Gravel pit shooting areas Calgary

J

Jrome

Member
Rating - 100%
32   0   0
Location
Calgary Alberta
Hi all. I am trying to find a place to go shooting around Calgary, Gravel pit or crown land that people go-to on a regular basis. I have looked around on the forums and I cant seem to find a forum for specific areas of Canada. If this is the wrong place to post I apologies. I have tried google but most of the posts I have found are years old. I am located in the NW of Calgary.

Thanks.
 
waiparous apparently, personally I don't go out there so I am not sure where there. I say Just join a range like DDSA they are cheap enough and close enough, and then you can shoot restricted if you want.
 
A neighbor was out camping in waiparous last weekend with his family.

He mentioned the steady rattle of gunfire and booming of binary explosive.

>join a range

Last time I looked into it I saw memberships in the $600+ range? Is that still the case?
 
Last edited:
No body shoots gravel pits any more, not the safest to begin with.
Find a quite spot down the trunk road, with a safe back stop, sand , dirty .. good field of view with no trials in the back ground..
Have fun, clean up all messes..ALL
 
Any common knowledge gravel pits are going to be a zoo, or there will be 'no shooting' signs posted. People will generally be heavily inclined to not share their crown land spots if they've found them. You're better off to drive out to crown land, and start looking for a reasonable spot. Something with a decent hill and no hiking/access trails behind it for a good ways.
 
Big bore dinosaur said:
No body shoots gravel pits any more, not the safest to begin with.
Find a quite spot down the trunk road, with a safe back stop, sand , dirty .. good field of view with no trials in the back ground..
Have fun, clean up all messes..ALL
Click to expand...

This. Anywhere close to town was probably shut down by now due to ######s leaving garbage everywhere. And people who have found spots tend to keep them quiet because if they don't, the cycle begins again - garbage gets left all over the place, and whoever has jurisdiction over that area eventually closes it to shooting.

In Greater Vancouver they closed the vast majority of places you could go within 2 hours of the city a few years back for this very reason.
 
Last edited:
Rayleigh_Scattering said:
Unfortunately, even if 90% shooters clean up after themselves all people will see is the mess left by the other 10%.
Click to expand...

Pretty much. CGNers had a big cleanup up Sylvester Road outside Mission, BC. We removed many bags of garbage, filled two trucks with scrap metal, burned a big pile of scrap wood. But we were only able to clean up one single shooting spot, out of many. Like 6 months later they closed the whole area to shooting anyways.
 
This makes me sad lol. Thank you all for the replies. I moved here from Winnipeg and there are plenty of spots to shoot around there.
I am fire forming brass with cream of wheat, Would rather leave that in the grass at some random place then at a range.
Most of the outdoor ranges I have been able to find are expensive or have massive wait times. Unless someone local knows of a place that is currently accepting membership and can point me in the right direction that would be amazing.

Thanks again.
 
A problem with the Waiprous area is people on dirt bikes and atvs/side by sides. They can be anywhere at any time and it makes it difficult to find a safe spot to shoot. There is a gravel pit area that is specifically marked as no trespassing, which is too bad as it has a good area to shoot, but there are always people riding around. Same deal around Mclean creek area, turns into a Sh*t show when all the peoples show up. McLean creek had a real problem with random public shooters leaving all kinds of garbage and cases lying around. Not sure if shooting has been banned in that area. There was a public "range" out by BTSA/Swiss/AFRA/Rosebud, but it was closed due to abuse of the area by the general public. Good luck finding an area closer than about an hour from town, if you find one I suggest keeping it to yourself.
 
Jrome said:
Hi all. I am trying to find a place to go shooting around Calgary, Gravel pit or crown land that people go-to on a regular basis. I have looked around on the forums and I cant seem to find a forum for specific areas of Canada. If this is the wrong place to post I apologies. I have tried google but most of the posts I have found are years old. I am located in the NW of Calgary.

Thanks.
Click to expand...

I love heading out to Waiparous to do some shooting (along the trunk road or down the Trans Alta road). However, it can be busy out there with campers, ATVers, and shooters, especially in the summer and weekends. Best time is weekday morning. Sunday afternoon can be good too as a lot of campers are already heading back to Calgary. Also, during hunting season, probably not a great idea.
 
Rayleigh_Scattering said:
Unfortunately, even if 90% shooters clean up after themselves all people will see is the mess left by the other 10%.
Click to expand...

Honestly, campers leave a bigger mess behind than shooters. Between human waste, broken tables, random garbage blowing around in the wind, and smoldering fires, it can be a real mess. Then there's the dog from a nearby camp coming over, getting in the way of us shooting, and eating the human waste. Send that dog back to its owners with sh!t on its face.


Anyway, usually shooting in the Alberta wilderness is better than that. That was just one bad example.
 
Andronicus said:
Honestly, campers leave a bigger mess behind than shooters. Between human waste, broken tables, random garbage blowing around in the wind, and smoldering fires, it can be a real mess. Then there's the dog from a nearby camp coming over, getting in the way of us shooting, and eating the human waste. Send that dog back to its owners with sh!t on its face.


Anyway, usually shooting in the Alberta wilderness is better than that. That was just one bad example.
Click to expand...

In my experience both crowds suck. Its no wonder that the Alberta Gov't is looking to charge people to use the backcountry considering the messes I've seen over the years (albeit in BC, but I'm sure Alberta is no different)
 
Suther said:
In my experience both crowds suck. Its no wonder that the Alberta Gov't is looking to charge people to use the backcountry considering the messes I've seen over the years (albeit in BC, but I'm sure Alberta is no different)
Click to expand...

Who do these people think cleans up? These areas aren't just magical garbage eating landscapes.
 
You can join BTSA. You just need a referral. Come to one of the many events open to the public, meet someone from the club that can refer you.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom