Area to Throw Some Clays in Metro

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BirddogGSP

Member
Recently moved to Cities. Looking for a place where I can bring my own thrower and shoot some clays.
Any areas within 40 mins. Don't want a formal place for 5 stands.
 
Interesting request...would assume you would be on private land, within 40 minutes. Horse and Hunt club is open to the public, non-member shoot is about $25 with a variety of course difficulty. Perhaps find a landfill - they might let you shoot...
 
When I moved here from Iowa, I couldn't believe I had to pay a private place to shoot clays. Iowa had public ranges that I could throw my own. There is no such thing close to the cities that I'm aware of.
 
No "official" public ranges anywhere. However State Forests are legal to target/trap shoot on. I'm not aware of any nearby state forests with a good clearing suitable to shooting and not too close to roads, buildings etc. But if you put in the scouting/map work, you may find what you're looking for.

Just be sure you're looking at State Forest, and not state lands like WMAs, Refuge, SNAs etc. They have to be State Forest. Those other public lands have restrictions to target shooting.
 
Munster927 said:
No "official" public ranges anywhere. However State Forests are legal to target/trap shoot on. I'm not aware of any nearby state forests with a good clearing suitable to shooting and not too close to roads, buildings etc. But if you put in the scouting/map work, you may find what you're looking for.

Just be sure you're looking at State Forest, and not state lands like WMAs, Refuge, SNAs etc. They have to be State Forest. Those other public lands have restrictions to target shooting.
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Wow, I've lived here almost my whole life and never knew that one!
 
Bob Peters said:
Wow, I've lived here almost my whole life and never knew that one!
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Yeah I found out last year (maybe the year before) when I was looking for grounds to train my pup. I wanted somewhere to be able to shoot live birds (pen raised of course, not wild) so after reading the regs and emailing my area warden I figured it out. Problem was finding state forest relatively close that wasn't heavily forested, so I ended up going a different route.
 
Wow. I thought that would be an easy one. I lived in burbs of Chicago and had 2 sites within 30 minutes. The sites were open to it and got quite busy. What I'm reading is training and harvesting pigeons is allowed on some state property.
 
BirddogGSP said:
Wow. I thought that would be an easy one. I lived in burbs of Chicago and had 2 sites within 30 minutes. The sites were open to it and got quite busy. What I'm reading is training and harvesting pigeons is allowed on some state property.
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Yeah it's tough in these parts to find places to target shoot legally. Best bet would be to browse the MN DNR Recreation Compass for State Forest that has a large enough clearing to suit your needs.
 
This is a interseting post and, and IMO, part of the reason why hunting is a dying sport. When I first moved to MN years ago, I was shocked how difficult it was to just go and grab the .22 and shoot some cans with the kids or shoot some clays. It was, and still is, very difficult to find an area to shoot that doesn't involve plenty of travel time and cost (if you want to do it legally). To hook kids on shooting sports they have to pull the trigger - a lot. One good thing - high school trap teams, what a great idea for kids to get into the sports.
 
Plenty of places to go shoot clays in both EC MN and Western MN ... if you go to a club. Most are open to nonmembers.

Horse and Hunt has a skeet and trap field that is rarely used. They hand you a count card and you go shoot. They have a heavily discounted rate for youth and you can shoot any station you want ... how you want if they are not busy.

Same with sporting clays ...

If your kids are 12 (or so) and older, have them join the HS trap or skeet team. Some teams may limit to HS only, many do not.
 
The problem is people are often pigs leaving a mess where ever they shoot on open private and/or public land. Hulls, broken clays, empty boxes, the bottles of pop they were drinking from all get left behind.

Please clean up after you are done so that these rights are not removed.

County tax forfeited forest land can also be used for shooting depending on the county you are in.
 
Yellowdawg said:
This is a interseting post and, and IMO, part of the reason why hunting is a dying sport. When I first moved to MN years ago, I was shocked how difficult it was to just go and grab the .22 and shoot some cans with the kids or shoot some clays. It was, and still is, very difficult to find an area to shoot that doesn't involve plenty of travel time and cost (if you want to do it legally). To hook kids on shooting sports they have to pull the trigger - a lot. One good thing - high school trap teams, what a great idea for kids to get into the sports.
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I would agree. It's hard to find places to shoot on public land. There's the clubs out there, but it's expensive. Especially if you're younger or older and trying to get into the sport. I'm a member at the South St Paul gun club and it costs something like $16 or $17 a round for trap shooting. I went a couple weeks ago with my dad, paid for 2 rounds each. That's getting close to $100 bucks to for a couple guys to shoot a couple rounds of trap. Just to shoot. Not even counting shells I already bought.

I also agree about the high school trap leagues. I graduated high school almost 15 years ago and would have loved to have joined a trap league.
 
Youth is $4-$5 per 25 at Bald Eagle. Adults (nonmembers) are $6 per round. Those are last year's rates. BESA is open on Saturdays to the public for part of the year. Membership is reasonable if you volunteer 8 hours a year.

Shotgun shells are another story (and separate thread).

Horse and Hunt used to charge 10 cents/clay for youth ... cost for adults was quite a bit higher.
 
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