r/canadaguns • u/Florida_Man42069 • May 15 '26
News / Politics / Activism UPDATE: Ghost PLUZ Cleanup Day
Yesterday, I made a post about my experience at Ghost PLUZ earlier this week. The place was an absolute mess, and I was disgusted to say the least. I posted about how bad the place had gotten and asked if anyone in the Calgary area would like to volunteer to clean up the area, to help keep our spots open and available. I was pleasantly surprised to see the sheer volume of amazing people, willing to volunteer their labour to help clean up.
As a personal side note, I am 21 years old and have only gotten into shooting recently. I was 19 when I bought my first real gun, and since then I have had a ton of fun exploring this hobby. My immediate family doesn’t hunt or shoot, so I’m the first in my household to get into guns. This hobby has the most amazing and respectful community. Almost everyone I have met on public land while shooting, has been a friend to me. They are kind, respectful and eager to welcome the younger generation into this sport. However, day after day, I see our hobby become more of a political scapegoat. I see higher ups in the government, blatantly lying about their actions and intentions, targeting the most law abiding citizens in Canada. This, combined with the horrendous state of public land I witnessed, makes me very fearful for the future of our hobby.
If you are passionate about sport-shooting, hunting or other activities, and want to keep this hobby available to you and future generations, it would be greatly appreciated for you to join us.
If you live in or around the Calgary area, and want to do your part, please comment/upvote a day when you are available. If we can even get a few people out here, it would make a huge difference.
EDIT: How would Saturday, May 23rd work for everyone? Let me know in the comments :)
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u/Big_Ladinio May 15 '26
Thank you so much. As an Alberta resident this is one of my spots and it's always such a mess....
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u/Grouchy-Lemon2350 May 15 '26
I really hope the rats who did this will record themselves and post on social media like they did last time so they can be charged for littering.
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u/TheBulletBuddy May 15 '26
Lots of crownland access getting closed off due to this sorta crap happening, and new bylaws preventing shooting on crown land popping up in Manitoba already.
Got stopped by conservation a little while ago while shooting in the local pits and they said that access to crown land for shooting is going to be getting heavily restricted in the near future.
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u/CanadianMultigun May 15 '26
u/Florida_Man42069 you make the world a better place by organising things and getting them done. Well done
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u/SerGT3 May 15 '26
I'm free pretty much any weekend. Also frequent a few spots out there already and am always raking up tons of shells and clays each time.
Add me to the list!
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u/Next_Chicken9739 May 19 '26
I can do May 23rd weather pending if we want to start to get dates and people interested.
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u/Natural_Comparison21 May 27 '26
So how did it go?
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u/Florida_Man42069 May 27 '26
1 other person showed up. Had like 9 people say they were gonna be there.
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May 15 '26
[deleted]
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u/stevedrums May 15 '26
Hey friend. I love what you’re doing but maybe don’t drop pins on a public subreddit. It could contribute to the problem
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u/Next_Chicken9739 May 15 '26
I always drive past this spot (to better ones) and it always attracts the worst people. Low effort spot.
I can do any weekend starting next.
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u/Infinite_Price_3550 May 15 '26
This is why we can’t have nice things. People do stupid shit and ruin it for the rest of us. Good on you for organizing cleaning this up. I’m not in Calgary so not able to come out and help but if I was I would!
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u/T-homas-paine May 15 '26
This feels like a job for one of those commercial riding lawnmowers that have a vacuum for clippings. I used to use one at my job and you could turn the blade off and just use the vac. Idk if brass would end up being too heavy, but it might be worth trying if anyone runs a landscaping crew nearby.
Edit: on second thought, looks a lot of those shells have been there long enough to be stuck in the ground somewhat, so probably not.
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u/elo_itr May 15 '26
Any suggestions on how to separate the gravel and shells/casings? I usually rake it into a pile then shovel into a trash bag, but of course end up with taking some gravel.
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u/T-homas-paine May 15 '26
Density, aka shaking/vibrating the container? Probably not practical for your application, but this definitely works, albeit slowly. Most rocks will be more dense than brass, same with sand. You might try putting a shovel full in a 5gal bucket, holding it by the handle and just twisting the shit out of it back and forth with your wrist, if that makes sense. It’s slow work if you have a lot, but I know this methods works as a quick a dirty way of separating things based on density.
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u/Otherwise_Top_5762 May 15 '26
Manure forks work halfway decent for shotgun shells and gravel/sand. Brass takes some finesse depending on size
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May 15 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Florida_Man42069 May 15 '26
That’s what I’m hoping. I want people in the comments to say which days they are available and then I’ll make a post detailing the day we go out
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u/C250586 May 15 '26
Isnt the ghost still closed to shooters?
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u/Florida_Man42069 May 15 '26
Only the south part of it. This was photographed just up the road from south ghost PRA
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u/ActCompetitive1171 May 15 '26
Just out of curiosity what is being used as a backstop here?
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u/Murray3-Dvideos May 15 '26
Vegetation literally. Shooters that use these high traffic spots dont care about the mess, why would they care about backstops....
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u/Mirin_Gains May 16 '26
The ground slopes upwards. You hit dirt at ~200m. Yes low effort. But when I make high effort my shit gets trashed by OHVs so I just imagine all the PLUZ being shut because there is no enforcement of anyone or anything.
I picked up a garbage bag full at another secret camp spot I frequent yesterday.
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u/Murray3-Dvideos May 16 '26
If your shooting were OHVs are a consideration, then your already breaking the law as its Illegal to discharge a firearm in a non hunting scenario within 400m of a Provincal Trail.
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u/Mirin_Gains May 16 '26
Read between the lines... These areas are closed to OHVs since 2014. It doesn't stop them.
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u/Murray3-Dvideos May 16 '26
Then the OHVs are breaking the law.
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u/Mirin_Gains May 17 '26
Sure, but with the 400m rule you also observed it leaves for few areas now. So much that I have given up really in Southern Alberta.
CDTSA is nice, but no ringing steel at 100m and only 1 guest 1 shooter leaves some things wanting.
Anyway. With the increase in the CoC population it feels inevitable with our lackluster F&W department. I would gladly pay a crown target fee and truck 4x4 fee to go into rehab and cleanup but they aren't interested.
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u/Murray3-Dvideos May 17 '26
It leaves plenty, u just need to explore North of 579. High effort is driving that far, then another 30min further and carrying your steel targets and kit a few hundred meters off the road into clear cut so gnarly that basically the only vehicle capable of traversing it is a snowmobile on 5ft of snow haha.
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u/Mirin_Gains May 17 '26
Yea you're right. I just need to make everything full day events again barring long overland trips.
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u/ActCompetitive1171 May 15 '26
Ooof. I would be extreeeemly worried about shooting in a situation like that.
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u/Fickle_Ice_7584 May 15 '26
Make a group chat and add anyone that's interested in the post, that's what we did last time and everyone was able to coordinate when the best day would be and just organize things a bit.
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u/adrenalineJ92 May 15 '26
Please everyone, let’s do our part to keep the environment tidy after a range trip.