Land for personal shooting "range"

[Vern Humphrey]

Land for personal shooting "range"

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Hello, my wife and I are discussing where to settle down when I retire from the Navy. I am from AZ, she is from WA. We are currently in NC and I am stationed in VA. I am currently looking into states to retire to in 8yrs. The goal is to purchase land to either build on or use for a personal range.

For those that live and have the land to "walk out your back door" and shoot, how much land, what areas (state/county) and did you have to do something to prep the land?

I live in Arkansas. I bought 160 land-locked acres in 1969, when I returned from my second tour in Viet Nam. When I retired from the Army, I had to work to put my kids through school, but by the late '90s I was able to fully retire and build my house.

Very little of my land is cleared. What I did was take a chainsaw and cut a "tunnel" through the woods ending up against the side of a steep ridge. I made a portable target stand from wood at first, and later from PVC pipe. I marked my ranges with stakes, so I can shoot 50 feet, 25 yards, 50 yards, 100 yards and 200 yards. Over time, with regular applications of brush killer, the tunnel is a bit wider and the shadows are gone.

I use a picnic table as a shooting bench -- but I only use a bench for zeroing and testing loads. Most of my shooting is from field positions, usually standing and sitting.

 

[buntline]

I also might note that an estate I am executing has a 40 acre parcel in the middle of the Arizona drug smuggling corridor, so the locals might just help to finance your range and remove all the backstops, and I'd be happy to make you a good price on the land...chuckle........Joe

 

[Damien45]

Tempting lol

 

[v8stang289]

I'm lucky enough that a good friend/shooting buddy lets me use his land to shoot. He has 40 acres in rural eastern NC that I'm free to hunt and shoot on. We have a ~35 yard pistol/.22 range in a cleared pocket in the woods, that slopes slightly downward with a raised ridge as a natural backstop. We also marked off 400 yards in 50 yard increments along the edge of his field for a rifle range, and built a 6' high, 4' thick structure at the wood line filled with dirt.

This pic is from the 300 yard mark

 

[Cee Zee]

My house is on a 6 acre piece of ground. I can shoot 100 yards easily there. As for zoning that kind of stuff just doesn't apply in most of the US. People from more populated areas don't really always understand how things work in more rural states. I live in Ohio too. I could be shooting 200 yards on that 6 acre site if I wanted to put the work in to develop a clearing to shoot that distance. I have a deep ravine type setup running through my property too so there is a natural berm all ready to stop my bullets. The ravine actually splits. And it was cut deeper by people digging for iron ore about 150 years ago. I could shoot straight up that ravine with a little bulldozer work. And the location of the target would be backed up against a 20 foot high wall that was actually filled in to provide a road across the ravine when we were logging it. And on either side the ravine is 30-40 foot high all the way up. There's nothing behind that ravine for at least a mile.

That's the good part about living in the hills. You can find a good backstop for your bullets. I also own a farm with so many options for shooting I couldn't begin to list them all. There's a field that's 400 yards long there but that would require building a berm. But there are other directions I could shoot that would require cutting timber and brush but not building a berm. I could get probably 300 yards in that direction. But there are places I can do 250 yards with no changes needed.

There are areas around that are "very" remote. In particular there is a hunting preserve open to the public where shots of 1000 yards into a high bank would not be hard to find. The trick is to make sure no one else is out there though. Still there are some areas like that which are privately owned and could be developed for long range shooting easily. There's a lot of old clay mines in the area with high walls everywhere. And that land sells cheap. Very cheap actually. I wouldn't pay more than $300 an acre for it because it isn't good for much besides a shooting range. My gun club has bought up so much of that kind of land they don't have any idea what else to develop on it. They have double the area they have developed just waiting for a good project. They have the money to do it too. They just want a good idea to develop it.

 

[jamesinalaska]

I live on the outside edge of town. I just step outside and shoot from my porch. I have an old barrel and a few other targets at 50 and 100 yards. Bang. Bang. Bang. As much as I want. I don't worry about other houses, mine is at the edge of civilization.

 

[Shanghai McCoy]

Damien45,
We bought 10 acres of rural NE Kansas land with a house 15 years ago. I hunt out back and have a range just outside the back door. The backstop is RR ties filled in with dirt and stumps. Nothing fancy but it works for us.

BTW- Are you a "black shoe" or a "brown shoe"..?

 

[vtail]

I have almost 4,000 acres in western Oklahoma and ironically, I'm so busy taking care of the land/cattle, I've never had the time to build a range or hardly even shoot.

