Have a neighbor about 150 yards away. His land backs up to the side of my land. He is firing a weapon across the lake we share. The rounds are bouncing off the water,ice or whatever he is aiming at and hitting the trees on my land. I hear a pop but not the crack of a firearm. I think it hits the ice or whatever and then when it hits the trees 400 ft. away it sounds like an acorn hitting the hood of a car. One ricoshae actually had a distinctive whistle to it. I don't sweat bb guns but either he has a silencer or a HIGH power pellet gun and I think he can cause severe injury or worse to people or our pets. When I talked to him a few years ago. He said gee it's only a pellet gun. But some of these air guns can fire a 38cal. at close to 1000 fps.. I don't know the guy and wouldn't recognise him in the checkout line. And I don't want to get into a pissing contest with a neighbor and I'm not sure I should call the S.O. . Any suggestions?
talk to him? if that doesn't work, and you really think you or your property is in danger, defend yourself. there are several options to do that. unfortunately, the only one that will keep you out of trouble with the government is to use the government. they've kinda got the game rigged to be that way.
Shoot back? Seriously, I would take pictures of the damage to the trees, mark all the damage you can see. Then talk to him. If it happens again take pictures of the new damage, then get the law involved. He is damaging your property and making part of your landing useable.(safety wise if it penetrates a tree it can kill you, and the lead contamination.
Tend to agree. I seriously doubt he realizes he is hitting your property. Probably figures you are just complaining to complain.
yeah, I'd talk to him politely. Most people don't realize how many of their bullets (or even airgun pellets) ricochet. Many shooters think that backstops are silly and shooting "into the woods" and "across the field" is just fine. They count on the Hand of God to reach down and force those bullets into the ground and into tree trunks before they hit people's homes and cars hundreds of yards downrange. If you've ever shot a gun with a silencer, and with subsonic ammo, at targets placed on the ground some distance in front of the backstop, you'll hear a lot more ricochets. The kind you won't ever notice over the sound of an unsuppressed gunshot, when you're wearing hearing protection. And if you've ever shot targets on the bare ground, even soft ground like a plowed farm field, with tracer ammo, you'll SEE a lot of those tracers jump up into the air with little reduction in velocity, even if you don't hear any sound. If you'd been firing regular ammo, you'd have no clue they just ricocheted.