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Would anyone actually enforce the law if I made my road a shooting range...Opinions?

Martin Taylor

Private
Full Member
Minuteman
Jun 23, 2011
79
0
33
Marquette, MI
So, I have this rifle range in my front yard where everyone in our family does their fun shooting and in the fall we sight in our rifles there. We have a target set up in the middle of the field with a hill as a backstop and little markers at 25 and 50 yards for pistol and small rifle, and then if we stand up against the outbuilding it's 100 yards to the target.

Well, I've been moving out at bit and this summer I'm going to have a rifle that I can really go to town with, so, standing in front of the outbuilding, shooting straight across the 40 to the edge of the wood it's 200 yards and change. (at which range I'm doing 4-6 inch groups prone off a sandbag)

However, if I shot down the length of our road I could get 450 yards.

Now I know your first thought 'this is SO illegal and dangerous it's not even funny'

But actually the legality is only a technicality because here's the thing, our house is at the end of a two mile long back road, that's off another 5 mile long back road.

Now, once you turn onto our gravel road, there's a garage on the corner where a guy builds stock cars because he's far enough out that he won't get noise complaints, there's a vacant house, and then there's an old retired guy who bought an old farmstead and putter on tractors and shoots rifles, then you go down a hill and into a bit of thick woods and swamp and the road turns sharply and goes up to the top of a steep hill, from here it's a straight shot 450 yards to our driveway, which is also the end of the road, except it turns and if you go straight there's a are several small hills where the county dumped the topsoil from when they made the road which is a perfect backstop.

The only entrance onto the entire road from here back is to a hunting camp whose owner is in his eighties and has us check on it once a month because he's disabled and can't drive anymore.

So, my idea is this, I take my truck and park it up on top of the hill and put a target on the dirt mount at the end of the road, then lie in the bed of the truck and shoot down the road. The road is only wide enough for 1 vehicle, the nearest house is 1/2 mile away and there's a forest in the way, and the second nearest house is mine and it's 300 yards north of the line of fire, and according to Google maps there isn't another building or road for over two miles behind the target and I'm shooting downhill anyways. Also, for what it's worth, from where I would be shooting we own the land on both sides of the road as well as beyond the end of the road for about 100 yards

I guess what I'm asking is: Would you do it? Or does the technical legal issue here make this a no-go even if I know I can get away with it?
 
Sounds liek its all private property to me, if so , as long as you can see the whole landscape and you can close access gates you should be fine. Check your local ordinances though.
 
Why are you asking confirmation of this on the internet? We're not going to get the feel of the land from your wall of text, so how should we give you a go or no-go? I guess I just don't get it.
If you must have an answer I'd say no, because I'm certainly not saying "yes, go ahead."

Sent from my SCH-I500
 
See link for Michigan Firearms laws: MSP - Firearms

Click on Firearms Laws in PDF format. Page 67 of document regarding shooting from public road/right away: statute 324.73103 provides that if you own the land on both sides of the road you are legal. Otherwise you would need the permission of the landowner. Negligent discharge page 156 statute 752.863a - would be up to the interpretation of the officer who investigated. Possession of loaded firearm in or upon motor vehicle illegal; page 137 statute 750.227c.
 
Now, once you turn onto our gravel road, there's a garage on the corner where a guy builds stock cars because he's far enough out that he won't get noise complaints, there's a vacant house, and then there's an old retired guy who bought an old farmstead and putter on tractors and shoots rifles, then you go down a hill and into a bit of thick woods and swamp and the road turns sharply and goes up to the top of a steep hill, from here it's a straight shot 450 yards to our driveway, which is also the end of the road, except it turns and if you go straight there's a are several small hills where the county dumped the topsoil from when they made the road which is a perfect backstop.

The only entrance onto the entire road from here back is to a hunting camp whose owner is in his eighties and has us check on it once a month because he's disabled and can't drive anymore.

So, my idea is this, I take my truck and park it up on top of the hill and put a target on the dirt mount at the end of the road, then lie in the bed of the truck and shoot down the road. The road is only wide enough for 1 vehicle, the nearest house is 1/2 mile away and there's a forest in the way, and the second nearest house is mine and it's 300 yards north of the line of fire, and according to Google maps there isn't another building or road for over two miles behind the target and I'm shooting downhill anyways. Also, for what it's worth, from where I would be shooting we own the land on both sides of the road as well as beyond the end of the road for about 100 yards

Just post your address so we can look at it on Google Maps
 
It sounds like a county maintained road and one that is not deeded to you as private property. Don't do it! As a side note, any incident or accident with a firearm is one we can do without.
 
Even if cars never come down that road, about the time you fire is right about the time some lost tourist will come wandering down that county road and have a .30 cal rip through the windshield. That's just the way the world works..Murphy's Law and all
 
I have been to ranges where roads are closed while live fire is in progress. Either it is legal to shoot down your driveway or it is not. Either you have a way to close the road to traffic with sufficient warning signs in a manner which would isolate your complete and total line of fire or you do not. My recommendation if you are considering this is to consult an attorney.
 
There is a range in southern california where now and then a private group comes in with a load of equipment and closes a public road (with the help of some official vehicles) and shoots across a road. But the road is closed to all traffic and monitored. They shoot their rifles, then pick up all of the fired bullets, and leave. Secret squirrel stuff.
 
Would anyone actually enforce the law

It seems you already know there's a law, so why don't you just ask your local "law enforcement" if they would enforce it? (LOL!)