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Hunting near Shooting Range??

K

Kmark77

New Member
Joined
Jan 17, 2020
Messages
26
Location
SE WI
Over the past few weeks i've been looking for a new public hunting spot closer to home. One of the areas I scouted is full of deer sign and has several different stand opportunities. The only drawback is that the public land butts up against a trap shooting range.

Has anyone had experience hunting near a shooting range? Any suggestions? Is the fact that i'm so close to the range going to kill my chances?
 
I’ve seen deer wander out into the mowed area 100-200 yards down range at a skeet/trap range here in TN, and they didn’t seem bothered by it in the least. Over time, I think deer become accustomed to stuff like that and don’t let it bother them, like how they’re not bothered by a farmer on a tractor.
 
Kmark77 said:
Over the past few weeks i've been looking for a new public hunting spot closer to home. One of the areas I scouted is full of deer sign and has several different stand opportunities. The only drawback is that the public land butts up against a trap shooting range.

Has anyone had experience hunting near a shooting range? Any suggestions? Is the fact that i'm so close to the range going to kill my chances?
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Shootin' range up here has a ton of deer all around it, year round!
 
I’m hunting a public area that has a shooting range that butts right up to were I’ve been hunting. I’ve noticed the deer seem to be used to it and I missed a 145” deer that came from a bedding area that was right next to the fence that separates the range. I also think they get overlooked because same reason your not sure . Lol! Go for it! Can’t hurt to at least try.
 
I hunted a spot with a friend that bordered a shooting range. He was a member there and said he always saw deer in the place. I didn't hunt there a lot but it didn't seem to bother the deer best I could tell and he killed a ton of deer off that property.
 
If there’s a big buck anywhere on the property I would not be surprised if he bedded less than 200 yards from the range. Especially if there’s thick cover or a ridge where he can get a good view of human activity.
 
A piece of public I hunt has a private range that butts up to it....the animals don't care about the noise. I watched some does last year and the.people were going nuts at the range and not even an ear flick in that direction
 
My local conservation league has a strict no-hunting policy on their property, which is a shame... I've literally walked down the 200y rifle range to pull targets after 15 minutes of shooting and had them standing right inside the trees at the sides, not the least bit bothered with the shooting or human presence.
 
JBDaddy said:
My local conservation league has a strict no-hunting policy on their property, which is a shame... I've literally walked down the 200y rifle range to pull targets after 15 minutes of shooting and had them standing right inside the trees at the sides, not the least bit bothered with the shooting or human presence.
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Are you allowed to “miss” when you’re sighting your rifle in during season?
 
Shot a big 3gun match a couple years ago--hundreds of competitors--where all operations came to a halt because of some stupid doe feeding around a steel target we were shooting at.
 
Like everyone else here has pretty much said, they don't seem to be impacted. I see deer and turkey all the time all around the range I'm a member of
 
Kmark77 said:
Over the past few weeks i've been looking for a new public hunting spot closer to home. One of the areas I scouted is full of deer sign and has several different stand opportunities. The only drawback is that the public land butts up against a trap shooting range.

Has anyone had experience hunting near a shooting range? Any suggestions? Is the fact that i'm so close to the range going to kill my chances?
Click to expand...

Depends... Are you setting up downrange of the shooters and if so, how close are you going to BB?

... Sorry, couldn't resist.
 
The area is downrange from the shooters. While I was scouting you could definetly hear the bbs raining down in the woods. The huntable area is probably 500yards plus from the nearest clay stand.

Sent from my SM-A515U using Tapatalk
 
The deer walk right out on the trap range at the sportsman's club I belong to during their league shoot. Doesn't bother them a bit.
 
Just be careful. The THP guys had a pretty scary encounter next to a gun range on last year's deer tour.
 
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