I recently was dove hunting on TX public land, and several of us were roughly 200 yards away or more from the property line shooting dove as they flew by in all directions. There was a public road on the other side of the property line (again at least 200yds from us if not more), and we are hunting doves with bird shot in our shotguns. Someone walking by stated that it is illegal to shoot across a road. Well of course it is illegal to shoot across a public road, but no matter which direction you look, eventually you will reach a road in the direction you are shooting. So my questions is: how far do you have to be from the road, to legally discharge a shotgun while shooting at birds flying in the air if a roadway is behind them? People were not directly aiming at the road, or aiming low enough to be level with a passerby in a vehicle, but were aiming upwards to shoot at a dove. It was definitely so far away that it would not cause harm to even someone walking by, much less a vehicle or a structure. I cannot find an answer to this question online, and just want to make sure that I can be as safe as possible, and stay in the realm of the law while enjoying Texas hunting. Any information on this subject would be greatly appreciated, and I look forward to hearing your feedback on the matter.

Were you certain the dove were in the hunting property line?
If so, then you should be good.

I hunt public lands. It's really what the APH book says for both all Texas public lands and that specific field. With all the properties, there's lots of "ifs and buts" between them all.

Lots of confusion.
You can also call TPWD and ask to be sure.

If any projectile crosses a public road it is illegal. Shooting standard #7.5 or #8 loads 200 yards should be fine no matter what angle you shoot. It would be hard to prove otherwise.

I've hunted a lot with my back to a public road right on the property line and just shot forward.

I was curious about this and googled - this is taken from a shotgun forum, not my first hand knowledge.

Lymans 4th Edition Shotshell Reloading Manual lists maximum ranges of the different size pellets on page 132.

At 1200 FPS a #7 1/2 will travel 237 yards horizontally, and a #8 will travel 230 yards.

Standard fallout distance requirements recommended by the NRA Shotgun Range construction manual is 300 Yards.

Dalroo thanks for posting that information related to how far shot travels.

With the internet most any questioned can be answered.

Law inTX says your shot cannot “leave your property/cross property lines”. A few years ago i had a bunch of trouble from an A hole neighbor says we were shooting him. I got ballistic info from manufacturers and a good rule is 800 feet. Most every load at perfect angle, temp, humidity , pressure, wind, etc will not exceed that. We Keep this in mind when setting up on many of the properties that we hunt.

I hunted a place in Dallas county. We woke the GW up a few times as their house was 100 feet from the fence. Hopefully we didn't pepper them or the early morning bicyclers.

GW can do anything they want --------- had one threaten us once because we were too close to a RR track,,,, we had to move.

I have retrieved dove from the tracks. Line goes through my buddies ranch.