Use caution in Capital Forest.

Poor, poor FLY helmet

Dang man! That's a serious sign you might want to ride somewhere else.

I've been shot at before myself, about 3yrs ago a guy on an atv doing some questionable things in woods (I'm guessing checking pot plants) saw me on some single track waiting for a buddy to catch up and started shooting. I think he fired off about 6 rounds, I obviously didn't stick around.

What I find fascinating is how people out west still have firearms. Are they still legal in Washington State?

You must mean other western states, because nobody has more weapons than Georgia and Florida. And I mean NO ONE.

WA is pretty gun friendly. There were some changes that took effect July 1st, but they were pretty minor

Out at the local spot there's a small hill with a road going over it and some people were using the hill/road as a backdrop, so when we come over the hill on the road, there were people shooting almost right at us. What I've found is that most of the people that go out into the sticks to go shooting, aren't exactly top shelf.

That would give me the heebeejeebees if I came across that in the woods.

Michigan here.... ahem...

Use cation wherever you ride. People are people, wherever you go. They're obviously not going up there to shoot humans. You'll be okay grasshopper.

I went riding at Scott’s Mills (Crooked Finger OHV) in Oregon a few weeks back and found myself in a similar situation. I’m a shooter myself, but I can’t imagine shooting while people are known to be in the area (my bike isn’t quiet). These dudes just kept letting them rip. It made me really uncomfortable, to say the least.

first let me start off by saying i am from the east side of the state.... we seem to have very different mind sets on this side and most would agree that eastern washington could be an entirely different state than western washington... think of us more like north idaho. we are a good bit more gun friendly on this side.

i am both a dirt scooter enthusiast as well as a firearms and archery enthusiast. in the last 10 years i would say that i have started spending much more of my time on the dirt bike side of things and only think about bows/guns when nearing hunting season. it used to be the other way around by a large margin. i always enjoyed shooting as a kid but have been into archery even more so (been shooting bows since i was 4... so make that 40 years now). i have also been on dirt bikes since i was 5.


here is the problem i see here. from what i have been told by forrest rangers, we are not supposed to be riding motorized vehicles on power line roads (though most rangers don't really seem to enforce it). hiking and other forms of NON-motorized travel IS permitted.

however, hunting (and therefore shooting) is permitted on most powerline easements.

all of the guys that i ride with and most that i have encountered while trail riding seem to be good people. very respectful of others as well as very respectful of the ground we have the privilege of riding on. there are always a few people in any group that ruin it for the rest of us and make us look bad as a whole (on the extreme end, think wheelie boys).

likewise, the guys and gals i hunt with are some of the most respectful and SAFE people i know. having hunted for the past 35 years i have bumped into many others exercising their right to hunt. and just like the dirt bikers i have met, most are very respectful of the land they hunt and are very safe in what they are doing.

maybe i have a unique perspective because i belong to both the dirt bike community AND the shooting community and have a deep understanding of both groups. to be totally honest, both groups are very similar in that they enjoy their respective hobby in the same areas/settings with like minded friends... and both groups teach these hobbies to kids as well as the responsibilities associated with each hobby.... and both hobbies carry a lot of responsibility.

now comes the debate of groups thinking that their pastime is more important than another's. this is very easy to do if you enjoy one hobby and not another when wanting to use an area for yourself. you have to ask yourself, is your hobby more important than someone else's WHO HAS JUST AS MUCH RIGHT TO BE THERE AS YOU DO?

of course the argument is going to come up that shooting is more dangerous and these guys are just "flinging lead" into the abyss. but again, what i have found is that guys that are into shooting sports are very safe with what they do, especially the long distance shooters. also, while the shot itself is very loud, the rest of the time it is quiet..... anyone that thinks they can't hear if a dirt bike or ATV is coming has never been shooting. NO RESPONSIBLE GUN OWNER WILL FIRE IN THE DIRECTION THAT HE OR SHE CAN HEAR ANOTHER PERSON COMING. yes i realize there are idiots out there shooting.... but there are also just as many idiots out there on dirt bikes.

as far as the helmet with holes in it goes.... how do you honestly think that got there? do you think someone that was shooting decided to go out and buy that helmet (and from what i can tell it looks like my very expensive airo helmet) and shoot the hell out of it as some sort of warning to dirt bikers? i would say that scenario is highly unlikely.

