Where you can legally target shoot in Colorado

Shooting ranges — the safe, reliable option

When in doubt, go to a range. It's the one place that's clearly legal, set up with safe backstops and distances, and — at staffed ranges — overseen by a Range Safety Officer. It's also where the closed dispersed areas are pushing people, and where new shooters should start.

• CPW maintains a finder of public shooting ranges across the state, and partners with the Forest Service to build new ones (like Devils Nose near Idaho Springs) as dispersed areas close.
• Beginners: start at a staffed range to learn safety and handling before ever shooting on dispersed public land. Many ranges rent firearms and sell ammo, so a visitor doesn't need to travel with one.
• Ranges run from free, primitive Forest Service sites to full facilities with lanes, benches, and target stands.

Visiting from out of state? You can target shoot on most Colorado public land under the same rules as residents — no license is required for target shooting (unlike hunting). You can buy ammunition and long guns from a Colorado dealer, but generally not a handgun (the dealer must ship that to a licensed dealer in your home state). For a fly-in trip, a commercial range that rents firearms and sells ammo is the easiest legal option.

Fire & exploding targets

This is where target shooting and Colorado's wildfire risk collide:

• Fire orders often shut down shooting — read the current one. When fire danger is high, the Forest Service, BLM, and counties issue orders that frequently restrict or ban recreational shooting across whole districts (sometimes for months). Many exempt licensed hunters, and some don't apply to developed ranges — but the exact rule depends on the current order for that forest, district, field office, county, or park. (See the camping guide for the fire-ban stages.)
• No exploding targets (like Tannerite), tracer rounds, incendiary, or steel-core ammo — these have started wildfires and are barred on Forest Service and BLM land (exploding targets and tracer/incendiary rounds are banned year-round on national forest, not just in fire season; other public land has its own rules, so check the manager). Steel targets and steel-core or steel-jacketed rounds can throw sparks too, so on dry days lay off steel — but ordinary copper-jacketed ammo is fine.
• The simplest dry-season rule: if there's any fire restriction, don't shoot on public land — use a staffed range where allowed. The highest-risk days are hot, dry, windy "red-flag" afternoons.
• When firearms are off the table (a fire order, a county ban, NPS land, near subdivisions), archery and air/BB/pellet shooting are often still allowed — a good family and beginner option — though some closures restrict those too, and the same backstop and safety rules apply.

Leave No Trace at the shooting site

Here's the honest truth about why so much land has been closed: people trash it. Shot-up appliances, glass, shattered clays, and a carpet of brass left behind have driven safety and clean-up problems across the Front Range — and closures follow.

• Pack out everything you bring: spent casings and brass, target frames, shotgun hulls, clay fragments, and any trash.
• Only shoot legal targets (paper, cardboard, and — where allowed — proper steel designed for firearms at a safe distance). Never appliances, electronics, glass, or anything you'd leave behind.
• Never shoot trees, signs, rocks, or structures — it's illegal vandalism, and it ruins the place for everyone.
• Don't shoot where you can't clean up. Picking up after yourself — and the slob before you — is literally what keeps a spot open.

Colorado gun laws — the outdoor basics

Not legal advice. This is a plain-English overview of the rules most relevant when you head out — and Colorado firearm law is changing fast and subject to court challenges. Confirm the current rules with official sources (CBI/CDPS, the Department of Revenue, CPW, or an attorney) before you act.

Carrying

• Concealed carry requires a Concealed Handgun Permit (CHP) — you must be 21+, and Colorado is "shall-issue." Since July 1, 2025, a new permit requires an in-person training course from a sheriff-verified instructor (at least 8 hours, with a written exam and a live-fire qualification); renewals have a shorter refresher.
• Open carry is generally legal under state law for adults (18+) who can lawfully possess a firearm — but local governments can restrict it. Denver bans open carry, and other cities and counties may limit it in buildings, parks, or posted areas. Check local rules.
• Sensitive spaces: a 2024 law (SB24-131) bans carrying — open or concealed — in many "sensitive spaces," including government and legislative buildings, courthouses, licensed child-care centers, K-12 schools, colleges and universities, and election or polling locations, with detailed exceptions. Don't assume a simple rule — check the statute or official guidance.

In your vehicle

• Handgun: Colorado generally lets a person who can lawfully own a handgun keep one — including loaded — in their own vehicle for a lawful purpose like self-defense, with no permit. (It applies only to someone not prohibited from possessing a firearm, and other limits still apply.)
• Long guns: under Colorado wildlife law, a rifle or shotgun in a motor vehicle must have an unloaded chamber (a muzzleloader counts as unloaded if it isn't primed), and an officer can ask to inspect it — C.R.S. 33-6-125.
• Leaving it in the car: a firearm left in an unattended vehicle must be locked up and out of sight — a locked container inside a locked vehicle (a handgun in a locked hard-sided container). This is C.R.S. 18-12-114.5, effective 2025.

Buying & owning (the basics)

Colorado has a 3-day waiting period on purchases, universal background checks (most private sales must run through a licensed dealer, with limited exceptions), a 21+ age to buy, and a 15-round magazine cap (since 2013, with grandfathering for magazines owned before July 1, 2013 and continuously possessed). These are subject to litigation and change — treat this as a pointer, not legal advice.

New for August 1, 2026 (SB25-003)

As currently scheduled, buying or transferring a "specified semiautomatic firearm" — broadly, a semi-automatic rifle or shotgun with a detachable magazine, or a gas-operated semi-automatic handgun with a detachable magazine (which covers most AR-platform rifles; some models and .22 rimfire are exempt) — will require first completing a firearms safety course and obtaining an eligibility card from your sheriff. CPW runs the training side; the Department of Revenue publishes the firearm-model guidance. The law also bans rapid-fire devices (like bump stocks and binary triggers — that ban took effect earlier, in 2025), and it does not affect guns people already own. The details are still being finalized and the law has drawn legal challenges, so check CPW's Specified Semiautomatic Firearms page and your county sheriff for the current process.