Best States for Free and Easy, No-Pay, No-Hassle Shooting?

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Originally Posted by JonB_in_Glencoe

There is extremely little public land in my county in MN. The little there is, it's either wildlife sanctuary, or Prairie restoration parcels. None allow target shooting that I am aware of.

Luckily, there are a couple private clubs that are extremely affordable near me. The one closest to me is $25 a year or $100 lifetime membership...and the other one is $35 (or $40?) per year.

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JonB,

I guess I am lucky over here in Goodhue county that it is rural enough that I have 1000+ acres public lands about 5-6 miles away, ( if I wanted to join up, there is a rifle range/sportsman club adjacent to it at the farthest point) & then at 9-12 miles away I have over another 1000-1200+ acres in different parcels. The first area has some flats, but the other is bluff country & not so good for any distance for rifle. Handgun /shotgun is easy to find a place though. Most of my private lands are about the same distance or more, so I just use the public lands the most.

I do understand that not everywhere in the state are their public lands to shoot on, but it sure would be nice if there were, right? I wish it was that way, anyway.
;)

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Originally Posted by chieffan

SW Iowa has a lot of large farms and rolling hills. Most of the time if you just ask the farmer will let you shoot if it is a safe area to begin with. I can shoot right outside by back door as it is downhill to the creek and then goes back up another hill. I have the ground leased for hunting which helps a bunch too.

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Funny story about shooting in Iowa...

My ex-wife is from Grinnell, IA. I met her out there in `93 when I was visiting an old Navy buddy. We ended up getting married and I lived in that miserable place for nearly a decade.

Now, to the nice folks that grew up there, I can see how they find it charming. Some nice folks, pretty farm scenery, cheap houses, and neat town squares. But having grown up in the Pacific Northwest, the Midwest is a gross and annoying place with awful weather, no public land, no wilderness, brown muddy rivers, awful tasting fish, weird people, and it smells funny. Honestly. :dung_hits_fan:

I bought my first concealed carry firearm in Iowa. A S&W 686 4". There is a surprisingly large amount of crime out there in those little towns near meat-packing plants.

To try out my new pistol, I went to a little state park between Grinnell and Newton. I pulled in and there was another vehicle there but no one in sight. I placed my target against a berm, checked all around, and yelled that the range was hot and I was going to start shooting.

After about ten minutes, some guy came out of the woods to my left shaking and telling me not to shoot any more. He was holding a brown paper sack above his head and said to just take them, dropped the sack, and jumped in his car and took off.

I stood there in shock, trying to figure out what had just happened. I went over and looked in the sack and it was full of mushrooms. Weird.

So I figured I'd better get the heck out of there.

Drove home and told my wife what had happened. She started laughing and told me all about morel mushrooms and how they are a hot commodity that time of year and the guy thought I was robbing him.

For mushrooms??

I avoided places where Iowans were wandering around unsupervised since that encounter...

Now where I live, you can go pretty much anywhere in the woods with a backdrop and start blasting away. My dad has a sweet set-up with an indoor shooting bench and targets up to 300 yards away, so I usually go to his place about 12 miles away.

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Or my buddy lives a mile out of town and he has a bench we drag up into the field for a shooting session...

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Fortunate in Missouri to have many state free ranges and good gun clubs, state law prevents closing existing gun clubs. My dues is an exorbitant 20.00 a year with 3 types shotgun. 100 yard pistol, 600 yard rifle.

I can drive out two or three miles and shoot, or I can drive ten miles to the private range owned by our gun club (club dues $35 per year) and shoot seven days a week sunup to sundown. No lock on the gate.

On this island, Oahu, we have only one public range. No charge for rifle and pistol shooting.
Run by the city. There are many rules. Only 100yds for rifle.
We do have hunting areas, but not for target shooting.
Not a real friendly shooters state.

I'm jealous. We have BLM land that is generally open for shooting, but it is a good hour drive and then a long hike to get to where I can shoot. It is in the Sierras, so it can be tough totting too much gear. (I like to use my steel plate set up.) The gun range I go to is way over what others here have been quoting. $20 per day; $100 a year for an individual; $350 a year per family. After the last time they raised the family rate, that was the end of family shooting there. I do have sister that lives about an hour away that has a pond that works great for shooting. They have to get permission each time we go out there though, and they don't like to shoot as much as I do. Living in Central California where there is lots of flat farmland but not too many good places to shoot.

I think I may have to give the Bridgeport range a look-see. I have been through the area and didn't see or hear anything out there.

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Originally Posted by gregtu

Living in Central California where there is lots of flat farmland but not too many good places to shoot.

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Just go to Fresno and find an abandoned lot and blast away; everyone there is used to the sound of gunfire, anyways... :popcorn:

I hear ya! I used to live in Fresno, but now I'm about an hour away. I have to admit, I don't miss the new years eve blasting away. You can probably find several videos of how Fresno police deal with a suspect with a suspected gun. No way would I shoot in an empty lot there! :shock:

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Originally Posted by Idaho45guy

Just go to Fresno and find an abandoned lot and blast away; everyone there is used to the sound of gunfire, anyways... :popcorn:

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It is no problem, once you start shooting, don't stop till your done and leaveing, nobody will even peek out their windows, till you stop shooting.


The easiest and cheapest state to shoot in, starts and ends with an A.And no, it isn't in the south. lol

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Originally Posted by starmac

It is no problem, once you start shooting, don't stop till your done and leaveing, nobody will even peek out their windows, till you stop shooting.


The easiest and cheapest state to shoot in, starts and ends with an A.And no, it isn't in the south. lol

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Yep. Arizona.

Lived there for seven years and for three of those years, rented a place out in the middle of nowhere and could shoot off of my porch and had ability to shot as far as I wanted to haul the targets on the ATV...

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Arizona would come in a close second. lol

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Originally Posted by frkelly74

I think I may have to give the Bridgeport range a look-see. I have been through the area and didn't see or hear anything out there.

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I think dues were $50/yr.


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Another picture of my hidden valley...

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At the county WMA all you need is a current hunting license or an inexpensive yearly permit. If you're 65 or older all you need is a current drivers license. I've lived in Alabama for more than 40 years and have yet to be checked....

A lot of free ranges in SC.... DNR has some very nice ones. Dedicated pistol, 100yd, and 200yd facilities. They are staffed, and only open 8-5 Tues-Sat, but the ROs I've encountered have all been excellent at their jobs. US Forest Service also has a bunch of free ranges....they're unstaffed and open daylight-dark everyday. I mostly shoot at home....but the facilities we have in the State are pretty excellent!

In WV you can not shoot within 500 ft. of a house. You can not shoot across a public road. You can not hunt within 50 yards of a public road.

That's the same in a lot of states, just common sense.

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Originally Posted by wv109323

In WV you can not shoot within 500 ft. of a house. You can not shoot across a public road. You can not hunt within 50 yards of a public road.

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Interesting to know, thanks for posting. Of those, the only one that applies in KY is the no shooting across a public road.

where I am in pa. evert fourth house has a bench and back stop. some are 50 yd. some are 2-300 yds. our farm I have a 50 and 100 yard. but for hand gun or quick testing I shoot right off the back porch. thn there are private clubs every where.