New Mexico and/or other states with public o "plinking" land

[Scott in Houston]

In reference to this thread and post

viewtopic.php?f=9&t=45220#p550296" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

PappaGun references the ability to pull over and plink in New Mexico off hwy 87.

I thought I'd start a new thread since it's a new topic. What are the rules regarding this? How do you know where it's legal and how do you stay legal in doing this?

It's totally foreign to us Texans to have this ability, but I wish we did have it.
I'll be driving to Colorado myself soon, and along this same road. I'd LOVE to be able to just setup cans or IDPA targets and shoot some. I'd also like to stay out of the local slammer, so any advice is appreciated.

[74novaman]

I don't know, but enjoy that safety corridor in New Mexico....they're doing construction on it so you're pretty much going 55 through the whole state...

[Scott in Houston]

I found this resource. It seems pretty straight forward. Now I just need to figure out how to tell if it's BLM land.


http://www.publiclands.org/explore/faqs ... 20Shooting" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[jimandyen]

I found this resource. It seems pretty straight forward. Now I just need to figure out how to tell if it's BLM land.


http://www.publiclands.org/explore/faqs ... 20Shooting" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Thank you Scott for finding that.
Question........Do you have to be a NM resident or anybody who's just driving through?

[Scott in Houston]

I found this resource. It seems pretty straight forward. Now I just need to figure out how to tell if it's BLM land.


http://www.publiclands.org/explore/faqs ... 20Shooting" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Thank you Scott for finding that.
Question........Do you have to be a NM resident or anybody who's just driving through?

It appears anyone can. It's Federal land, so when they say "your land", they aren't just talking to New Mexicans... (I think).

[CJATE]

Arkansas is the same way, was a huge area not far form the u of ark, I went lots. Some "parks" even have public ranges of varying degrees of improvements, from a Pile of dirt to covered bentches

[The Annoyed Man]

I think it depends a lot on which federal agency "owns" the land. When I still lived in California, I used to go trout fishing up in the Owens Valley periodically, and there is lots of BLM owned land up there. it was perfectly legal on such land to pull off the side of the road and kill some paper plates. The same was true along the northern/eastern foothills of the San Gabriel mountains on the desert side. The national forest land was off limits to shooting, but the BLM land right next to it was not.

[Keith B]

I think it depends a lot on which federal agency "owns" the land. When I still lived in California, I used to go trout fishing up in the Owens Valley periodically, and there is lots of BLM owned land up there. it was perfectly legal on such land to pull off the side of the road and kill some paper plates. The same was true along the northern/eastern foothills of the San Gabriel mountains on the desert side. The national forest land was off limits to shooting, but the BLM land right next to it was not.

That's interesting. I grew up on the edge of the Mark Twain National Forest in Missouri and target shooting was legal. Even in state-owned areas it was allowed. Why was it illegal there? The reason I ask is I thought it was legal in all National Forest land and here is a page from the Eldorado National Forest giving the rules on plinking and target shooting http://www.fs.fed.us/r5/eldorado/recreation/shooting/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Oldgringo]

I think it depends a lot on which federal agency "owns" the land. When I still lived in California, I used to go trout fishing up in the Owens Valley periodically, and there is lots of BLM owned land up there. it was perfectly legal on such land to pull off the side of the road and kill some paper plates. The same was true along the northern/eastern foothills of the San Gabriel mountains on the desert side. The national forest land was off limits to shooting, but the BLM land right next to it was not.

That's interesting. I grew up on the edge of the Mark Twain National Forest in Missouri and target shooting was legal. Even in state-owned areas it was allowed. Why was it illegal there? The reason I ask is I thought it was legal in all National Forest land and here is a page from the Eldorado National Forest giving the rules on plinking and target shooting http://www.fs.fed.us/r5/eldorado/recreation/shooting/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I think this is generally so; however, there is a generic restriction on shooting in or near campgrounds or other "high use/public" areas. I guess the NFS can always dictate areas of a forest off-limits for whatever.

[The Annoyed Man]

I think it depends a lot on which federal agency "owns" the land. When I still lived in California, I used to go trout fishing up in the Owens Valley periodically, and there is lots of BLM owned land up there. it was perfectly legal on such land to pull off the side of the road and kill some paper plates. The same was true along the northern/eastern foothills of the San Gabriel mountains on the desert side. The national forest land was off limits to shooting, but the BLM land right next to it was not.

That's interesting. I grew up on the edge of the Mark Twain National Forest in Missouri and target shooting was legal. Even in state-owned areas it was allowed. Why was it illegal there? The reason I ask is I thought it was legal in all National Forest land and here is a page from the Eldorado National Forest giving the rules on plinking and target shooting http://www.fs.fed.us/r5/eldorado/recreation/shooting/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

This was in the Angeles National Forest. If you're familiar with the layout of the Los Angeles basin and the San Gabriel Valley, the mountains which separate the Mojave Desert from the San Gabriel Valley are the San Gabriel Mountains. They include peaks as high as 10k-11k feet. Most of this mountainous terrain is contained in the Angeles National Forest.

