Crown land shooting instructions

[bigHUN]

So you can shoot a 50.10V or 75.15V every time on that .5 moa V Bull target @ 500 and 600 yards?

Ah no, we all know aligning all the stars in the sky doesn't happen often
My gear set is capable of doing 600+, but unfortunately on daily basis I am limited up to <300 at my local range and with that distance there is not much to talk about. Bidding for spots @ Borden is bordering with winning big on Lottery.

 

[maynard]

Not sure what lottery you are playing to get time at Borden. The events are listed on the website. The provincial championships are coming up next month. Why not enter the 3 day match and put your skills up against other shooters at ranges from 300-1000 yards? The CFRC (Canadian Fullbore Rifle Championships) follow the ORA Provincial Championship for another 6 days of shooting. F Class shooters are also welcome to this event.
Both of these events will be shot on Shotmarker electronic targets.

 

[bigHUN]

Not sure what lottery you are playing to get time at Borden. The events are listed on the website....

Was told to me by a fella another day @ SGC shooting beside me, he is organizing he's 4-5 ppl friends groups and he was soar about it.
My equipment and the 308 setup would be ready but my brain is not there yet for 600 and over, I am currently tied up with my chemoT schedules.
But I like to compete, it was in my blood over two decades with archery FT/FITA and airguns and I was on a level of travelling around big time ... if any of those learned apply here.

Finished the project gun, but still seeing room to improve

 

[maynard]

If you can make it out to compete, come out for a day and have a look around. You will see some rigs that cost about 1/2 the price of a new car.

 

[bigHUN]

...You will see some rigs that cost about 1/2 the price of a new car.

When I was working the ticket was not an issue and I prepared a hobby for each day of the week for my retirement, not to get bored too easy.
Not sure how much you follow airguns but you would be surprised how much some costs. And these will barely hit a consistent group @ 100 without extra upgrades and lot of elbow greasing

 

[kouma]

In case someone was interested, in addition to ORA I also joined EESA club (East Elgin Sportsmen's Association) which has a 300m range. It is only 1 hour away from me (Ancaster, ON) and probably the best range I have ever been to. Reasonably priced also, $295 per year total for my family (all 4 of us).

 

[dan belisle]

I just saw your post and wanted to reach out to you.

I live in Edmonton, and outside of driving 2 hours to the range out in Edson, I'm pretty much limited to the Sherwood Park range, that maxes out at 300 m. I will likely get a membership with the CHAS range in the new year, as they reach out to 800, but until then...

Do you know where one could get a map of where crown land is located? I have a .338 competition rifle and I am really looking to find somewhere to set up a 500 yard march out to get back in the saddle.

AB fish and game used to publish maps, and most county maps show ownership (and therefore where the crown land lies). The Range out past Edson (closer to Robb) is great for LR shooting. But reasonably close to Edmonton CHAS is pretty much it. Unless you know a farmer or two that will let you shoot on their land. I found being willing to help out culling coyotes and working a harvest or three opens a lot of gates. - dan

 

[iron cat]

Living where I do, I can be out in the bush and shoot legally in about 10 minutes, partake a 25 minute drive and be on the 1,000 meter line with steel and Shotmarker targets ,pistol bays, archery, black powder and trap and skeet.
When I was a kid living in Manitoba and Ontario, the smallbore and fullbore ranges were quite a distance away, except for one smallbore and trap range .
You couldn't pay me to go back!
Cat

 

[MosinMan13]

Couple years ago I was studying how and where to find/go the Crown Land, and ran into some confusions.
If you find and visit a "free" place to sight in your amo and scope for a hunting season that may be OKish, but if the officials recognizes that you started visiting frequently same area that became a no-no. Especially if you shoot with non hunting rifle.
My spots were same 3-4 hrs drive out from my door North East between Muskoka-Algonquin, and when I recalculated all my cost and effort I decided to join SGC 15 Km away where I can drive in less then 15 minutes any time. It was not cheap leasing the share + membership fee, but the Total $ is about there.
Second thought about Borden, hard to catch the time slot for longer range, all registration online until you finish filling up - all booked.
With my f-class 308 it is a waste of amo shooting below 5-600 M I am realizing that. But...I have airguns as well
With my FX air rifles training and practising year along that is averaging between 8K to 10K shots easily...
I had people told me "baaah" but no one of them knows that takes some trained skill set hitting X's @ 100 with a pellet, and I am preparing my rig for 200 M rings now.

I don’t know if I agree with some of the statements made at the start of this. My CO came to know the spots we used to frequent in the crown I used to live near, in fact I was once commended for leaving the one “local spot” which was littered and had a poor backstop, and setting up/keeping clean a better range with a backstop off the main path. They’d come up to us while we had stuff like Type 81s, WKs, Kris Vectors, you name it, never given any trouble, often times they’d make sure everything in our gear was kosher, asked around and made sure nobody was drinking or poaching. We shot those spots for years, thousands of rounds of ammo, tannerite any everything, hell one time we blew up a stump. Never any trouble.

Like any crown though it’s shared us typically, you want to call the local office and get the scoop, know where is fair game and where is frowned upon. In my local patch of crown the entire boundary was considered general use safe for hunting/firearms, but on the one side of the highway trails had been put in for shared use hiking/cycling/skiing. By law you technically could discharge firearms/hunt that space, but by the local CO they didn’t want such activity in that specific half of the zone, and were known to prosecute people caught target shooting there because of the proximity to the public. On the other half it wasn’t uncommon to find burnt down vehicles/campers every other year, it was more like the Wild West, so long as you followed the laws and cleaned up after yourself, you’re fine.

On the subject of a year old thread, I did once ask a passing officer what the thoughts were on longer range shooting (not that I’ve ever found anything over 200 yards of clear sight in Ontario before) and I was told along the same lines, if you can find the range and it’s safe to do so you’re in your legal bounds, but in his opinion he didn’t know of anywhere in any of his zones where someone could setup and fire down that amount of range, while safely guaranteeing you wouldn't be endangering anyone else from wandering through my range, or behind my backstop, or catching ricochet or spalling.