SKS Shooters "Clean up your Act"

Something else to consider is alot of ranges collect and sell the range brass that they clean up. At my range it is not a big deal and noone will care if you don't pick up your brass. In fact if you are out pickin up brass you will probably be told that the brass that hits the ground other than your own is range property. So just because surplus brass is not worth anything doesnt mean I should be pickin it up. If they encourage me to leave my $$$ brass they can keep the trsh to.

Claybuster, maby if your club encouraged SKS's and surplus FMJ they could make enough cash on the scrap metal to afford the camera system that would solve all your problems. I know my club collects all the brass once in a while and I'm sure they make some good coin off of it. There is more surplus brass than gravel in some areas and there is actually a scrap yard down the road.
 
mlehtovaara said:
Claybuster, maby if your club encouraged SKS's and surplus FMJ they could make enough cash on the scrap metal to afford the camera system that would solve all your problems. I know my club collects all the brass once in a while and I'm sure they make some good coin off of it. There is more surplus brass than gravel in some areas and there is actually a scrap yard down the road.
Click to expand...

The topic appears to be STEEL cases. Someone will always pick up the brass cases, even if it's not the original shooter, because they have value.

Scrap steel is what? $165.00 per Ton? Steel cases are wothless for all intents.

As some have suggested, mixed in with mud on a path, it might make cheap gravel. And if that where it ended up, this thread likely wouldn't even exist. The problem appears to be the hazard created when it's left on the concrete pad. As much as some feel they have paid a membership and thus don't have to pick it up, many have paid a membership to have a hazard-free place to shoot.

Here's an idea: how about we jack up the cost of the membership to cover the cost of the video equipment needed to catch some slobs?
 
Doc M said:
Well, here at SPFGA range (Sherwood Park Fish and Game, East of Edmonton), there were some people shooting buck and slugs at the pistol backstops or 25yd line - and the 4x4 posts holding them up - who weren't a) replacing the decimated target boards, or b) picking up their hulls. The final straw was one 'guest' (which is prohibited under our rules - no 'guest' shooting allowed) letting one shot loose when another person was downrange; the shot was at the 25yd berm and the other person was at the 300yd berm as I understand it, and there's no way (geometrically) that they could have been hit... but that's still beyond unacceptable.

The club put in a relatively inexpensive wireless camera system with motion-sensing recording software to catch vandals/'guests' (read: freeloaders)/rulebreakers. Cameras at the gate catch the entry time (and possibly a plate; I don't know what angles they have), cameras catch the bad behavior, and the executive can revoke/trespass if need be. The stupidity stopped, like it had started, almost overnight.

Regarding the pickup of shell casings, there's never been a huge issue at our range - but after the cameras, things have definitely gotten cleaner on the concrete pad. Also, most of us don't mind the fact that steel-cased ammo landing in the mud (when it's wet) forms a sort of "gravel" that makes it much more pleasant to walk in/on when going downrange to check/remove targets.

Also, on our range we are required to openly display our membership cards - with names and numbers visible - while shooting; if someone is being irresponsible, they're easily reported. To my knowledge, it's never come to that.

I'd say that a regulation saying that those not picking up spent shell casings be 'excused' from the range would be more appropriate than banning ALL inexpensive or match ammunition because of the FMJ rule. If there are bad apples, then report the few that ARE bad... painting with too broad of strokes just hurts us all.

-M
Click to expand...
Thank-you. Those are very good suggestions. The camera idea was discussed at some length but the rifle range is somewhat distant from the rest of the club so it would need a stand-alone system. It hasn't been ruled out for the future.

We have many of the same rules including the visible display of cards and names. The FMJ rule is only recent and not one I support. It is an attempt to limit the use of surplus ammo on a range where the predominant activity is small bore silhouette shooting. Whether it changes in future remains to be seen.
 
Personally, I always pick up my cases, .22 caliber included. There is nothing I find more annoying than having to walk all over brass someone has just left laying around. I find it smacks of negligence. There are brass "depository barrels" at each end of the range, it's really not that hard to pick up your stuff and dump it. Besides, you can get money for brass and steel now, so why not save it, bag it, and maybe you might have enough for a few boxes of .22 someday? That's what I am aiming for. Besides, anyone who blathers on about "slow your rate of fire" is honestly silly. So long as I am being safe, and making sure my fellow shooters are, what is wrong with blowing my ammo aka money however I like? Perhaps I should stand by a gas station someday and remind the guys who shoot at the range that "perhaps you should pump your gas slower. Or you can give ME the 40 dollars you don't need to fill your Hummer." Just my 2 cents.
 
