backyard ranges

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We've had the thread about shooting in your own yard for the blue state of NH. How about other states? I'm somewhat interested in Kentucky, Tennessee, Missouri, West Virginia and Virginia in particular.

Any acreage requirements or distance from neighbors rules? What's the best place to get answers, the local PD?

Anyone have any horror stories regarding building a home range?

Your thoughts please, comrades.
 
I never trust asking police for legal info, nor neighbors. I try to go to source info.

My suggestion is to go to Handgunlaw.us and click on the state. He has links to the actual state website where the laws are, go there and read the info to find out the answers you are looking for for each state of interest.
 
We've had the thread about shooting in your own yard for the blue state of NH. How about other states? I'm somewhat interested in Kentucky, Tennessee, Missouri, West Virginia and Virginia in particular.

Any acreage requirements or distance from neighbors rules? What's the best place to get answers, the local PD?

Anyone have any horror stories regarding building a home range?

Your thoughts please, comrades.
Best option is to examine regs and laws for each state you are interested in. I would assume it’s all available online. I have a land range. Been shooting there for the past 2 years. I just observe setbacks accurately from gis maps like explorer and make sure my geolocation errs to like min 600 ft from any dwelling and not in the direction of any dwelling. It’s common courtesy to be a good neighbor so I don’t shoot early morning and very infrequently on weekends as my job allows me to choose many times of weekdays. Even at 600 ft from dwellings gunfire is very loud.
 
The other consideration, in addition to the laws, is the local "feeling".

Buddy of mine hosts an annual backyard trap shoot. New neighbor moved in, and was unhappy, though no laws or ordinances were being broken, so the local game warden was called. "It's been going on for 50 years....deal with it," was the answer. But....if the roles are reversed, it might be different. You might be "that guy,"
 
In MO, you can shoot on your own property, if your property is outside “city limits.”

In Ste Genevieve, where I live, there is a proper city limit. There are no restrictions on shooting on your property, no noise ordinance, no real estate zoning once outside that limit

In city limits police are the LE. Outside the city the Sheriff is the LE

Unlike New England, county and city are treated very differently
 
We've had the thread about shooting in your own yard for the blue state of NH. How about other states? I'm somewhat interested in Kentucky, Tennessee, Missouri, West Virginia and Virginia in particular.

Any acreage requirements or distance from neighbors rules? What's the best place to get answers, the local PD?

Depends on the neighbors.
Neighbors is more of a relative term where I'm at.
I hear it quite a bit on the weekend. I asked my wife to keep an eye out on bookface so I can at least go down and join them instead of driving 40 mins to the range.
The terrain isn't exactly flat so theres plenty of hills or embankments to use as a backstop.
The police/cops/sheriffs don't come out this way, or at least I don't think I've seen one in the 8 months since being in the house. We live in an unincorporated part of the state so they'd most likely just pass through. Not much in the way of county by-laws. There are county sheriffs, they're most likely hanging around the more populated spots closer to the bigger towns.
I'm about 40 mins north of Chattanooga.
Anyone have any horror stories regarding building a home range?

Your thoughts please, comrades.
I have a couple of plates I use for .22. The trees and hills muffle it enough.
Unwanted attention isn't really my thing, so I'm not going out back with 2 .45's and lettin it rip. Maybe a few shots here and there, but thats about it.
Somewhere near me on the other hand.................its like music.
 
I never trust asking police for legal info, nor neighbors. I try to go to source info.

My suggestion is to go to Handgunlaw.us and click on the state. He has links to the actual state website where the laws are, go there and read the info to find out the answers you are looking for for each state of interest.

that's an awesome start. Great reference.
 
Best option is to examine regs and laws for each state you are interested in. I would assume it’s all available online. I have a land range. Been shooting there for the past 2 years. I just observe setbacks accurately from gis maps like explorer and make sure my geolocation errs to like min 600 ft from any dwelling and not in the direction of any dwelling. It’s common courtesy to be a good neighbor so I don’t shoot early morning and very infrequently on weekends as my job allows me to choose many times of weekdays. Even at 600 ft from dwellings gunfire is very loud.

