It was apparently the only target they couldn’t hit — the one calling for less mess, better behaviour and safe, sensible use of firearms.

The bullet-riddled result is the closure of a popular Kananaskis rifle-and-shotgun range, after the non-profit group running the public site near Hwy. 68 declared too many shooters as irresponsible and a safety risk to others.

“Our concern is that this not just a few bad apples anymore,” said Bob Richards, president of the Alberta Provincial Rifle Association, which manages the Homestead Range at Sibbald Flats.

“Twenty-five-years ago, it might have been a few bad apples, but this is now a common level of behaviour and it falls below the acceptable level of safety.”

In an official notice, the APRA says it will shut the Homestead and its various ranges at the end of the year, citing unsafe use of firearms and the use of landfill junk like toilets and couches for target practice as key to their decision.

“Despite repeated efforts by APRA and responsible shooters to try to keep the ranges a place where all shooters can enjoy themselves, and to manage the antics of those less responsible, the ranges remain the site of a number of behaviours which pose a risk to not only other range users, but other recreational users around the APRA lease,” reads the statement.

The notice goes on to say the original intent of the range, for hunters needed to test guns after storage, has been overtaken by people just looking to shoot at things — even if that means dragging old appliances along in the back of a pick-up.

“When the APRA took on the lease at Homestead, provision was placed in the lease to provide a place for the general public to use for such activities as sighting in of rifles prior to hunting season,” reads the closure notice.

“Over the intervening years, that responsible use has been largely overshadowed by range users who have taken to using the range as a place to shoot up and dump items they’d rather not take to the landfill.”

It’s an issue that’s been building for years at the Homestead, and photographs on the APRA wesbite show a clean-up that took place in 2010, and a sample of the mess and destruction left behind every season.

Hundreds of spent shells litter the ground, along with garbage used as target practice — and even the dumpster and a billboard asking people not to vandalize the site are torn up with bullet holes and shot dimples.

As for firearms safety, Richards says there were some so careless they’d even point loaded guns at range officials and wildlife officers, and blast away at homemade targets without considering who or what might be behind the target.

As a result, the range is finished.

“We’ve discussed a whole host of options. It seems the general public is just not willing to be managed,” said Richards.

Charging a fee to better manage the site isn’t an option, he says, because that would make the range a commercial enterprise — something beyond the scope of the non-profit agency.

Of course, not everyone treated Homestead as a garbage dump, and many sensible gun enthusiasts used the place too — enthusiasts who aren’t very happy that a rotten bunch have ruined it for the rest.

“They’re jerks. That’s where I learned to shoot,” said Stephanie Laroche, one of many gun users who took to social media and hunting forums to express their anger.

The one thing not mentioned anywhere was surprise.

Stories of bad behaviour included people hauling old televisions and computers out to K-Country to use as targets, and one case where someone started shooting at targets even as someone was out on the range, checking other targets.

One online comment, made on Facebook, seemed to sum it up.

“It was inevitable — a big thank you to all those irresponsible individuals.”

michael.platt@sunmedia.ca