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Legal to shoot outdoors?

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Badger Johnson

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Question about shooting outdoors in Virginia.

We went looking for a place and found something with:
1. No 'Posted signs'
2. Two Tree stands
3. 200 yds or more from dwellings and roads (actually in a valley where you can't see any roads or houses.
4. Not in the city - Spotsylvania I think

One would assume that areas have 'Posted' signs to prevent hunting or shooting so absence of them means it's OK??

I figure if someone is shooting in a tree stand it would be ok to shoot some pistol rounds. The charge for screwing up is a class 3 Misdemeanor. Would I be right in assuming that:

a). if the cops showed up they'd just say stop shooting and we'd leave
b). if charged it would have no effect on our CPL, being a misdemeanor.

Other than finding a willing property owner with several acres and getting permission is there any way to shoot extemporaneously outdoors in Va?

Advice? Thoughts?
 

MSC 45ACP

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2,840
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Newport News, Virginia, USA
Question about shooting outdoors in Virginia.

One would assume that areas have 'Posted' signs to prevent hunting or shooting so absence of them means it's OK??

Other than finding a willing property owner with several acres and getting permission is there any way to shoot extemporaneously outdoors in Va?

Advice? Thoughts?

We Virginians are big on manners. It would be considered rude to just start shooting on someone's property.

I think what you're looking for is called a "Range". There are many of them throughout the state. Some of them are even outdoors.

Just because an area isn't "Posted" doesn't mean its open to the public. You may sometimes get away with walking on someone's private property if you're looking for your dog that slipped off his leash or your child that wandered away from the family picnic at the nearby public park. It is NOT "OK" to just shoot on a piece of land because there aren't signs that say you can't.
 

peter nap

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Valhalla
We Virginians are big on manners. It would be considered rude to just start shooting on someone's property.

I think what you're looking for is called a "Range". There are many of them throughout the state. Some of them are even outdoors.

Just because an area isn't "Posted" doesn't mean its open to the public. You may sometimes get away with walking on someone's private property if you're looking for your dog that slipped off his leash or your child that wandered away from the family picnic at the nearby public park. It is NOT "OK" to just shoot on a piece of land because there aren't signs that say you can't.

That was put much more nicely than I was going to respond with...so I'll just say +1.

I won't ask if he has a BarBQ without a posted sign. I may need one one day.:mad:
 

wylde007

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Jan 23, 2009
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3,035
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Va Beach, Occupied VA
You may sometimes get away with walking on someone's private property if you're looking for your dog that slipped off his leash or your child that wandered away from the family picnic at the nearby public park.
I think there are still places in Virginia where unless you can prove that is exactly why you are there you might just get disappeared.
It is NOT "OK" to just shoot on a piece of land because there aren't signs that say you can't.
Hear, hear.
 

67GT390FB

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Joined
Mar 2, 2007
Messages
860
Location
Richmond, Virginia, USA
Question about shooting outdoors in Virginia.

We went looking for a place and found something with:
1. No 'Posted signs'
2. Two Tree stands
3. 200 yds or more from dwellings and roads (actually in a valley where you can't see any roads or houses.
4. Not in the city - Spotsylvania I think

One would assume that areas have 'Posted' signs to prevent hunting or shooting so absence of them means it's OK??

I figure if someone is shooting in a tree stand it would be ok to shoot some pistol rounds. The charge for screwing up is a class 3 Misdemeanor. Would I be right in assuming that:

a). if the cops showed up they'd just say stop shooting and we'd leave
b). if charged it would have no effect on our CPL, being a misdemeanor.

Other than finding a willing property owner with several acres and getting permission is there any way to shoot extemporaneously outdoors in Va?

Advice? Thoughts?