I was thinking of trying to find a way to ask neighbors of adjacent properties if they would have a problem with me shooting on my land. That could be a dealbreaker. I'm not sure how practical that thought is though.
 
Depends on the neighbors.
Neighbors is more of a relative term where I'm at.
I hear it quite a bit on the weekend. I asked my wife to keep an eye out on bookface so I can at least go down and join them instead of driving 40 mins to the range.
The terrain isn't exactly flat so theres plenty of hills or embankments to use as a backstop.
The police/cops/sheriffs don't come out this way, or at least I don't think I've seen one in the 8 months since being in the house. We live in an unincorporated part of the state so they'd most likely just pass through. Not much in the way of county by-laws. There are county sheriffs, they're most likely hanging around the more populated spots closer to the bigger towns.
I'm about 40 mins north of Chattanooga.

I have a couple of plates I use for .22. The trees and hills muffle it enough.
Unwanted attention isn't really my thing, so I'm not going out back with 2 .45's and lettin it rip. Maybe a few shots here and there, but thats about it.
Somewhere near me on the other hand.................its like music.

that sounds like the kind of place I want to live. I've been cruising Zillow lately. It's interesting how far your real estate dollar will go outside of Screw England.
 
that sounds like the kind of place I want to live. I've been cruising Zillow lately. It's interesting how far your real estate dollar will go outside of Screw England.
Not only the cost of property, other expenses as well. Vet visits are half the cost of RI. Everything is cheaper except gas and food.

My RI property taxes were $16k for a house and an industrial Condo. And taxes were going up every year. I now have a much nicer house, much larger amount of land with a second 3000sqft brick building in MO and my taxes are $2900. Taxes have not gone up since I moved here 9 years ago.
 
Not only the cost of property, other expenses as well. Vet visits are half the cost of RI. Everything is cheaper except gas and food.

My RI property taxes were $16k for a house and an industrial Condo. And taxes were going up every year. I now have a much nicer house, much larger amount of land with a second 3000sqft brick building in MO and my taxes are $2900. Taxes have not gone up since I moved here 9 years ago.

it's too bad states can't vet people who want to move into the state to keep the destroyers out. NH should have built a wall on the Mass border years ago.
 
I believe suppressors are legal in all those states. When I lived in Raleigh I would go shooting at my friend's house fairly often. He lived just outside of town in a sub-division that backed up to woods. We would just shoot our 22s and use suppressors. He set up a backstop that was basically a bunch of layers of plywood over a dirt berm so the impacts were sort of a muffled "thwack" and not super loud. You could probably get away with subsonic pistol/PCC or subsonic 300 blk in that scenario as well.
 
State law is one thing then there’s local control.
Here in Maine the town had a couple of anti hunter/gun members on the BOS who passed themselves a nice no discharge zone for this side of the town.
When the signs went up people got really pissed. Specifically those of us with larger lots. Between my direct abutters we have at least 60 acres. Others have hundreds.
Emergency town meeting was done and it was “suspended” that night.

It was great when the Warden Service and the local LEO Chief stood right there in the meeting and stated “we are not responding to your calls if the gun was discharged within state laws. The town will have to hire a lawyer and charge the offender with a civil penalty as we don’t enforce civil matters at all”.
 
Ill second the suggestion to shoot suppressed. We had “neighbors” that were about 600’ away and they would shoot all day in the direction of my house and it was horrible. Just mag dump after mag dump. ARs are really damn loud. Sound travels and echoes quite a bit in the mountains too. Trees don’t help much to muffle it. They’d mostly be doing it on weekends and holidays which is even worse. Just people coming up here from MA on the weekends and not giving a shit about the locals.

A silenced cartridge like 300 AAC will preserve your relationship with your neighbors if you’re that close and you want to shoot a lot. Otherwise, everyone around us goes out and plinks for an hour or two every now and again and no one is bothered by it. Sometimes we get together and do it.
 
that sounds like the kind of place I want to live. I've been cruising Zillow lately. It's interesting how far your real estate dollar will go outside of Screw England.

Well, its pretty sparse out here as far as population goes.
It went pretty far before all the real estate retardedness. Now its like the rest of the country.
This is what it looks like near me, right now.

