where can you shoot besides gun ranges?

[ulfrik]

have you ever seen in movies where some one drives out to a remote part of the desert and shoots soda cans?
is that legal???

 

[okespe04]

Yes. Here in Oregon we can shoot on BLM land, National Forest, and shooting/hunting is also tolerated on 100s of square miles of private timber land which is all over the place. Just don't be a jerk and leave all your crap laying around like lots of people do here.

 

[Jorg Nysgerrig]

The legality depends on where you are. In many places, it is legal. I do it all the time.

 

[ulfrik]

cool because i would rather shoot out in the forest, instead of at a range.

 

[coloradokevin]

This depends on where you live. In Colorado the national forest lands are open to target shooting, with some restrictions (some areas have been closed in recent years, but the majority of the acreage is open). BLM land is also fairly unrestricted.

In others states the rules are different. I grew up in Ohio, and they national forest lands weren't open for target shooting back there.

 

[ulfrik]

what about plinking in the backwoods or countrydide? what is BLM land?

 

[oldbanjo]

I shoot in my yard, I have a 180 yd target in site of the road and a 130 yd target in the woods where I can shoot without being seen.

 

[Pete D.]

plinking

what about plinking in the backwoods or countrydide? what is BLM land?

Plinking in the woods is all well and good as long as you are familiar with the land and what it contains......y'know, be sure of your backstop. A woodland may look deserted and then you find that 100 yards beyond where you've been shooting, some one has bulit a cabin.

BLM = Bureau of Land Management, a Federal institution charged with administering public lands. Mainly in the West.
Pete

 

[Mags]

The OP still has failed to provide their location. None of the advice here matters until we can provide an answer for the OP's location.

 

[2ndAmFan]

^^^This. Can't help the OP if we don't know where he is.

 

[sixshooterfan]

I am in TX and I have the same question as the OP.

 

[auschip]

In TX most of the land is private, so it would be doubtful you could drive out into the country and start blasting. Those folks who own the land might not appreciate it.

 

[RONSERESURPLUS]

Hello all RON L here - SERE SURPLUS

Here in WV, as long as you go out away from the Cities and in a remote area it's cool, but as one poster said, I bring my Own Tragets to shoot and Haul out my own Trash, I don't shoot Bottles that will shatter as so many seem to love to do here? I don't shoot on Private land if it's posted and most folks do that if they don't want ya hunting or shoting there! That said, we have a lot of irresponsible gun owners who make it harder on the rest of us who try and do it right? Just as with 4Wheelers, have some consideration of others and don't thnk the world is your toilet?

RON

 

[sixshooterfan]

Hi auschip,

Yep I knew most of it was private, but didn't know if state parks or forests or whatever would allow it. I am in the Woodlands (between Conroe and Houston) and I think the Sam Houston state park is just a little north of here. Didn't know if it or any other similar entities were firearms friendly

 

[nelsonal]

Here's a nice map showing the amount of federal land by state. Federal land is the majority of most western states (almost all land in Nevada).

Because federal land is so much of many Western states, there are lots of competing uses for the land so check first, but much of it is open to hunting and shooting.

 

[oneounceload]

have you ever seen in movies where some one drives out to a remote part of the desert and shoots soda cans?
is that legal???

Yes and many folks do it everyday - when I lived in NV, it was easy - 5 minutes from my house

 

[2ndAmFan]

TX has public land hunting permits, but I didn't see anywhere on the TPWD site where they allow target shooting there. Best to find a friend who owns some land or go to a range I guess. I can personally vouch for landowners taking a very dim view of people trespassing on their land and blasting away, as I've had it happen on my place.

 

[downingducksdowneast]

Here in Maine most of the "wilds" are privately owned by Paper companies for wood harvesting and are (and have been historically) open access for hunting, shooting, hiking, camping. Most other private property is slowly becoming more posted as bad apples ruin a good thing for the rest....my preferred place is about 1/2 away from my house and is a old WWII emergency runway on paper company land where one end has been turned into a gravel pit...awesome place for skeet, shooting and sighting in.

 

[mgmorden]

Depends on location. In SC, you can't legally target shoot on public/government lands. In my area DNR DOES maintain a free shooting range open to the public, but if you're just in the woods at random, you can only shoot a firearm in the process of hunting.

You can naturally shoot on your own property though. My brother for example lives on a dirt road in the middle of the woods - no other houses around and almost no traffic (he might see a car go by once an hour).

On the side of his yard we made a short little pistol lane with a dirt backstop, and we'll just shoot pistols in the yard quite a bit. Beats going to the crowded range (I wouldn't mind the range, but sometimes I've waited an hour or 2 for a table to open up, and once the range goes hot you're going to be waiting 30-45 minutes before you have a chance to go change your targets, which for me really hampers shooting for groups or testing different loadings.

 

[Arkansas Paul]

Of course it depends on where you are.
I just drive out to the deer lease and we have a mound of dirt built up that's tailor made for the purpose. It's only 20 minutes away.

 

[oldbanjo]

I dug a second pond and had plenty of dirt for my backstops. I shoot 30-06 and SKS 7.62-39.