 

[Damien45]

McCoy,

Funny story. I am a brown shoe, or will be when I wear the anchor. However, my rate is now of the black. I started in a squadron, went into my rate when it was in the brown... I'm brown lol

 

[Cee Zee]

I forgot to mention I just open my sliding glass door a crack in the winter, stick the barrel of my rifle though the crack and shoot from my living room. Nice and warm and about 40 yards to my target area. I put up a swinging target and shoot at it all day with a bolt action .22. No semi-autos though. I don't want empty casings all over the living room. Just one of the joys of living in the country. The real country.

 

[Shanghai McCoy]

McCoy,

Funny story. I am a brown shoe, or will be when I wear the anchor. However, my rate is now of the black. I started in a squadron, went into my rate when it was in the brown... I'm brown lol

Ex blackshoe here. Wasn't even sure if you younger fellows still used the terms anymore.
And Thank You for your service.

 

[Ranger Roberts]

I live in PA and when I bought my property being able to shoot was my top priority. Any of the places I looked at before I bought, I called the township and asked about laws regarding shooting. I was also careful to choose an area where shooting/hunting was part of the culture. PA can be a little tricky like that. If you get too close to philly or NJ you might as well invite Bloomberg and Feinstein over for dinner.

The property we settled on is on 11 acres and has a natural berm (I literally live on the side of a mountain). Well my best friend ends up moving to the adjoining property and he has 14 acres. On our combined 25 acres we have 3 ranges that we share, a covered pistol range, a 200 yard rifle range and an area we break clay. We are both hunters and avid collectors/shooters. We both have NFA toys. I can shoot my .50 bmg, while my wife mag dumps a Mac-11 in full auto and my buddy sets off 5 pounds of tannerite and nobody around here would say a thing. If I could make it consistently 80 degrees year round this place would be heaven!

 

[12many]

Need more pictures . . . Vern, Vtail, Ranger, Cee Zee, come on guys, I live in the city on 1/3 acre. I have a cabin on 3/4 acre, but that is not much. I was trying to map out 46 feet for a pitchers mount to home plate for kids bb practice.

Give me something to dream about !!!

 

[Arizona_Mike]

Need more pictures . . . Vern, Vtail, Ranger, Cee Zee, come on guys, I live in the city on 1/3 acre. I have a cabin on 3/4 acre, but that is not much. I was trying to map out 46 feet for a pitchers mount to home plate for kids bb practice.

Give me something to dream about !!!

Guess you missed mine

If you pull my leg . . .

74 Acres on Mt. Graham AZ:
View out front door of cabin:

NE through the north windows:

West Window:

A non-rent paying tenant:

Some transients passing through the neighbor's yard:

Looking South:

Sunrise down in the valley:

Exploring the property (the last time I let him drive!):

Mike

 

[12many]

Nice !!

 

[Arizona_Mike]

Now moving North to my 36 Acre homesite in the Weaver Mountains west of Prescott:

Cooking with twigs in my little hippie rocket stove:

Life is rough!

I hope to eventually put the house at the top (3-5 flat acres up there):

Got him a couple miles away. Huge bunny.

A friend got an areal view for me (huge download). He did not find the right mesa (the tallest one with road on two sides) until the 1:00 mark. He said he was flying just north of a no-fly zone and trying to avoid it: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/21431738/M2U00203.MPG

Mike

 

[jrdolall]

I own three pieces of property in AL and GA and one in Montana. In MT we can shoot anywhere any time and the neighbors might hear a HP rifle if the wind is right.
In GA I live on 7+ acres in town and can't legally discharge a firearm. Good thing the squirrels don't know that law. This land is ready for development and I am waiting for the right offer.
The two pieces I own in AL are both farms. One is 85 acres and the other is a working ranch of 1700 acres. On the ranch we can shoot any time we want and just make sure we aren't near a road or shooting at livestock. We have a range set up in a hay field that gives us virtually unlimited distances. The small place is tricky because there are neighbors in all directions. We have two ranges. One for shooting pistols or 22s where we shoot down an incline into a gully and one along the dam of the lake that has a natural hillside as a backstop. That one gives us a 125 yard shot for rifles. The problem with AL and GA is that it is just miserable from June thru August, even in the shade.

I am actively looking for property in a couple of other places and gun rights is high up on my list of priorities. Land price is also critical but I don't want to be an hour from the nearest grocery store like we are in Montana. I would think that parts of NC would be perfect and you should be able to get 20 acres or so for a reasonable price. If you are in western NC then you can get by with less land because the terrain is so hilly you will have natural backstops all over the property. I will be in Mooresville NC next week looking at some long term development property.

 

[buntline]

Arizona mike, I can see Mt. Graham from my office window. In fact, the last time it burned, I had a nice view because I was putting the roof on my new house near Rodeo, NM.....Joe

 

[Sniper66]

I would encourage you to buy as much land as you can reasonably afford in an area that supports shooting, which means no hint of needing the permission of others to shoot on your own land. Here in Kansas we can shoot almost anywhere outside of city limits. As long as you shoot safely, no one gives it much thought. I have shot and hunted in Kansas for 60 years on tens of thousands of acres and have never heard aa complaint. Give yourself room, avoid cities and busybodies. Quick story.......there is an old rock quarry near here, outside the city limits and on public land. It used to be the favorite place for legal casual shooting and it was free. Then the growth of the city brought in folks who bought land surrounding the old quarry. The closest house was about a mile in the opposite direction of the shooting. But, the busybodies who built their new home complained to authorities about the "danger". So, now the quarry is closed to "target practice", but remains open to public hunting; go figure. So, like I say, avoid cities and meddlesome neighbors.

 

[southoftheboarder]

Stay in NC because they do not tax your retirement.

 

[txblackout]

Cities can also encroach on your land and your rights can change. In Texas if you have 50 acres even if a city annexes your land they cannot stop you from shooting. However you cannot shoot within 1000 ft of a subdivision

 

[Vern Humphrey]

Then the growth of the city brought in folks who bought land surrounding the old quarry. The closest house was about a mile in the opposite direction of the shooting. But, the busybodies who built their new home complained to authorities about the "danger". So, now the quarry is closed to "target practice", but remains open to public hunting; go figure. So, like I say, avoid cities and meddlesome neighbors.

I realize this is after the fact, but the trick is when you find something like that, form a club, incorporate and raise the money to buy the quarry. In most states you would then be grandfathered, no matter what the city did.

 

[Damien45]

South,

Right now the top two states are NC and AZ. NC because of the taxes, AZ because of the gun laws. AZ has been ranked #1 for gun owners a couple years in a row now. NC is in the top 15. Think they are lower because of the shooting sports/public range numbers.

 

[Cee Zee]

OK, here's a photo of a high wall. There are literally hundreds of these around the area some on private land. This one is on a hunting preserve. It can be seen from 1000 yards away in one direction. Of course there are other people here even though there are no more motorcycle riders like the one on the side of this high wall. That wall is about 70 high high and makes one heck of a bullet backstop. The thing is there are places where there are high walls on private land as well as very open country because it was all mined for clay way back when. It can be bought cheap.



This spot is located at these co-ordinates if you want to see the terrain.

38.833290, -82.638211

If you stand at this spot you can see that high wall from 1000 yards away. The trees you see between them are down in a valley and do not block your view.

38.826754, -82.637954

There are many areas where shooting can be done from far shorter distances. This area is a common shooting area.

38.680506, -82.689635

That's private land but it's owned by a timber company and they don't complain about people shooting, riding ATV, whatever. There is a high wall there or actually more than one but it's hard to make it out from the satellite image.

Here's my house I was talking about. Notice the sliding glass doors in the front.



Here's me shooting from beside the house to the target area. It's 50 yards from my makeshift bench (and my shooting buddy - crazy cat loves shooting). I shoot at the same target out my front door. I could back the bench up to at least 75 yards in that direction or I could shoot up the creek at least 100 yards without any changes needed. But I was into shooting .22's for tight groups at the time. You might recognize the pile of brass (that pile extends about 25 yards down the hill) next to my "bench" which is made up of a couple of sawed off logs and a milk crate or two and a board. I didn't want anything permanent so this is what I put together from what was handy the day I decided to do it. It's just my hillbilly side showing I guess.



It took all of about 10 minutes to set up that shooting "bench" and I used it for almost 2 years. I really didn't want anything I would have to tear out at a future date so...

I'll try to post some photos of the farm here soon.

 

[CapnMac]

Damien45.

You asked about zoning. What you really want is someplace which is not close enough to an Authority Having Jurisdiction to impose a zoning regulation on the land. You will probably not want to be close to ma,ed waterways that can(will) have a River Authority.

This does not mean you need give up on watersheds, you just want to find "ox bows." This is where a river loops around in a elongated "C" shape, then over the years, the open end gets closed off by floods and the like. The bed will be a crescent-shaped lake for a while. Goes to semi-dry slough, then a dray feature (unless the river really, really, "wants" it back).

One nice things about an oxbow--beyond that they have one natural banks for a backstop--is that the river centerline used to be a property or political boundary, which will have been re-platted back the water way (maybe). This will make these "orphan" properties, which makes them a pain to the surrounding owner/polity (sometimes). Always check for an easement on these though. In case you missed that, always check for an easement with these properties.

You do not want to make a sweet deal on 38 acres' of oxbow at $1550/acre to find the only way to it is by helicopter (unless you own a helicopter, and like flying it).