Literally up the road.

Must be getting divorced

This lot went for 80 grand 3 years ago maybe?

I drive by this twice a day

This probably would have gone for 25 grand 5 years ago. Need a g.i.s. map

This is one of those places with an out of control h.o.a. I call it Yentaville
 
We've had the thread about shooting in your own yard for the blue state of NH. How about other states? I'm somewhat interested in Kentucky, Tennessee, Missouri, West Virginia and Virginia in particular.

Any acreage requirements or distance from neighbors rules? What's the best place to get answers, the local PD?

Anyone have any horror stories regarding building a home range?

Your thoughts please, comrades.
There’s gun shots in the holler every day. Someone in the near vicinity has a machine gun or something nobody should know about.

They shoot it pretty often but only one mag per month and it’s a dump and done sort of thing.

No acreage requirement here that I know of, but you’re supposed to be 100’ from a road. Other than that, it might be nice to mention to any close neighbors that youre shooting so they don’t think the commies have crossed the Ohio and are attacking. Kidding, obviously, but just be courteous and maybe you’ll get the same respect in return.

Indiana was much the same, but in the part of the state I lived in and basically anywhere north of Indianapolis required a damn good backstop. Flattest place I’ve ever seen this side of the Mississippi. I miss the wide open spaces of Indiana, but trying to find a place to shoot was a bitch! The public ranges were great when I needed them when I first moved there, but some were definitely better than others. Basically, the farther away from Indy you got, the better the people were at maintaining control of their weapons.

There’s a guy I talk to about distance shooting in western Kentucky that shoots in a river bed during the winter. Says it’s about 2.5 miles and flat as can be.

Some folks utilize railroad tracks and power lines, but that can get you into serious trouble too. Most people around here don’t give much of a shit about trouble with the law though.
 
If I build it…will you come (and yes, Kevin Costner is invited too, I guess).
Well, its pretty sparse out here as far as population goes.
It went pretty far before all the real estate retardedness. Now its like the rest of the country.
This is what it looks like near me, right now.

Literally up the road.

Must be getting divorced

This lot went for 80 grand 3 years ago maybe?

I drive by this twice a day

This probably would have gone for 25 grand 5 years ago. Need a g.i.s. map

This is one of those places with an out of control h.o.a. I call it Yentaville
Jesus effing hell! It’s expensive down there, ain’t it?!?!

You fancier than I thought!
 
If I build it…will you come (and yes, Kevin Costner is invited too, I guess).

Jesus effing hell! It’s expensive down there, ain’t it?!?!

You fancier than I thought!
The Epsteins of Tennessee!
 
If I build it…will you come (and yes, Kevin Costner is invited too, I guess).

Jesus effing hell! It’s expensive down there, ain’t it?!?!

You fancier than I thought!

I don't know what happened. Tripled or quadrupled over the last few years. Mad rush of people including myself getting the hell out of wherever they were.
I guess if you sold your house in either california on the new england area for a retarded amount of money, you could pretty much pick up anything you wanted down this way for like a pittance.
It'll drop down again.
 
it's too bad states can't vet people who want to move into the state to keep the destroyers out. NH should have built a wall on the Mass border years ago.
The States don't give a f*ck about that, they want the revenue.

Example: Texas has videos inviting people from California to move there.
 
I have a friend that lives in Pepperell that has enough land to shoot. Pepperell PD just asked him to notify them when he is shooting so they don’t have to respond to people calling about hearing shots fired
I did the same in Carlisle before I joined a club. No issues with PD at all. The liberals were shitting their pants.
 
Well, its pretty sparse out here as far as population goes.
It went pretty far before all the real estate retardedness. Now its like the rest of the country.
This is what it looks like near me, right now.

Literally up the road.

Must be getting divorced

This lot went for 80 grand 3 years ago maybe?

