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Last fall at the lode we heard regular shooting up on the ridge above after 9/11. It would start around 4:30 pm and lasted about an hour. We figured it was Osama Bin Laden target shooting time?

This more recent report sounds more like the "we are trying to scare you off" variety. Had a similar situation happen in the Superstition Mountains of AZ. I was going up to check out a cliffline when the bullets started whizzing overhead. We got down and hightailed it back to the car & got out of there.

I was wondering if shooting back would be a good idea... I just can't wrap my mind around the mentality of people who would purposely fire guns near people, though. What do any of you suppose these idiots would do if one or several of us shot back? Personally, I'd hate to accidentally hit one of the fuggers, but shooting straight up into the air would be okay. I just can't imagine what kind of reaction to expect, though.

Hey Lynne:

If you fire a shot, even up in the air, you had better be prepared to fire the next shot at someone. I live by the addage that if my gun is un-holstered, I had better be prepared to use it. A shot in the air may be seen as a good reason to shoot at you instead of near by.

See ya,
ralst4

TK wrote:shoot back!

and then TK wrote:Now squeal like a pig boy and BEND OVER!

TK, are you okay?

ralst4 wrote:A shot in the air may be seen as a good reason to shoot at you instead of near by.

That's what I was thinking, too. I guess if yelling at the people to make your presence known doesn't stop them from shooting, they they already know you are there and clearly don't care. Scary stuff.

I'm going to play detective / devil's advocate witht he original post here so humor me if you will.

Gun shots in the woods, not an unusual concept. Especially considereing that Saturday Nov 9 was the start of gun season. Now of course people don't repeatedly shoot their guns all day long at deer (they usually hunt at dawn and dusk), but you do have a lot more people out in the woods shooting this time of year. Lots of folks will go out and 'shoot for the hell of it'. Whether it is in the name of target practice, zeroing in sights, or just plain rebel raisin'.

When did you yell your presence? Before or after the bullets hit the wall behind you while cleaning? Was there chossy rock exploding all around? If so that would have been very exciting.

As you hiked out did the bullets seem to follow you or did the gun fire just continue?

What law enforcement outfit did you contact? I got a stinkin' suspicion that the lcoal county mountie (Lee Co Sheriff Dept) wouldn't give some gunfire in the woods high priority. KSP might respond to that sort of call, but it could take them some time to get there (it could take some time for the a sheriff's deputy to arrive too).

Last question, Saturday was a prety nice day so were there not other climbers out there?

I don't ask these qustions to belittle the situation, just to try to figure out what happend out there and how we can keep something like this from happening again. Jeff makes a valid point about growers, but for the most part the outdoor whacky weed season is over (Speakng from an interview with the KSP marijauna task force I shot a couple of weeks ago, not first hand experience). It very well could be disgruntled locals since the Big Sinking has been inundated with climbers over the past year. The question of shooting back sounds kinda fun, in a Hollywood sort of way, but probabbly isn't the best of ideas. Especially if someone is on the ridge above you and knows your location. If things like this continue it could open up a whole new level to access issues. I recon I'd take this route if it was happening to me. Let your presenece be know, if the shooting contiunes and you feel threatened leave. Call the law and or try to see where and from whom it is coming from.

Remember kids its deer season so wearing safety orange isn't just a fasion statement, its a darn good idea.

Steve the idea of the original post was mainly to warn fellow climbers and avoid a tragic situation. So I am with you.

I'll try to answer your questions although if you follow the thread you'll see that some answers are there.

I started yelling after two shots hit a wall behind me. Maybe I should have yelled sooner but for some reason I thought that the shots were not coming directly in our direction. It was impossible to pin point the originating locatiion. Before the two bullets hit near by the shots seemed to be going in a different direction and I thought that that they sounded laud because of echo. I truelly thought that they were target practicing with some tree or some other target near them. When the bullets hit the wall I realized the situation was something else.

I was already at the top of the route and ready to clean when the two bullets hit. The route was very nice. I don't know for sure its ratong. A party that was there before us told us that it was 5.10d, I figure with the shooting it is a least 5.11a.

No, no chossy rock. But that recoche sound that you hear in the movies made it exciting enough.

Luckly we were in a corner that protected us. We callled the Baettiviille police right after I came down. I just told them I was at the Oil Crack doing some rock climbing. At first the person who took the call did not know where that was. He put me on hold for a minute to ask somebody then he came back and said he knew where it was and that they were sending somebody.

We pack and hiked out. The shootiing continue during the hike but we did not hear any bullet hit near us.

Yeah, It was a very nice and there a lot of poeple. Actuallly other posters have confirmed the shooting as you can see from the replies. In fact there was a group of 9 poeple from some University I believe they said Wisconsin. They got out of there pretty quick after the first few rounds.

Every time I finish a day of climbing, I am thankfull that I make it in one piece. In this equation I usually only think of the normal risks of climbing. This experience has now added a new parameter to the equation. This time, more than ever, I was very thankful to get out of there in one piece.

There have been suggestion on what to do in a situation like this. I agree with those who said that shooting back is a bad idea. This would only escalate the situation making it worse. Plus how many climbers pack a gun with their climbing gear?

I suggest we keep reporting these incidents until the police does something about it.
It would be sad to have a tragedy before they respond.

Finnally if somebody is trying to scare climbers off, we should not give in to such terrorist tactics. I personnally am not going to stop going there because of this incident. However, I will be more cautious about it.

Thanks for responding. If the future people should try calling the Lee Co Sheriff's Department or the Kentucky State Police. I believe that the Big Sinking oil field falls out of the Beatyville PDs jurisdiction.

So what do you think a bunch of calls to the police/troopers would do for access? I don't see where it could help.
I wonder if it's not just a one-time ocurence that ties in with gun season.