Traveling to Yellowstone

badger62

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Minuteman
Jun 15, 2011
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lincolnton, nc
Good afternoon fellow hide members

I'm headed out to Yelkowstone next week for vacation and was wondering if there are any places in the Cody Wy area to shoot? I had planned to stop by my club in Oak Ridge Tn on the way back home; so i am taking the bolt gun and a couple pistols and figured while i was there in Wyoming i might get in a little more trigger time.Any help or info would be greatly appreciated.
 
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I'd skip Yellowstone all together and go straight for Going to the Sun road, and Glacier National Park. Yellowstone should be renamed "tourist idiots everywhere park". Trust me, skip Yellowstone, go straight to Glacier National. You'll thank me later.
 
Thanks guys for the info. i'm going to be out that way for almost 2 weeks so i will hit them all. i had planned to glacier but after the suggestions i think i will plan more time there than yellowstone.

kraig, do you know if the range there in cody is open to the public? i will check out the website when i get home today.

thanks again..
 
Badger, yes the range is open to the public, there is a small fee, don't remember what it was, not much though, the yearly membership is $35 if I remember right. They also have a guy who lives on the range so it wont be hard to get in.

I've shot a couple HP and 1000 yard matches there. The wind can get tricky.......but this is Wyoming after all.

E-mail George Dillman, he's the president of the Cody Shooting Complex [email protected]

Don't know if you're camping but the range does have camping on site, I think its $15 per night.

Too bad you're not gonna be there the first week of Sept. The Garand Collector's Assn. is having their convention then. Big to do, there will be a special viewing (new exhibits) at the Buffalo Bill Museum, plus the CMP is showing up to conduct some CMP GSM vintage rifle games, and they're bringing their sales staff, gonna be some good buys. But that's not next week.

Another thought, take a fishing pole. Good fishing around Cody. WY temp licenses are that much, well worth it.
 
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If you plan on doing any extensive hiking. I highly suggest buying a pair of hiking sticks...those adjustable looking things like a ski-pole. They help tremendously in rough country and I wouldn't be caught dead hiking serious mileage with heavy pack without them. Just my #1 tip of advice. I mountain climb and for years humping a 60lb pack around when I started using trekking poles...it was like the greatest thing. I was half as sore from long approaches and could climb much much stronger with less fatigue.

Trekking poles. Get some.
 
It's actually a nice app - found all the shooting ranges near me. Putting in the Cody, WY zip code of 82414, and a 30 mile radius, it doesn't come up with anything. A quick search on google came up with the same one the guys listed above.
 
Have you considered Rainier National Park? It is BEAUTIFUL! beyond compare. John Muir thought it was the most majestic place in all of the US near the end of his life, if I recall right. He spent a lot of time here. I have to agree that Yellowstone looks a lot more like a tourist destination unless you plan on going damn deep into it.

Anyway, you have all that, and literally just across the road (turn left to go to Rainier, turn right and you are in national forest) you can go shoot all you desire. Just find a safe place to do it; there are LOTS of places out there to go shooting on public land.

Rainier has its fair share of tourists, but mostly they go to the pavilion and visitor center. They hike the meadow near the top. If you hike the thousands of other trails there, you may not run into anyone at all, and one is over 100miles long.

Just a suggestion, I live close to this volcano, and I've seen my mom's old pics of Yellowstone and it was crowded as hell back in the 70's. I hear lines to get in can be daunting as well, and I've heard it just isn't what it used to be. Also, with these national parks, the more people that visit, the more draconian the laws and rules governing what you can and can't do there are implemented. Most good natured, some goes too far though IMO.

Near Rainier, there are also several ranges, public, private and military that are available to civilians too. 3 are within a 10mi. radius of me with 2 about 2-3 mi. away. There is a 1000y range out there somewhere too, near the mountain I think, or at least on the way? Cross the mountains and you have desert. Find public land there and have at it.

The one destination that nobody considers is Teddy Roosevelt National Park in the Dakotas... Beautiful, I mean gorgeous, and it has these awesome canyons and wild buffalo. I'm POSITIVE there are plenty of great places to shoot off the park land, and that place is worth checking out as nobody really knows about it and it is about as pristine as it gets. I never heard of it until I drove through it. Wanna go back.
 
As always; the hide members come through with some great help and advice. Thanks again.

Kraig, I will contact the person at the email address. If i had known about the garand convention I would have planned my trip around it for sure.

Strykervet, my dad just came through and stopped at Teddy Roosevelt's place 2 weeks ago on his way back from Alaska. He said it was great.

Demo, I do alot of hiking here in the mountains of north carolina and the poles are the trick for sure.

Sdkidaho, im going to check out the app for the phone and tablet today..

Thanks to all...
 
Take lots of pictures and post them when your are back!

Also, if you are into hiking check out Motion Episodes | The Live Well Network I know they have a few episodes on glacier and the black hills, I am sure they have Yellow Stone and Tetons. The host generally takes you down paths less traveled.

coyote..be carefull what you ask for..haha..i take alot of pictures...hopefully i can get a couple piks of the mighty GRIZZLY while i'm there..i have a long lense that should do the job
 
coyote,be carefull what you ask for. haha.. i always take lots of piks wherever i go. hopefully i can get a couple of a big Grizzly,from a long distance.i have a lense that should do the trick pretty nicely.

greyghost,jackson hole is on the trip planner. thanks.
 
Badger -- Kraig gave you mostly good info but was incorrect on some as well. The range is only open to the public on Wednesdays and Saturdays, 1-4 p.m. Fee is $10. However, there is usually something going on every weekend so you can come in and use the range for the $10 fee or join in any of the events that are open to the public. The two most popular venues are USPSA and Sporting Clays with Trap, Skeet, Rifle lagging far behind. There is no 1000 yard range in use anymore, no High Power rifle events either. Camping is $10 per night.

Have fun on your vacation!
 
Rifle lagging far behind. There is no 1000 yard range in use anymore, no High Power rifle events either. Camping is $10 per night.

What happened, they use to have some good shoots (High Power one day and 1000 yard match the next). Use to be able to hit Lander one weekend, then Worland, and on to Cody. Kind of slacked off as the price of diesel got prohibitive, 300 miles each way.

I also heard they had some F-Class or PR matches.

Also is there a schedule for USPSA? I'll have Saturday free after the CMP games in Sept (4-5-6). Might stay and shoot pistol if there's a match.

Never mind, I found it, there is a steel match Sunday, the 8th. Might go fishing and hang around for it.
 
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Kraig - I think it's the same ol' story: guys get burnt out and no one steps up to take on the challenge. Keith from Wyoming Armory puts on a precision/tactical rifle match each month and I put on a USPSA sanctioned match the first Sunday of each month and a knock-down steel USPSA-style fun match the second Sunday of each month. Checkout our site: CodyActionShooters Home for info/videos. Our USPSA match in September will be on the 1st and steel match on the 8th, so you might have to stay an extra day if ya wanna shoot pistols!

See ya!

Rich