Mt Hood National Forest Clarifies Target Shooting Restrictions

[rangerlars]

Mt. Hood National Forest - Recreation

Click on above link for info--

Partially pasted below:


Recreational target shooting is an appropriate use of the Forest, when done safely and with respect to the land and forest property. The Mt. Hood National Forest is open to target shooting unless specifically ordered and signed closed. There are certain areas of the forest where target shooting is not allowed.

When target shooting is done in the right way, it poses little threat to people’s safety or natural resources. However, careless, unsafe shooting can cause great resource damage and pose serious threats to human life: both to forest staff and visitors. In addition, trash associated with target shooting has reached epidemic levels on the Mt Hood National Forest.

In 2012 alone, Dumpstoppers, an organization dedicated to cleaning up public lands, reported that it removed the following from public lands:

5,332 lbs. of hazardous waste
58,533 lbs. of scrap metal
7,342 tires
412 vehicles


Dumpstoppers estimates that more than half of the volume of this alarming amount of trash is tied to target shooting.
In an attempt to minimize risk to property and human life and to reduce trash associated with target shooting, the Mt. Hood National Forest enacted the following Forest Order:

• 
  No person shall place targets on trees or shoot trees for any purpose.
  No person shall shoot across, from or along any road, trail or body of water.
  No person shall shoot carelessly, recklessly, or without regard for the safety of any person, or in a manner that endangers, or is likely to endanger, any person or property.
  Persons engaged in target shooting shall remove from National Forest System land all shell casings, targets, and other debris resulting from their use.
  Persons engaged in target shooting shall utilize an appropriately sized, natural backstop.
  No person shall shoot targets other than those commercially manufactured for the specific purpose of target shooting, except for paper targets privately manufactured by the person or people engaging in target shooting.
  No person shall shoot glass of any kind, appliances, furniture, vehicles or other debris determined to be garbage or refuse by an enforcing officer.
  No person shall engage in shooting while under the influence of drugs or alcohol.
  Target shooting and other shooting related activity will be prohibited from one half hour after sunset to one half hour before sunrise.
  

The above regulations supplement the following long-standing laws governing safe discharge of firearms on National Forest lands. Discharging a firearm or any other implement capable of taking human life, causing injury, or damaging property is not allowed in the following manner:
In or within 150 yards of a residence, building, campsite, developed recreation site or occupied area
Across or on a National Forest System road or a body of water adjacent thereto, or in any manner or place whereby any person or property is exposed to injury or damage as a result in such discharge
Into or within any cave
Use of exploding targets is prohibited

Firearm Safety Best Practices
To ensure your safety and the safety of others, please adhere to the following universal guidelines:
All firearms should always be considered loaded
Never point the muzzle of your gun at anything you are not intending to shoot or destroy
Keep your finger off the trigger and your safety on until you are on target
Be sure of your target and what is beyond your target to prevent endangering any person or property
Before discharging your firearm scout out the area for other people that may be recreating near you
Only Shoot in an area with a safe backstop preferably an earthen mound
Firearms should be unloaded when not actually in use
Use correct ammunition
Always wear eye and ear protection when shooting



Maps to Target Shooting Closures
Old Maid
Eightmile
Camas Prairie
Olallie
Wildcat
LaDee
Clear Lake
Memaloose
Eastside
Westside
Forestwide Map

Certain areas of the Mt. Hood National Forest are closed to target shooting for your safety, the safety and enjoyment of others recreating in the area, or for the safety of the natural resources in the area by the following forest orders:
Forest Firearm Orders:
Order No. MH-2014-01, Forestwide, codifies best practices in law
Order No. MH-2013-11, Memaloose/LaDee Flats, Clackamas Ranger District
Order No. MH-239-01-95, Eightmile Interpretive Trail, Barlow Ranger District
Order No. MH-263-01-99, Camas Prairie, Barlow Ranger District
MH-292-09-2003 Wildcat Mtn, Zigzag Ranger District
Order No. MH-295-09-2004, Old Maid Flat, Zigzag Ranger District
Order No. MH-24-03-79, Olallie Lake, Clackamas River Ranger District. Area between road S-42 and Olallie Lake.
Order No. MH-278-06-2001, Clear Lake, Hood River Ranger District. No shooting within the designated areas within the Forest Development Roads in and around Clear Lake. Please see Exhibit A map of the order for more detail.

Read More

 

[drew]

So you can't use homemade targets made of ice? That's unfortunate.

 

[Gunwheeler]

So you can't use homemade targets made of ice? That's unfortunate.

You will have to wait for ice targets to become commercially (new business idea?) available. Remember to pick up and recycle the target pieces before you leave.

