It was raining Thursday so I took the dogs for a walk up the short stub of Lavender Trail across Fouche Gap from us. When I got to the top, I saw this.

It’s hard to see in this image, but there are a lot of red objects on the road. No, it’s not red Christmas tree ornaments. Not lipstick tubes, either.

They are shotgun shells*, 12 gauge, at least 50, probably more. Also scattered around were a fair number of 5.56 mm shell casings.

I found several clay pigeons, both broken and whole, so I suppose the shotgun shooter was doing some target practice, although at a pretty close range.

We had heard what sounded like a small war a few days ago. A 12 gauge shotgun is quite loud, far louder than what you might expect from watching TV or a movie. We also heard some very fast shooting, something that would be hard to accomplish without an automatic weapon. Maybe the shooter had a bump stock, like the Las Vegas shooter used to kill so many people back in 2017. That almost certainly accounts for the 5.56 casings.

The end of the road is not far from our house. We can actually see it from the driveway. It has been used for target shooting on a not-too-freqent basis, just often enough that it’s hardly remarkable any more.

We live in a rural area with large stretches of undeveloped forest land, but it’s all private property, so people might have trouble finding a place for target shooting. There is at least one actual shooting range, but I suppose that’s too much trouble. It’s much easier to find a dead-end road and just start shooting, never mind what the nearby residents might think.

*You might have heard a version of the old Christmas song “Jingle Bells” that goes, “Jingle bells, shotgun shells.” I tried to look it up but found only recent versions. I don’t remember if there were more verses in the song I heard when I was a kid.