Virginia Gun Owners Forum - VGOF

I recently saw something called PALS(Public Access Lands for Sportsmen) and want to know if target(plinking) shooting is allowed on VA lands. When I try to find the info I keep finding the number 767834860. I called it, twice, and keep getting someone who doesn't seems to have a clue as to what I'm talking about and says I have the wrong number. So bottomline can you shoot on VA lands?If not where do you guys shoot(central virginia) if not at the range. Thanks in advance.

Jake

When you say public lands are you meaning parks or just state or city property that they manage ? Have you tried calling the Department of Natural Resources, They may have some insight to your questions ? Here is the link,About half way down the page they tell you where to call for that info.http://www.dgif.virginia.gov/hunting/re ... s.asp#pals

State and city property. Ill try the DNR. Couldn't find any number other than my 276 one iv tried calling.

VA Department of Game and Inland Fisheries (DGIF) does maintain ranges on some of their properties. The times of operation and rules are posted on their site (see VBshooter's post). There is a range (Hite Hollow Range) owned by the Forest Service, on national forest property, located near Staunton. Those are the only "public access lands" I am aware of for plinking. Plinking is generally not legal on public lands in VA unless you go to these ranges.

If you are refering to wildlife management areas that do not have a range the answer is no. The only shooting allowed on them is during hunting season when hunting. Amelia WMA has a range but no handguns are allowed.

Howdy, Y'all,

If you want to plink, you have to be on a designated shooting range? It's really sad things have come to this.

The best times I can remember while having a gun in hand were when we walked out to the RR tracks or down to the river bottom, set up some cans and knocked them down with .22s. I don't know if we were on private or public land. Point is, nobody made a fuss about it. As a kid I could walk into most any store and buy my own ammo. This was during the 1970's. I can only remember twice that I fired a gun on an honest-to-goodness shooting range prior to 1990.

Now you have to pay $$$ to shoot at paper targets, unless you own a sizable chunk of land or know someone who does. If one of my kids gets caught with a pocket full of .22s, she'll be thrown in jail and I'd probably be arrested, too.

The gun grabbers have wounded us in ways we may never recover from.

Regards,

George

How true George,,, I can remember when Sears sold ammo right out in the open at all their stores,, They all sold guns ,, Where I grew up nobody even thought twice if they saw a gun or heard one in the woods somewhere, Now Sears doesn;t sell ammo and you;d get arrested for even thinking of a gun in that neighborhood,, Sad ,, Very sad

I bought guns at Sears and Montgomery Wards. When I was a kid growing up in Indiana there was a sporting goods store where they sold us shotguns shells or cartridges in onsies and twosies.

zephyp wrote:I bought guns at Sears and Montgomery Wards. When I was a kid growing up in Indiana there was a sporting goods store where they sold us shotguns shells or cartridges in onsies and twosies.

Small world, DK.

Born in Indianapolis, family in Jackson Co. I was talking 'bout the Hoosier State in my previous post.

Regards,

George

I grew up on a 1500 acre farm in Illinois. I went wherever I wanted and shot whatever I wanted. I yearn for those days again. 1500 acres affords a lot of freedom even in this day and age.

allingeneral wrote:I grew up on a 1500 acre farm in Illinois. I went wherever I wanted and shot whatever I wanted. I yearn for those days again. 1500 acres affords a lot of freedom even in this day and age.

Came to Chesapeake when we left Indy, so I've been a city boy all my life, Rick. I am grateful to have had ready access to the open spaces of rural Indiana, and to a somewhat lesser extent, Virginia, when I was young. Unfortunately I don't see much chance of making that available to my own kids, at least not in the same way I experienced it. The freedom that we had is the key. My parents felt they could just turn me loose and for the most part, I avoided trouble. For my kids to experience the great outdoors, it has to be chaperoned and structured.

gfost1 wrote:

zephyp wrote:I bought guns at Sears and Montgomery Wards. When I was a kid growing up in Indiana there was a sporting goods store where they sold us shotguns shells or cartridges in onsies and twosies.

Small world, DK.

Born in Indianapolis, family in Jackson Co. I was talking 'bout the Hoosier State in my previous post.

Regards,

George

Hey George! I was actually born in Bartow FL and moved to Indiana when I was about 11. Lived in a little place called Connersville. I'm sure you've heard of it. I went to an Army service school at Ft Ben around 1980. The Sears and Monkey Wards were in Georgia later when I was stationed there at Fort Gordon.

Howdy, Y'all,

Didn't intend to hijack the thread with all this reminiscing. I don't know if it is an urban vs rural thing or what, but it seems like America was a much more relaxed place in the '70's. Even if it was illegal at the time, I don't think many people worried about things like "getting caught plinking on public land." Behavior that might have got you a "good talking to" back then will have the BATFE busting down your door today.

Now days one has to think twice before engaging in many activities that we took for granted a generation ago. I think a lot of that is due to the meddling of the nanny state, and I'm not just talking about the lib-dems. Reagan's "War on Drugs" and Bush's "Homeland Security" are examples of some of the most dangerous erosions of our freedoms because they are generally accepted as being for our own good.

Again, sorry. It just really ticks me not having a place to shoot.

Regards,

George

Jake, the Chicamhominy WMA, near Charles City has an outdoor range you can use. Check the link VABeach shooter gave you for the info you need. It has distances up to 100 yds I think.

Hi All,

I just moved here from Colorado, where I could shoot anywhere in the national forest, no questions asked. You have national forest in VA, right? And you can't shoot there freely? Help me understand this.

Lexington wrote:Hi All,

I just moved here from Colorado, where I could shoot anywhere in the national forest, no questions asked. You have national forest in VA, right? And you can't shoot there freely? Help me understand this.

I moved here from AZ in 2000. Same thing. Much of AZ is public land and national forest. All you had to do was load the guns up and drive 5 miles out of town. You could spend the whole day driving through the desert shooting pretty much anywhere you wanted.

But why doesn't that hold true here in VA? The state has stricter rules in the federal national forest?

I can see my FN SPR isn't going to get a chance to breathe here.

I suspect that each ranger district/forest/how ever they divide up the land can make it's own rules. I don't know that anyone has actually checked the rules for the national forests here in VA to see if there is a restriction on plinking.

I just checked the new hunting regs and it pretty much says that possession of a firearm, bow or crossbow outside of any hunting season is prohibited in National Forests. Unless you are conceal carrying with a permit. Same thing goes for dept owned lands too.

gfost1 wrote:Howdy, Y'all,

If you want to plink, you have to be on a designated shooting range? It's really sad things have come to this.

The best times I can remember while having a gun in hand were when we walked out to the RR tracks or down to the river bottom, set up some cans and knocked them down with .22s. I don't know if we were on private or public land. Point is, nobody made a fuss about it. As a kid I could walk into most any store and buy my own ammo. This was during the 1970's. I can only remember twice that I fired a gun on an honest-to-goodness shooting range prior to 1990.

Now you have to pay $$$ to shoot at paper targets, unless you own a sizable chunk of land or know someone who does. If one of my kids gets caught with a pocket full of .22s, she'll be thrown in jail and I'd probably be arrested, too.

The gun grabbers have wounded us in ways we may never recover from.

Regards,

George

i agree with you 100% and had i known this in advanced i would never have left south carolina in the 4yrs i have lived here i can count on both hands how many time i have used my rifles in virginia. home of the NRA big deal!