So say you had land leased for birds and varmits as a year round lease and a gun range opened within a few yards from the back of their berms to your border fence. Bullets are ricocheting over on to your place waaaaaay to often, sometimes several per minute. Pistol and rifles being shot. What would be the course of action that you would take? For us, sheriffs have been of very little help. Basically saying if someone gets hit on our side to let them know, othr than that we would need to contact the range ourselves to voice concerns and they said to contact the county commissioner. Am i being totally unreasonable to expect ricochets to be a rare occurrence?

Gather as much evidence of ricochets as possible (audio, video...I know ) and get it to your landowner so he can get it to his attorney. Have him contact the range and take it from there.

And no, if it's happening as much and as often as you say it is then you are not being totally unreasonable.

Go politely talk to the owner of the range and tell him what is going on. The fix could just be adding some more dirt to the top of the berms.

I would want someone to let me know if bullets were making it off my place. And I would correct it immediately.

Questions to ponder...
Do you own the land or lease?
If lease, does your land owner also own, or have an interest in, the land where the range is?? If so, what will they really care?

Think about this if you really want to kick it up... if the land is habitat for Federally controlled Migratory birds and the rounds/shot over the berm is lead you may have a reason to call Fed Fish & Game. But only after you have a 'polite talk' with the range operators.

Personally, i dont think he cares, hope im wrong. The sherrifs went over and told him about the problem on sunday. The guy that heads up our lease had told us to call the sheriffs if we had a problem. I called that guy back last night and told him the sheriffs were less than hoped for, unless someone gets shot. Then they would help.

Bet I know what range your talking about! Spray and pray could be their motto! Was a member but just to wild west for me to go there much.

What a reactive, instead of proactive, approach by the Sheriff Department as well as the land owner. That is insane to wait until someone gets shot! I'm worried about an accidental discharge hitting a cow, and they aren't worried about a person getting hit?

So the range owner doesn't care, and the deputies don't care. Have you tried a phone call to the Sheriff himself? He is an elected official, after all.

Also, does the range advertise under a name? If so find out if it is affiliated with the NRA. They would not appreciate one of their insured ranges having bullets leaving the range.

All that is necessary to solve your problem is already at hand.

Hang out at the range a bit, keep an eye on the "spray and pray" crowd. Look for ones that appears to be particularly stupid - not a tall order in the group that you will be watching.

Hold your nose and approach one who looks especially inbred - strike up a conversation with him, and explain that he would be welcome to hunt as a guest on some land that you have leased.

Sooner or later he'll catch one while he's hunting out there - and you'll then be ready then to lodge a formal complaint.

Has your mother-in-law ever expressed an interest in hunting? - This may be the opportunity of a lifetime!

It's all about taking a lemon - and making lemonade from it. Every cloud has a silver lining.

How about your boss? - Or one of the Sheriffs deputies who sees no danger in hunting there?

You are only limited by your imagination. Everything that you need is ready at hand.

^dumbest post ever

Yes, troll-posts that are only exist in order to insult forum members really are dumb. - You win the prize!



Why is it that the really dumb ones appear to have been born with no sense of humor? - A real mystery, that.

Actually have the local sheriff race being decided today. We know both these canidates better than current sheriff, so that should help. Just getting some suggestions, we will try everything we can to make it safer. I like the idea of the range, it has cut down on tresspassers on our place shooting up signs and leaving trash. The guy that heads up iur lease is supposed to go out there with a sheriff buddy of his. Hopefully we are making some progress. Thanks for all the input..

Incorrect

Most particularly if it is a public range, ricochets and stray rounds missing the berm are going to be a fact of life. If you hunt early on weekday mornings, the danger will be minimized. (And the hunting should be better.)

If it were me, I would be talking to a few people about maintaining the place as a private range, perhaps associated with the local gun club. This in itself would reduce the number of rounds straying over the berm significantly. As long as it is a public range, there will be issues. Operating it as a private range will also remove some of the financial uncertainty for the range owners, cutting way down on the operating and maintenance costs. With a private range, the members police the range in order to protect their investment, and so it is seldom if ever necessary to pay somebody to camp out there all day.

Note that in a public range, a ya-hoo acting stupid only risks his admission fee for the day if he manages to get himself booted out. With a private range, said ya-hoo would be risking his much higher annual fee, and his access for a very long time. People operating a private range tend to have a long memory about issues like that.

I used to shoot at the Elm Fork public range in Dallas, many years ago. Some years later I joined a gun club that had a private range, and the difference was like night and day. - I'll never shoot at a public range again, I can tell you that much.

Good luck, and do not neglect to offer a day of hunting as your guest to the next deputy who tells you how safe it is out there on your lease. His reaction to the offer should be interesting and who knows? - Maybe he'll take you up on the invitation and come around to your way of thinking after hearing a few rounds whiz overhead.

Its a pretty uneasy feeling hearing bullets go out into the counrty side, but the ones that bothered me most were the ones we heard impact near us when we got a little distance form the place. I believe most people that go shoot out there are yearly members, also i believe they have someone out there watching most of the time as well, for what good that does .

You aren't going to like my solution but if I were in your place given the full situation you described - I'd get another lease promptly.

Does the range operator also own the land. If not, you might contact the landowner and explain your situation. If you have notified everyone of the danger and they continue to ignore it then it becomes negligence. Maybe one of you that knows can address the insurance requirements for a range.

Its close, year round, birds, varmits and shooting plus a guest. Haven't found anything close to that deal. Worst case scenario, my hunting land shrinks from staying out of that section. Not a great solution tho.

Im curios of that as well. The shooter or the range?

If the range owner will not cooperate contact the GW or sheriff. I had the same problem and our GW came a put up some wine bottles on the fence. Sure enough the shooters could not stand it and shot the bottles. He gave them a stern warning and told about the law the were breaking. Never had a problem after that.

Sheriff already had a chance. Thinking about a game warden.

I would like to join the range in question again but you have stated the reasons why I let my membership lapse! It's not really public range so you have uphill battle dealing with owner manger. It's nice to have a place where we can go shoot but the risk to members and people in surrounding area has to change before something happens. The range south of Midland has rules and they are pretty strict from what I here. Good luck and keep us posted!

shoot back

Believe me, its tempting. Rather go a legal route tho.

Every single time a stray projectile fired from a gun crosses the property line they are breaking the law.

I had no idea how often ricochets happen until I starting using decent electronic hearing protection.