Where is this "land"?

[Grahamcs]

A mate of a mate said he had permission over 75 acres.

I have bought him three beers since and am still working on him!

Seriously though I agree with the OP.

Even for an air rifle it is hard to get.

[SevenSixTwo]

I'm not looking to dump dozens of magazines - just load test and sight-in - but on a more regular basis than now. Oh well.

[dromia]

It is not me that you would need to convince.

[Mattnall]

How does one go about finding "permission to shoot over land"?

I'm pretty fed-up with my lot with regards to full bore ranges. I get to shoot once a month and, due to very limited time (and some other technicalities), usually only get to shoot one calibre. So, I figure that this mythical "private land" thing where I have permission to shoot any time I like might be a good gig. But where do I look? Surely not in Yellow Pages or Facebook? Is it a question of 'not what you know but who you know'?

...and is private land typically given over for target shooting? I just wanna plink, dammit!

As a farmer and land owner I let several people have permission, one FB for deer and foxes, a couple with rf and air rifles for rabbits and rats and a few with shotguns for the pigeons and rabbits etc.
All call me to arrange their visits and coordinate so only one person/pair/group is out at a time and everyone there knows who is around.

What I won't allow is those that just want to plink. My farm is not a fun-fare shooting gallery.
This causes an unnecessary noise nuisance for the neighbours, scares any quarry.
The one guy, who had permission, who decided to try using the place as his personal fun range bought a load of mates along one day and decided to shoot up the place taking pot-shots at anything and everything that moved (as bragged about by the plonker at a gallery range within my earshot ). One of the more responsible shooters recorded what he saw when he turned up on the same afternoon/evening for a prearranged shooting visit, which confirmed it.

Needless to say this guy lost his permission and his FEO was informed of that fact, and as he had no other permissions had a lot of rearranging of slots to do.

I don't know of any landowner who will allow you to just plink, allowing someone to zero on their land is another matter but that will only involve the odd visit and (hopefully) few shots.
So, unfortunately if you just want to plink I would suggest you find another club with better facilities that will allow you to shoot more often.

ETA: Having re-read this I'm not suggesting you would abuse the place (it does sound like I was having a go at you, but I wasn't), but many farmers are protective of their land and what's on it and as such will want anyone using it to actually have a positive impact on the pests, vermin, or conserve the game/deer species.

[SevenSixTwo]

No, that's cool. Understood. Things do need to change here though ~ if our sports are to grow.

[DL.]

If you're serious about your pest control, you wouldn't really want to shoot many rounds at paper on the ground if there was a chance of connecting with quarry.

I had access to a bit of ground that had very little on it, so I would go there and do a check zero there most weeks without any concerns over causing any disturbance.

Another point worth noting is that things can get very underhand when it comes to having access to land to shoot on, friends that you would have said were perfectly nice people will potentially sell you down the river by stabbing you in the back!

[Tiff]

No, that's cool. Understood. Things do need to change here though ~ if our sports are to grow.

There are a few of us (well a very small few) who are working on this as best as possible; within the constrictive legal framework of this country.

Land to shoot on is not impossible to come by - put the hours in knocking on doors and you'll eventually have some luck. This time of year rabbits are easy to shoot (fewer high crops etc) and the farmer will no doubt appreciate it (hard cash also often works...). Then after a good bottle of port or spirits at Christmas ask about putting a little zeroing setup in a distant field...At 15 I had nearly 10,000 acres to shoot on smile2. I let most of it go come university, but held onto the best 2,000 acres for my purposes.

[Swamp Donkey]

And what a great piece of land that is tiff, even if it does limit the distance you can get out to

[Cj10]

No, that's cool. Understood. Things do need to change here though ~ if our sports are to grow.

There are a few of us (well a very small few) who are working on this as best as possible; within the constrictive legal framework of this country.

Land to shoot on is not impossible to come by - put the hours in knocking on doors and you'll eventually have some luck. This time of year rabbits are easy to shoot (fewer high crops etc) and the farmer will no doubt appreciate it (hard cash also often works...). Then after a good bottle of port or spirits at Christmas ask about putting a little zeroing setup in a distant field...At 15 I had nearly 10,000 acres to shoot on smile2. I let most of it go come university, but held onto the best 2,000 acres for my purposes.

I'm always very envious when I read about the next Challenge on the other forum, as it sounds fantastic.

As I have no interest in anything other than target shooting I will never have the correct condition on my FAC to allow me to participate. Such is life.

Ceri

[Dave 101]

This is one reason I choose to shoot .22 a lot , my club has access to a 25 yd indoor range which I can use 7 days a week or a 50 yd outdoor range 3 or 4 times a month , then there's the other option of using FB rifles with downloads and cast bullets . with a .22 you can shoot small targets which is challenging and FB requires a certain amount of load development which is another fun ball game to get into .
I always think calibre and distance is all relevant , some people just think a challenge requires a big calibre shot over hundreds of yards , which is fun but equally good fun and a challenge is making an old .22 perform just as well at longer distances . Or buying a 100 year old mil surp and see how that performs with a downloaded round .


Dave