Hi,

My family and I will be visiting the fine State of Oregon for a two week vacation touring around in a travel trailer. We are residents of Las Vegas, NV and I just wanted to ask what the Alvord Desert is like for shooting opportunities. Is it open to shooting or closed? Any trouble with the local law with regards AR15's etc??


We shall also be visiting the Painted Hills, Mount Hood area around Lost Lake, The Columbia River gorge and returning back to Nevada via the coast highway, but not entering the PRC. Basically we shall head back to Nevada via Medford, Klameth, Lakeview and back into Nevada by that route.

So any advice would be most welcome.

Thanks!!

I do know that part of that area is a no hunting/shooting area, but from memory the no shooting areas are reasonably clearly marked.

Quoted: Hi, My family and I will be visiting the fine State of Oregon for a two week vacation touring around in a travel trailer. We are residents of Las Vegas, NV and I just wanted to ask what the Alvord Desert is like for shooting opportunities. Is it open to shooting or closed? Any trouble with the local law with regards AR15's etc?? We shall also be visiting the Painted Hills, Mount Hood area around Lost Lake, The Columbia River gorge and returning back to Nevada via the coast highway, but not entering the PRC. Basically we shall head back to Nevada via Medford, Klameth, Lakeview and back into Nevada by that route. So any advice would be most welcome. Thanks!!

Im not sure about the Alvord, but if you do shoot there watch out for other people.

since youre going down 101, make sure you leave yourself enought time.  its curvy/hilly and can be slow if you end up behind some big slow trailers. also alot of is is one lane each way and few turnouts/passing lanes.

Throughout Eastern Oregon, there are thousands of acres of BLM land.  You'll have no problem shooting there.  If you buy a hunting license you can hunt all the coyotes you want - please help the deer and antelope herds! I don't know particularly about the Alvord Desert though as far as shooting.  The best advice I could give is to figure out what area you want to camp in, and then get a map from the local BLM office, or call them for directions to an area to shoot.  They will likely have an idea of where to point you.  I have always liked the area north of Paisley - lots of room and nobody to bother you. Enjoy your stay!

The section from Fields north to the main hwy past Mann Lake is gravel. If you take a travel trailer over that it is going to get a work out. Be sure you have a good spare.

You can shoot in the Alvold. It is a hard pan surface so you see very little or not bullet impact. Watch for others on four wheelers etc.

Make sure you get to the top of the Steens and make the loop up from Frenchglen and down the "Rooster combs" side.  The drive down is a little rough, but worth it.  Also, if you make it to the top, a short walk will take you up (or down) so you can see Whitehorse lake.

My Grandpa was one of the first people to ever drive a vehicle up there and did a lot with Big horn sheep transplanting and such (he was a game biologist for the ODFW).  He loved it there and his ashes are scattered there.

Some photo's I took last time I was there.

















Enjoy your trip.

-Mark.

Thanks for the great info. Looking forward to getting up there and away from the heat of Vegas at this time of year.

Happy shootin!

Make sure you check your Email. I sent you some area specific info on the Alvord.

The Alvord dessert is not so great for shooting as there is no backstop for your bullets.

There are all kinds of places to shoot in that area as it is very remote.

You won't have any trouble with law enforcement but don't get stranded.  You might not see anyone for a day or two.

One bit of advice.  If you drive out on the desert take a look around at some landmarks so you get back to where drove on.

Quoted: One bit of advice.  If you drive out on the desert take a look around at some landmarks so you get back to where drove on.

+99 to that.

A while ago I took my son on a tour of Oregon.
We decided to take one of the dotted-line roads to save a long and boring trip around on paved roads.

The track wasn't too bad in out Jeep, but after a while the road grew more and more indistinct and rougher. Eventually it was just very rough volcanic rock we were driving over.
We decided to turn around and go back.

At this point the "road" was just a couple of depressions in the sage brush. Driving along it it was quite easy to see the depressions  in front of the car. Get a few feet off to the side and the "road" just vanished.

We drove back along the road, and eventually the road in front looked a bit odd - hard to say what exactly was wrong with it ... just odd. I stopped and my son waked ahead to see what it was that was making us think there was something wrong. He walked maybe 100 yds, stopped, and waved for me to come.

The road essentially ended where he was standing, and maybe 50' in front of him was the edge of an escarpment -- VERY steep, dropping hundreds of feet (maybe more...).

If we hadn't been paying attention ....

Anyway, it then dawned on me that we obviously hadn't come this way. As far as we knew, this there was only one road we had been following all the way.

Turned around and drove back (several miles) and came to some recognizable features that we had passed (both ways), so knew we were now back on the road we had been traveling. Turned around and drove slowly back along the road, and again ended up at the escarpment.

Took out the map and compass to determine where we actually were. Then it became VERY obvious how few landmarks there are out there -- just miles and miles of sage brush. Steens mountain was visible in the distance ... so we have one landmark and bearing, but there really wasn't another.

At this point I was getting worried, the gas tank was now less than half full...

We drove slowly back (again). On the way I noticed off to my right a small stunted tree on top of a hill. I remembered driving towards that at one point -- only tree for mile and miles. We kept looking at it wondering how to get there -- then saw a fleeting glimpse of a track going that way -- as I said, only when looking along the impressions in the brush could you see roads -- we had driven past this one three times.

Backed up, till we found it again, and took that road. Getting back to that main road was a great relief.

That trip persuaded me to go out and buy my first GPS!

That trip persuaded me to go out and buy my first GPS!

And a backup GPS for out in that neck of the woods.  Getting lost out there is not a joke.


-Mark.

Someone I know May have at one time unloaded a magazine from a full auto AK at a 90 degree angle to the lake bed in the middle of the (dry)lake

Shooting out there is fine.

If your shooting into sagebrush with rounds striking rocks big/small you can get plenty of sparks sometimes. Becareful about starting a fire. It is tinder dry out there this time of year.

There was a fire strarted a couple years ago out of Sisters by rounds hitting rocks. It burned less then an acre, but the guy had to pay the $10,000 bill for the BLM fire call.

Go shooting at night with a AR or AK etc. for jack rabbits sometimes it looks like the 4th of July. Fmj lead core will spark. Fmj handgun ammo also. I have seen glowing pieces of a 5.45x39 jacket travel six feet or more and land in a clump of dry brush.

Be sure you bring Bug Repellent. I went through there a few year's ago, the Mosquito's were horrible.

 Here is a pic from the Alvord taken of the Steens two months ago. It is very remote and unforgiving to the unprepared.

 Have a safe trip.
  VM