Oh, give me a home where the buffalo roam and the deer and the antelope play… Hey, that’s Idaho!
Well, there are not too many buffalo left roaming around anymore, and while we’ve got a bumper crop of deer this year, our antelope numbers are hardly worth writing a song about.
However, the point is we still do have a lot of wide open spaces all around us. This illusion of vastness seems to give some people the notion that they can pull their trucks over anywhere, toss out an old TV set , some empty spray cans, and some cast-off Christmas ornaments, and open fire with whatever firearms that happen to be available. Instant shooting range, instant mess, and the instant potential for injury. Even though we have the right to open fire on the public lands that constitute our open range, many people abuse the opportunity by failing to clean up their targets or being as safe as they should.
Don’t get me wrong, I love guns. I own as many as the next Idahoan, which by some counts is quite a few. Because part of my job involves teaching people about firearms and gun safety, I guess I might look at things a little differently. Also, because I’ve been involved with developing public shooting ranges, I understand how many different possible concerns exist. Shooting guns can be fun, but they require respect and care.
I’ve actually been driving down Yellowstone Highway and almost had my car hit by a badly sliced golf ball from Pinecrest. If instead that had been a stray .22 round from a shooting range, the Post Register would have devoted at least three or four editorials and a full front page spread in the Sunday edition, but nobody cares about a ricocheting Titleist.
When it comes to shooting we all need to take the proper caution with where we set up our targets before we shoot, be aware of our surrounding while we shoot, and then police the area for trash and spent casings after we are done. This does not just apply to plinkers, but to sportsmen as well. I cannot tell you how many times I’ve come across piles of spent shotgun husks out at the marshes of Market Lake Wildlife Management Area or along the Teton River. Why can’t someone who carries in a heavy box of new shells bother to carry out a box of used shells that weighs nearly nothing? Probably the same reason that you find so many empty Keystone Light cans scattered along the South Fork.
Thankfully, when it comes to shooting we have a number of developed range options in and around Idaho Falls. In town, we have the excellent new Guns N Gear private indoor range for pistol shooters and it can even handle rifle calibers up to a .30-06. For outdoor shooters looking to sight in a rifle for hunting season, there is the Unified Sportsmen’s Club range outside of Rexburg or the Cedar Hills Gun Club to the south. Of course for shotgunners we have the Skyline Gun Club and for pistol shooters the Idaho Falls Silhouette Association range just west of town.
All of these ranges are designed to be safe and staffed with people eager to make your shooting experience fun and help you improve your skills. They might charge a few bucks to use their facilities, but it is worth it. I once wrote a littering citation to someone who hauled a huge box of Christmas ornaments out to one of Idaho Fish & Game’s Wildlife Management Areas to shoot. No violation with doing that, but failing to clean up all the shards of glass that were exploded everywhere was. Because the fellow had left the mailing label on the ornament box, figuring out where to send the citation wasn’t very difficult. He learned the hard way that it might have been open range, but it wasn’t free range.