Almost Got Shot Today

[SnowRidge]

I have been working on the pond at our other property, installing a drain culvert and a "beaver deceiver." This afternoon, I had to put on waders and go out and install the beaver guard on the culvert, so my wife came along for the scenery and to act as a safety person.

A few minutes after I got out of the water and had taken the waders off, we hear three incoming rounds slam into nearby trees.

Someone had been shooting what sounded like a mix of high powered rifles and handguns on and off for about ten minutes, when one of them ripped off a full magazine from an autoloader. After about a two second delay, three of the rounds struck trees near us, I did a quick guesstimate and figured the shooter(s) to be 1/4 to a half mile away.

I ran over to fence line, but couldn't see anyone on the adjacent property. I suspected the shots might have come from the property beyond, but a tree line blocked any view I might have had. I yelled, but go no response, which did not surprise me, so I called 911 on my cell.

A deputy showed up few minutes later and said they had received several calls recently about shots from that area. He took off to go look for them. After a while, the shooting stopped. Then after about a half hour of quiet, it started up again. I have no idea if he found them or not. There is no road between our property and the area the shots came from. It is several road miles to get over there, and he may or may not have found them and lectured them.

I am angry that anyone would shoot that carelessly, and I am concerned that this wasn't an isolated incident, especially since the deputy indicated they had received other complaints regarding shots from that general vicinity.

Those complaints weren't from people close to my property, but on the other side of the valley. That means these yahoos are shooting wildly in multiple directions. I don't know exactly which property the shots came from, and I don't know anyone in that area, and for the most part, neither do my neighbors, since the two areas are so far apart by road.

I guess my problem is I don't know what to do about this, and I am open to suggestions. If I thought this was a very isolated incident, I wouldn't worry, but I don't think it is.

What would you do?

Thanks, SnowRidge.

 

[chucko]

As soon as they started again I would have been right back on the phone with the cops " OH MY GOD THEY ARE SHOOT AT ME AGAIN" would make them move a little faster

 

[SnowRidge]

Only the three rounds came our way, that I know of. The other rounds, and there were probably hundreds of them, did not come into our property, as far as we could tell, but the property is large, so we would not have been aware of rounds hitting other than in our immediate vicinity.

Still, all it takes is one.

 

[texasjohn]

if you can find the slugs in the trees on your property, I'd dig them out and keep them.... maybe able to determine caliber... file this with police report. Call 911 next time you hear the same kind of shots... is it always in the same area, or all around you? Hard to know what/how to respond.... maybe get the phone numbers of all your neighbors for a mile or more around... start calling them next time and see if the location/property can be pinpointed... set up a neighbor hood watch... somewhere along the line this activity might raise the awareness of people, get them to stop, or get them located if they are trespassing...

net... unsafe activity = bad deal and LEO's mainly respond to bad things AFTER they happen, they are not very effective in the preventative game, particularly on rural property.

 

[SnowRidge]

We might be able to find the slugs, but it would likely be tough. The area is almost entirely wooded, and we are not sure exactly which trees they hit, or how high.

My take was two bullets hit one tree and the third hit another. That, just from the sounds. My wife agrees. There was also the sound of a branch falling, which is something we might be able to find.

Since we don't live on the property, we don't really know many of the neighbors, and some of the properties are like ours, just raw land. Most are farmed. Our was let go by the previous owners and is mostly timber.

And as I mentioned, our property and those of our immediate neighbors are all isolated from the shooting area by several miles of roads. It's one of those "You can't get there from here" situations.

I could have probably walked up on them, if I had chosen to do so, following the sound of their shots, but to do it, I would have had to leave my wife alone and crossed other peoples' property that I have no right to be on without permission. Since I am not a complete lunatic, I would not have tried it unarmed, and all I had with me was a handgun, versus what sounded like big game rifles and hanguns, and I would have been on someone else's property armed and without permission.

Prudence said that was a recipe for a potential disaster, so I called the Mounties instead.

 

[RonMar]

Well it being rural, discharge of firearms on private property is probably perfectly legal(one of the reasons I chose my property). Now doing so in an unsafe manner that hazards others is not. I have been shooting all my life and people who do stupid things like this really piss me off.

Pictures of the slug impacts on your trees and perhaps retrieving the slugs and including them in your report to the sheriff are necessary if anything is to be done. Without that, there is probably very little the sheriff can do. "We were shooting into that safe backstop officer". But if the deputy pulls out a handfull of slugs from your trees and asks "well then where did these come from?", then they might have some splaining to do... But the sheriff pretty much needs to rollup on them while they are shooting. Triangulating their location with your neighbors and being able to direct the sheriff to a specific area or road will probably be the most effective...

