How much land to buy?

[BLAKSUNZ]

I couldn't find an "Introduce Yourself" area so I'll do it here. I live in Oxford, MS, graduated with B.S. Mechanical Engineering from University of Mississippi, starting a job with Caterpillar Extrude Center in Oxford next week. I long ago abandoned forums full of elitist keyboard warriors but have found this to be the ONLY firearms related forum full of smart people who actually know what they are talking about.

That being said, I am just now getting into long range shooting. My local gun range goes out to 600 yards (and I am not good enough to exploit this range yet) but want to eventually go further. I am considering buying some land to shoot, hunt, off road trails, ect but am having a hard time justifying it.

A lot of the real estate ads only list acres and show shapes. They generally do not have a "key" for me to measure out max distance that could be obtained. That being said it there a general rule of thumb out there for judging these distances? Most of the lots are twice as long as they are wide if that helps. How many acres would I need to go out to 1000 yards? Hopefully 100 acres will be enough.

Also, If this gets too expensive I wouldn't mind traveling up to 6 hours (or 350 miles) in any direction to find wide open public lands to shoot on. I would make a weekend backpacking/camping/shooting trip out of it. How would I find such locations?

One last question. Is there a place on the forum where I can post general questions? I have a lot of those and have not found answers to them in the search bar.

 

[notquiteright]

Re: How much land to buy?

a quarter section of land is 160 acres and 1/2 mile by 1/2 mile. You lose land to county right of ways for roads etc. But a completely blind quarter is 880 yards. if you have line of sight yo can lay a 1000 yard range in diagonally.

One BIG problem is the safety fan BEHIND the 1000 yard berm. Most people think a pile of dirt is all you need behind the 1000 yard berm. Doesn't take much to lob a few past the berm where impact is unobserved and that's dangerous if you don't own the impact area.

Just how much impact area you need behind the berm is caliber dependent. One good rule of thumb is what distance do the desert guys shoot with that caliber and add 500 yards.

Now alot of ranges can't afford to buy all that land so most have a probationary period for a new LR shooter where they prove they can safely shoot 1000. Most of the time that means the range owner is available to supervize the dope used and the techiques the new shooter uses.

Good luck

 

[jps2]

Re: How much land to buy?

You can check the requirements defined in Canada, here : http://www.rcmp-grc.gc.ca/cfp-pcaf/information/club/constr-eng.pdf
check annex D for templates (page 113)

 

[LR-WSM]

Re: How much land to buy?

This is a much better option than the search tab on this site Snipers Hide Search engine

 

[BLAKSUNZ]

Re: How much land to buy?

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: LR-WSM</div><div class="ubbcode-body">This is a much better option than the search tab on this site Snipers Hide Search engine </div></div>

How would you have gone about searching for a topic such as this? Its all well and good to say "use the search bar newbie" and I'm all for learning to perform better searches, but please don't pass judgement unless you can give a better solution to the problem (i.e. how to search for my topic).

I appreciate the responses guys and they do help.

 

[jbailey]

Re: How much land to buy?

You might find something of use in this thread that is going on in the Advanced section:

http://www.snipershide.com/forum/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=2675107&gonew=1#UNREAD

My advice: buy the land now before getting married (assuming you aren't married); females will, generally of course, never see the value in having a nice spot to do shooting related activities.

 

[BLAKSUNZ]

Re: How much land to buy?

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: JamesBailey</div><div class="ubbcode-body">You might find something of use in this thread that is going on in the Advanced section:

http://www.snipershide.com/forum/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=2675107&gonew=1#UNREAD

My advice: buy the land now before getting married (assuming you aren't married); females will, generally of course, never see the value in having a nice spot to do shooting related activities. </div></div>

Thanks for the heads up on the thread. I'm not married (yet) but my fiancee is cool with the idea. She doesn't care about the long range shooting but she wants to have a place to ride her quad and horse.

