Rural Living Adaptation of a City Dweller

   / Rural Living Adaptation of a City Dweller #11  
I agree that the shooting comes with the rural living, and agree with pbenven that stopping to visit with him, and discussing putting up a berm to shoot into would be the best (at least first) approach. I have a similar situation (gunsmith within 1/2 mile) with the shooting and have to admit it seems to be endless at times (but isn't). I set up targets at this time of year and sight in my rifles and shotgun too. Maybe you have a rifle or gun that you want looked at and can contact him about his business, as a first introduction.

A berm can be built with just a pile of dirt or by setting posts in the ground, boxing them in with 2" rough sawn lumber, and fill it with dirt (takes less dirt). It is a great FEL/tractor project. Maybe the direction that he shoots can then be somewhat in your control and you can get more rest when he is firing.

Now, I would have a much, much harder time leaving the rural living and trying to adapt to the City.
 
   / Rural Living Adaptation of a City Dweller #12  
DocHeb,

What I do in similar situations, or at least try to do, is find out
what the law says about the situation and then deal with the
person. I don't care what kinda of rifle he is using, even a 22
should not be fired so that it is within 100 feet of anyones
house. That is just not safe, friendly or neighborly. Its not
acceptable. Its to danged easy to miss and that close to
a house is asking for a bad thing to happen.

He might have a heavy metal plate behind the haybale that
you can see. The haybale is just to stop the bullet splatter.

But if his line of fire is within 100 feet of your house that is
just not safe or acceptable. Check with the county to see
if they have any oridinances that would apply. Local law
enforcement will or should know what is legal as well. I would
call and see what they have to say. If you don't get an
answer that seems to help, see if the states laws are online
and start reading. There might be a statute that would
apply.

If he was not shooting in the direction of your property, it
would be the price to pay for living in the country. My father
in law does some similar target practice at a metal plate. But
he shoots away from the nearest houses. I think the nearest
house in his line of fire is a good couple of miles away
through the woods. Even if he missed the plate there is no
way to endanger anyone...

Good Luck,
Dan McCarty
 
   / Rural Living Adaptation of a City Dweller #13  
Yes I totally agree with you Bird. If the problem is that, no protection from the bullets and firing towards the house, then yes I agree there needs to be something done. But if the problem is just the discharging of the firearm and the noise that it creates that's just part of the life.
 
   / Rural Living Adaptation of a City Dweller #14  
Seconding what Cowboydoc has already said, gunshots are just part of country life. The first thing to do is STAY CALM. Not every idiot has a gun and not everyone with a gun is an idiot. I'm telling you this because deer season starts Friday, and you will hear alot of gun shots Wednesday and Thursday.
I mean ALOT. You will probably also hear a bunch Friday and Saturday.

My opinion-- I'd be less worried about the gunsmith firing into a hay bale (what size bale?), than the deer hunters who only get their guns out once a year, probably closed the bar the night before, and are propped somewhere in the field planning to shoot something that moves.

The reason being that the gunsmith shoots all the time. The deer hunters have come from the city, where only bad guys have guns, and have maybe shot 1 box (20 rounds) of shells all year long. I'd agree with the earlier posts, go talk to the guy. Tell him you really aren't familliar with guns and would like to learn. The angle he is shooting from may look a whole lot different from the other end of the gun, and you may find that he's actually pointing in a safer direction than you thought.

SHF
 
   / Rural Living Adaptation of a City Dweller #15  
DocHeb,

One more good reason for me to build with ICF's!

I agree with the advice to go and tell your neighbor that he scared your womenfolk, and ask to be educated on what he's up to.

Bill
 
   / Rural Living Adaptation of a City Dweller #16  
<font color=blue> scared your womenfolk </font color=blue>

Bill,

That's a very diplomatic way to put it. /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif The womenfolk may eventually want to be educated about it too. There are a lot of women shooters out there and some are pretty darn good.

SHF
 
   / Rural Living Adaptation of a City Dweller #17  
The gunshots would not bother me but the possibility of being in the trajectory path of a bullet sure would. If sighting in rifles there is no guarantee that the first or even 10'th shot will hit the backstop. 20 acres is not that large an area and well within the striking distance of a richocet. There are places that are acceptable to the discharge of a firearm and there are many that are not. 100 ft. from my house is not acceptable.
Note: I do have firearms and would be classed as a "city hunter" as I live in town. This is a term I find deogratory.

Egon
 
   / Rural Living Adaptation of a City Dweller #18  
I thought I'd reply again with the facts from your post just to arrange my thoughts better and confirm some information./w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

<font color=blue>We've met and talked a couple times. </font color=blue>
This guy is not a complete stranger.

<font color=blue>...he's firing a high powered rifle</font color=blue>
Not a .22, not a shotgun, a rifle.

