Shooting in the desert

Backlighting

Backlighting

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Just outside the Las Vegas city limit is a vast desert. This is BLM land and it is legal to carry and shoot weapons. I'm in there with a friend and some firearms about once a week.
We see jack rabbits quite often but we do not shoot at them.
We have stashed 2 folding chairs and some targets for our shooting pleasure. It's a blast!
Desert3.jpg
 
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I hunt jacks all the time. Coyotes too.

Thankfully the desert is a 10 minute drive max for me
 
One of the reasons I moved to New Mexico. But you do have to watch out for those that are unsafe (stupid).
 
I like to mostly go shooting here in the desert too. I moved to another part of town about a year ago, and it takes longer to get where I like to go. I actually like to go shooting in Santa Teresa, NM. It was about a 25 minute drive from my old place. Now it's probably closer to 40 minutes. I think it's just fun to bring your own targets and you don't have to pay anything. I usually see other people down there, but everyone just keeps to themselves. I think other than that, border patrol makes appearances every now and then, but they do not usually have a problem. The station is really close. I actually had an agent come down and not only jump start my car, but also pull me out of the sand because I was stuck.

I've never seen any jack rabbits or coyotes while I've been shooting. I only see them when I am not. The sound probably keeps them away or scares them off.
 
Evil Dog said:
An excellent example of an unorganized shooting area being littered with junk left by irresponsible shooters. Refrigerators and TV sets are quite popular too.
Click to expand...

I shoot in the desert. There is an element among the shooting population that are pure pigs. I suspect they are the same mouth breathers who litter stream banks with coils of thrown out fishing line, half opened cans of corn, styrofoam worm containers and discarded Keystone Light cans.
My club went to considerable expense of time and money to clean up a pigged-out desert shooting spot. Hauled off 3 washing machines and I don't know how many assorted fenders, splintered bowling pins and shot up liter bottles and aluminum cans. Our payback was all the brass these dipsticks leave laying on the ground.
There goes the blood pressure again.....
 
Mojave Desert, 1990s. About an hour out of Vegas, somewhere between Pahrump and Death Valley.

Doing some exploring and some shooting. We pulled up to this long-abandoned mining site; there's tons of them all over that country; just some debris and a vertical shaft with no cover or visible bottom. A few feet next to the hole we found a single .45 ACP casing. Nothing else; no old targets, cans with holes, perforated fridges. Just one bright shiny .45 case next to a bottomless pit not too far from Vegas.

We'd watched "Casino". We knew wiseguys didn't like to shovel. We decided to go on someplace else.

I still have that casing somewhere. And I still occasionally suffer from a vivid imagination :) .
 
I live in the Mojave desert and have spent many an hour shooting out there. You do have to be careful because you never know who you'll meet.

I always take my targets with me when I go and back home when I leave. It really bothers me that some are just pigs.

In the end, I prefer my local range. Good facility and much safer than the desert. I can't shoot a TV there, but I can work on my defensive shooting.
 
Here's my desert shooting area south and west of ABQ.

000_1593_zpsdgxn79bb.jpg


The truck is about 350 yards.

There's a lot of interesting stuff. There was an old Spanish mission that was in use up until about 15 years ago. It had underground chambers. It was bulldozed after a murder. There've also been some dead people out there - some crispy. Probably cartel nonsense.
 
I used to shoot east of El Paso in the Huecos. One day there was a car near where we shot. It was in pretty good shape, but no engine as I remember. Over the years it got smaller and smaller as people hauled parts away; first to go were the wheels and tires. Finally it was no more than a chassis. Then one day that vanished: we could see drag marks where someone hauled it off. Don't know what they did with it. Whole thing was rather spooky.

Another spooky business: quite a few years ago I was exploring around the Huecos looking for a nice place to shoot. I was preparing for a visit from a friend. Found lots of nice places, but someone had always been there before. Quite a few empty cases on the ground; mostly 9mm, 5.56, 7.62X39 and 7.62X51; lots of steel cases. Some had fluting marks on the side; probably fired in an H&K. Never saw anybody out there, but someone was going out all over the desert and shooting a lot of milsurp ammo, keeping a low profile in the process. Wonder who and why?
 
Backlighting said:
Came across this bullet riddled vehicle (70's?) in the middle of nowhere. How did it get there?
Desertcar.jpg
Click to expand...

Jimmy Hoffa went out for a Sunday drive and was never seen again....

In the 70s when I lived in Tucson we had a spot off Houghton Road where we'd go shoot. I'm sure it's been thoroughly developed by now.
 
Years ago I was out in the desert with my brother and my new Remington 30-06 rifle when we came upon a deserted car full of bullet holes. From a distance of about 50 yards I shot into the engine block and instantly heard the bullet whiz past my head. That impressed upon me that possibly that wasn't the smartest thing to do....and haven't done it since.
 
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