I'm looking at moving to the grand junction CO area for work in 2021 possibly. I'm really into long range and extreme long range type shooting. I see a ton of BLM ground in the moab to vernal area.

Any of you shoot in this area? Are there decent spots that are pretty accessible? Any nice legitimate ranges in this area that cater to long range shooting?

Thanks

Generally speaking, you can shoot on BLM land, off the road a bit.

In the MOAB area, there is BLM land that is "protected." Near the National Parks. Other than that, if you have a safe backstop, you can pretty much shoot to your hearts content on *any* BLM land.

Obviously, if you are near a campground, or monument, or Native site, it would be a bad idea. But even then, a bit further away would be fine, according to what I know the BLM rules are.

We used to camp in College at a BLM "camp site" and walk a safe distance away from the other campers to a sand berm, set up our targets, and shoot safe.

Long range shooting? Perfect. The best place in the world for long-range shooting is open BLM land in Utah.

You live in Grand Junction? Or will? Perfect. Get a motorcyle that can handle dirt roads. Get some miles on beautiful  Colorado and Utah dirt roads. Scout out a beautiful location away from people. Shoot to your hearts content. Have a ball.

The rules for shooting on BLM land: Don't shoot across roads. Get off the road to shoot. Use a safe backstop. Don't shoot near places people visit like Native sites, campgrounds, or natural monuments. That is pretty much it on public land in the West.

I recently watched one of those TV shows that focus on shooting and they were at a range near Grand Junction that looked like it might be pretty good for the long range stuff.  There's also a range near Price, UT (3hrs form Grand Junction?)  that is set up for long range with targets out past 1000 I think.  I haven't been to either.

It's not really a question of where can you shoot, but rather where you can't.  There's probably millions of acres to shoot on.  If you want to shoot out to 2-3000 yards, you'll probably be able to find a place pretty quick.  I work as a pilot and fly into Grand Junction occasionally.  Even from the air, you can see people out shooting to the north and east of the airport.  There are just miles and miles of open area out there.

This is what a lot of Utah looks like.


And I'm not shooting down a road, that's just a well worn path to where everyone setups up targets and dead ends at the base of that backstop.  (You can just keep driving away from it up to 1100 yards and shoot towards it.)

Cameo is an amazing range and you can get out to 2000 there.  

https://cpw.state.co.us/thingstodo/Pages/cameo-shooting-complex.aspx

That range is "North Springs Shooting Range".  It's a very nice range setup.  They have a 1000 yard range right up front and I believe they have a 1 mile target set up as well.  They regularly hold 1000 yd milk jug challenges there.

I really need to get out there and check it out.

Yeah it's a cool place.  They have a bunch of RV camp sites set up there too, not sure what kind of hookups they have, if any.   There is also a cowboy action shooting venue where they hold cowboy matches, and also more conventional practical shooting, 3 gun type matches.

A few years back they had annual "zombie outbreak" matches for Halloween in October.  I went to a few of them and they were loads of fun.  Those zombie shoots lasted all weekend, and they would have a night stage on either Friday or Saturday.  Some of the stages had tannerite targets, all of the paper targets were zombies, and you had to score head shots.  Then a big campfire at night, and they usually had a catered BBQ dinner as part of the entry package.  Even if you aren't super competitive, it was loads of fun just to go hang out with other shooters.   Sadly, they didn't have one in 2019, and then COVID hit and so I don't think there was one in 2020 either.  

I really hope they put one on this fall as it's been a long time and I  haven't seen a lot of those folks for a few years.  But with ammo priced how it is, that might not be possible either.

Sounds neat.