Erik M
Member
Afternoon all. I have lived at my current residence for several years. My family owns 4 acres of land that lies on the side of a ridge. This is very rural country, at least 30 minutes from a town of less than 2000. Basically we have an abandoned mineshaft that we use as a range. Myself and my brothers have plinked, sighted in rifles, and whatnot for more than 15 years. We have recently had some neighbors move in down the road, setting up an old single wide trailer on a lot that they have rented. They are in their late 20’s. The husband works on a coal strip mine. As I have measured it from my driveway, they are .3 miles away.
Long story short my youngest brother and myself have acquired a couple of cheap m44's and a 400 something round tin can of ammo. One day last week the wife from the family down the road appears through the woods to where the clearing is for our range. She is open carrying some type of revolver. To get to where we are, she would have had to have hopped the 4-foot rough lumber fence (that has no trespassing signs every 25 yards or so)that runs the length of the property that borders the county road, or came down our driveway and walked through our back yard. We turn to face her As soon as we notice someone has approached us from behind and she asks, “are you the ones shooting?” and that we “have to stop shooting because we are upsetting her daughter that is trying to play in her yard”, a third of a mile, through a stand of trees, directly behind us. She tells us that what we are doing is illegal since there is a small child in the vicinity and that she has already called the Sheriff's office. I tell her that she has trespassed onto my family’s property carrying a weapon which is definitely not legal. She leaves without saying anything else.
Sure enough about 20 minutes later a deputy whom I know arrives. he is our neighbor and lives roughly the same distance from my house in the opposite direction as the new neighbors. They called 911 and reported that someone was shooting near their home, and that they were scared for their lives because "bullets were ricocheting by the windows". He told me that they also said if the police couldn’t make us stop shooting that they would seek to sue us for disturbing the peace. The deputy took my statement and told me to call his cell if they tried to start anything else. They have since called the state police twice, who have attempted to give me safety lessons about shooting anywhere except an indoor range.
In the last 2 weeks we have heard our new neighbors firing what ever weapons they own after midnight, some semi-automatic weapon empting magazine after magazine as fast as possible. We have also found 4-wheeler tracks on our land towards the end of the property closest to where our new neighbors are. So in short, they are trespassing on my land, shooting their guns in the middle of the night, and threatening me with legal action. Obviously they are bluffing. What would you guys do?
Long story short my youngest brother and myself have acquired a couple of cheap m44's and a 400 something round tin can of ammo. One day last week the wife from the family down the road appears through the woods to where the clearing is for our range. She is open carrying some type of revolver. To get to where we are, she would have had to have hopped the 4-foot rough lumber fence (that has no trespassing signs every 25 yards or so)that runs the length of the property that borders the county road, or came down our driveway and walked through our back yard. We turn to face her As soon as we notice someone has approached us from behind and she asks, “are you the ones shooting?” and that we “have to stop shooting because we are upsetting her daughter that is trying to play in her yard”, a third of a mile, through a stand of trees, directly behind us. She tells us that what we are doing is illegal since there is a small child in the vicinity and that she has already called the Sheriff's office. I tell her that she has trespassed onto my family’s property carrying a weapon which is definitely not legal. She leaves without saying anything else.
Sure enough about 20 minutes later a deputy whom I know arrives. he is our neighbor and lives roughly the same distance from my house in the opposite direction as the new neighbors. They called 911 and reported that someone was shooting near their home, and that they were scared for their lives because "bullets were ricocheting by the windows". He told me that they also said if the police couldn’t make us stop shooting that they would seek to sue us for disturbing the peace. The deputy took my statement and told me to call his cell if they tried to start anything else. They have since called the state police twice, who have attempted to give me safety lessons about shooting anywhere except an indoor range.
In the last 2 weeks we have heard our new neighbors firing what ever weapons they own after midnight, some semi-automatic weapon empting magazine after magazine as fast as possible. We have also found 4-wheeler tracks on our land towards the end of the property closest to where our new neighbors are. So in short, they are trespassing on my land, shooting their guns in the middle of the night, and threatening me with legal action. Obviously they are bluffing. What would you guys do?
