Avoid Weyerhauser land out of Carlton/McMinnville

[CLT65]

You might want to stay away from a couple shooting spots out of town here, we found out today. ADDED: see link below for no shooting rules - there are no signs on the property.

Earlier this year a friend took me to a decent shooting spot out of town in the mountains due west of Carlton in Yamhill county. There are a couple of well-established spots where people have obviously been shooting for years.

A couple months ago I drove out there and founds orange signs posted- "Fire Danger - No Entry". Of course I turned around and found a different place somewhere else in a safe area for some .22 plinking.

Today the signs were still there despite many days of torrential downpours, so we moved on to other areas and drove around exploring for a bit. We still couldn't find a good safe place to shoot .22 rifles, so as we drove back past the "Fire Danger" place we turned in to check it out. We knew there was no fire danger any more so were just going to drive in and take a look around, figuring the worst that could happen was someone telling us to leave.

We pulled up to a shooting spot, got out and pulled out some sandwiches for lunch as we looked around. We were standing there eating when a Weyerhaeuser "security" guy pulls up and starts being a total "bubblegum" (isn't that the word here?) We were totally polite to him despite his attitude, saying we're sorry, Sir, we're just leaving.

He parked his truck in front of us and told us No, you need to stay. There's a State Trooper just up the road and he will want to talk to you. I politely asked if he had any legal authority to detain us, and he admits No, not really, but you better stay or he'll chase you down. He made a big deal about writing our license plate down and roared off.

Out of courtesy we waited for the Stater. He politely chewed us out, while admitting that we weren't doing anything wrong (if that makes any sense). He said the security guy was there to take down the signs and that the public is welcome on the property, but Weyerhaeuser discourages target shooting because of the mess. He was trying his best to put the scare into us and make us feel like criminals, all the while admitting that we were not breaking any laws of any kind.

So if that's your place to shoot, be warned. There are no signs, not a "No Trespassing" or "No Shooting" sign at all, but it is apparantly a "no shooting" area. Sure, we should have not driven in past the rain-soaked "Fire Danger" signs that were gone an hour later (our bad), but they didn't have to treat us like criminals.

I'm a law and order kind of guy, and a pretty staunch supporter of law enforcement. I have a couple life-long friends in law enforcement. I know it's a tough job, and I sure wouldn't want to do it. My gripe is being treated like a criminal when we weren't doing anything wrong. It just leaves a real bad taste in my mouth.

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[lowly monk]

That's why I keep a copy of the forest laws with me and wright down there name and plate number. Also like you, be polite and stand your ground. It is your right. Plus get a map.
http://www.oregon.gov/odf/tillamookstateforest/docs/TargetShooting_OARs.pdf

 

[nwhpfan]

I believe these are the rules for the area you were in. <broken link removed>

Says no target shooting on their property.

 

[CLT65]

Yep, I understand that now, and I have no problem with that as it is their property, though perhaps they might want to post that rule near the well-established, frequently used sites. I will completely respect that and will not return.

We made an innocent mistake out of simple ignorance. I wanted to let everyone else here know so they can avoid the same mistake, since it appears to be a commonly used site.

My issue was that the security guy could have simply informed us of their rules and asked us to leave, especially since we had not even "target shot". Instead he got rude without provocation, saying he would have us chased down and arrested. The officer, on the other hand, was polite. He did try to scare us, but when I pressed him for specifics on what exactly we had done wrong, he fully admitted that since we had not "target shot" we had done nothing wrong at all.

I suppose I should cut the security guy some slack. He probably gets fed up with seeing the mess that the slobs leave, and likely chasing them off time and again as they cuss him out. I've seen those type of slobs. I guess he couldn't have known that we are NOT that type. We had NOT been there during fire season, and did NOT contribute to the mess, in fact intended to clean it up (we had garbage bags with us).

So yeah, now that I've cooled down I can see his perspective a little, but I still resent being treated like a criminal, and being told that he was going to have the state police "chase us down and arrest us" if we tried to leave. I know my rights and knew full well we had done nothing illegal, so I would have simply driven away, but my friend was driving. The security guy was able to bully and scare him into waiting. I had no problem talking to the officer, but I resented the heck out of the security guy bullying us that way.

 

[Dunerunner]

So does Weyerhauser own the property or lease it from BLM?

 

[CLT65]

I'm pretty sure they own it, or would be very surprised to find out otherwise. They own many millions of acres of timberland.

Just to clarify- if I had property like that and people were trashing the place and leaving shot-up garbage, I would not allow shooting there either. It's too bad the slobs have to ruin it for the rest of us. I really appreciate the focus on this forum of cleaning up the woods. "Pack it in - Pack it out"!

 

[cpy911]

Is the area past McGuire reservoir still open? I went shooting there a few years ago.

I have almost given up on shooting on public lands. Too many crazies and then having to put up with law enforcement, fines, etc.

I am slowly establishing links with private land owners to go out and shoot. I am also in the process of getting a multi-cal rifle and a .22lr suppressor to keep the noise level down. If I shoot subsonic, no one will really hear my shooting. The idiots who have trashed these lands have ruined a fun activity for all of us.

 

[cwegga]

Shooting on public lands is actually pretty easy. As long as you are willing to walk a ways and only shoot what you can carry, it greatly reduces the problems. Generally crazies, trash dumpers and cops aren't going to walk a mile into the woods to cause problems.

 

[1337BaldEagle]

So does Weyerhauser own the property or lease it from BLM?

Leastways in the Mary's Peak area they lease the land. I was actually told that their "no access, Fire Danger" signs were in reference to vehicles. I was, in fact, told by an ODF officer to go on to the land (actually owned by BLM) regardless of their sign. This was in the peak of fire season.

 

[skud_dusty]

bubblegum Weyerhauser.

 

[Toxic6]

Their is a difference between private property and leased public property....while a lot of those big companies do own quite a bit of land, they also lease deforestation rights on a lot of public land at HUGE breaks from big brother and that is not their land. Also, a lot of them utilize public throughways to access their land - and even if that is private property they CAN NOT deny you passage through their property on a public throughway, though they will try like hell to scare you otherwise. Ask your local sheriffs for their take on it when in doubt, but the above is what i took away from similar issues in the past.