I drive by this twice a day

This probably would have gone for 25 grand 5 years ago. Need a g.i.s. map

This is one of those places with an out of control h.o.a. I call it Yentaville

some beautiful homes there, but most of them are 5x the house I would ever need. I could probably live out of a shipping container on large plot of land. Beautiful plots of land though. Back here in Assachusetts my hometown, Reading, is slowly being overdeveloped into Greater Boston. On the weekends, you have to plot a course around Reading center to avoid a headache of traffic lights and slow moving traffic. Yet, still they develop. Seems like a new housing project every other month. It really is a disgrace. A grotesque, overpopulated disgrace.
 
some beautiful homes there, but most of them are 5x the house I would ever need. I could probably live out of a shipping container on large plot of land. Beautiful plots of land though. Back here in Assachusetts my hometown, Reading, is slowly being overdeveloped into Greater Boston. On the weekends, you have to plot a course around Reading center to avoid a headache of traffic lights and slow moving traffic. Yet, still they develop. Seems like a new housing project every other month. It really is a disgrace. A grotesque, overpopulated disgrace.

I know the feeling.
We moved out of West Bridgewater August of 21 after living at my mothers for about 6 months after the house was sold.
Property taxes and fees were killing me, and my department was shutting down. Was getting too old and beat up to do side work. Wife could work remote thanks to the panic-demic. Town wanted to add all this stuff for the sake of spending money. Got fed up with it.
I lost the battle on a smaller house. I wanted a 1400 sq ft and a massive garage.
Built this place with an in-law attached to it so my mother could move down. She was getting drilled in taxes too. Wifes got her own office upstairs.
It all worked out. Mortgage including taxes and insurance is laughable.
I know @LeeTheToolGuy / @Raddtek lives around johnson city 3 hrs north of here. Might be land available up his way.
@76Too is somewhere in Kin-tucky where the banjos play, might be plots around him.
 
I know the feeling.
We moved out of West Bridgewater August of 21 after living at my mothers for about 6 months after the house was sold.
Property taxes and fees were killing me, and my department was shutting down. Was getting too old and beat up to do side work. Wife could work remote thanks to the panic-demic. Town wanted to add all this stuff for the sake of spending money. Got fed up with it.
I lost the battle on a smaller house. I wanted a 1400 sq ft and a massive garage.
Built this place with an in-law attached to it so my mother could move down. She was getting drilled in taxes too. Wifes got her own office upstairs.
It all worked out. Mortgage including taxes and insurance is laughable.
I know @LeeTheToolGuy / @Raddtek lives around johnson city 3 hrs north of here. Might be land available up his way.
@76Too is somewhere in Kin-tucky where the banjos play, might be plots around him.
LOTS of plots and existing homes around here for cheap money. Still haven’t found anything like mine for the price I bought mine for, but some idiots here still think I overpaid.

Regardless, I have nothing but positive things to say about eastern Kentucky so far other than there’s not much here (which is ironically also one of my favorite things about it). The only downfall is if anything ever happens to my ‘permanent’ remote work job, I’ll be driving at least 20 minutes to and from work every day.

I’m 20 minutes from Portsmouth, Ohio for a small city (think Fitchburg, maybe?)…30 minutes to Ashland and/or Grayson, Kentucky for larger sized towns with some commerce, and about 40-45 minutes to Huntington, WV for actual city…or 2 hours to either Lexington, Colombus or Cincinnati if I feel like ‘big city’…but I never find myself missing city life AT ALL!!!
 
LOTS of plots and existing homes around here for cheap money. Still haven’t found anything like mine for the price I bought mine for, but some idiots here still think I overpaid.

Regardless, I have nothing but positive things to say about eastern Kentucky so far other than there’s not much here (which is ironically also one of my favorite things about it). The only downfall is if anything ever happens to my ‘permanent’ remote work job, I’ll be driving at least 20 minutes to and from work every day.

I’m 20 minutes from Portsmouth, Ohio for a small city (think Fitchburg, maybe?)…30 minutes to Ashland and/or Grayson, Kentucky for larger sized towns with some commerce, and about 40-45 minutes to Huntington, WV for actual city…or 2 hours to either Lexington, Colombus or Cincinnati if I feel like ‘big city’…but I never find myself missing city life AT ALL!!!
The only 2 positives of a big city near by are:
1. Women, for the NES STUD BACHELORS.
2. Restaurants/ bars / entertainment.

Besides that, cities BLOW.
 
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