City Folk move to country and find out people hunt there...and they don't like it.

[mainebear]

I sell Real Estate in Northern Maine. A few folks hankering to leave the crowded suburban/city life behind will ask about the crime rate here. I tell them "It's low, really really low." "That great" they'll say. I then tell them that Maine has, I believe, the highest per capita gun ownership rate of any state in the country. "oh my" some will say, "I'm not comportable with guns". then I tell em "that's why the crime rate is so low", take your pick folks you just can't have it both ways. Many see the light, the few who don't go further south and buy, much further south I hope. We lose a few sales that way, but also gain a few new people who eventually become avid hunters, fishermen, shooters and all in all great new friends and neighbors. Gosh I love this area!!

 

[Officers'Wife]

Prince Yamato,

All city people bad? I don't recall saying that. I'm saying there are a large percentage that move into the country then expect five and six generation residents to change their way of life to their rather unrealistic sensitivities.

I was always angry that I couldn't take a stroll in the woods (along the Finger Lakes Trail) during my youth because the hunters would generally blast anything that moved.

Around my little portion of Indiana a hunter that shot outside his "sphere" generally finds him or herself without a place to hunt. Likewise, persons that go on property without notifing the owner could very well find themselves being shot at as the people with permission to be there have reason to believe the owner wouldn't have people there without telling them.

Item last: City or country people are just people, treat them rationally and with respect most will respond in kind. Come pounding on your neighbor's door screaming at the top of your lungs because his cow is 'staring' at you and your wife in the back yard or demand a property own not carry a rifle on said property and at the very least you are going to be made feel unwelcome.

Selena

 

[Larry Ashcraft]

This is a good thread.

Please don't force me to close it by bashing whole groups of people based on the actions of a few. I'm talking about the "all hunters are bad because I saw one do something bad once" posts.

Please?

Because I will. I guarantee it.

 

[Prince Yamato]

I'm talking about the "all hunters are bad because I saw one do something bad once" posts.

I don't have problems with all hunters. I merely stated that I have problems with the percentage that seem to abuse the privilege- yes, privilege, because we're speaking of sport and and not the 2nd amendment right.

I'd personally love a couple hundred acres of land and an RPG-7 with a tax stamp. But I realize that if in 10 years my rural land becomes the new suburbs, I might have to curtail my DD shooting in the names of not angering the neighbors. I can also fully understand safety concerns with hunters in the area. I feel this differs from a firing range. With a range, you can 99% guarantee that all the shots are going in one direction: into a backstop. If one goes over and hits or kills someone, tracing the shot is easy, as is prosecution- what time was the person shot, who signed in on the range? With hunting, the shots are a little more random in direction (as animal movements are more random) and you may not always know who is in the area. I also see greater potential in accidents with hunting than with target shooting. Rarely does a jogger or someone wander into the shooting area of a firing range. However, joggers, hikers, or nature lovers DO share the same paths and forests as hunters and there is a greater potential for someone to be (often unwittingly) in the pathway of a bullet (or heck, even an arrow or a spear).

Again, I have no problems with hunting in general. If there's a couple hundred acres between you and the nearest housing track and Johnny from the City with his new log cabin in the woods complains about the shooting, yeah, to hell with him. But if you're shocked that people in your now suburban "rural" area are complaining about noise, you know, I can understand that... this is why Europe allows sound suppressors

 

[RobTzu]

"You're darn right! It's not not like we did anything like that to the native Americans. We fully respected their ways, and did not even think of asking them to conform.

After, all they had been living in the area for generations, and we deeply, deeply respected that.

The reality is that people migrate to new regions all the time, and the people who have lived in that region mostly don't like it.

Quit whining!

Mike"

Who is this we? I am only 29. Didn't see any Teepees when I moved in. Guess they should have built a fence. You can learn from your mistakes or other people's mistakes. I choose the latter.

 

[rickomatic]

Residents call and claim that someone is shooting at them, Wollgast said. But that's never been the case. Sometimes pieces of the shotgun pellets fall on nearby lawns or driveways,

What's the big deal? This kinda thing happens all over the world.

 

[jungleroy]

Same sort of thing where I grew up in the country. One day you look across the 400 acres of field your grandfather has worked for generations to see a new home just across the fence. The cops get called every time you are out shooting squirrels, the police show up a few times and get a good laugh at the city folk and then come over to tell us whats up. I being me continued to shoot out there, and grandfather purposely bought my cousins and I more 22 shells whenever we were running low, not a day went by that we did not shoot, even when we had to put out cans to knock around. Every year brought new batches of new city people who complained. The local sheriffs office was used to asking do you hear screaming, and then advising the people to read the laws of the land. They would send a car out occasionally when there was complaints of rapid shooting. Eventually there was 2 regular officers that would come out to shoot there too.
All I can say is, there will always be ignorant people in the country, and it often is not the ones who lived there first.

