Shooting Safely on Public Lands

Since I've never seen many resources for public land shooting I thought it might be a decent idea to write about how ranges are templated. It's something I learned in the military but can also apply to public land use for long range shooting, matches (which I know some guys that do this) or even pistol and carbine stuff. I think people should know this because we had some shooting areas shut down in British Columbia from stray bullets almost impacting people in high traffic outdoors areas. The safer people are and the less amount of bad press we get as a community, the better. All of the resources I pulled for this were from the Marine Corps manuals and Royal Canadian Mounted Police so they're easy to find. There's probably a few people on here that can answer questions or expand on this knowledge as well.

The blog post basically covers everything you need to create a danger area trace using a map, compass and templates for the caliber you're shooting. If you're interested in this (which I imagine people are) take a look and add any additional input or questions below.

https://oryxchassis.com/blog/how-to-safely-shoot-rifles-on-public-land/

Enjoy!

 

[sea2summit]

Didn’t read the blog but just a note, that’s the approximate danger zone for one position, firing at one point target, at a range. Add a second target or a second position and it quickly grows, bringing the target closer also expands it.

 

[Oryx_Official]

Yes the area definitely grows even adding multiple targets from a single position. More advanced templating can be done for allowing movement boxes which sets the conditions for moving and shooting within an area at multiple targets and multiple shooters to be done safely. This is just the basic outline.

 

[AIKNOWU]

This is outstanding! Thanks very much for condensing the referenced manuals, and for outlining this technique.

 

[MK20]

It does not take into account terrain features. If you applies the USMC range standards to public land shooting areas here in the US, you would have virtually no places to shoot. Please stop spreading this idea before some libtard gets ahold of it. The four rules of safety and common sense are enough.

 

[AIKNOWU]

From the blog post: "If this were a flat piece of land like in the prairies, we would have to make adjustments to our shooting direction, so our impacts don't potentially land on something dangerous. We could limit ourselves to only shooting 5.56, moving our FP or target, or finding a new area altogether. Since this is mountain terrain, we can use a mountain as a backstop to avoid ricochets."

Common sense indeed.

 

[wyliecoyote]

I don't predict a very bright future for shooting of any sort on public lands. Politics aside, the mere fact that the population is increasing exponentially creates an ever growing demand for recreation opportunities on a finite amount of acreage. Responsible shooters who carefully survey the area and don't leave trash will prolong our enjoyment of this freedom, but only for so long.