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I want to add an area for a sports shooting range, I have been looking around and the way I can find doesn't feel correct to me.

A shooting range is an area that no one should ever be on, it doesn't matter if someone is using it or not. The ways to add them that I can find doesn't show them as dangerous and it feels like it is important that they are well marked. (eg. like military areas that are marked red)

Thinking of that, my question is:

Should I just use the tags "leisure = shooting ground", "hazard = gunfire" and "sports = shooting"? Or have I missed something?

asked 29 Apr '20, 15:09

eke0909's gravatar image

eke0909
26113
accept rate: 0%

Is the danger area projected by fences, walls a cliff? if so map the barrier. Maybe draw a polygon of that enclosed area as a danger area. Tag info will come up with commonly used terms.

(29 Apr '20, 19:19) andy mackey
1

A shooting range is an area that no one should ever be on, it doesn't matter if someone is using it or not.

I'd note this is not strictly accurate. Many ranges in the UK and abroad have footpaths or public access out-of-hours (especially for infrequently-used or mothballed ranges e.g: https://www.bing.com/maps?osid=c5cd6cff-b35e-4c20-8e06-0817b6f41c8a&cp=52.760499~-2.000832&lvl=16&style=s&v=2&sV=2&form=S00027 ). Salisbury Plain has many miles of public-access roads and footpaths when the Army aren't playing. Just don't pass any closed gates or red flags! Certainly it should be clearly identified as a hazard though so that users can look out for warning signs.

I agree with jmapb - the shooting_ground tag is not entirely suitable for ranges and it better suited to clay pigeon sites.

(26 Oct '20, 11:11) Hemmers

I'd note this is not strictly accurate.

Agreed. My local military shooting ranges (in England) have signed routes through them, with clearly posted access rules. Some areas are off-limits all of the time, most are not. The entire area is covered by an act of parliament guaranteeing public access when the military using it. A number signed routes go through places I really wouldn't want to be if the range was active.

(26 Oct '20, 11:31) SomeoneElse ♦

Hi eke0909, the most common tag in use for this precaution is hazard=shooting_range.

Personally I agree that it would be good for the default map to render this with "keep out" stripes like military areas. That may happen at some point in the future, and in the mean time of course the tag can be used in custom map renderings.

The best tags to go along with it would probably be leisure=sports_centre + sport=shooting. The tag Andy suggested, leisure=shooting_ground is also in use but much rarer.

permanent link

answered 29 Apr '20, 19:45

jmapb's gravatar image

jmapb
3.4k73361
accept rate: 22%

1

I'd note that in common vernacular (in the UK at least) a "Shooting Ground" is generally associated with clay pigeon shooting rather than rifle or pistol shooting.

If one were pressed for a formal distinction, rifle and pistol ranges involve deliberate shooting at a target in front of a specially constructed backstop (since bullets fired under ideal circumstances can travel over a mile and must be positively stopped within the range boundary). Clay Pigeon shooting rarely involves any sort of backstop since shooting takes place up into the air and shot will fall to the ground within 300yds - hence the concept of a "shooting ground" where shot falls naturally rather than being captured by a backstop structure.

This possibly doesn't matter for OSM purposes but could cause confusion. It has struck me that the options for tagging civilian ranges are a bit limited as they tend to be under sport and don't necessarily render as hazardous. We maybe need a sport=range tag to distinguish actual range areas from wider "sport=shooting" areas or clubhouse buildings.

(26 Oct '20, 11:01) Hemmers

Re the "don't render as harzardous" bit it'll depend on the map. I did try and update https://map.atownsend.org.uk (which covers UK and IE only) to show that. If you can find a correctly tagged range or shooting ground that doesn't show as harzardous let me know and I'll try and tweak the rendering. If the "OSM Standard" map could do things better, having a look in the issues at https://github.com/gravitystorm/openstreetmap-carto to see if someone has already raised it and if there is a reason why it has not been done.

(26 Oct '20, 11:11) SomeoneElse ♦

@Hemmers: completely agree. Very different arrangement of a shooting range from a sporting clays set-up. leisure=shooting_range and rifle_range exist as well as shooting_ground. At least some rifle ranges in Switzerland are non-obvious on the ground (being not much more than a shooting box & a target plus warning signs when in use. Some have used leisure=pitch for clays, but I think this is not sensible on safety grounds.

(26 Oct '20, 13:42) SK53 ♦

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question asked: 29 Apr '20, 15:09

question was seen: 1,181 times

last updated: 26 Oct '20, 13:42

NOTICE: help.openstreetmap.org is no longer in use from 1st March 2024. Please use the OpenStreetMap Community Forum