 

[flynlr]

Locally the Holladay Gun Club is getting ginormous pressure from residents in the new subdivisions that have sprung up around it. The road these McMansions are built on is even called GUN CLUB ROAD. Idiots.

yep. I guess 2008 will be the last year I can shoot there.

 

[woodybrighton]

this should give you a giggle
Ashdown forest home of winnie the pooh has a very small army training area criss crossed with public footpaths.
there are deer present they are culled by licensed game keepers (found this out when we captured one) somebody messed the diary up they hunt when we are not playing soldiers.
anyway one Saturday lunchtime sniper platoon is setting up in a public car park for an afternoon of crawling about trying not to be seen
when a minibus and a couple of cars turn up and these protesters leap out several dressed as bambi and start protesting about hunting. after a couple of minutes of bewilderment.
sgt tell's them "you do know we aren't actually hunters and we don't hurt the deer"
you don't
no we are practicing to kill people
Oh thats ok then and they get back in there cars and drive off to look for hunters

 

[dracphelan]

In my short stay on the farm, three house next to the boundary lines have had a total of fifteen different families of city people. They complained about Dad's rifle range, about the dust from tillage, planting and harvest, herbicide smell and in one memorable case a cow that stared at them when they were in the yard.

Maybe you need to see if someone from THR is interested in buying the place next door. The only thing I would be doing is asking permission to use your range.

 

[StuckInMA]

While I can't stand the invasion either, I don't blame the transplants 100% of the time. Many of them are told by the developers that they are buying a home in a "Peaceful setting surrounded by nothing but wilderness and fresh air!" Buyers take them at their word and have no idea what's going on come hunting season. Their serene neighborhood is suddenly surrounded by the sounds of gunshots which is what they were moving away from in the first place.

So of course they are going to complain. Most of these developments are filled with young families who put their life savings into a place that they don't feel comfortable with anymore. Packing their bags and finding somewhere else to live a year or two after purchasing their first home isn't always possible so they are stuck. Some adapt, some try to change things.

I shouldn't have to bear the hardship for their naivety, but the developer sure isn't going to give them their money back.

Keep in mind this is coming from someone who lost a large amount of hunting land to a new development and have the cops called on me every time I head out to my makeshift range that has been there for years. I hate the sob's but at the same time I can understand their situation to some degree.

 

[RLsnow]

woody that made me laugh good and long...good and long...

 

[Officers'Wife]

Hi dracphelan,

My brother owns the place now and he'll let almost anybody use the range provided they pick up their litter and obey the common sense rules. Max range is 300 meters w/ 50 meter pistol targets or torso.

Unfortunately he got hold of about a million golf balls and has been hanging them up with fish line for targets on the 50 and 100 meter line. Don't let him talk you into that little game unless you are really resistant to frustration. However it's pretty cool to see a golf ball hit with a .243.

Selena

 

[4v50 Gary]

The solution? Muzzles should be threaded for suppressors and suppressors should be sold at your local sporting goods store. More money for the gubmint too as we gleefully pay our $200 tax stamp.

 

[TallPine]

This is one reason that I try to meet any prospective new neighbors, preferably while open carrying. I take the time to go show them corners and stuff, just so they'll know what a grouchy old redneck I am

 

[ZeSpectre]

The solution? Muzzles should be threaded for suppressors and suppressors should be sold at your local sporting goods store. More money for the gubmint too as we gleefully pay our $200 tax stamp.

I'm all for that one!

 

[Titan6]

The solution? Muzzles should be threaded for suppressors and suppressors should be sold at your local sporting goods store. More money for the gubmint too as we gleefully pay our $200 tax stamp.

It has been the solution in Europe for years. But suppresors are evil, evil I say... they have been embodied with the undead spirits of puppies that were sent through a blender and they cause warts.... at least that is what I read at the VPC web site.

 

[RPCVYemen]

Quite frankly, your comparison is poor, not very well thought out and ridiculous at the very least...

There is not a complete comparison - but I believe that the analogy is in fact valid. Most places on earth - including the US - have had waves of people comes through. And the people being displaced always talk about how the land has been theirs for "generations". Sometimes those generation have been 3 or 4, some times more.

