Target Shooting Waiparous

[MountainAME]

Hello all I'm new to this forum. New hunter to Alberta. First season was late last november.
I have hunted in Manitoba for over 20yrs and now that im here full time in Alberta I'm looking to hunt out here. I scooted out Waiparous last season and have a few spots gps located to sit this year.
Now for a good place to site a rifle in. I have heard the gravel pit is an ok spot to set up and put a few threw the barrel. Is this still true? any suggestions on other places a guy can go site a rifle in?

Cheers
Rob

[Talking moose]

Join your local shooting club.

[flipkrak]

Your local club


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[overhere]

Gravel pit it full of a atv and dirt bikes and also private property NOT good . Join a club

[Gray Wolf]

Even at the best of times, Waiparous is a gong show

Think again
.

[Lornce]

Please be very careful of your backdrop. While doing volunteer research for Trout Unlimited I was almost shot when a couple of brain dead guys used a Creek as a backdrop. Slug sprayed me with stone fragments. Go to a range please.

[Puma]

Hi Rob, AME eh ?

Welcome to the site. There are a couple of ad hoc ranges set up along the Trans Alta road west of the Bar C Ranch. We were out for a hike on the weekend and stopped by to see one of them. There were about a dozen guys and gals shooting. Most were guys getting ready for hunting and were set up with tables and rests. I was actually surprised at how considerate they were of each other and seemed to be displaying basic shooting safety. Most seemed to clean up their brass and most of the targets when they left. There was some garbage left around the area.

If you need more detailed directions, PM me.

The gravel pit is a NO GO shooting zone.

[wolf]

What ever you do please do not leave any garbage behind(paper targets, cardboard, empty bottles, windshield washer containers, doors, hood from a car). It only takes a few minutes to clean up.

[ÜberFly]

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgar...erta-1.4258504

Sorry can't post the entire article

[tacomama]

Originally Posted by ÜberFly

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgar...erta-1.4258504

Sorry can't post the entire article

From the article:
"He says he didn't start coming under fire until a couple of years ago, when the public gun range at Sibbald Flats closed."

HMMMM. Didn't see that coming lol. What did they think that people will just stop shooting? They day that range closed to the public was the day a whole set of problems started in many other places. At least at Homestead it was somewhat contained...

[MAC]

Originally Posted by tacomama

From the article:
"He says he didn't start coming under fire until a couple of years ago, when the public gun range at Sibbald Flats closed."

HMMMM. Didn't see that coming lol. What did they think that people will just stop shooting? They day that range closed to the public was the day a whole set of problems started in many other places. At least at Homestead it was somewhat contained...

Poor behavior came about 6 years ago. Closing the range only made it worse.
Had a spot from about 30 years ago. Quit going there when the yahoos showed up.
Last time was when I showed up and set up a bench and walked out a couple of target boards. Another fellow came over and pointed to some tail lights way up and told me I was free to shoot them as they were done. I asked why he was not picking up his garbage and got no reply as he walked away.
Same day a forestry truck pulled up. I stopped shooting put down all guns action open and visible and greeted him. i wanted to make sure he felt safe. Asked what he was up to and he sighed that he was just there to pick up the garbage.
Went home that day with a car door, dishwasher, television and several boxes of crap in the back of my truck.

Some people are disgusting and I have no idea why they feel this is OK.
The garbage is one aspect their antics at blowing stuff up is another.
Irresponsible behavior appears to reign at some of these places.
I agree that I do not feel safe in those areas and avoid the Trans alta road.

Rant over

MAC

[tacomama]

^^^ true true.
I am always disgusted with the garbage people leave behind in the public land use zones too. Almost every time I camp on crown lands, I come back with more garbage/empties than I came with. Some people are just ******* pigs, simple as that.

[Gray Wolf]

Originally Posted by ÜberFly

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgar...erta-1.4258504

Sorry can't post the entire article

Like I said (post #5) Waiparous is a Gong Show.

Back in the old days it was a great place to go, but that was when the Greater Calgary Area only had ~500K population
.