Good Luck

 

[MossRoad]

That is very disturbing. I've walked up on people hunting on my property before. They did not know I was there and were shooting at rabbits. I was on the other side of the hill from them. I was able to get their attention and asked them to leave. Still disturbing.

My wife has a friend whose brother was shot in the stomach by someone shooting at cans in an old dump over a mile away. He was about 10 at the time. Not injured seriously; the bullet lodged under his skin. But the thought of getting shot by someone that can't even see you just makes your skin crawl and your blood boil.

Arm yourself with the cell phone if you go walking. Spread the word around the community about what happened. If anything, word may get back to them and they might stop it.

 

[Skyco]

I agree someone was irresponsible. But- calling the cops everytime you hear someone shooting isn't necessarly so good either, unless it is illegal in the area. Obviously if bullets are landing around you there is reason to call
My son and I were shooting AR15s on my property one time. We were being very careful shooting into a gulley. In case anyone has never heard an AR they are extremely loud, make a regular .22 sound like a capgun. All of a sudden my son says he sees someone at the top of the gulley
We go to investigate since my land is posted and turned out it was a cop, luckily we saw him before he saw us and quickly put down our rifles. I hate to think what might have happened if we had walked up on him with them still in our hands
Well someone had called them hearing the gunfire. He was checking it out and seemed a little annoyed. He did tell us we were legal and he couldn't make us stop.
He wouldn't tell us who called but seemed a little annoyed at them AND us for having to come look into it. I can see his dilemna, I wouldn't like being a cop and having to walk up on armed men in a very rural area either. Still bothers me and I don't like annoying other people but then I have the right to shoot on my property if I desire, but I sure don't want the cops making an appearance everytime I do because someone thinks something evil is going on

 

[GaryM]

Three years ago we moved from a suburban area to a rural area. I shoot on my property, usually down into a gully. Some of my neighbors do the same.

I asked the Sheriff what they do if someone calls and complains about the noise. He said they ask if bullets are impacting on their property, and if the answer is NO, they tell them it's the country and they should just get used to it.

If the rounds are impacting nearby, they will send someone out to investigate and get it stopped.

 

[WTA]

I am a gunsmith and so have a shooting range across the back of my farm. I built it very well with safety in mind for my livestock, my family and the neighbors that are about a mile away.
In my mind anyone not taking the proper precautions with a firearm deserves to at least go to jail. If you know the land owner of the place where they are coming from I'd sue him. It's his property and you could have easily been killed by a stray bullet. I know someone who was shot and killed by a deer hunter that was a mile away and not paying attention to what was beyond his target. She was standing in her kitchen doing the dishes when the bullet came through the window and hit her in the throat.

I got hit by two stray bullets at an Army firing range by an idiot that was shooting wildly. I was behind the firing line too. Not out in front. One bullet took out the left side of my helmet grazing my ear and the other hit me in the ribs.

Another time my own brother in law who was in the Army at the time was unsafely handling a muzzleloading rifle at the range and it misfired on him. He picked it up, pointed in my direction without thinking and it fired. That was a very large 54 caliber bullet and it went right between my legs just barely an inch low grazing both legs on my jeans. Guess what happened to him after I stopped shaking and was able to talk again. As you can see I have no sympathy for people being careless with a firearm. It's completely irresponsible to shoot wildly and just as irresponsible to let someone on your property that is shooting wildly. If it were my neighbor there would be a law suit at least. Especially if it happened multiple times.

I carry a pistol all the time now due to the nature of my business and just in case something goes after my livestock. That gives people something to think about if they were going to shoot illegally toward my place. The other reason I carry one is because we have had people trespassing and shooting illegally on our property before and around here if the cops don't see them then they can't do anything about it. I sure will though if they are putting my family in danger.

If you are a gun owner and shoot on your own property in the country it's a good idea to get to know your local cops. They all know me here. I work on their guns. Also military weapons. I've called them before for emergencies and they have been dispatched here automatically by our alarm company too. When they get out of their cars they fully expect to see me with a gun in my hands and I'm not worried about it. Neither are they. Once I was coming from the back of my shop looking for who set the alarm off and I had my pistol in my hand and ready right when the deputy was arriving and getting out of his car with his pistol in hand. If he hadn't known me that would have been a bad situation.
Some neighbor has called them a couple times too when I was out test firing machine guns. That always ends up funny because when the deputy shows up they usually end up shooting more rounds than me. Just make sure you know the local cops if you are going to be making that kind of noise on your property and make sure they know what you look like.