Don't be 'that guy'

[savage1r]

We, as gun owners, have a responsibility to take care of the public lands where we shoot. That means if you packed it in, pack it back out. There was a stark contrast to this pile of styrofoam as back at the line, someone had gone to great effort to collect a huge amount of trash to be taken away. Then some clown shows up with a 'screw everyone' attitude and gives the rest of us a bad name. Don't be 'that guy'.

Video Link

[Jo6pak]

Amen brother,
We always seem to end up packing out more stuff than we brought in, just because some don't respect anything. Whether we are four-wheeling, shooting, hunting, or hiking; we always have several large trash bags along to clean up after others.

To all those like us, keep up the good fight.

[Skans]

Pack-in, pack-out should apply to your use of all public or private land. I hate to be the one to spoil the secret, but there aren't magical maid-fairies following you around cleaning up messes you leave behind.

[USMC 77-81]

OP, I make it a point to go to a couple of local shooting areas twice per year for some target practice and I take some trash bags and a 35 gallon trash can. The good news is for last few trips the places have been cleaner. Perhaps people are starting to realize that actions can have consequenses. My attitude is 'I shouldn't have to pick up after others but I'm willing too'.

[Warrior1256]

I agree, trashiness makes us all look bad.

[jimbob86]

"Leave it cleaner than you found it" is more productive than not "being that guy".

[Ozzieman]

Ours is a privately owned range, someone doing that would have lost their privilege.
That’s not being messy, that’s just being stupid, and I’m afraid you can’t fix stupid.

[Sevens]

"Leave it cleaner than you found it" is more productive than not "being that guy".

I'll second this. When out on a walk with my kids, I usually have a good 3-4 plastic shopping bags with me. It's almost like a scavenger hunt as we find things to pick up and it's usually not too difficult to fill the bags on a good long walk.

The kids seem to get annoyed or disgusted that so much trash appears to be dumped everywhere, but I remind them that as often as any... it flies out of a truck bed or out of a proper trash can on a windy day, and not on purpose.

The biggest problem we have when doing this is avoiding the cans or bottles with tobacco spit in them. Of all the stuff people toss out while being pigs, this is what I find most offensive. We don't pick that up.

Out in the mountains in August at my buddy's cabin, I took a group four kids, three of 'em 10-year olds and they were practically arguing over who got to find the NEXT crushed can or empty McD's cup. This was a walk just off a winding mountain road, not way out in the wild.

[High Desert]

This is one of our, my wife and I, pet peeves. We shoot at our county gravel pit which is about 2 miles from house along with local Deputy Sheriff and a few other shooters.
Not an over populated area here, 6000 people in the county with just one small town 75 miles farther west, but there is always someone who cannot take what they brought with them back out. Our Deputy makes it hard on the offenders if he knows who they are, but it still happens.

We always pick up some little bit of trash before we leave, but even in this remote part of the world their are the ones who do not care and will not haul out what they use and discard.

[jimbob86]

Bayonets can make range cleanup easier ......

http://thefiringline.com/forums/atta...2&d=1356571066

............ though the bitty pieces of styrofoam would be a PITA ..... mehbe a Shop-Vac ... or fire?

[Drifter1885]

Took my nine-year-old grandson on his first 4 wheeler trail ride riding his own machine last weekend. Pulled in to a little remote lake out in the middle of nowhere. Garbage everywhere, and guess what I forgot. Extra trash bags. However, it was an excellent opportunity for an object lesson: teaching him to respect the sanctity of the outdoors was much easier with all that garbage laying around for a visual aid. I usually pack extra trash bags for just that reason; I always put our own garbage in my rack bag for the trip out.

[bdhawk]

part of the problem is videos on television and youtube, etc. on 'top shot' they would show contestants shooting glass jugs filled with colored liquids. they would playback, showing very exciting explosions with glass and liquids flying everywhere. they would show shooting glass plates which would also disintegrate throwing shards of glass everywhere. the 'top shot' folks may have tried to clean up the mess, but I kinda doubt they get it all.

I have watched youtube videos of people blowin' stuff up with tannerite. one was a huge, rear projection television blown to smithereens with tannerite. yeah, it looked cool and exciting, but a FBI forensics team would have a hard time cleaning up the mess. you get folks seeing all this cool lookin' stuff going on, and they just gotta try it. then after they scatter their old CRT monitor all over creation, they see how much effort will be needed to clean up, so they blow it off. they are frequently out in the boonies, and without witnesses, they can get away with it.

it all boils down to personal responsibility, which is lacking nowdays.

I have my own personal range. I admit, I do not police my .22LR brass, but everything else is cleaned up. and I never, ever, allow any glass to be shot on my range. the closest would be the biodegradable clay targets.

[Sevens]

I seriously question the biodegradable clay targets. I can tell you at my buddy's cabin where we shoot once a year... you can find clay remnants that have -NOT- gone anywhere in YEARS. They may break down quicker than a styrofoam cup or an old Coors pull-tab beer can from the 70s, but they slap "biodegradable" on the packaging and it hints that this stuff will be washed away with a couple heavy rains, and... that is not happening.

Worse is any dedicate trap or skeet field. Wow. It's a top layer of broken clays as far and wide as the eyes can see. I can't imagine how that stuff is ever going to go ANYWHERE but sit right there on the Earth. Maybe one day, our smart Grandchildren's children can make fuel for their rocket-cars out of that stuff.