Buying a strip of land to have my own rifle range?

[Oscar77]

Firstly......... good luck. And I mean that sincerely.................

As you've already figured out...........
Step one is finding land in unincorporated areas. Those usually have no restrictions on shooting. I'd also think in terms of what might happen in say 10yrs from now (ie home encroachment).
Because yes, FOR NOW, you might have some protection as an existing range, but you are an individual and realistically wouldn't be able to defend yourself once they start harassing you "legally."

Step two is easy....... if it's unincorporated land, thats the whole point......... you don't need permits etc to legally use your land.

Step three gets difficult and really why I don't think this will work.............. depending on what you want to shoot, you really need to think about what is callled a "safety fan" or impact area.
If you want to do this right, you'll need a impact berm of some sort but also a land buffer for ricochets etc which means buying more land.

Step four........... finding reasonably priced and relatively speaking a large piece (ie around 80-120 acres) land in an hour or so from Wheatridge is nearly impossible. You cant go West (way too much $), so East it is.

I know this defeats the purpose, in a way, but have you considered getting some friends together (with a GOOD LEGITIMATE SIGNED contract) to pool money and do it that way?
I mean, no offense, but you'll need some coin for this......... and do you have it?

PS........ Hunter also brings up a good point, fire restrictions are a thing and will come up from time to time.