[hilt134]

Gravel pit is illegal i believe as there are signs saying so. Its avery safe place as long as you go on a weekday. Though with a safe back drop and clear sight lanes the best i have found is maybe 70meters

[elkhunter11]

Even if 90% of the users clean up after themselves; it won't take long before a place looks Iike a garbage dump, and people want to ban target shooting in the area . If they started handing out $2500 tickets for littering, and $1000 rewards for turning in offenders, much of the littering problem would go away.

[crazy_davey]

It won't be long before target shooting on public land will be illegal.

[precloading]

Originally Posted by crazy_davey

It won't be long before target shooting on public land will be illegal.

Seeing more of these signs all the time.

[Gray Wolf]

Originally Posted by crazy_davey

It won't be long before target shooting on public land will be illegal.

In many high-use areas (Waiparous, etc.) that's ^ the way it should be!

Fishers, ATVers, horseback riders, hikers, random campers, etc., shouldn't have to dodge bullets.

Maybe someday they'll get smart, and set up "Target Shooting Only" zones
.

[Grizzly Adams]

Originally Posted by Gray Wolf

In many high-use areas (Waiparous, etc.) that's ^ the way it should be!

Fishers, ATVers, horseback riders, hikers, random campers, etc., shouldn't have to dodge bullets.

Maybe someday they'll get smart, and set up "Target Shooting Only" zones
.

I can think of a couple of old gravel pits that would fit the bill. But then of course, the TV and appliance shooters would ruin it very quickly.

Grizz

[Don_Parsons]

Most of the gravel pits in our area are pretty much closed.

Fenced off with locked gates since they become garbage dump sites.

Im not into shooting in a gravel pit dump site, so I joined a club and we shoot on our farm depending where our cattle are.

The club thing is the best since fuels the sport and is a great place too meet some awesome folks with like minded interests.

Oh,,, Welcome too Alberta Mountain AME

Don

[Viking Caliber]

That's funny!! "Couple years ago when sibbald closed...."
Sibbald ranged closed to public less than a year ago. I just healed from double hand surgery. Went out to Homestead range found the gate. Talked to a range member, he told why it's closed. Double hand surgery for me was summer of 2016.

I don't do ranges with my wife and son. Cost doesn't justify for me when I can shoot. 2-3 times a year. I like my privacy, and solitude.

[Arty]

The Waiparous area and north at least used to be decent hunting areas, reasonably close to Calgary. I'd hate to see all the game chased out by too much of the wrong kind of activity, like loud motor and excessive gunshot noise.

Animals will occasionally get used to some noise, and a few times I'd look up from firing at Homestead and look around to see curious deer right at the fence a few feet away just standing and watching everybody. I've even seen herds of deer in west Calgary munching away in the ravines of new neighborhoods. But that's not typical. Increasing amounts of human activity will generally drive wild animals away, especially larger ones.

It takes a big chunk of time out of your annual hunting days off, if you have to drive 12 hours or more to get to a base camp in a decent hunting area, and then set things up to be ready for the next morning, if you lose all the good areas near by. Not to mention fuel costs for the truck. So to go out to Waiparous and blast away all day would put too much additional pressure on an already overloaded area, IMO.

Encroaching general development, including residential, has always been a big problem too. I remember seeing bear skinning tables built on the side of the road out along Sheep River past Turner Valley which people would use every year. No more. That whole area has substantially changed.

At this point, with so many people in the Calgary area charging north up the trunk road to use it loudly and aggressively in all sorts of ways, we'll probably have to go to a primitive weapons and own muscle power only format, just to keep it open.

[Bub]

Originally Posted by elkhunter11

Even if 90% of the users clean up after themselves; it won't take long before a place looks Iike a garbage dump, and people want to ban target shooting in the area . If they started handing out $2500 tickets for littering, and $1000 rewards for turning in offenders, much of the littering problem would go away.

