Free Outdoor Shooting Areas South Dakota, Wyoming, Colorado area?

I’m on a week long road trip right now and brought some targets and ammo and cleaning supplies and would love to find a place to shoot outdoors in this beautiful part of the country.

I’m from Missouri where every county has a free outdoor range maintained by the department of conservation. What about this part of the country?

What does Wyoming, Colorado, or South Dakota have to offer?

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BLM?..no silly, the good BLM :smile:https://www.blm.gov/home

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That sounds too good to be true! gotta read up on this!!

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https://www.blm.gov/programs/recreation/recreation-programs/recreational-shooting :slight_smile:

Target shooting is generally allowed on BLM-administered public lands, as long as it is done in a safe manner, without damaging natural resources or improvements on public lands. Across all BLM-administered lands, discharging or using firearms, weapons, or fireworks is not allowed on developed recreation sites and areas except at sites specifically designated for that purpose. Check with your local BLM office for any additional restrictions on shooting.

Only thing I can complain about is I doubt the office is gonna be open tomorrow…

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You can usually find that info online by checking the local BLM district’s web page. Rules on Forest Service land are usually the same. My experience in the area you are traveling in is limited. But it is hard not to find spots where people have been shooting on public land in all the Western areas I’ve been too. Yahoos tend to leave all the TVs, appliances and other trash they have used for targets laying where they shot them. Though there are some areas where the locals clean up after the yahoos.

If you look at Google satellite imagery you can often see old gravel pits and other mined areas in hillsides where people regularly shoot. Just find a spot off the main roads with a very good backstop, no developed campsites or hiking trails nearby and no live trees behind your targets and you should be good to go.

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There is a free outdoor range about an hour north of Denver heading to Vail.

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I’m back home and thought I’d share my finds:

If you’re visiting Mt. Rushmore, the nearest tourist town is Keystone, SD. One of the locals told me I wouldn’t find this place on a map and he was right, but take Hwy 40 about 2 miles east of the city and there’s a gravel road on the south side of hwy 40.
It’s BLM land that the locals use for shooting, coordinates:
43.88422815469735, -103.37686704578587
I don’t think there’s an address there.

Then while in the Denver area we visited the city of Pueblo, and I found a spot called “Red Canyon” or “Dinosaur Flats” shooting range in the nearby mountains of Cañon City, CO 81212. Both on BLM or public land.

Red Canon is https://goo.gl/maps/txDjPP7EaTm2tdvc7 and it’s the entry to the shooting area.

Take Garden Park Road aka Hwy 9, about 2-3 miles north from Cañon City, CO, and the entry will be on the west side of the road. It’s not clear to me if you can shoot right there by the main hwy. Maybe. But it’s worth driving the 2 or so miles back into the area if you like privacy. It’s closed when muddy, and even when dry, it’s good if you have some ground clearance and 4wd on the unpaved trail. There’s a section of the trail marked ‘no shooting next 1.1 miles’, then it opens up at the top of the hill and there’s several spots littered with shells, old electronics parts, glass, palates. People have had some fun up there!

https://goo.gl/maps/TeT6n1sdPM5tKrHv9 is the final location at the top of the hill, 38.53238488472307, -105.22948575515875 and the mountains give you a lovely echo of every round that’s worth taking off the ear pro to hear a few times!

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Dude, I can empathize, I used to live in Overland Park, KS and would go to the Dept. of Conservation range around the Blue Springs, MO area…I think it was $2 for an hour or more…I want to say $4 for the day. Now I’m in Pueblo, CO and there is one range…“public” but you have to be a NRA member (no problem, here!). Now, there’s a LOT of wilderness between, say, Pueblo and going south on 25 to Colorado City/Rye and my brother and I would simply…go off-road and find a place and shoot! But I haven’t done that in awhile and who knows now, what with the current “military junta” now in place in D.C., what the climate is for that. I would be waiting for the cops to show up, “Someone called in hearing shooting…”. Oh brother!

CO is a blue state, after all. In fact, it has some ridiculous restrictions, case in point, magazine limits to 10 rounds (5 for a shotgun). I found that out the hard way, bought a rifle online, got it without a magazine, called in and found out their “fine print” said if your state doesn’t allow 30 round mags, you get NO magazine (instead of swapping the 30-round for a 10-round). I was a bit pissed because…there’s a LOT of fine print! But I also thought (maybe just “thought” without acting) man, I’ll just find a relative in a state without such restrictions, buy a crapload of mags and stock up! So…maybe I did just that. Maybe.

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Thanks! I live in Pueblo (fairly new) and never heard of this. I’ll check it out! Is there any permits or costs involved?

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Hello and welcome @Randall109
I grew up in SKCM, spent many a days in OPK

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If anybody is ever around the Gillette, Wyoming area, I know of plenty of public land we can go shoot on. Some of it is about a 45 minute drive, but plenty of space to shoot.

We shoot anything from 22’s to 357 to 44, I even occasionally take out the 500. Rifles are the same way.

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There was no permits, no staff, no buildings.





The road from the highway long and winding and single laned. There were occasionally no shooting in this area signs, where the trail switched back and cross fire could be dangerous. And of course those signs have bullet holes in them…

Don’t plan to drive up there with the car. You need an SUV or a truck. It’s a road but it’s unpaved. I wouldn’t want to get stuck up there during a rainstorm. But very pretty and isolated. If you already in Pueblo you got to try this place out.

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