 

[Boomerang]

So you can't use homemade targets made of ice? That's unfortunate.

Hopefully the enforcing officer wouldn't follow the "letter of the law" in that case, since the intent is clear, which is to eliminate all the trash people haul up there to shoot and leave. Alternatively, you could start up a business of selling "commercially manufactured" ice targets.

For the most part these rules are common sense and are necessary. If people would play nice-- shoot what you want, but haul it out-- things like this wouldn't be necessary. Just like if people would drive a reasonable speed on residential streets, speed tables wouldn't be necessary.

 

[Mark W.]

Now that these rules are "Posted" it will also be easier for the Forest Service to close areas not kept clean.

Best we do our best to spread the news and to clean up what we find. Or next time we may find an area closed.

 

[billyinfinity]

These rules have been "posted" for some time. They've even had them printed out on fliers at all of the ranger stations for a number of years...

 

[rangerlars]

These same rules have been in place in the Oregon State Forest system for a while. Many of the National Forest system rules mirror these to help with consistency.

http://www.oregon.gov/odf/tillamookstateforest/docs/TargetShooting_OARs.pdf

 

[Mark W.]

These same rules have been in place in the Oregon State Forest system for a while. Many of the National Forest system rules mirror these to help with consistency.

http://www.oregon.gov/odf/tillamookstateforest/docs/TargetShooting_OARs.pdf

Sorry the word "Clarifies" in your title made me think this was something new or improved. Since I don't do my shooting in the forest (unless hunting) I have never run into these rules posted anywhere.

 

[Mecanik]

"No person shall shoot across, from or along any road, trail or body of water.
No person shall shoot carelessly, recklessly, or without regard for the safety of any person, or in a manner that endangers, or is likely to endanger, any person or property."

These two sentences seem so loosely worded that they can be interpreted anyway one would want to. I've never seen any place to shoot that wasn't located somewhere near one of these things. Try to find a place in the woods that's not near a trail of some sort. (human trail or animal trail) define (road) cat trail from logging maybe. (body of water) how big is a body of water. 3 ft diameter. 10 ft. 20 ft. Hmmmm It ranges from a mud puddle to an ocean. It leaves it totally up to the person making the judgement call.

 

[rangerlars]

"No person shall shoot across, from or along any road, trail or body of water.
No person shall shoot carelessly, recklessly, or without regard for the safety of any person, or in a manner that endangers, or is likely to endanger, any person or property."

These two sentences seem so loosely worded that they can be interpreted anyway one would want to. I've never seen any place to shoot that wasn't located somewhere near one of these things. Try to find a place in the woods that's not near a trail of some sort. (human trail or animal trail) define (road) cat trail from logging maybe. (body of water) how big is a body of water. 3 ft diameter. 10 ft. 20 ft. Hmmmm It ranges from a mud puddle to an ocean. It leaves it totally up to the person making the judgement call.

They mean official trails and roads, rivers, and lakes-- places where you would expect people to routinely be, and where most of us would not be target shooting for this reason. I have not heard of any of the LEOs there acting unreasonably, and you can be sure that if someone felt unfairly cited for target shooting that this is a forum where they would have vented about it.

 

[Mecanik]

You made my point, It leaves it totally up to the person making the judgement call.
Let's just hope and pray they don't become unreasonable.

 

[Focer]

When I first read this I was glad to see someone posting these restrictions. However after thinking about it some more I wondered why the forest service is not looking to provide safer, more organized, designated places to shoot. Afterall wouldn't that help resolve a lot of these issues?

 

[Mecanik]

When I first read this I was glad to see someone posting these restrictions. However after thinking about it some more I wondered why the forest service is not looking to provide safer, more organized, designated places to shoot. Afterall wouldn't that help resolve a lot of these issues?[/QUOTE

I totally agree. Instead of the forest service and forest managers whining about trash it would make more sense to provide a good spot that was safer and easier to clean up. A certain percentage of people will trash it anyway but at least you know where the trash is instead of strewn throughout the forest. Politics play a lot into the sport of shooting because of the antigun sentiment spread throughout the state due to the high percentage of Democrats. Also shooting clubs if asked would probably clean up known shooting sites if contacted in a positive manner.

 

[rangerlars]

Responsible Target Shooting: Doing It Right - YouTube

Mt. Hood National Forest - Recreation

Mt. Hood National Forest - Recreation

Click on above link for info--

Partially pasted below:


Recreational target shooting is an appropriate use of the Forest, when done safely and with respect to the land and forest property. The Mt. Hood National Forest is open to target shooting unless specifically ordered and signed closed. There are certain areas of the forest where target shooting is not allowed.