The short answer is NO. The start of the longer answer is i'm glad you at least had the sense to ask. If your name isn't on the deed or you don't lease it or have permission to be on the property KTFO, posted signs or no posted signs. You wouldn't want me to drop by your house while your not there and have a cookout on your deck just because there weren't any posted signs would you? Treat property that doesn't belong to you like anything else that doesn't belong to you. The group i hunt with pays a bunch of money to lease the property we have access to year round. I'm guessing if you can see two deer stands that someone else wouldn't be happy to have you traipsing all around. We have this problem every year with folks who buy a 3/4 acre lot and think that the 300 acres behind them is their own private park. We had a guy this past summer decide that he could cut a road from his property onto ours hook into our timber roads and ride the loop from his house around the timber roads and then back down the sewer line right of way in his UTV. He even took down the cable we had blocking one side of our gated access so he could short cut it down the public highway if he wanted. This evidently went on all summer until we happened to be there before hunting season started in order to clear the roads and he shows up and has this oh **** look on his face. he's lucky he had his 3yr old or so grandson with him so i had to hold back a little, kinda like i'm doing now.

i think yo get the jist
 

rlh2005

Founder's Club Member
Joined
Jun 16, 2006
Messages
699
Location
Spotsylvania County, Virginia, USA
1. No 'Posted signs'

Do you mean an actual "No Trespassing" or "POSTED: No Trespassing" sign? Did you seen an trees with painted horizontal stripes on them?

VA DGIF regs (see page 15) state:
"Using a paint mark of aluminum color paint consisting of a vertical line at least 2 inches in width and at least 8 inches in length, no less than 3 feet and not more than 6 feet from the ground or normal water surface and visible when approaching the property.
 

Badger Johnson

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USA
We Virginians are big on manners. It would be considered rude to just start shooting on someone's property.

I think what you're looking for is called a "Range". There are many of them throughout the state. Some of them are even outdoors.

OK, glad I asked. I've looked for outdoor ranges around the state and only found Clark's Brothers. There's a lot of hunting allowed in Va's wilderness areas, (from the Inland Game and Fisheries site), but it's not clear if you have to get a license, say, for hunting rabbit just so you can go into those woods and shoot a HG. All of their 'shooting ranges' are sight-in ranges, long guns only.

Thanks to all for the advice.
 

sst0185

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Sep 9, 2010
Messages
120
Location
Va Beach
GW National Forest has several really nice shooting ranges, but can be a long drive depending on your location. Look for a gun club in your area with an outdoor range.

Make friends that own land and will let you shoot with them on it. You took the time to research if you would "get in trouble" with the law, do some research and find a place to shoot without making you and the rest of us firearm owners look bad.:dude:
 

coondog22554

Regular Member
Joined
Mar 21, 2008
Messages
62
Location
Stafford, VA, ,
Izaak Walton League

Check out the Izaak Walton League in Spotsylvania Co. They have both pistol and rifle ranges. Annual membership is about $100.
 

AtackDuck

Regular Member
Joined
May 21, 2006
Messages
214
Location
King George, Virginia, USA
OK, glad I asked. I've looked for outdoor ranges around the state and only found Clark's Brothers. There's a lot of hunting allowed in Va's wilderness areas, (from the Inland Game and Fisheries site), but it's not clear if you have to get a license, say, for hunting rabbit just so you can go into those woods and shoot a HG. All of their 'shooting ranges' are sight-in ranges, long guns only.

Thanks to all for the advice.

Northern Virginina Gun Club in King George might be what you are looking for.
http://www.northernvirginiagunclub.org/
 

k3n

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Location
Baltimore, MD
Rude People

I came here looking for an answer on the same question. I'm amazed but not surprised at some of the rude responses to a legitimate question. First off, there's an assumption that this person is going to shoot on private property. There are public lands you know, not like out west but there are. I am from the west, where you can shoot almost everywhere (excluding maybe California) as long as you are outside of the city limits, not on private property or shooting within 1/4 mile of a residence or from/across a road. In my current state of Maryland, it is not legal to shoot anywhere but on a range or private property. Even the national forest is governed by restrictive state laws. The only legal target is paper and it has to be 48" above the ground. In other words, you cannot legally shoot a tin can with a .22 in the state of Maryland unless you're on private property. Last year I joined a local range just to be able to sight in. It was so micromanaged that it took me 4 hours to do 1 hour of shooting, which is a total waste of my time. So consequently I do not go shooting here; I do my shooting when I'm back home out west where my son and I have our own unofficial range on BLM land with steel targets from 100 to 500 yds. I moved here for work and cannot wait to retire and escape the snobby east coast climate, where everyone (even gun owners) has been brainwashed to accept the namby-pamby, gentrified country club mentality.
 
