Target shooters have been blasting away within 40 yards of the busy Catalina Highway - rattling the nerves of passing drivers and prompting some to report shots fired to authorities.
The bad news for motorists who fear for their safety: A spokesman for the Pima County Sheriff's Department says officers have no authority to shut down the unauthorized shooting site. It's at a pull-off near the 4.4-mile point on the highway to Mount Lemmon.
"We get phone calls on a regular basis from people who drive past the area and see someone standing near the side of the road and shooting," said spokesman Tom Peine. "They are very concerned and expect us to do something. But all we can do is appeal to the shooters to go somewhere else," Peine said.
He said that's because land along the highway is part of the Coronado National Forest - "and the fact is that it is legal to target shoot on national forest land."
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Forest officials, however, say there are limitations when it comes to shooting on forest land. Heidi Schewel, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Forest Service, said shooting at the site violates federal regulations that limit shooting within 150 yards of an "occupied area" - a term that she said includes the highway.
"Shooting on a national forest is an acceptable use of the land when done in a safe and responsible manner, but that area is not an acceptable shooting area," Schewel said. "It's so close to the road that it creates a public hazard."
Schewel said rangers discourage people from shooting at the site - and they are authorized to issue violation notices to those who don't comply.
She said she believes some have been issued at the site, but records of such notices weren't immediately available.
Penalties include fines of up to $5,000 per individual, $10,000 per organization, imprisonment for up to six months, or both.
TRASHING THE LAND
The wildcat, or unauthorized, shooting area is a cleared patch of ground on the west side of the highway a short distance west of popular Molino Canyon Vista.
The site includes a berm, or mound of earth, where bottles, pieces of metal and small appliances have been used as targets.
Shooters firing toward the berm would be shooting away from the highway.
Beyond the berm and down an embankment, another area apparently used for shooting is littered with shell casings, ammunition boxes and shattered clay-pigeon-type targets. Other items used as targets - including a toaster and auto parts - are riddled with holes from bullets and shotgun shot.
Shell casings strewn across the ground include those from .22-caliber, .45-caliber and 9-mm bullets as well as 12-gauge shotgun shells.
Regardless of the legality or questionable sense of target shooting on forest lands near the highway, leaving debris behind is strictly prohibited.
Shooting debris on the site is "absolutely unacceptable," Schewel said. "And it's a violation" of federal regulations.
She said the area will be cleaned up - by volunteers, Forest Service employees or possibly other government workers.
"We don't leave areas in that kind of condition," she said.
ALTERNATIVE SITES
Peine and Schewel emphasized that shooters have alternatives to firing their guns on national forest land.
"I'm worried, quite frankly, that one day something could go wrong" at the site along the Catalina Highway, Peine said. "It's not an area that lends itself toward safe target shooting. Our message is: Go to places where it is safe to shoot."
Indoor shooting ranges in the Tucson area and county ranges - including one at 11296 S. Harrison Road - offer supervised shooting.
Schewel said that "the majority of shooters are responsible shooters. The irresponsible ones damage the reputation of the sport in general."
Plans are in the works for a public shooting range in the Redington Pass area east of Tucson, Schewel said.
Efforts last week to reach to Tucson Rod and Gun Club for information on range plans were unsuccessful. But a notice on the club's website notes that the group is "planning the construction of a non-profit, public shooting range on the east side of Tucson in the Redington Pass area.
"This range will be surrounded by federal land, well over four miles from the nearest private land, so there can never be homes built next to the range and the very distant neighbors will never hear us."
Contact reporter Doug Kreutz at dkreutz@azstarnet.com or at 573-4192. On Twitter: @DouglasKreutz
