Virginia Gun Owners Forum - VGOF

I just wanted to post this for anyone who is in the Roanoke area. I have been going to Potts Mtn Range for many years, here recently (ie, 6 months)the range seems to be a bit clustered with trash....I Also, wanted to let everyone know that this Range is free...That's right an Open Free Range...Sunrise to Sunset...Your in a National Forest...No Range Master, Although there needs to be one, on certain days...
My whole point of this article is basically, People need to clean up after themselves...I went over there on Saturday evening about an hour and a half before sunset...There was one gentlemen there shooting his pistol, so I donned my ear's on...got my gear out..and proceeded to clean an area surrounding a lane....As I was raking, the spent brass and shotgun shell, I bet there was at least 10K casings and that was just inside the lanes......
not to mention the other 20k or so on the range itself....And the trash that was still clipped to the fence, or boxes filled with rocks.....
At the end of the evening ALL the trash, Paper, Cardboard boxes had been removed, Not all of the brass was picked up in the lanes, Although the had been swept into a pile......
Needless to say i was grateful for the guy's help...I wish there were more people in this world you will clean up after themselves.....This Range has one operator, by the Forestry Dept...an older gentlemen who cleans and replaces the wires on the range, and takes the trash off.....
Just a remainder to clean up.....
I could write more, i think this will do for now...And another thing ..for those of you who enjoy shooting at the range Lanes instead of the Range itself...I will be watching....That is a Felony by the way......


Art

Thanks for the tip Art I will have to get by there someday soon its not real close by but I get out that way every once in awhile. I read that a lot about open ranges like that one where people trash it out likes its theirs shoot up any signs or fence posts or pretty much anything thats not intended to shot at throw their empty boxes cans and bottles shoot up the trash cans its really to bad they can't appreciate the fact that they have this facility to use and all they have to do is clean up their mess. Hell I might go out there just to clean up all that brass.

John

Good post I noticed similar problems at many of the public ranges.

Wish this range was closer it's a good one.

The Forest Service pays someone to clean the Brush Creek range outside Blacksburg. Closed on Mondays for cleaning. Just an FYI. Dont know why that would not do that for the others.

I FINALLY got out to Pott's yesterday. Thanks to 0007dad for the heads up about it being a good alternative to Blacksburg. It's a gorgeous ride to it, and a very nice range. When my girlfriend and her two sons got there,it was packed! There was only about 2 open lanes.We were there about 10 minutes, and it cleared out pretty quick. Wonder of it was us? lol. Really nice to have a range that size in the area. Yes, there was a TON of trash there, maybe some of us can set a date to get up there and clean it up once a month or so. Be a nice way to meet and great and do our good dead for the day, Thoughts?

Pogo wrote:I FINALLY got out to Pott's yesterday. Thanks to 0007dad for the heads up about it being a good alternative to Blacksburg. It's a gorgeous ride to it, and a very nice range. When my girlfriend and her two sons got there,it was packed! There was only about 2 open lanes.We were there about 10 minutes, and it cleared out pretty quick. Wonder of it was us? lol. Really nice to have a range that size in the area. Yes, there was a TON of trash there, maybe some of us can set a date to get up there and clean it up once a month or so. Be a nice way to meet and great and do our good dead for the day, Thoughts?

Community Range Cleanup Day? I like the idea, maybe its something VCDL would be interested in promoting so it would get a little more exposure.

I have a rule to always take out more then I brought in. So I clean up other's people trash in the area of the bench I am shooting at Potts. I usually will pick up a few pieces as I go back and forth to my target.

Sad that so many people leave their trash lying around.

Heading to Potts range tomorrow afternoon and haven't been there in quite awhile. Does anyone know the current range condition?

In the geocaching world we have a term called CITO. Cache In, Trash Out. Just being a good steward and picking up trash you may find while hiking a trail or whatever. We also stage events at certain areas or parks that need a bigger help cleaning up trash...sometimes in conjunction with the park officials. Perhaps the shooting community could have something similar,maybe SITO? Shoot In, Trash Out? Whatever happened to Leave No Trace? Trashy gun owners are irresponsible gun owners and it looks bad on all of us.

Had a good afternoon at Potts Mtn. range today in spite of the large crowd there all afternoon. There remains lots of trash on and around the range but it was nearly impossible to do any real clean up other than removing your own items because of the crowd. What really needs to happen is to close the range from time to time for cleaning.

I would certainly join in with any others interested in a clean up day.