Newbie looking for crownland in southern Ontario

[Whubba]

Hey all,

I'm new and have my pal/rpal and currently taking the hunting course. I just bought a shotgun and want to practice.

Checking the crownland atlas I don't see anything available even remotely close to the Hamilton area.

Does any one have an suggestions on crownland? I plan on respecting the area.

Thanks!

[squidxm]

You’ve already looked at the most valuable resource, the crown land atlas. If it doesn’t show on there, it isn’t crown. That’s the nature of the beast living in southern Ontario. There are many conservation authorities who allow hunting with permit search the ones in your area. Some allow you to hunt without permits as well. Depends how far you’re willing to travel for a hunt, you can check out grey sauble lands, simcoe county lands, copeland forest is crown. I recently started using the iHunter app and bought the public lands subscription. Gives you several layers to toggle and makes it easy to find places to hunt and boundaries.

Edit: sorry just saw you’re not necessarily looking for hunting lands. I take it you’re looking for a place to blast away your new shotgun, the ones I mentioned wont allow that. Find a range. Most will not allow bird shot unless it’s on a trap range. Just make the drive north and find crown up there to shoot. Crown land atlas with google earth is your friend.

[handofzeus]

Finding crown land in S. Ont. is like finding a rational thinker in the Liberal party.

[Whubba]

That's too bad. I was hoping not join a club, but I guess that's the next step.

Thank you.

[thegazelle]

Whubba, I feel for you, man...in the same boat....problem with ranges is many of them are full and not accepting new members. I was thinking of knocking on doors of farmers and asking if they have any land they can either rent out when they want, etc. but I don't know how anyone would respond to that. Rightfully, no one will want to be known as the place to shoot and hordes of people show up. It would be nice if there was some way farmers or owners of large swaths of rural land would have a listing or something like "rent some land for the day" - but then again, if I was in their shoes, I'd like to make sure the logistics are all in order (ie. the renter can't just show up whenever they want, there has to be some trust and the renter can't leave the shooting area a mess, etc. and not come in a large group, etc.) Unfortunately I agree with the other poster - it's either crown land hours away or find a range and sit on their wait list until something opens. I agree that living in SW Ontario is not advantageous as a gun owner. I thought of the crown land idea, but then if you find somewhere and show up, only to see tons of other people got the same idea, that 2-4 hour drive would not be worth it.

[Colin L]

I'm a member of 3 ranges in the Niagara Region and only do a very small amount of shooting at them.

Usually once or twice a year I drive 4 hours north to Trout Creek. There's some excellent Crown Land there to shoot the crates of ammo that I otherwise would shoot at "the institution" (Gun Club)