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I've been there a bunch of times to use the ranges for weapon qual in the army....I know the Marine corps known distance rifle range is a long one but I don't know the exact distance.....but it is definitely what most shooters would call "long range".
Back when I was a member, there was a 600 yard known distance range (Golf range) with pits. There was also a machine gun range with popup targets out to ~800 yards (Hotel range).
No, we also had access to Hotel range back in the 1990s as well. That had popup targets at random distances out to maybe 800 yards.
There was a range to the right of Golf, between Golf and Hotel, that had been used for mortars and was closed due to UXO. So lead abatement would not be the only issue.
The only ranges i ever used were the machine gun zero down in that pit off the left side of the range road, the machine gun qual range, and of course the m16 zero and pop up ranges....and the pistol qual range. I've been by the marine kd range a million times but of course never used it. It's a very good complex at defense for weapon training. I used to hunt devens every year for deer and turkey but many years ago the post commanders started making you register your hunting guns with the dod police to bring them in to hunt.....and the only hours were mon to fri business hours to do that and I didn't want to take time off work to do that.....so I gave up on devens hunting. Shame too......always tagged out at devens for many years.
My guess is that the base commander will add some additional limitations that make it effectively impossible to use. For example, you can only use the ranges on Tuesdays, but only if you reserve months in advance, and you can be bumped by any military or law enforcement agency. And you have to park your cars at the gate and all members have to go in and leave at the same time, and you will be shuttled in by Army vans that you have to reserve ahead of time, which, of course, won’t be available when you actually get there.
Ya, those usually end up posted as permanently off limits to any access. Fort Hood and Fort Sill have very large ones from mortars, artillery and aircraft ordnance. They'll likely never be reclaimed as there's been lots of stuff fired in there for many decades.
I believe there is (was?) an artillery range elsewhere on Devens that would also have UXO.
The only access I know of before the lawsuit was organized activities of the Ft Devens Rifle and Pistol club. Usually one a month at one of rifle ranges and another once a month at pistol/ short distance range. Yes it was on a weekday.
Won’t happen. You will have to be part of a club at a minimum.
They stopped letting anyone drive PoV onto south post around like 2005ish? Even commanders of units training had to park and call for a ride.
The no pov on south post was for military taking part in training......i remember all of that.......that was because units using south post for training would end up with a shit ton of officers and sr. Ncos out there in their personal vehicles and was getting crazy the number of povs out there. I hunted devens up till about 2019 and when taking part in the hunting program we could drive through south post.....but had a big permit we had to tape to the passenger side windshield.
I read it wrong- it’s just the TTB. not south post whole. TTB closes May 19