I would vote for that.
Somewhere in Europe, I believe Latvia or Lithuania (but I maybe wrong), they also have a rule that if you leave the area and garbage is left behind, regardless whether it is yours or someone else's, you get a ticket. I think that could work as well. Most reasonable people clean place up anyway, or at least do what they can anyway. The problem is enforcement, rather lack thereof.

[calgarychef]

Originally Posted by Talking moose

Join your local shooting club.

Which is basically impossible if you live in Calgary.

[Arty]

Originally Posted by Bub

I would vote for that.
Somewhere in Europe, I believe Latvia or Lithuania (but I maybe wrong), they also have a rule that if you leave the area and garbage is left behind, regardless whether it is yours or someone else's, you get a ticket. I think that could work as well. Most reasonable people clean place up anyway, or at least do what they can anyway. The problem is enforcement, rather lack thereof.

Well, one problem is enforcement. But that just plasters over the two bigger main problems.

First is an absolutely insane gross disrespect for material, wilderness areas, range discipline, and basically everyone else outside of their own family. You can see the same kind of wanton vandalism in apartment buildings and on ski trips with 'students' out of the Calgary area. When firearms get involved it only becomes a matter of degree. Kids see crap on the news which people get away with, like US Democrat bad behavior during elections, or excessive mass refugee-immigration, or hear how their parents screw over co-workers or customers, and think it's normal. So they never grow up. "Screw over the neighbors, who cares, its fun!"

Come to think of it, one character from back east did get 2 years imprisonment after being driven through Calgary and firing a pistol into the air a number of times, wild-west style.

Packing in large appliances and 500-pound boiler plates and loose lumber into Homestead to take potshots at is simply bizarre. As is lining up record collections at the parking lot fence and blasting away at it with several thousand rounds of 223 ammo. Or even driving your friends brand-new Silverado through engine-deep mud in a McClean Creek bog, until it quits. None of this is 'littering' by any means. It is wholesale dumping and malicious vandalism and has to be handled as such.

Second, it is reasonable to expect some public means to dispose of small garbage such as spent paper targets or ammo cartons or nasty splintered lumber, when there are large numbers of people which frequent a location. That is a convention in our society. Historically it is done using a burning-barrel. It is simply a convenient efficient service, like having a place to wash your hands at a gas-station toilet. When barrel full, burn garbage. Pretty simple concept.

If there's no such device for a crowd however, people will just start dropping things, and then you will get a litter problem. It's better to just use the tendency of people to put stuff into a garbage receptacle when they see it.

(That of course has nothing to do with packing your sandwich bags out of a sparsely-visited remote area while hiking. In that case, nobody but yourself is around to make any mess so you are directly responsible for any and all of it. Logistically there cannot be any facility every 50 yards in a million-square mile area to deal with garbage either. You have to burn it yourself in a campfire as appropriate.)

[V_1]

Originally Posted by calgarychef

Which is basically impossible if you live in Calgary.

Everyone I know who wanted to join the club did so. What's the problem exactly?

[Talking moose]

Originally Posted by calgarychef

Which is basically impossible if you live in Calgary.

Even the surrounding area towns?

[straight]

Originally Posted by V_1

Everyone I know who wanted to join the club did so. What's the problem exactly?

You can't shoot old computers there

[elkhunter11]

Originally Posted by straight

You can't shoot old computers there

And they get upset if you drink beer while shooting, or if you don't clean up after yourself.

[J0HN_R1]

Originally Posted by Gray Wolf

Fishers, ATVers, horseback riders, hikers, random campers, etc., shouldn't have to dodge bullets.

Maybe someday they'll get smart, and set up "Target Shooting Only" zones
.

So recreational target shooters shouldn't be aloud to use the same Crown Land as everybody else ? I'm not suggesting setting up on a known quading/hiking trail or using the forest as a backstop, but...

What about when the same "random" people you refer to walk/ride/travel across my shooting lane when I'm shooting more than a mile (2 km) away from the nearest maintained road in a secluded area ?



Your reasoning lacks just that, reason... Crown Land is for every Canadian, just use it at your own risk.