Safe place to shoot?

[BryceChambers]

Okay so a spot me and my buddies found to take our trucks on some trails is really pretty decently sized. Well a few days ago we saw some fired shotgun shells, to me they looked pretty old, were covered in dirt and had rust (or what looked like rust) on them. Well I made the joke saying we finally found a place to shoot in our suburban zone. Three out of four of us laughed and said year right, except my friend Danny.... he had his thinking face on. Well he didn't say anything then today when we went to make sure we didn't leave any trash so if it was private property (yet there are no "no trespassing signs" and its filled with peoples trash and such we just don't want it to get barred and gated like other places have) and Danny drove down the trails to "check something" next thing we know semi-automatic shotgun fire starts. He had snuck back there and shot it, well we high tailed it out of there in case the cops came. So, now I pose this question to you all, was he an idiot? or ingenious? Here are the maps of the area we were at.


heres the same map, the circle is where he was standing the dotted line is where he said he shot. The square is where we were.



Take in account, there are no signs up for trespassing but we do not have a clue who owns it, we have only seen one person go back there and it was a guy in a military uniform dropping cut tree branches off and he said he did it often. According to google maps its about 1200 feet for the length of this trail, he was in the middle so he shot with about 600 feet infront of him. After the trail ends its about another 1200 feet until its a public road but in between the trail and the road is pure thick woods. The factory next to Allied road we think is abandoned, there is never any cars there even during work days and night and weekends. Same rules for the final map just zoomed out more to show the street.

 

[Grassman]

I won't go on any land that I don't have permission to go on, but that's for you to make the call on.

 

[cowtownup]

I know in our county you can look at GIS maps online and they will tell you exactly who owns a certain piece of property. Maybe try to google search (county name GIS maps) and that will at least let you know who owns the property. Hope this helps...

 

[Jlr2267]

I would be hesitant to carry a firearm (and fire it) on property I did not own, without written permission or the landowner himself there. That is a good way to have your firearm confiscated.

 

[Sam1911]

Well, we just had a thread on entering private land.

http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=736644

The vast majority of respondents said if you're going to set foot in it -- ESPECIALLY armed -- it is absolutely only the good and right and proper thing to do to find out who owns it and obtain their permission.

It is theirs. It is not yours. If it was their truck or their house or their cow, you'd more than likely at least ask before you made use of it. Why is their land any different? So that's one answer about entering it.

Now, in light of that, how does entering it with firearms make it better?

Anything you have to run from the cops over...

 

[BryceChambers]

Apparently it is owned by the "Redford Brick Company" never heard of them or seen their buildings around here.

 

[gspn]

It's not yours. You don't know whose it is. Access is not controlled. Someone could be coming down any one of those trails when you start shooting as you have no idea who was in there before you arrived. It looks like there's only one way in/out so once your buddy starts shooting, anyone in the back of the property is trapped...they can't exit without entering your impact zone.

Nothing about this situation sounds safe. In the end, if you decided to run in case the cops came then I think you answered your own question.

 

[HankR]

Nothing about this situation sounds safe.

Or smart

 

[BryceChambers]

This is what we were thinking the whole time, like just driving up and down the trails doesn't seem so bad to us but as soon as he stated shooting we thought somebody would call the cops or would come yelling at us. When we do go back there to drive around on some trails we make sure we don't leave any messes. Probably still isn't right but its one of the few options. We have no outdoor ranges in the county and all the indoor ones are $20 an hour plus you have to use their ammo and no buckshot just slugs. So to go shooting we have to go to hunt clubs which closest one is an hour out. Even the indoor ranges are 45 minutes out. We used to have land here but the people we knew that owned it all died and they auctioned his land off which a big contractor bought and turned it into a suburban neighborhood. Then factories bought up all the old hunting land and it was just downhill from there. Now we feel like we are crammed like sardines in this place. Our neighborhood of about 50 houses turned into 7 neighborhoods branching off, 3 separate ways in (used to be just one off of route 10) and so forth. And from doing some digging trying to find a name or number to call to at least get permission I came up with nothing. Not even on the business that owns it.

 

[Jaxondog]

Apparently it is owned by the "Redford Brick Company" never heard of them or seen their buildings around here.

Just because you see no posted signs or never heard of the people that own it or have never seen any of their buildings doesn't give you the right to trespass with weapons. You are just asking for trouble.

 

[gspn]

Probably still isn't right but its one of the few options.

You say that it probably isn't right...but you are going to do it anyway because it's convenient.

Shooting in an uncontrolled, suburban environment on land that you don't own or have legal access to is beyond "probably still isn't right". it's a recipe for disaster...for "accidentally" killing someone. One doesn't have to exercise much imagination to figure that if you like riding around on the place, then others might too. When you start shooting in that environment you are potentially putting the lives of others at risk so you can enjoy shooting your gun without driving to a proper place.

Put more succinctly you are willing to put the lives of others at risk because doing so makes things more convenient for you. You are willing to put them at risk so you don't have to pay $20 for an hour lane rental.

How would you feel if you were in the back of that property and a group of people began firing guns? How would you exit? You can't simply drive through the area where there bullets are impacting. How would you feel if one of your family or friends were killed by people shooting guns in the area in the manner you describe?

You recently posted about trying to get started hunting. Several people in that thread advised that among other things you learn and exercise gun safety...what you are suggesting here is totally out of line with regard to the safe use of firearms. So much so that you might want to reconsider taking up hunting. If you are willing to break rules like the ones you're describing here I don't think many hunting groups would want you out with them.

 

[Sam1911]

Unless the OP has an objection, I'm going to close this one. The answer appears abundantly clear, and totally in-line with our core value of RESPONSIBLE firearms use. Probably no need to further "dog-pile" on the guy.

Call it "asked and answered."