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peter nap

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I came here looking for an answer on the same question. I'm amazed but not surprised at some of the rude responses to a legitimate question.

If you knew the person that started the thread, you'd know both that it wasn't a legitimate question and rudness is the prescribed way to respond.

He/she or it, is either man or woman depending on who he's pretending to be that day, is a karate man who has an injured back because he caught someone falling from 80 feet, doesn't open carry because the police have a plan to take him/her to the pavement and disable him due to some government spy business. :eek:

Please don't bring up its old threads anymore because if his name appears 3 times.....it may return :uhoh:
 

The Truth

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Jul 18, 2014
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Henrico
I came here looking for an answer on the same question. I'm amazed but not surprised at some of the rude responses to a legitimate question. First off, there's an assumption that this person is going to shoot on private property. There are public lands you know, not like out west but there are. I am from the west, where you can shoot almost everywhere (excluding maybe California) as long as you are outside of the city limits, not on private property or shooting within 1/4 mile of a residence or from/across a road. In my current state of Maryland, it is not legal to shoot anywhere but on a range or private property. Even the national forest is governed by restrictive state laws. The only legal target is paper and it has to be 48" above the ground. In other words, you cannot legally shoot a tin can with a .22 in the state of Maryland unless you're on private property. Last year I joined a local range just to be able to sight in. It was so micromanaged that it took me 4 hours to do 1 hour of shooting, which is a total waste of my time. So consequently I do not go shooting here; I do my shooting when I'm back home out west where my son and I have our own unofficial range on BLM land with steel targets from 100 to 500 yds. I moved here for work and cannot wait to retire and escape the snobby east coast climate, where everyone (even gun owners) has been brainwashed to accept the namby-pamby, gentrified country club mentality.

I'm personally amazed but not surprised that you were offended by such appropriate responses. The questions OP was asking are pretty common sense... "am I allowed to shoot on property that's not mine even if there are at least 2 tree stands up on the property?" Come on, man. Use your head! How does the OP even know there are 2 tree stands on the property, unless it's clear cut? He must've been trespassing is my only guess, and he's probably already been shooting on the property.

EDIT* Oh for crying out loud, who bumped this old thread?!? I've been tricked!
 
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skidmark

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Valhalla
.... I moved here for work and cannot wait to retire and escape the snobby east coast climate, where everyone (even gun owners) has been brainwashed to accept the namby-pamby, gentrified country club mentality.

Sorry to disappoint you but we do not have a lot of "public lands" east of the Mississippi, and what we do have are, as you note, pretty heavily regulated. I just don't agree with you that is is a "namby-pamby, gentrified country club mentality" to try and avoid getting arrested for violating the restrictive regulations of what public lands we do have. As for privare ranges/clubs - you should have checked out their rules before putting down you money. Many of the restrictions they have are because they have been the victim of predatory lawsuits and drives for zoning regulations by the antis - it is too often the choice between accepting the regulations or being forced to shut down.

While you are stuck here on the elitist east coast, how about joining one of the gun-right groups in Maryland and trying to help them come closer to your beloved West? How come I have not met you at any of the VCDL activities?

BTW - why are you here on OCDO? You come across as a Fudd - I have a rifle and shoot long-distance target so of course I support gun rights, except that I only support rights for folks like me.

stay safe.
 

Shovelhead

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I live on 50+ acres in central Virginia that fronts a paved road on one side and a dirt road on the other.
Signs or not, if I heard unauthorized gunshots on my property, someone would find themselves about to have a very bad day.

Shoot on an authorized range, and save everyone a lot of trouble.
 

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jegoodin

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Stafford, Virginia, USA
I live on 50+ acres in central Virginia that fronts a paved road on one side and a dirt road on the other.
Signs or not, if I heard unauthorized gunshots on my property, someone would find themselves about to have a very bad day.

Shoot on an authorized range, and save everyone a lot of trouble.

+1

I made a very similar post, but deleted it because I didn't want to perpetuate a necro-thread.
 
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