When target shooting is done in the right way, it poses little threat to people’s safety or natural resources. However, careless, unsafe shooting can cause great resource damage and pose serious threats to human life: both to forest staff and visitors. In addition, trash associated with target shooting has reached epidemic levels on the Mt Hood National Forest.

In 2012 alone, Dumpstoppers, an organization dedicated to cleaning up public lands, reported that it removed the following from public lands:

5,332 lbs. of hazardous waste
58,533 lbs. of scrap metal
7,342 tires
412 vehicles


Dumpstoppers estimates that more than half of the volume of this alarming amount of trash is tied to target shooting.
In an attempt to minimize risk to property and human life and to reduce trash associated with target shooting, the Mt. Hood National Forest enacted the following Forest Order:

• 
  No person shall place targets on trees or shoot trees for any purpose.
  No person shall shoot across, from or along any road, trail or body of water.
  No person shall shoot carelessly, recklessly, or without regard for the safety of any person, or in a manner that endangers, or is likely to endanger, any person or property.
  Persons engaged in target shooting shall remove from National Forest System land all shell casings, targets, and other debris resulting from their use.
  Persons engaged in target shooting shall utilize an appropriately sized, natural backstop.
  No person shall shoot targets other than those commercially manufactured for the specific purpose of target shooting, except for paper targets privately manufactured by the person or people engaging in target shooting.
  No person shall shoot glass of any kind, appliances, furniture, vehicles or other debris determined to be garbage or refuse by an enforcing officer.
  No person shall engage in shooting while under the influence of drugs or alcohol.
  Target shooting and other shooting related activity will be prohibited from one half hour after sunset to one half hour before sunrise.
  

The above regulations supplement the following long-standing laws governing safe discharge of firearms on National Forest lands. Discharging a firearm or any other implement capable of taking human life, causing injury, or damaging property is not allowed in the following manner:
In or within 150 yards of a residence, building, campsite, developed recreation site or occupied area
Across or on a National Forest System road or a body of water adjacent thereto, or in any manner or place whereby any person or property is exposed to injury or damage as a result in such discharge
Into or within any cave
Use of exploding targets is prohibited

Firearm Safety Best Practices
To ensure your safety and the safety of others, please adhere to the following universal guidelines:
All firearms should always be considered loaded
Never point the muzzle of your gun at anything you are not intending to shoot or destroy
Keep your finger off the trigger and your safety on until you are on target
Be sure of your target and what is beyond your target to prevent endangering any person or property
Before discharging your firearm scout out the area for other people that may be recreating near you
Only Shoot in an area with a safe backstop preferably an earthen mound
Firearms should be unloaded when not actually in use
Use correct ammunition
Always wear eye and ear protection when shooting



Maps to Target Shooting Closures
Old Maid
Eightmile
Camas Prairie
Olallie
Wildcat
LaDee
Clear Lake
Memaloose
Eastside
Westside
Forestwide Map

Certain areas of the Mt. Hood National Forest are closed to target shooting for your safety, the safety and enjoyment of others recreating in the area, or for the safety of the natural resources in the area by the following forest orders:
Forest Firearm Orders:
Order No. MH-2014-01, Forestwide, codifies best practices in law
Order No. MH-2013-11, Memaloose/LaDee Flats, Clackamas Ranger District
Order No. MH-239-01-95, Eightmile Interpretive Trail, Barlow Ranger District
Order No. MH-263-01-99, Camas Prairie, Barlow Ranger District
MH-292-09-2003 Wildcat Mtn, Zigzag Ranger District
Order No. MH-295-09-2004, Old Maid Flat, Zigzag Ranger District
Order No. MH-24-03-79, Olallie Lake, Clackamas River Ranger District. Area between road S-42 and Olallie Lake.
Order No. MH-278-06-2001, Clear Lake, Hood River Ranger District. No shooting within the designated areas within the Forest Development Roads in and around Clear Lake. Please see Exhibit A map of the order for more detail.

 

[rangerlars]

Here is a brochure

http://www.fs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/stelprd3791499.pdf

 

[djaziatic]

What am I going to do with this Tannerite that I got for Christmas present these past two years? lol

 

[rangerlars]

What am I going to do with this Tannerite that I got for Christmas present these past two years? lol

Private Property! God Bless America!

 

[rangerlars]

Any recomendations on a place to shoot in or by Govy? Was thinking about bringing a few boxes of ammo with me when I head up this weekend.

Easiest place to get to right now is 224 mp36

 

[The Nothing]

Easiest place to get to right now is 224 mp36

I would imagine 36pit could use some work too. I'll see if I can't get out that way next week.