays are everywhere. Fresh tree bark has been blown off the tree trunks, branches blown off. targets stapled directly to the center of trees around camps. Glass bottles smashed on the rocks around the fire pits. Tires, matresses and a few bags of trash including dirty diapers have already been dumped. Some in the stream!

It all made me a little sick to my stomach. It was perfect two weeks ago.

All this damage is after 1 week of exposure. I know the entire area was clean and grown back when I was up there two weeks ago.
I just rode through on a dual sport the week before the gate opened to recon our trip and inspected 12 to 15 campsites in a 15 mile strech.
Not a single shell casing, beer can or clay in sight then. Now, every single site looks like the rest of the roads around Greenwater, trashed.

All the grass had grown back making the campsites soft and clean.

Some hero in a big truck did cookies in 6 or 8 camps sites along ther creek and tore the living crap out of all of them.
Looks terrible, muddy rutted and no longer flat to camp on or even drive through. Must have been some real big tires there boss, nice work A-hole.

Hate to say it but maybe we don't deserve access to FSR 7010 at all. They can gate it back up for another few years and let it recover from the 1 week of local shooting exposure.

We had planned to go back after July 15th to run the Little Naches Trail but I think we'll head down to Browns Camp in OR instead. Much cleaner down there.

Read More

 

[Botte Hork]

That's not just shooters, that's trashy people in general, all suffering from the "it's someone else's problem" epidemic.

 

[Truenorth]

It's both. I'm not blaming shooters specifically but there was definilty alot more shooting damage to trees and shells left behind than I've ever seen.

I was excited to have my buddies come up from Oregon to camp and wheel the Jeeps. What we saw there was simply unacceptable.
We hauled out 6 XL yardwaste bags full of trash from ONE campsite.

What kind of person hauls a TV all the way up to the National Forest and blasts glass all over a campsite?
I had to keep my dog leashed the whole time we were in camp to keep broken glass out of her paws. She felt punished and so did I.

 

[Stepside2000]

If I had to guess, I'd chock it up to high school kids and young irresponsible new gun owners who were just itching to finally shoot their new toys without any training etc. it's sad. This is why I haven't gone out in the woods to shoot yet

 

[BigStick]

I get sad just reading your post man. Then I get angry. That stuff just pisses me off. I guess these people never had parents that took away their toys if they didn't play nice or clean up after themselves.

I always bring some extra trash bags with me when we go out, and unfortunately, I am never surprised when I get there and there is more than enough to fill them all up.

 

[Truenorth]

Giving the number of malt liquor and energy drink can's we hauled out kids are a likely candidate for at least part of the mess.

If any of you do go camping or shooting on FSR 7010 do us all a favor and bring a couple trash bags and take some stuff out with you.

I know it's a hassle but given it's current state it might not be long before the Forest Service just locks it up and throws away the keys.

As many of you know we permanantly lost over 200 miles of forest service road access in the White River Valley (FS Rd 7400) just a couple miles from there.

Used to wake up and see this from the door of my tent in the morning. Now you can't even get there without hiking in and breaking the law.

 

[Caveman Jim]

I'd be willing to bet that many of those zeros are from Cali... Just sayin. Allot of good gun guys moved up here but sadly allot of trash people did too.

 

[captqc]

My kid and I always take along a couple of garbage bags when we go shooting and always fill them. It's sad to see what pigs people have become these days. When I was a Boy Scout we were taught to leave an area better than we found it, I taught my kid that and I still do it and I'm 56!

 

[HKFooey]

I live in Washington and cannot disagree with anything you said. Most of the shooting sites I have been to are completely trashed. The only thing I can do besides complain about it is try to rake up a couple of bags of litter and haul it out of there. Pay it forward.

Now the more important question - What the hell is wrong with Oregon drivers!

 

[duane black]

Just wanted to say I too have observed this type of destruction in Gifford Pinchot. I spent my first summer up here exploring Gifford Pinchot looking for shooting spots in my jeep. I have about a half dozen waypoints marked on my GPS.

Every single shooting area is trashed. I have seen everything the OP complained about, including ruts from folks running their trucks off road In places they shouldn't have. I have seen Trees with targets stapled in the middle of the trunk and just about cut in two, I have seen small diameter trees shot in two completely. Trash, beer cans, fast food containers. One day on a Forrest road I came around a corner and their was a fire pit in the middle of the road with, I'm not kidding, HUNDREDS of beer cans in a pile. This was a very rarely traveled area in Gifford Pinchot.

Anyone that has spent time in these areas has seen the signs, every single one has been shot to hell. Seems like shooting signs is a sport in Washington. I have seen signs shot with BUILDINGS directly behind them up just outside of Cougar. Who the hell shoots a street sign with a damn house behind it ?

I always take out my trash, and others when I go shooting at these spots. I AM from California and have spent quite a bit of time in the El Dorado National Forrest doing the same thing I do up here. Exploring in my jeep and shooting. While we have retards down there too I have never seen the destruction that I have until I moved up here.

I wouldn't be surprised if they shut these places down to shooting altogether one day. The lands are being destroyed. I can't imagine what non gun folks think of us as a whole.

Pretty sad state of affairs. How hard is it to clean up after ? Would these folks do this on their property ? Leave TVs and Computers all blown to pieces for someone else to clean up ? Drive a 4x4 through the backyard spinning its tires ?

