Shooting on Crown Land Do's and Dont's

[Tpan187]

You have to be absolutely sure of your backstop, as you are responsible for every round you send down range- that is why sand pits are so popular (mind the rocks though). Most people grossly underestimate the power of centrefire rifles and overestimate the quality of their backstop. Any carelessness reflects on all gun owners.

Do not be afraid to pick up a little of what others leave behind, especially shotshells, they look awful. Take out targets that are either biodegradable or easy to pick up - don't shoot glass and such. IF you leave areas like you found them, we'll be allowed to continue to enjoy doing that.

[bsand]

Make sure it's actually crown land
Check the municipality you're in and ensure it's not a no shooting area
Check the hunting regs for designated no shooting areas and distances from specific roadways.

This, currently out in thunder bay, and the crownland is spotted with private/municipal lands around a certain hwy. Some parts its considered unorganized part of tbay district others are a town.

Anyone looking to find crownland BETTER check the crownland atlases and land use policies as well.


Pack out more than you packed in, do not mix drugs/alcohol with guns, follow all safety rules STRICTLY.

[yz295]

I have spent a lot of time camping and dirt biking on crown land and yes the garbage left is disgusting.

Thanks for all the replies lots of good info here.

[Ironheart]

Be respectful.
Take your garbage, hulls, shells, and did I say garbage. Oh and take your damn garbage. I have filled numerous 1 tons cleaning up after disrespectful shooters.
Stay away from popular areas for hiking, OHV, or even high traffic.
Know your backstop, hills, sand, dirt. Avoid shooting at rocks and pipeline infrastructure (If you are a dick then please shoot at the rocks).
Don't forget your trigger-lock keys or worse the one gun you really wanted to shoot (Trust me it happens).
Most important always bring extra ammo!!
-- Lastly, any other great advice that has and will be offered.

Yup.....the trigger lock thing does happen....lucky I had 2 sets of vise grips with me!

[mussyhairhillbilly]

filled the box of the pick up , with garbage from the public range every year, well somebody has to do it....but it's really starting to piss me off.

[TPacey]

filled the box of the pick up , with garbage from the public range every year, well somebody has to do it....but it's really starting to piss me off.

What about clay targets? I assume is ok to leave broken clays behind?

[bsand]

Just would like to add, that I was stopped by a conservation officer checkpoint while re-entering thunder bay from HWY 527 after doing some shotgun plinking on crownland.

The two CO's I had interacted with were nothing but professional, and extremely nice. They didn't even ask for my PAL, but I had provided my PAL and DL upon being asked to pull over. They had me show them where my shotgun was (inside internal compartment of my SUV's "trunk"). Saw that it was trigger locked and disassembled ( barrel removed, to fit in bag), and asked about what I was doing in Thunder bay (as I had non-resident plates). The entire stop took less than 5 minutes from being told to pull over, to being told I'm good to go.

I should add that I was extremely nervous at the time, and the officer was nothing but professional with me. Major prop's to WMU 13's CO's in Northern Ontario.

[VancouverS4]

Take a bucket, know where the nearest water source is and have a plan in case of a fire. Speaking from experience.

[Leadbeard]

Be careful with randomly bought surplus fmj ammo, I’ve seen a couple tracers end up in those somehow and they can start fires really easily.

Doesn’t hurt to bring a small fire extinguisher they are cheap, I also found it good to lay down a big tarp and peg down the ends
Place in the area where you shoot the most,
this is an easy way to pick up your brass and shells.

You just pull up the tarp like a bag, Canadians can get a large teal tarps on sale for under $7 at crappy tire these show up in the flyer very frequently.

These are also good under messy targets as a way to clean up the shattered debris.

If shooting metal targets don’t use fmj for the most part and angle your targets downward or have swinging targets and make sure they are at the minimum recommended distance for the caliber you are using.

[MIRAMICHIER]

Common Sense.