Looking for places to shoot in Kern county, CA area….

[bobsacomano]

Greetings,

I’ll be in the Kern county area visiting family and I’m looking for a place to target shoot. I’ve looked online and all the ranges around there require memberships. So now I’m looking around at public areas. I’ve done a lot of web research, called the BLM, etc. and I’ve narrowed it down to just a few places.

First, I heard that you can shoot for free across from the local Tehachapi Sportsman Club range. I have not been able to verify this 100%. Does anyone know if this is true?

Second, I read there are areas off of Willow Springs road S/E of Tehachapi were you can shoot, but I also heard that’s all private property out there. Does anyone know if it’s legal to shoot out there and where exactly it is?

Third, and it’s further away, but I know for sure you can legally shoot in Jawbone Canyon, but it’s a pretty big area out there and when I called the local BLM, they didn’t offer much info as to where exactly to go there to shoot. Does anyone have any details about where to go in Jawbone?

Also, if anyone knows any other places closer to Bakersfield that would be great also!

Thank you for your time.

 

[MichaelK]

Hi Bob
You can access the national forest east of Bakersfield by driving northeast on Rancheria road. Take HW 178 east out of Bakersfield, then turn left onto Rancheria road just a mile or two before you enter the gorge. The national forest land begins at about mile 21.0 or so. You'll see the little brown signs designating the land as belonging to the NF. You can shoot there. They won't plow the road till about May 1'st, so it will have some winter rutting right now, but it's passable with a 2X4 truck.

 

[wilkersk]

The great thing about that part of Kalifornicatia is that you just go out of town and drive up any forest service road that is away from houses and/or whatpoultry farms, and find a natural draw to use for a backstop.

As long as you're using some common sense, any LEOs that happen by will likely just look to make sure you're not some whack job or illegal dumper, and may remind you to clean up after yourself.

At least, thats how it was when I was there.