Hello,

I wanted to get our opinion on what I am thinking about doing.

I currently own a beach house which is my primary residents and I cannot shoot at that house. I love the house and the beach but I also love shooting.

I want to purchase 5+ acres within a 30min drive of my house just to  use for shooting. I would love to purchase 10-50 acres but 5 would be sufficent for what I am trying to do.

what I want is a peice of land that I can build a nice little 50 and 100 yard personal range on. I currently go to this nice 50 yard indoor range but I want some place I can call my own and go there on the weekends and shoot, build a bon fire and drink some good ole american beer.

Let me know what you all think. I have about 50K cash to buy some land and just want to know if it would be worth it long run. Short term it would be great for me since I dont have any real land to do anything on.

Putting a 100 yard range on 5 acres is going to leave a very minimal buffer to keep neighbors at an acceptable distance, and in my opinion is not enough.

Every single bullet that leaves your barrel has a lawyers business card attached to it, and keeping stray neighbors out from downrange is virtually impossible on a piece of land that small.

If you do something like that though, I would push up minimum 20 foot berms in all directions with a dozer, and fence the entire thing substantially.  

Where I live in Texas the county requires a min of 17 acres if you plan to shoot on it. I think the surrounding counties are 10-15 acres. Might check to see if minimum is required.

Good luck

This is our private neighborhood  range.




All you need is earth moving equipment .

to be fair the back of the property will be game land and I was thinking about building a high dirt berm wherever bullets may hit.

Keeping projectiles ON the property is easier and less problematic than keeping someone OFF the property which can leave them in harms way. Rest assured that if little Jimmy is just out riding his quad and catches a bullet the very best you can hope for is not attractive.

5 acres is an insanely small piece of land to engage in a hobby that can ruin your life and cost you everything for 1 bullet.

I built my range on 10 acres.  Really depends on what's around you.  I have mostly farmland and woods around my property, but all shots are staying on my property regardless.  Only law on the books requires me to shoot so far away from the road.  Closest neighbors are fantastic and keep an eye on the property for me.  We help them out as well.

I did have a problem with another neighbor, who's grown son used the range once without permission.  A quiet talk with his father settled the matter.  They've since moved.  New neighbors are nice.


Don't let the naysayers get you down.  If its legal and you can build a safe range, then have at it.  If you can't make it safe, then you shouldn't.  That really is the key.  Having a nice, safe place to shoot is fantastic.

Regardless of the size piece of land you buy, you need to double and triple check all laws ordinances in that area. MD can't possibly be friendly to shooting ranges, given their stance on guns in general. Coming from NJ I know the climate up there. Ask around in the HTF about local requirements to shoot on your land. Keep in mind they can differ by county/township.

As J subbie said check with local ordinances in the town you are looking to buy land. If you buy enough land the neighbors can pound sand.

^ this

OP you are behind enemy lines already...good luck.  
i'd think you would be better off moving to a free state.


every state, city, county will be different....even if you have lots of land, the shape of it would dictate if it could be used for shooting.

some areas around me have minimum acreage plus proximity requirements.  you have to be so far away from a neighbor/building & even further away, if neighbor is running certain businesses on their property.
even then, if you have liberal neighbors w/ enough money they could tie you up in court b/c they are annoyed by the noise levels, environmental issues or some other crap.

Depends on where in MD your talking....Might want to check into local laws before buying anything.
MD is an Asshole.

I THOUGHT that was the case but some counties and towns have statutes saying otherwise.

I'm down in Southern MD, and GTG on our place, but a buddy has a couple hundred acres in southern PG with a 385 yd range, and it is illegal according to PG county law. Can hunt, but cannot target shoot!
LOL, he's was a PGCo cop, retired now, and didn't believe me even after I printed out the law and handed it to him!

This.

I think it also depends on how much your going to be shooting. I live on 10 acres surrounded by mostly forest service wilderness in the SE mtns, but still have a few neighbors that can still easily hear me. At my 85 yrd backyard range, I keep each session down to only 20-30 rounds max. But I might shoot here 3-4 times weekly. Anything more, and I travel the 8 miles to a free covered 100yrd forest service built/maintained range. That, or the family property just down the road(500 acres).

IMHO if your local ordinance allows target shooting on 5 acres then go for it.

I had same thing in mind and ended up buying something larger so I can target shoot and hunt deer/hog/turkey/coyote on it.   I have a shooting berm design in mind that would be 12 feet wide and 9-10 feet high built of railroad ties and dirt.  You can buy railroad ties pretty cheap and I'm getting dirt from a pond that will be dug on the property.  Something like this

\___/

deflectors on the side would be a single layer of railroad ties in 45 degrees angle while the back wall would be 2 layers and dirt behind and on top of that.  The berm would mostly be used for short range (under 25 yards) shooting by my wife and kids but I can back up to 400 yards for long range target shooting.

My neighbor with 3 acres is a serious IPSC style shooter and he built a two shooting bay on his property just using dirt.  Each bay has 9-10 feet dirt berm on three sides and is about 50 feet wide and 70 feet deep. He said it was expensive to build it as he had to bring in most of the dirt to build the berm.

[_[_]

He has a lot of trees and brushes that surround his property so the noise isn't that bad for rest of us.

Both the neighbor and I have our property completely fenced and can only be accessed by locked gates so it keeps out unwanted guest.

I was shooting on a private range that was in the middle of 300 acres. I had been shooting for about an hour when some kid pulled up and told me to quit shooting.  His buddy had decided it would be a good idea to park behind the berm so he and his girlfriend could have a good time.

 

I'd be interested to hear what turned out for the OP.  We also have a beach house (in Oregon) and would be interested in doing something similar.  Coastal property is pretty damn expensive in the NW, though, especially with the timber interests.

shooting more than a BB Gun is regulated by State and County regs..
and generally based on population..be sure to check if you CAN shoot on 5 acres...unless your inside a range.

in Texas you can shoot on acre in a rural county if there's less than 250K people, I think
there's a limit to 10 acres for bows and arrows for less than 500K and over that it goes to 50 acres
even for bows and air rifles..of course it's actually more complicated than
that but you get the idea..