Irritates the hell out of me.

Oh yeah, the shooting clays. Sigh...

 

[captqc]

I live in Washington and cannot disagree with anything you said. Most of the shooting sites I have been to are completely trashed. The only thing I can do besides complain about it is try to rake up a couple of bags of litter and haul it out of there. Pay it forward.

Now the more important question - What the hell is wrong with Oregon drivers!

What's wrong with Oregon drivers? Californians!

 

[HKFooey]

What's wrong with Oregon drivers? Californians!

Oh no you didn't! Californians drive WAY better than Oregonians. They at least do the speed limit and follow the "pass left, drive right" rule. Oregonians are huge fans of putting up the 4 lane rolling road block on the freeway. 60 Mph speed limit and you have 4 cars pacing each other, blocking traffic, going 45.

The passing lane is for passing folks - not for fartin around on your phone

Come on!

 

[duane black]

LOL. I totally agree HKF. MY biggest issue with Oregonians behind the wheel is MERGING on the freeway. I got behind a Oregon plate yesterday on i5 merging on the interstate @ 40 MPH. This is almost half the speed limit. WTF !

 

[Botte Hork]

LOL. I totally agree HKF. MY biggest issue with Oregonians behind the wheel is MERGING on the freeway. I got behind a Oregon plate yesterday on i5 merging on the interstate @ 40 MPH. This is almost half the speed limit. WTF !

Too many people (with a variety of license plates) hit the brake for everything if it's not driving forward in a straight line. Changing lane, brake instead of speeding up to match up the spot they'll merge in. Same with merging into a freeway. Oh, slowing down to almost a stop in the middle of the street? Ahhh, you're making a turn, THANKS FOR SIGNALLING THAT HALFWAY THROUGH THE TURN!

 

[HKFooey]

Sorry I kind of hijacked the thread - I have some anger issues with Oregon drivers I realize that now and will work on it.

To the original post - I know it's pretty bad in spots around Washington. The worst I have ever seen was in Arizona though. Basically picture a dump where everything has bullet holes in it. Freezers, cars, old tool sheds, pretty much everything you could imagine. The ground looked like one of Elton John's jackets because all of the glimmering glass fragments gleaming in the sun.

It's like you just want to bury everything and start over.

 

[Brutus57]

I think the shooters that trash places are let's say a younger crowd for the most part. It's been my experience (see those Monster and Red Bull drinks are a bit of a giveaway) that despite being a "green" generation that X and Y aren't! If it doesn't belong to them why not throw it out. Look at the trash Occupy movement left behind. yes, its a bit of a generalization but just pay attention to these folks who go about there business. Also, you will note by being observant that 7 out of 10 push lawn mowers seem to be operated by females these days....just start counting next time you are out and about. Has nothing to do with sexism, it just turns out when I count as I ride or drive around...even my wife sees it. But I digress. Everyone, just police your own brass. That needs to be on a big placard with the rest of the safety warnings stuff with new firearms being sold.

Brutus Out

 

[clambo]

That same green Red Bull drinking crowd that likes to ride bicycles and kayak in the G.P Nat. Forest very near some of the aforementioned shooting wastelands. Rednecks vs. yuppies vs. redneck yuppies, etc. When the factions meet in the woods it often leads to harsh words on the low end of the scale to violence on the other end of the scale. This is exactly why I feel more threatened in the woods than I ever do at home. Last elk season in the G.P 3 Greenpeace'n bunny huggers in a Suburu would have beat or possibly even killed a hunter who had just downed a bull and offended their delicate sensibilities. Thankfully the hunter had well....a .338 or some such thing and was able to convince them that they might just wanna leave.

While I don't always or even often pack a gun in town, this is why I always have one or more handy in the boonies. Bunny huggers, tweekers, pot growers, fugitives, etc concern me a lot more than my neighbors.

 

[duane black]

That same green Red Bull drinking crowd that likes to ride bicycles and kayak in the G.P Nat. Forest very near some of the aforementioned shooting wastelands. Rednecks vs. yuppies vs. redneck yuppies, etc. When the factions meet in the woods it often leads to harsh words on the low end of the scale to violence on the other end of the scale. This is exactly why I feel more threatened in the woods than I ever do at home. Last elk season in the G.P 3 Greenpeace'n bunny huggers in a Suburu would have beat or possibly even killed a hunter who had just downed a bull and offended their delicate sensibilities. Thankfully the hunter had well....a .338 or some such thing and was able to convince them that they might just wanna leave.

While I don't always or even often pack a gun in town, this is why I always have one or more handy in the boonies. Bunny huggers, tweekers, pot growers, fugitives, etc concern me a lot more than my neighbors.

Don't want to thread jack to much but I couldn't agree more. I have spent alot of time in GP and almost every time I am back in there I come across folks that I wouldn't expect to come across. It was such a common occurrence last summer I had a long discussion with a Skamania County Deputy about it. He also mentioned they come across some interesting folks back there during patrol, they believe they are mainly squatters. I am talking way back, and not your subaru driving, north face wearing portland crowd either.

Fodder for another thread I guess...

 

[RVTECH]

Allot of good gun guys moved up here but sadly allot of trash people did too.

A lot of BAD gun guys out there too - and they may outnumber the 'good'.

 

[Caveman Jim]

True that RVTECH...