discharging on blm

[Qxxx]

As I am preparing to head to AZ in a couple of months, one thing occurred to me to ask. As mentioned previously, several times I have been boondocking on BLM land when my nearby neighbors pulled out semi-automatic weapons and proceeded to blow the heck out of a bunch of bottles. Those times, we were some miles from any town, but within 100 yards of the local highways.

So my question, if on BLM land, is there a rule about how far you need to be away from any town, such as Quartzsite, to legally discharge? When I lived in the Colorado Front Range, there were laws about this issue since "many" people have homes in the woods near the cities. 

I am especially thinking about being out on Scaddan Wash road where a lot of people will be boondocking this winter. Plus of course, there is also the issue of all the LTVA and hosted boondocking spots in the area. 100,000 RVs, whatever.

 

[Cammalu]

I’ve spent the last several winters in a LTVA in Quartzsite and haven’t heard any shooting.

 

[highdesertranger]

dang I had a post ready to go and I deleted it. here's the rules for Arizona and the National BLM,

https://search.yahoo.com/search?p=b...ng&fr=fp-yie10&fp=1&toggle=1&cop=mss&ei=UTF-8

I would like to emphasis please clean up shell casing and targets and please don't shoot glass.

highdesertranger

 

[Qxxx]

Yeah, the as to be expected "do your shooting in a safe manner". On the AZ site, the only number I found is as below.
https://www.blm.gov/arizona/target-shooting
"Firearms must not be discharged within 150 yards of residences, buildings, campsites, occupied areas, recreational areas or domestic livestock".

150 yards still sounds low, as some rifle bullets can travel further than that.

But this still doesn't answer ... what about directly around towns like Quartzsite? After all, you go to the city limits and bam, BLM land butting on all sides. You'd think Q or Parker or Lake Havasu City might have some thought on the matter.

"please don't shoot glass" - too late, broken glass everywheres. You'd think people might learn to drink beer from cans!

 

[crofter]

Google says: [font=Roboto, arial, sans-serif]Typically a 9 mm [/font][font=Roboto, arial, sans-serif]bullet shot[/font][font=Roboto, arial, sans-serif] out of a medium sized [/font][font=Roboto, arial, sans-serif]handgun will travel[/font][font=Roboto, arial, sans-serif] 2200 meters before it [/font][font=Roboto, arial, sans-serif]will[/font][font=Roboto, arial, sans-serif] fall to the ground. A [/font][font=Roboto, arial, sans-serif]bullet[/font][font=Roboto, arial, sans-serif] almost never [/font][font=Roboto, arial, sans-serif]travels[/font][font=Roboto, arial, sans-serif] this far before it actually hits something. So don't test this theory because chances are you [/font][font=Roboto, arial, sans-serif]will[/font][font=Roboto, arial, sans-serif] shoot someone or break something. [/font]

[font=Roboto, arial, sans-serif](2200 meters is about 2400 yards), so 150 yards is not far enough to be at a safe distance for a handgun round. For rifles, 22 bullet can travel a mile and a half, and larger gauges could be up to three miles.  However, 150 yards is the "safe" distance given in forest service campground rules.[/font]

[font=Roboto, arial, sans-serif]If someone near you is using a firearm unsafely you can do one of three things- you can go over there and convince the shooter to stop shooting, you can leave the area, or you can call law enforcement.  If the shooter is 150 yards from you, the LEO will probably do nothing, even if there are incoming rounds in your area. Also law enforcement response is very slow to rural areas. I called in this type of situation with a packed camp of about 120 people, and law enforcement responded 12 hours later. One camper with a history as a first responder ran over there and verbally confronted the shooter and his group. The firing stopped.  In this case, the shooter violated a number of laws including shooting over water, on a road, on a bridge, closer than 150 yards to the forest service campground[/font][font=Roboto, arial, sans-serif]. Even with the eyewitness, and the laws that were broken, nothing happened to the shooter.    ~crofter[/font][font=Roboto, arial, sans-serif] [/font]

 

[DLTooley]

They are big on the 14 day rule and the residential interpretation, but not someone endangering life.

FWIW, other rules should apply if they are shooting in your direction, otherwise the rule on the books is good.

 

[Cammalu]

In Ehrenberg there is a place in the desert that people go to shoot. Was a big pain to clean it up during the clean up party last year.

 

[1shemp]

At first I thought the op was talking about discharging their holding tanks.