I believe everyone should clean up after themselves. I seriously don't like the idea of painting all shooters of a certain gun with the same brush. Make an effort to find the person or persons responsible and deal with it.
 
Claybuster said:
Thank-you. Those are very good suggestions. The camera idea was discussed at some length but the rifle range is somewhat distant from the rest of the club so it would need a stand-alone system. It hasn't been ruled out for the future.

We have many of the same rules including the visible display of cards and names. The FMJ rule is only recent and not one I support. It is an attempt to limit the use of surplus ammo on a range where the predominant activity is small bore silhouette shooting. Whether it changes in future remains to be seen.
Click to expand...

Amen, Brother - I didn't mean to rag on you personally, sorry for that... I know that we all have to "suck the proverbial egg" when it comes to range rules at our respective clubs, but it just pisses me off to see broad-stroke solutions to small-stroke problems.

I read about a range in the states (was this in Guns and Ammo, maybe? Damned if I can recall...) that actually used the surplus steel core for gravel in their parking lot and on their walkways where they had been downtrodden such that the grass didn't grow. They'd have it by the wheelbarrow load, and just made wood edging and tossed barrow after barrow of steelcase on the pathway... before they knew it, they had a nice 'gravel' walkway built to the target boards.

In our case, the front of the firing line gets a little muddy - since the overhang shades it, and it gets a bit downtrodden when people walk forward to check boards. So, if someone sweeps their brass off the concrete pad and on to the dirt, it mixes in (especially during the rain) and becomes a better walkway than a slippery mudhole... ;)

I hope you guys can sort it out, because banning FMJ means I pretty much wouldn't be able to shoot there... AR15, M14S, SKS, and even my bolt action .308 Savage 10FCP HS Precision all get fed a steady diet of FMJ to keep 'em happy... the Model 10 gets SMK's quite often when I get more serious, and I hunt with 165 GameKings but closed-point open base FMJs make great plinking rounds for fun!

-M
 
Doc M said:
I read about a range in the states (was this in Guns and Ammo, maybe? Damned if I can recall...) that actually used the surplus steel core for gravel in their parking lot and on their walkways where they had been downtrodden such that the grass didn't grow. They'd have it by the wheelbarrow load, and just made wood edging and tossed barrow after barrow of steelcase on the pathway... before they knew it, they had a nice 'gravel' walkway built to the target boards.

-M
Click to expand...

That sounds cool but I bet after a few years in Canadian weather you would have a rusty, jagged tetanus hazard!

Jeff
 
rhshooter said:
That sounds cool but I bet after a few years in Canadian weather you would have a rusty, jagged tetanus hazard!

Jeff
Click to expand...

Yes, all the near-naked, banana hammocked male models at the range running around in their bare feet hate it.

Hasn't been a problem yet at the front line of our range, can't see it becoming one.

-M
 
bondjames80 said:
You Shoot Barefoot? ;) That's a serious shooter...
Click to expand...

The great westicle once suggested that he shoots naked...

Don't know that it would do anything for me.. But I have seen people shooing in sandals... Cheap runners.. and unfortunatley sometime kids at the range like to play with things.. all you need is for them to start playing with the rusty SKS cases ...
 
rust is only rust, tetanus is something different. it would be hard to cut yourself on a casing. i still think they should be picked up from the firing line though. Lead is a much greater health hazard for kids.
 
bear.23 said:
sometime kids at the range like to play with things.. all you need is for them to start playing with the rusty SKS cases ...
Click to expand...

If the kids are running around in front of the firing line, unsupervised, for long enough that they can hurt themselves on a casing they dug out of the ground... that's more of a parenting issue than a range issue, IMO.

-M
 
ArtyMan said:
Its not just the "fudds" or "everyone else", its all firearms owners. By us seperating ourselves we are doing nothing to help the firearms community.
Click to expand...

Well to me anyways the "fudds" are the ones that are seperating themselves.

<----

I'm a firearms owner, I love all firearms. Single-shot .22s and muzzleloaders all the way to handguns and a belt-fed Browning semi-auto.

You have no idea the amount of "fudds" that have told me my Browning is illegal and I shouldn't have it. At least the 8x63mm cases are brass.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom