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Shooting Pits in VA?

thebigsd

Founder's Club Member
Joined
Mar 23, 2010
Messages
3,535
Location
Quarryville, PA
Hey all,

I spend some time reading the other state forums and some of them talk about shooting pits. They are basically free and open outdoor ranges where you can shoot at whatever you want with whatever you want. I think most of them are on public land. Some of the guys talk about shooting watermelons and old microwaves, pretty much anything you can think of. This sounds really cool to me and a while lot more fun than the normal range. Anyone know if they have any places like this in VA?
 

VApatriot

Regular Member
Joined
May 8, 2006
Messages
998
Location
Burke/Blacksburg, Virginia, USA
In Jefferson National Forest, just outside of Blacksburg, there is a range that kind of fits that decription. It's public land, it's free, and there are no range officers. I can't say that you are "allowed" to shoot whatever you want to, but people seem to anyway.
 

peter nap

Accomplished Advocate
Joined
Oct 16, 2007
Messages
13,551
Location
Valhalla
There are lots of spots SD, Jefferson and GW national forest and just some on abandoned farms. Just to remember to pick up whatever you shoot!
 

SouthernBoy

Regular Member
Joined
May 12, 2007
Messages
5,837
Location
Western Prince William County, Virginia, USA
Back in the 60's, I used to go down to a dump in Woodbridge, VA where there was everything from old furniture to refrigerators to TV's to spent oxygen tanks to you name it, in a heap about 25-30 feet high and perhaps 60 or more feet across at the bottom. We would shoot mostly .22's (LR and Magnum) but the occasional .45ACP and a cap and ball revolver. The PWC police would occasionally come by and remind us to be careful and not fire into the river.

In those days, this was called "plinking".
 

Dutch Uncle

Campaign Veteran
Joined
May 11, 2006
Messages
1,715
Location
Virginia, USA
You know, even when I lived in CT and MA ('70's and early '80's) there were always some abandoned quarries or sand pits where people went to shoot. Not just in rural places either. Within 20 min. of New Haven and 1/2 hour of Springfield MA there were a couple such spots. It really was nice to just stop by these places after work and crank off a few dozen rounds of whatever. Yup, it was called plinking, and anyone who hasn't been fortunate enough to experience this special brand of shooting is missing out on one of life's special pleasures.

One of the reasons I like visiting family in Reno/Virginia City NV is the fact that we can always go out to the desert and play "kick the can" or hit those exploding targets. They are just ammonium nitrate prills mixed with aluminum dust. Good Lord, even in NJ in the '60's there were some old sand pits in Franklin Lakes and Mahwah where I shot at various appliances, old cars whose makes were obscured by thousands of swiss cheese holes, water heaters, and even an old "ESSO" gas pump to name only a few. A black powder .45-70 carbine hand load will go through and through the doors of a car, but won't do much to an engine block.
 

Table

New member
Joined
Apr 25, 2008
Messages
46
Location
VaBch, VA
Easy target clean up

Put your computers/TV/microwaves/copy machines in a large clear plastic bag... Clean up is made easier.
 
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