How to Maintain Your Public Land Shooting Range [2026]

I’ve previously written about the importance of safeguarding our public land shooting spaces. Now it’s time to talk about how we can do that in detail. It’s one thing to say that we should have these spaces, but it’s entirely another to help maintain them. This isn’t going to be pretty. This is the time to get dirty, clean up after ourselves (and others), and start being the change we want to see. Let’s take a look at how we can maintain our public land shooting spaces.

Bring the Right Equipment

You’ve made the decision to make a change, that’s a good start! Now you need to set yourself up for success. Nothing helps kill motivation and justify procrastination like being ill prepared. This doesn’t take a lot of fancy equipment, we’ll start with just the basics. Once you have these in hand, it’ll be a simple transition from planning to doing.

Black Trash Bags

All of this junk has to go somewhere! Tossing loose trash in the bed of your pickup or the trunk of your car is a non-starter for many people. The kind of trash bags you use in your kitchen aren’t a great choice either, as they’re likely to split, causing frustration and undoing any progress we’ve made.

Contractor bags, industrial trash liners, whatever you call them, these are the thick black trash bags we all know. They hold a lot of junk, are inexpensive, and will hold up far better than a standard trash bag. A box of these will go a long way, and allow you to pick up trash both large and small without having to keep track of it.

Heavy Duty Gloves

Picking up trash can be disgusting, especially when it’s someone else’s mess. It can also be dangerous. Public lands are littered with broken glass bottles, twisted metal, and other sharp objects people have shredded with bullets and tannerite. You don’t want to get poked or cut during your cleanup. That will likely put an end to your cleanup efforts, and nobody wants a tetanus shot.

A simple pair of leather gloves will do a lot of work to protect you from the mess you’re here to handle. They don’t have to be fancy, but I want them to be fairly thick, and totally made of leather. Personally, the rubber coated gardening gloves, or thin mechanic style gloves are totally out. This is glass and sharp metal we’re working with, not pulling weeds or changing our oil. While a cloth back can help keep your hands from sweating so much, I want as much protection as I can get.

Heavy Duty Footwear

In addition to protecting our hands, we need to protect our feet. This may be of even greater importance than gloves. I highly recommend wearing heavy duty boots on public shooting lands. In addition to twisted metal and shattered glass, there’s a surprising number of nails and screws laying around. People seem to really enjoy shooting up boards with nails in them, then leaving them pointy side up. I’ve seen Home Alone, and I don’t think I want to see who wins between a nail and my foot.

If you can get something with a metal shank or other design features to help reduce the likelihood of penetration. I’ve had a few close calls myself. In addition to sole penetration, you don’t want to cut or stabbed through the side of your shoe either. While I do occasionally wear tennis shoes to the range, the cloth sides have let me down before. The lack of ankle stability doesn’t help us here either.

A leather shoe or boot with a durable sole will pay dividends. Not only will it protect your feet, but it’ll likely be more comfortable as you walk over uneven terrain.

Magnetic Shotgun Shell Retriever

At every public land shooting range I’ve been to, there are always people who patrol the space looking to collect any abandoned brass. Some of these folks are reloaders, while others sell the brass for scrap. What these folks never do however, is pick up spent shotgun shells. Months will go by, and you’ll walk past the same spent hulls over and over again. These aren’t typically biodegradable, and will litter the ground for years to come.

Of course we can pick these shells up by hand, but bending down to grab each hull does a number on the back and takes forever. Instead I recommend picking up a magnetic shotgun shell retriever. In simple terms, these are sticks with a magnet on the end. The base of a shotgun shell sticks to the magnet, allowing us to pick up several shells at once, without ever having to bend over. Typically I can get about half a dozen shells, when I then scrape off using a gloved hand into whatever bag or box I’m using to collect trash.

These sticks are a life saver, and remove a barrier to picking up shells. On a recent range trip I picked up approximately 450 spent hulls, more than 75% of which were not mine. While there was a sea of shells left, this certainly made a dent, and my magnetic stick significantly eased the process.

Trash Picker

Trash pickers, also called claw grabbers, trash grabbers, and a variety of other names are another great tool to help maintain your public land shooting range. Unlike the magnetic shell retriever, these typically are non-magnetic. The benefits are still the same; no bending over, no direct touching of whatever you’re picking up.

A trash picker can work in place of a magnetic tool, but is also good for grabbing non-metallic objects. It’s also a good way to get those involved who may have limited mobility and flexibility.

The Bureau of Land Management

The Bureau of Land Management has far more resources to help maintain these spaces than we do as individuals. I’ve worked with them a few times in my local area to help with clean up efforts, and it’s always been a good experience. BLM has provided us with all the tools we needed to clean, including large dumpsters, all free of charge. All I had to do was provide the man power and make the plan.

Reach out to your local BLM office to see about getting a clean up day on the calendar. Part of their funding is solely for purposes such as these, so make sure your tax dollars are being put to work!

Friends

You can’t do this alone, at least not forever. While we can be the ones to start to make a difference, we’ll need support along the way. Whether you’re working with BLM, another organization, or just getting some locals together, working with a group will not only make the work go by faster, it’ll also help spread the word.

From the continuously worsening state of my nearby public lands, I’m clearly an outlier. We have to normalize cleaning up after ourselves. Invite friends, family, coworkers, and others you meet at the range. While someone may not make the first move, it’s easier for them to help out if another person handles logistics. Get others involved, and get them to do the same.

Closing Thoughts on How to Maintain Your Public Land Shooting Range

Don’t expect change overnight. This is a process, especially if you’re trying to dig your public range out of a hole. Start simple, pack out what you bring in. If someone sees you picking up after yourself, the odds of them doing the same goes up. Do this every time you go to the range. Maybe skip shooting entirely one day, or end the range session early to focus more heavily on cleaning. Every bit helps.

Talk to others about what you are doing. Chances are you know someone who shares these spaces, and they probably feel similarly to you. Maybe cleaning up after others never occurred to them. Invite them along with you, then you can have an extra set of hands once the hard part starts.

Whatever you do, just do it. Don’t tell yourself “Maybe next time”, make next time this time. You’re not Captain Planet, but by our powers combined, we can make a difference.