a more likely scenario is that someone riding either accidentally left it, it fell out of their truck or maybe the rider was injured and it was left behind. people that were target shooting found it and decided it would make a good long distance target.... a similar mindset on a dirt bike is seeing something slightly off trail that would make a good obstacle and using it for fun on our bikes.

so back to your situation. you said that it seemed that "at every dead end turn around there were people shooting." so it seems that this is a very popular area for people that are into the shooting sports. you also had a man from a different sport approach you and ask if people were using the powerline roads (which you know is not allowed) and you proceeded to yell obscenities at him for doing something that he is perfectly ok to be doing.

now lets look at this from another angle. lets say joe rifleman that you yelled at sees on the TV that the wheelie boys are doing some really stupid shit. couple that with the fact that one of the few guys that he has ever met on a dirtbike in the hills not only devalued what he enjoys as sport, but also tried acting like billie badass while belittling him. which direction do you think he will vote when it comes time for more OHV laws to hit the ballots? and MOST gun owners are registered voters.

what i am getting at here is the people who enjoy shooting sports hold dear to them many of the same values including land use values that we as dirt scooter guys and gals do. many of them including myself enjoy both. judging a book by its cover is never a good thing.... how many in the general public that don't enjoy dirt bikes look at us as if we are inbred subhumans?... there are quite a few. by acting like your sport is more important than his, you alienated someone who is a lot more like you than you think.

god gave you 2 ears and 1 mouth for a reason.... listen 2/3 of the time and speak 1/3 of the time. maybe next time something like this happens, ask some more questions and listen before administering the verbal judo. sounds like he was actually in the right with where he was enjoying his sport and anyone riding those power lines was in the wrong. also sounds like he was the bigger man and peacefully walked off.

You can still do Foresthill, just stay out of that rock pit area. Trail 2 is super fun and there's no shooting spots out there, then of course you have 5 & 6 and the WST, which don't really have any spots to shoot.

Florida is 24 and Georgia is 28 on the list of most guns per capita. Out here in real America (excluding cuckifornia, cuckegon, and cuckington) everybody has guns.

No state is exempt from "idiots with..." and in this case it happens to be guns. The dumbest thing you can do is think that any group or region is better than another.

https://youtu.be/Gy4Nt0-Hy4w

That’s part of doing anything on public land, you got to look out for yourself at the end of the day. I was out hunting coyote a few weeks back and quite a few dirt bikers turned up and started ripping around some of the marked roads, nothing illegal but they were close enough to scare away any potential dogs we were calling in. Can’t be mad about it, just goes with using public lands.
If they’re shooting on/across OHV trails that certainly is not smart on their part and you should let them know the dangers but you mention they are at majority of dead end roads, which to me sounds like a wise move on their part. Go to the end of the road where you’re less likely to encounter other people and have a solid hillside that you’re shooting into, not over. I wouldn't worry about an old helmet being a target, if there was a head inside of it then sure but they’re just out shooting targets, not hunting humans.

Up there, is target shooting legal in national forest? Down here it’s only open to hunting but BLM is open for target.

Went out riding once years ago and some hunters were pointing their guns at us and laughing. We left and driving out, they were on the opposite side of the train tracks from where they parked and a train just happened to be going by totally blocking them from seeing/hearing us, so I stopped and grabbed a ten pound rock and drove by their trucks and sent that rock through the windshield at about 40mph. Not the smartest thing to do, but damn did it feel good.

Ran into this in capitol before on my mtb. Trail went on a Ridgeline above a bank, looked down on the bank (maybe 30 feet high)... And there were people shooting into the bank. Thankfully the guy stopped and said "sorry, didn't think to look up there"... Wtf.

Give it 5 - 10 years......WA wants to be the new Cali. Majority of voters here are complete idiots, so we shall see. Hell, we are about to pass a pay by the mile you drive tax...Yeah they want us to have a gps transponder in our vehicles soon. Even worse, people actually think this is a good idea.

If not for family I would be out of this sinking ship.......I'm sick of the politics and the rude people that can't drive here. /rant.

WA wants to be like CA? Sooo....every day they want to have more guns in the state than there have ever been? The all-caps chainmailers love spreading their poo FUD.

I think he’s referring to California’s batshit crazy politics which are in fact ruining the state of Washington also.

Texas, by this study has more than Fla. and GA combined. And California outranks GA.

https://www.statista.com/statistics/215655/number-of-registered-weapons…

Small players per capita too.

https://huntingmark.com/gun-ownership-stats/