<font color=blue>...into a target on a hay bale</font color=blue>
<font color=red>What size hay bale? A big round one?</font color=red> Even if it's a big round one, if he's firing at a target (and he's any good), the bullets hitting repeatedly in almost the same location will, eventually, create a little 'tunnel' where there's almost no hay, or anything else to stop the bullet. Even if he's shooting at a paper target with multiple bullseyes on it, there will be areas where there's concentrated impact areas. Even if he has a plate steel backstop (we had this in our basement shooting range when I was a kid), I don't think he should be firing towards dwellings.

<font color=blue>...on our common property line.</font color=blue>
It may not be directly at your house but he is definitely not firing in the opposite direction, either.

<font color=blue>This goes on for 70 - 80 shots over the next hour.</font color=blue>
More than one shot every minute. Hmm, makes me wonder what this guy is doing. Sighting in a scope? That's a lot of shots to sight in one scope. Perhaps sighting in the scope on a number of different rifles? Testing different hand loads in the same rifle?

<font color=blue>The downfield trajectory of this firing position bisects my property, running about 100 feet east of my house.</font color=blue>
So, as you look out at this hay bale, it's just slightly off to one side of your house and he's is firing in your direction. This isn't good. <font color=red>How far away is he? Why can't he fire in some other direction?</font color=red>

<font color=blue>This means I'm pinned down, unless I'm willing to accept this guy's feeling that he would never miss, there will never be a ricochet, and a hay bale is an adequate backstop for rifle fire.</font color=blue>
This is what I would nicely tell the guy.

<font color=blue>I talk to other neighbors - they state he does this "all the time"...</font color=blue>
I would want to confirm this myself by asking the guy directly. 'All the time' can mean different things to different people.

<font color=blue>They shake their head when they say this.</font color=blue>
Does this mean they have talked to the guy and had a bad experience? Called the cops on him? Didn't talk to him and just complain to each other?

<font color=blue>and is a "gunsmith". </font color=blue>
I would think a gunsmith would know how to safely handle a weapon and shooting towards a building, occupied or not, doesn't strike me as safe.

<font color=blue>I'm a little worried about getting on the wrong side of the "gunsmith", especially since we're not in the house on a full time basis, and he has a gun. </font color=blue>
Understandable concern, but it might be jumping the gun (sorry, bad pun /w3tcompact/icons/eyes.gif) a little. Having said that, you are already on the 'wrong side' of his target.

<font color=blue>What is the proper "rural living" approach to this situation? </font color=blue>
Actually, the same approach if you're in the city in an apartment...Talk to the guy, find out what he's doing, i.e., don't completely trust the neighbors information, tell him the effect he had on your family and see if things can be worked out.
 
   / Rural Living Adaptation of a City Dweller #19  
I know many city folks who hunt and many rural folks who hunt. Among them, most are very considerate of their weapons, their use of the weapons, where their targets are, how to carefully sight the weapons in, how to correctly use these weapons to hunt, and find (pre-scout) for places to hunt safely. Among both 'folks', there are those who are careless (percentage wise, I would put more faith in the 'city' folk I know than the rural, but that percentage is low - 2-5 %). But any percentage of carelessness is too high when it comes to weapons. Probably could come up with the same or approximate percentages of auto drivers who are dangerous to the rest of the population. Seems it comes with the territory, but one shouldn't forget that it exsists.
 
   / Rural Living Adaptation of a City Dweller #20  
Egon,

I don't mean to be offensive to you or anyone individually, but to the class of "Hunters" that do exactly what I described. The ones that have the attitude that this place is one big party and they can do whatever they want. I have no problem with gun ownership or responsible use and own several myself. Nor do I have a problem with hunting.

I'm sitting in the middle of the National Forest, and I guarantee that Friday morning at 2:30 am when the Bars are clearing out, I can go into the Village and see a steady stream of Orange hats and coats. In three days, we'll have hunters tromping across our land because they saw a deer in the field and wanted to shoot it. My daughter will have people peeking in her cabin windows because somebody got lost and doesn't understand what knocking on a door means. My wife won't go to the store in this town for 3 or 4 days because of drunken orange suits trying to "pick up a local woman". You can't get checked out at the local store anyway. It takes a long time for the clerk to fetch all those pints. Thanks to good law enforcement a lot of our worst problems have stopped. But years ago, we had women get their car tires shot out from under them. Even so, the scanner will be going nuts Friday and Saturday. The DNR will need to be in 12 places at once, mostly with tresspassing complaints. To be fair, there will be locals in the bars too, but since the bars have generally been closing early due to lack of late night patrons, there really won't be that many.

I'm sure anyone in a Tourist area can tell similar stories about just about any other sport. Fishing, skiing, surfing, etc. But the point remains. These guys will be in the bar until 2:30 and in the woods at 5:00.

SHF
 
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