Brief by Central Staff
Outdoors – January 2005 – Colorado Central Magazine
When subdivisions sprout in the back-country, traditional back- country activities have to give way. Or at least, that’s what has happened in Park County, where the U.S. Forest Service has banned recreational shooting in an area near Bailey known as Slaughterhouse Gulch.
Residents of the KZ Ranch and Royal Ranch subdivisions complained to the county government and the Forest Service last fall, pointing out that they feared to take walks or even sit outdoors on account of the gunfire, and that some residents found shotgun pellets on their roofs.
The area, with five or six informal ranges, has become popular for metro-area shooters. It’s a 45-minute drive, but closer areas have been closed in recent years on account of suburban sprawl. Gun ranges near Shawnee and Buffalo Creek were closed in 1998.
A Forest Service report noted that Slaughterhouse shooting had caused “alarm, annoyance, and inconvenience,” as it involved “unsafe practices such as shooting without a backstop, shooting into or across canyons, from or across roads, and shooting toward occupied areas.”
Even though recreational shooting is banned at Slaughterhouse, hunting is still permitted there, police can fire weapons in the line of duty, and gas-operated paint-ball guns remain legal.
The county government formed a committee to find a suitable site for a regular shooting range, although the county does not want to get involved itself, on account of potential future liability for removing lead from the site.
