What would you have done?

Last night my girlfriend and I went out to the nearby lake and wma to walk my lab. We got there before most people, and were out walking along the creek created by the overflow. While we were back in this open field, a family/group of about 4 people passed by us, and went to an area of trees about 200-300 yards from our position.

Soon after, we began to hear gunfire, seemingly from a large caliber handgun, a rifle, and what sounded like a .22. We figured out it was the group that passed us, and we hightailed it out of there. I called the county sheriff.

The WMA that we were at is a heavily used one, with lots of people around fishing and running their dogs. Because of this, it is clearly posted that no target shooting is allowed. There were at least 8 cars and 20+ people in various areas within 500 yards of the shooters.

I created this awesome picture to show what happened. The green line is my girlfriends and my path. The red line is the group that was target shooting. The pink line is their approximate shooting lane.



These people showed up, and without regard to gun safety, and knowing what was downrange, started target shooting, putting myself, my girlfriend, my dog, and anyone traveling on the road in danger from a stray bullet. Right as soon as we were able to make it back to the parking lot three sheriff deputies showed up and took care of these idiots. The deputies actually had to drive through the line of fire to get to the parking lot.

My question is, had you been in a similar situation where someone was showing zero regard for the safety of others while target shooting, putting yourselves and anyone on the road in danger, what would you have done?

 

same bro call the cops if you dont know correct gun safty u deserve to have the cops called on you

 

Called the cops.

Bob & weave, duck & cover, etc.

 

I would have done the same thing you did. Good for you! Idiots like that give gun owners a bad name.

That is an awesome picture.

 

You did the right thing.

 

I agree with others, you did the right thing, get the hell out of there and let the LEOs deal with them.

 

Good judgement and good call. Would have done the exact same thing. Definately not confront them myself considering they are armed and obviously stupid.

 

It was definitely a first for me, it was a challenge to keep the girl calm. She's the type where she is ok with guns as long as her or myself are using them, gun ranges and situations where someone she doesn't know or trust is shooting makes her very uncomfortable. I had to try to keep her moving and calm, while keeping my dog under control, call the sheriff, and try to get us to safety.

Unfortunately she also is very non-confrontational, except for with me, so she didn't want to stick around to see what happened with the deputies and the idiots. I was pretty curious. I found myself pretty dang angry at the stupidity of the shooters, and I really came to wish that I had any of my guns with me, not to act, but to respond if they had come to do harm to any of us, even if accidental.

 

Serpentine! Serpentine!

 

Yup.
Unless you and the GF were confronted, GTFO and let the pros handle it.

 

you did the right thing OP... those jerks shouldn't have been doing that, very unsafe and inconsiderate of them.... any idea what happned w/ them?

 

I didn't get to stick around to see what happened. The girlfriend wanted to get out of there a.s.a.p. I was a CJ major so I was interested from that standpoint out of pure curiosity on what the deputies would do and how they would handle it. Once I knew we were out of harms way I was eager to turn around and watch the action but she wasn't having it. I asked the 3rd deputy that got there if he needed us for a report but he said they'd call me if needed, and I left.

What I was able to see was the first deputy to arrive took my info, and drove down the drive to the parking lot on top of the dam. He then scoped out the situation using binoculars until the 2nd deputy arrived, they then started moving towards the group, one taking the high ground on the top of the dam, the other moving along the bottom face. About this time the group figured out the gig was up and started frantically packing up. From the parking lot to where they were shooting is a very rough estimated 400 yards. That's about when I had to back out and leave.

I tried to research online for what might have happened but our county apparently doesn't post that info online.

 

FOUND IT!

They got a Disturbing the Peace ticket.

Could have killed my girlfriend, my dog, or myself, as well as the deputies traveling on SW 42nd, and were target shooting illegally on a WMA. Really stuck it to them... Eh, whatever, at least they got something.