How To Find Ontario Crown Land to Shoot On

[Rockman]

Whenever I click on Get Land use Information. It keeps replying with "No Results Found" I'm clicking on a general use area. Is anyone else getting this response? If not what does it mean?

[Grawfr]

Whenever I click on Get Land use Information. It keeps replying with "No Results Found" I'm clicking on a general use area. Is anyone else getting this response? If not what does it mean?

I just tried it and it worked fine for me. It's changed a bit in that now I have to click a button in the left pane then go click on the map to select the location. Make sure you don't have a script blocker stopping this site?

[ESP]

And their crown land maps are NOT up to date.
So the answer is, the MNRF is NOT the final authority on Crown Land in Ontario - there is literally nobody there that actually knows where it is (currently) and who controls it.

Source:
https://www.ontario.ca/page/crown-land-use-policy-atlas

Disclaimers
The Atlas also shows lands not subject to provincial policy, such as national parks, Indian reserves and private land. Information used for federal lands originates from federal government data. The mapping of private land is not based on detailed survey information and is intended to give only an impression of the general distribution of privately owned land.

The ministry makes no representation or warranty of any kind regarding the site or the content, express or implied, including but not limited to any representation or warranty that: (i) the content is current, accurate, complete, suitable for a particular purpose or reliable; (ii) the site or the content will be secure or available without interruption, error or omission; (iii) errors or omissions on the site or in any of the content will be corrected; (iv) any of the content will be transmitted to users; or (v) the site, related servers or the content are free of viruses or other harmful elements. The content is subject to change without notice.

Users should not rely on any of the content in any instance as authoritative or as an accurate or precise indicator of privately-owned land, a travel route or location of features, or as a guide for navigation. The maps included in the content are illustrative only.

[galamb]

Yes, the Atlas is a great "starting point", at least showing you what WAS Crown whenever it was cobbled together. One thing is for certain is if it "wasn't" crown when they made the map it most certainly isn't Crown now - they aren't "adding" to it.

We have scratched out a few pieces in Eastern Ontario where I am. After finding it on the Atlas we contacted the regional MNRF dude. He had limited information and suggested we go to the County office since they were the ones that controlled it (this was at least a half dozen years back, maybe more).

The county was only "somewhat" helpful. They didn't really have a detailed land use map for the county but could show "generally" where crown land was and which unopened access (road allowances) were NOT sold off (they have to go through a process and actually write a by-law to sell off an unopened allowance, so when they do there is a record of it). In other cases where there was small parcels of "land locked" crown land they wanted a fee to look up "who" owned the adjacent land (if we wanted to try and gain permission to access across private land).

There is even a piece that access is being blocked by a land owner. The county road that "almost" gives access to the parcel is actually running through this land owners property (they bought the right of way off him or whatever). It leaves about 50 feet from the roadside to the unopened road allowance and he has it cabled off and posted. We complained to the MNRF that he was blocking the access - they said "not our problem contact the county". So we went to the County office - they said "not our problem, contact the OPP". Stopped in the OPP office and talked the guy behind the desk. He told us since the MNRF and the County "doesn't care enough to attempt to enforce "their allowance" that they would not get involved unless the land owner attempted to have us cited for trespassing".


Given that the guy involved is a bit of a nutbar who might be inclined to come out with a 12 gauge, and not wanting my gravestone to read "they were legally gaining access", we simply found another, far more difficult, way in along another unopened allowance outside of his property lines.

So even if a piece exists, it doesn't necessarily mean that you can get to it.

On a positive note, back in 2014 (as far as I can tell from the bit the ministry posts up), the criteria for a county to sell off Ontario Crown Land got very tight. It can no longer be sold for "private or recreational use" - so they can't hack it up for cottages etc. It looks like now it can only be used by the county itself as part of a land use strategy to expand business etc (so could build an industrial park but not a sub-division for housing unless it had been zoned prior to the new laws).

[ESP]

Given that the guy involved is a bit of a nutbar who might be inclined to come out with a 12 gauge, and not wanting my gravestone to read "they were legally gaining access", we simply found another, far more difficult, way in along another unopened allowance outside of his property lines.

lol

[Rockman]

Ya I'm not sure what I was doing wrong, but it's working today...

[Bad Lieutenant]

So... what's the deal? Has anyone found a spot, on public or crown land, that is within, say... 60 to 90 minutes of Toronto, that someone can go target shooting at?

[Cranberry]

Tagged

[verminaard]

Excellent set of resources.

[netmerc]

So I'd like to share MY own experience with this. I was aware that my local county in SW Ontario allows hunting on some of their county forest tracts. I found out who the forest manager was and emailed them. They got back to me and said that "Patterning Firearms" is a traditional use at one specific tract. I contacted the County Clerk and the Clerk for the township that this tract is in and both came back to me and said there were NO firearm bylaws on the books. (I was worried about calibre etc).

So, I printed out all the emails, grabbed some targets and a couple rifles and the family and headed out the the area. It's about 30 min drive away and when I got there I found parking on the side of the road and a trail. I could hear shots so I honked a couple of times and then we walked in. About 100m the trail opened up to a nice clearing that looks like a bulldozer had been in. There was a berm down one side and at the end and the longest distance you can shoot is around 150 m.

As I said, we heard shots and found guys about 20 m into the clearing shooting clay so we set up beside them and they took a break so we could set up some targets about 25 m down. I've been back numerous times and usually meet people there. Sometimes they are shooting clay, sometimes they are shooting long distance targets. Sometimes I get there and I'm all alone. On a couple of occasions I've gone with buddies and we've had lots of fun doing things you can't do at a range like blowing the crap out of old hard drives to make sure they can't be recovered!

Anyway, don't give up! Do your homework and cover your ass by keeping copies of your emails in case an officer comes to see what's going on. I'm pretty hopefull that having all the emails would deter an officer from laying a charge, even if I missed something because at least I could show that I went above and beyond to make sure it was OK. Either way, I wouldn't argue with an officer, especially if they are just responding to a noise complaint!

Also, PICK UP YOUR SHELLS!!!! I always put a tarp down and try and get all my casings to land on it. That said, I'm happy that people leave shotgun shells there because I've started reloading them. Whenever I leave I bring out a bucket of shells and/or garbage because I don't ever want the county to shut it down!!

Last tip: Never tell anyone where your spot is!!! :-)