Hey everyone,

I've been a Washington resident since the 1990 when the Navy first stationed my here, but then I ended up spending the majority of my Navy career on the other coast in submarines. I have been back in the are for a couple of years and will be retiring from the Navy in another couple of years. I've been concerned about what I have seen happen with the Kitsap Rifle and Revolver Club with regard to our county politicians. I noted that this site seems active in finding other places to shoot. I am very interested in getting established places to shoot on public land and helping to use those areas responsibly to protect our sport. I only found out about this site last week.

Tonight I plan to go to a public meeting in Belfair that is being held regarding shooting areas in the Tahuyeh State Forest. I hope to be able to lend some ideas about establishing shooting areas or one significant area for shooting. I know some of the community concerns are about shooting in random areas because of the volume of off road vehicle use and hiking done in the area. It has been my observation that the public shooting areas that do best are ones that are established and frequented often by responsible shooters (people who clean up, don't trash the land or dump their garbage to shoot at and leave, etc.)

I would love to read some other ideas about creating established public shooting areas and strategies for success. I spotted this sort of effort in the threads on the Capitol Forrest pit area. I think this type of shooting community involvement in keeping our area safe and clean is a first step in winning ground with the DNR folks. I'll Probably cut an past a bit of this in the places to shoot section, and hope I may see some other folks at the meeting tonight if there are other Kitsap, Mason County and Tahuyeh area shooters who are interested in the topic.

Welcome to WaGuns!




The outdoor shooting pits and ranges (e.g. KRRC) are two different things but they boil down to one thing... responsibility.
KRRC has members invested and responsible for it's function while the open pits are at the mercy of DNR and the shooters that use it.

Don't get me wrong. Even at ranges it's a mess. People are simply slobs. Be it members or not.

When it is a membership or dedicated group - those folks are vested in the interests of keeping that range open not just for their lifetime but for the next and next and next generations.

Public shooting pits are used sporadically by many and used as a dump site (aka targets) and therefore unless others clean up after them... get to a point it becomes a health hazard.

What's the solution? Make those that use these open pits responsible... how? Someone has to make it their life's mission. Clean it up... is one thing but it's a short term solution as it keeps getting piled up with junk.

We have to police ourselves... the shooting community has to make others fall in line.
1) Take pictures of those that dump and use trash as targets.
2) Ask other shooters to clean up their trash
3) Clean up more than we take
4) Organize group cleaning
5) Make it public - make officials and the public aware that a group is taking this on

Many of these are hard. It takes effort and organization. It takes a core few to get it started and to keep it going.

I have seen many things here from one person and another but collectively it just hasn't taken. There are a few that have organized and taken on this issue but it needs to be overseen and planned by a larger organization. All our efforts are individual but as a group, as a community we can do more.

I guess what I haven't seen is someone to take the lead and on a regional level organize all the efforts and "advertise" the efforts to the public.

Welcome to WaGuns! Thanks for representing at the meeting tonight.

Welcome to WaGuns !!!!!!!!!!!!!

Welcome to Washington.

Thank You for your Service. You will find that there are many on here with a DD214.

Go Navy !!!

cootduster

Nice to see another bubble head. I did my time on the KY blue but in early 2k. I'm also new to the board.

Nice. I did a fast boat (MIAMI) and two tours on GA starting at the end of her conversion process to SSGN, and then a second round on the opposite crew.

Good job, I got out right as the first of the conversions started so I never got to take one out but I hear it proved to be .. interesting. I was an MT so the only time I saw the inside of a fast attack was loading stores in sub school for duty.