Lesson Learned Shooting on Public Hunting Land

[keeferfish]

My son and nephew wanted to go shooting last weekend and even though we live outside the city limits we have a few houses around so the .22 makes me slightly uncomfortable in my yard. I thought Smithville has all kinds of wildlife management areas/public hunting so we headed up.

Well after Dan MDCAgent663_Clay scared the crap out of us as we finished our target practice session I was informed it is illegal to target shoot on management land. (maybe it will help someone else)
Luckily we were honest with him and picked up our trash or he might have roughed me up a little.

JK – Dan was super nice and I appreciate what he does. Thanks Dan!!!

[vic n]

LOL....criminal, scofflaw, thug

guess that's one way to introduce yourself to our local agent....could've just invited him to the next get together and bought him a beer or two.

[beagle man]

un hun you should have stood on a milk crate, you would have looked taller, and he would have thought you were big and scary.

[MDCAgent663_Clay]

I hope I didn’t scare anyone too bad – certainly not my intention. To shed some light on the subject of target shooting on Corps ground I will say this. It has always been my understanding that Federal lands are managed similar to the MDC Conservation Areas in that no target shooting is allowed outside of areas designated as a shooting range. In speaking with federal employees, it seems the only reason you should be carrying a gun on their property is to hunt, obeying all other regulations of course J. There are several good reasons for this, though I cannot directly speak to why the original law-makers put the reg’s in place. Although the vast majority of people are practicing good safety measures; safety jumps out as one good reason. Consider how much effort is put into maintaining the backstop berms at local shooting ranges.

A No. 4 Shot will travel slightly under ¼ mile uninhibited.
A .40S&W handgun round will travel 1.25 miles uninhibited or ricocheted.
A 22 WIN MAG will travel about 1.50 miles uninhibited or ricocheted.

There are several areas near KC that have ranges (Parma Woods, Lake City) and a trap & skeet range by Camp Branch Park. The other option is to speak with landowners where shooting on their property would be legal. I certainly encourage you to seek out shooting opportunities and I enjoy seeing outdoor skills being passed down to future generations! If you ever have a question regarding regulations contact the local agent… which I am one of in the Clay Co. area. If you find the right spot maybe I’ll join you one day one the range.

Daniel Schepis
Conservation Agent
Clay County
816-392-4578

[sevenfiftynine]

Dan, thanks for the information. Now, if you want to get a little more background on our local outlaw, Keeferfish (I heard he was a long lost relative of Jesse James...), you should join us at the next CDC get together. There will be many stories (some not true and others even more not so true) passed around the table. It's a lot of fun. The next one is scheduled for 2/06 at the Landing in Liberty.

One other thing I heard on the "street" about Keeferfish was his tendency to scream "You'll never catch me, copper!!!!" after every enforcement contact he escapes from utilizing either a really fast red boat or a really loud blue and white murder cycle!!!!

[jackb]

My son and nephew wanted to go shooting last weekend and even though we live outside the city limits we have a few houses around so the .22 makes me slightly uncomfortable in my yard. I thought Smithville has all kinds of wildlife management areas/public hunting so we headed up.

Well after Dan MDCAgent663_Clay scared the crap out of us as we finished our target practice session I was informed it is illegal to target shoot on management land. (maybe it will help someone else)
Luckily we were honest with him and picked up our trash or he might have roughed me up a little.

JK – Dan was super nice and I appreciate what he does. Thanks Dan!!!

Nice going there, Billy The Dummy!

[Buckwheat 1]

Dang...where did you get the money to buy 22 shells You must be from the rich side of the tracks