I live in Phoenix, Arizona metro area. It's freakin' hot here 7 months of the year, only hot for 3 more, and quite nice for the other two months. Going shooting is often a chore. There is an indoor range near, as well as an outdoor one within 15 miles. The Phoenix area has one world class range, and two more good ones, and a couple more just average outdoor ranges. The problem is, this is a freakin huge city, second only to L.A. is land mass. The really good range is a 45 to 70 minute drive for me, depending on traffic. All the ranges stay pretty busy and none of them are cheap.
This leads me to the next option for shooting: Plinking. In order to plink here, you have to drive outside of city limits. There used to be a really great place to shoot not more then 17 miles from me, in actuality, just behind the mountain of one of the outdoor ranges. This was a great local, with shooting on both sides of a dirt road. Unfortunately, people trashed the areas and a few bodies were dumped out there. D.P.S. decided to close the area, much to the discern of many shooters. Other areas were closed within a few years of that, leading to longer and longer drives to get further and further out in the desert.
At this point, we have to drive about 30 miles out of Phoenix to an area known as Four Peaks. There is barely cell service in this area and no gas stations for 15 miles or more. It is the literal term for B.F.E. I have been out to this area 3 times in the last 2 months. The first two times were fun and en eventful. The last time was not so good. There are several dirt bike/quad paths leading off in a dozen directions. The shooting areas are up against hills. Some of these areas are great, with large amounts of space to put up targets and cans and shoot rifles from decent distances. Some areas are quite small with no real space to back up. The last time I was there, it looked like dump trucks had hauled trash out there. Some areas were overflowing with crap. Dryers, dishwashing machines, refrigerators, tv's computers, you name it.. you probably might have found it there.
While I highly doubt shooters did the dumping, they sure took advantage of the targets. This makes shooters look bad. All this crap is a reason our earlier spots were closed. Illegal dumping is bad for all parties and the enviorment.