I found a thread on here with a video called "Every question and answer on a gun forum: part II" and I must say that I learned a lot from it. My local range goes out to 600 yards and I want to get in as much practice as possible before I even consider taking it out further. Appreciate the help guys.

 

[Icallem]

Re: How much land to buy?

How much land you need can differ in many ways. You can buy 10-20 acres off of a 40 that is 440 yards deep. But 10-20 acres is not so much when it comes to the 4 wheelers. It looks like how much you buy wil matter most to the quad and horses. If you have a local place to get out to 600, then you might only need something where you can practice out to 300-350. Enough of that and the 600 will not seem so far.
Is your county zoned? Neighbors close? What is the topo. of your area(would there be a natural berm)? You don't want to buy something only to have the neighbors complain everytime you shoot.

 

[BLAKSUNZ]

Re: How much land to buy?

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Icallem</div><div class="ubbcode-body">How much land you need can differ in many ways. You can buy 10-20 acres off of a 40 that is 440 yards deep. But 10-20 acres is not so much when it comes to the 4 wheelers. It looks like how much you buy wil matter most to the quad and horses. If you have a local place to get out to 600, then you might only need something where you can practice out to 300-350. Enough of that and the 600 will not seem so far.
Is your county zoned? Neighbors close? What is the topo. of your area(would there be a natural berm)? You don't want to buy something only to have the neighbors complain everytime you shoot. </div></div>

It isn't very hard to find land here that isn't populated by neighbors so that's a plus. The landscape here is such that the very hilly terrain provides natural backstops but at the same time limits the range I can shoot. This has all been very helpful. Any more buying advice would be appreciated.

 

[ida83704]

Re: How much land to buy?

you might try Google Earth and use the ruler function.

They have BLM offices in MS?

You can get maps from BLM that shows private vs. public lands

 

[BOLTRIPPER]

Re: How much land to buy?

find new friends in your AO that shoot long or hunt

if you just start your little fiefdom and bang away at targets all by your lonesome.......tell us where that gets you in life


or

savvy a nice grass runway with a berm at the end.....you know, something you could launch a high performance single engine aircraft from.....AND on those special occasions when the aircraft are put to bed,.....one could launch bullets to your hearts content suppressed, and practically no one would be the wiser.......of course you are mandated to invite me BOLTRIPPER and all my friends for a beer drinking good time to help get things going in the right direction........just sayin

 

[shoot4fun]

Re: How much land to buy?

Some of the land around Oxford MS is pretty flat. I would have 600-800 acres in my sights. My reasoning is buy once, cry once. This much land will hopefully insulate you from encroachment for a few years any way.
I once thought of buying a couple of sections of TX panhandle just to have it. It costs much less there than it does in AL or MS.
Good luck with your shooting and your land search!
BOLTTRIPPER,
I don't think anyone with a 1000 yard range will ever be lonely.

 

[Icallem]

Re: How much land to buy?

Typically you can go to the Assessor's Office and look at their maps. Most of them have a pretty good mapping system. You can get a good idea of 'the lay of the land'.

 

[kraigWY]

Re: How much land to buy?

I have 29 acres in a L shape. The way its lined up I can get to 400 yards, Behind that is a hill that's quite high, with a higher hill behind it. Behind that is nothing but more hills and forest for a long ways. You'd have to really go out of your way to screw up and hit something behind my targets.

 

[Bronco]

Re: How much land to buy?

You can get almost 1000 yd. on an 80 (440 X 880 yd) looks like 990 yd. You can also use the figure of 16.5 ft. wide for a 1/2 mile is 1 acre, 33 ft. = 2 acre and so on. Helps to figure acreage when looking at a place. Hill in the right place makes a nice berm, two hills in the right place makes for cross canyon shooting.

Good luck.

 

[Reschke]

Re: How much land to buy?

Also lots of public land over here with the Talladega National Forest that overlooks the Cahaba River and you can shoot DOWN into it without interacting with other people in the area. I great up down in Perry County, AL and we would take our rifles out to those areas and shoot for hours and shoot all types of weapons without being bothered by anyone.