Most of the time, when European Americans get all huffy about generations, they are really talking about 3 generations - and those generations didn't respect the generations of people (non-Europeans) who come before them.

So I think that if someone bases a claim based on locality for generations, it's fair to ask how the claimants treated the generations before then. What is unfair about that?

The fact is that everyone in American has the "slam the door behind me" syndrome. People move somewhere - sometimes over generations - and the next thing they want to do is make sure no one else can move there.

My point was that it's an endless and inevitable process - all of us are immigrants (even the Native Americans from what my anthropological friends tell me). I lived on parts of the world where the families claimed to have been descended from Shem - the son of Noah. But they were immigrants, too.

In most cases technology is involved. In this newest displacement in America - the development of wide flung suburbs - is a result of a technological change. The development of the automobile, reduction of the cost to extend infrastructure geographically, etc. have facilitated a move out of densely populated cities into rural areas.

Mike

 

[subierex]

Isn't urban sprawl wonderful?

I live in an older neighborhood that borders a moderately large city in the midwest. I have dreams of one day moving out to the country and having some land so that, among other things, I can shoot in privacy on my own land. This is the kind of thing that I worry about in that situation: getting established on my own land and then have some busybody neighbor shut me down.

 

[RPCVYemen]

I have dreams of one day moving out to the country and having some land so that, among other things, I can shoot in privacy on my own land.

It seems to me that the only way to do that is move where no one wants to live. I like the same idea - but there's that pesky "making a living" thing. You can guarantee that if there is a beautiful unspoiled place - and jobs, it's going to be a beautiful crowded place pretty quickly.

So I think that you need to look for a rural place that has crappy roads, poor schools, and no jobs. Even then you need to avoid any place that has good medical services or good weather, or the retirees will come in droves. Then you might be unmolested for 10-20 years.

Mike

 

[bluestarlizzard]

mike
nice try. the local counteys that had that 5 years ago are already full up. my boss moved her farm/kennel out of albamarle to buckingham (and this really is the boonys!). no sooner then they had gotten settled in, they found out that the guy who owned the land next store was pulling down all the trees and in the begining stages of building a new development! exsactly what they had moved to get away from! needless to say, they were pretty ticked off!

 

[Owen Sparks]

Our local range was closed because a developer built a group of fancy doctors houses nearby and pressured the land owners sister to stop renting us the property. Even though she lived out of state, she had 50% ownership and got us shut down. In an ironic twist of fate, the developer who caused all the trouble went to prison for tax evasion.

 

[RPCVYemen]

exsactly what they had moved to get away from!

The problem is that wherever you want to move - in general a whole lot of other people want to move there to.

In North Carolina, I have shot at several county ranges that were built right next to dumps. That's not an accident.

All over the country (at least where there are jobs), what was "boonies" a couple of years ago is now 'burbs.

I don't see that trend reversing in my lifetime. Maybe if gas get so expensive that commuting is out of the question. Then maybe we'd move back to the centralized city structure, with lots of boonies for hunting. But I don't see that happening.

I also don't see any right or wrong to it. People get to vote, and people vote for their (perceived) safety. If everyone I knew who hunted was as safe as with guns as the people I grew up around, I would be fine hearing rifle/pistol shots.

But there are a lot of hunters who are not very careful. As an example, I was raised with a pretty absolute rule that guns and alcohol do not mix. I also have good friends who went deer hunting with uncles where deer hunting meant "walking around the woods drinking hoping to find some deer so stupid it couldn't avoid 10 fat drunk men" - as he described it. My dad had a good friend shot (but not killed) just walking around the woods. There were hunters in those days that tool "sound shots" - shoot at a sound, and then go see if it was deer. When I was a kid, the local Izaak Walton club warned members not to carry (then popular) white waxed paper lunch bags. Evidently some folks got shot because hunters or "hunters" saw the white lunch bags flapping and figured it was white tail.

So while there are a lot of safe hunters out there, there also seem to be a lot of unsafe hunters out there. And safe weapons handling skills seem to me to be independent of where you were raised.

In general, I think hunted in populated areas seem like a back idea.

Mike

 

[LightningJoe]

when do you plan to learn navajo?

Ah, yes yes. You get it. Mexicans in American don't learn to speak English for the same reason Englishmen didn't learn to speak Indian. Immigrants learn the language of their new country. Conquerors don't.

 

[230RN]

IBTL

Tell ya what... you ain't lived until you've heard the (ahem) feedback from a (ahem) tenderfoot about fertilizing or a Permitted Ag Burn.