In the Angeles National Forest, there used to be 2 or 3 public shooting areas. These were uncontrolled shooting areas at Horse Flats, Kentucky Flats, and I think there was one other one (maybe near Glen Helen?). You could shoot in those areas, and there were certain rules to be followed, but you couldn't shoot in the rest of the national forest area unless you were hunting. Somewhere along about the mid to late 1990s, the Forest Service shut down the shooting areas on national forest land. (A good friend of mine from church who was a Forest Service employee at the time was part of that decision making process.) The stated reasons were budgetary. Shooters from all over would come out to these places and haul out stuff like old refrigerators, washing machines, and bowling balls to shoot at, and then they wouldn't pack their trash out with them when they left. The ground was carpeted in spent shot shells and brass. Because the area was badly littered, people also tended to just throw their empty bottles and sandwich wrappers on the ground too. It was a real mess, and there was nobody to blame for it but local shooters. Twice a year, the forest service would pay cleanup crews with dump trucks to go in and clean up the shooting areas, haul out the shot up appliances, rake up the brass and shot shells, and try to make the place look nicer. On one such cleanup at Kentucky Flats, it took 12 dumptruck loads to haul out all the trash from the previous 6 months. There were budgetary cuts taking place in lots of federal departments at the time, and the Forest Service was no exception. Since they couldn't keep paying to haul other people's crap out of there, and since they couldn't stop people from bringing all the crap into the shooting areas, they finally just closed them down, and you could no longer shoot anywhere in the Angeles National Forest except during deer season. That continues to be true today.

However, bordering the national forest on the north side, there was a large piece of BLM land along the Pearblossom Highway between Little Rock and Valyermo where people could pull over almost anywhere and shoot.

[Oldgringo]

The Annoyed Man wrote:

...Shooters from all over would come out to these places and haul out stuff like old refrigerators, washing machines, and bowling balls to shoot at, and then they wouldn't pack their trash out with them when they left. The ground was carpeted in spent shot shells and brass...

...and, who was it that Pogo saw...?

[The Annoyed Man]

The Annoyed Man wrote:

...Shooters from all over would come out to these places and haul out stuff like old refrigerators, washing machines, and bowling balls to shoot at, and then they wouldn't pack their trash out with them when they left. The ground was carpeted in spent shot shells and brass...

...and, who was it that Pogo saw...?

We have met the enemy, and he is us....

[Keith B]

I did a little research and apparently there are several National Forest Supervisors that have had to set restrictions or prohibitions on plinking or random shooting in their respective forests. One forest in Arizona had issues with people shooting toward populated areas, as well as the junk left behind they dumped and used as targets, so they restricted the perimeter of the forest adjacent to populated areas off limits on plinking, but left the rest of the forest allowed. The Angeles NF has the concessioned shooting ranges, but as you stated, is totally off limits to target shooting and plinking outside of those approved ranges. However, this doesn't restrict hunting in the NF.

[PracticalTactical]

For New Mexico, even if it's private land, there has to be notice that some activity is not allowed for it to be prohibited on said land. If you don't see any signs prohibiting shooting (or entry) and the land is not fenced then go ahead and shoot.

Just use common sense, don't shoot within 150 yards of a building without permission of the people in the building, don't shoot at anybody (good backstop). It's also a good idea to get away from the state or US highway a ways as to not scare any examples of Boobus Americanus that might be driving by.

NMSA 1978 30-14-6. No trespassing notice; sign contents; posting; requirement; prescribing a penalty for wrongful
posting of public lands.
A. The owner, lessee or person lawfully in possession of real property in New Mexico, except property
owned by the state or federal government, desiring to prevent trespass or entry onto the real property shall
post notices parallel to and along the exterior boundaries of the property to be posted, at each roadway or
other way of access in conspicuous places, and if the property is not fenced, such notices shall be posted
every five hundred feet along the exterior boundaries of such land.
B. The notices posted shall prohibit all persons from trespassing or entering upon the property, without
permission of the owner, lessee, person in lawful possession or his agent. The notices shall:
(1) be printed legibly in English;
(2) be at least one hundred fortyfour
square inches in size;
(3) contain the name and address of the person under whose authority the property is posted or the name
and address of the person who is authorized to grant permission to enter the property;
(4) be placed at each roadway or apparent way of access onto the property, in addition to the posting of the
boundaries; and
(5) where applicable, state any specific prohibition that the posting is directed against, such as "no
trespassing," "no hunting," "no fishing," "no digging" or any other specific prohibition.
C. Any person who posts public lands contrary to state or federal law or regualtion [regulation] is guilty of
a petty misdemeanor.