Camped in hillside of middle TN over the weekend.

I need to preface this story that my buddy was hosting a shoot. So Friday we shot from say 4-11PM and Saturday from 10am-11PM. Several vendors and maybe 150 people throughout the weekend. 50s, belt feds, various autos, and it was catered to shooting at night in the later hours with suppressed guns. There were some breaks but a lot of lead flew. On a guys really nice farm with quite a bit of land.

My buddy who hosted and a select few were camping off to the west of the range a bit. Its about 11PM on Saturday night and Im hearing gun fire back at the camp.

I decide to mosey on over and see what the hell is going on as theres not suppose to be any shooting but on the range of the property. I get back at camp and do not readily see anyone standing about shooting. Theres really only one spot to shoot around there and its the clearing where I had placed my tent away from others. I walk on down the clearing with my nightvision on waiting to see someone I know. All of a sudden a string of shots rang out to my left about 20 yards into the woods.

I move back to behind my car and finally see a member of the camp. I ask him wtf is going on. He says he doesnt know but its not us shooting. I had luckily brought a single rifle plate for the event just to be safe. I popped my trunk and slipped the plate into my chest rig and grabbed my SD.

Then more shots. Probably another mags worth from a rifle. The location of the shots moved slightly and was now more center. The other member of the crew and I slipped forward to see if we could catch who the fuck was shooting. We got maybe 50 yards into the clearing on the edges of the woods and could readily see handheld lights moving through the woods. Some more shots rang out and we decided its best to stay behind a car so we again fell back.

Then the hooting and hollering started from these people that were shooting. Very much an intimidation thing. Other member looked at me and said holy shit man this is some hills have eyes sort of shit. He was right it sounded just fuckin like that. The lights in the woods finally met the clearing and I could visibly see 2 men edge out of the clearing straight ahead with my NODs. Afraid they might send some rounds down towards camp unknowningly I finally shouted at them and flashed a visible light from my helmet.

They dipped back into the woods and started up the hooting and hollering again. Moved to the right and started shooting again in the woods. At this point very clearly trespassing. They kept moving around hooting and hollering as well as popping some more shots off for about an another hour until it finally stopped. It was probably near 1AM at this point.

It spooked some guys bad enough they ended up packing their shit up at 1 oclock in the morning and leaving. I remember one of the guys saying how crazy are these people to move towards machinegun fire in the middle of night while armed and popping off shots themselves, and not only that but what if they go back home and get a few more shots of alcohol in them and come back. He was right when I thought about it like that. I figured all was done though and stayed.

About 230 just when I had given up watching the woods line from my tent(again Im the closest to the action) the hooting and hollering started back up. This time they brought fucking chainsaws. I never saw them break the woods line but I could readily hear them reving the chainsaws. They would stop and move locations slightly and start it right back up. This finally ended at around 330PM

At 530 right at sunbreak I was woken by extremely close firing of a rifle in the woods off to the right of me. I could even hear this motherfucker hacking up a lung shortly after. It seriously sounded like he was at best 15 yards off NW of my position behind a tree. I heard him trail back off to the North and then finally off to the West in the woods. After some google map action there seems to be a methy looking trailer west of the property about 2 miles off and best guess is thats who was fucking with us.

The seriousness of it all didnt really hit until the drive home. Granted I dont believe this person was actively shooting AT us. But I have no clue where they were shooting. I could only hope it was into a tree or perhaps the ground. Again it was clear it was a intimidation type thing and I can only assume they were annoyed by the gunfire most of the weekend

Anyways heres some MS paint to give a visual. Red squares is approximate location of where we heard gunfire


TLDR version. Some trailer bros 2 miles to the west decided to fuck with us firing guns extremely close to camp. Coming back with chainsaws. Hooting and hollering. Firing extremely close again at day break to wake us to gunfire

Fucky.

Did you go look for the piles of brass? Idk what's you learn from them, but it might be something.

Kind of surprised no one returned fire.

I think the chainsaws would've just had me laughing. Sounds like the neighbor was just feuding over the noise.

Nope after I was awoken by gunfire I packed and left

The landowner came up right when I was leaving. Different neighbors apparently texted him about the gunfire at 530AM saying "really??" thinking it was us.

We told the landowner all what happened the last night and hes going to have a chat with the neighbor he believes it is.

It would have been hard to not return fire when something like that happens. Would have been well within your rights when they walked out of the woods to plug them.

Fuckin Meth Heads...

How many won't be back next year?

Hope the owner of the land ya'll were on, doesn't have any issue with them after all of you are gone.

Thats sucks though, sounds like if it wasn't for that it would be a kick ass time..

Thermal and NV would have been employed and they would have found themselves on the oher end of being mentally fucked with. But thats just me. They were trying to rattle your chain or were sick of the constant gunfire.

Hey man, next time don't camp so close to my stash

Wellshootback.PNG

>150 friends and associates armed to the teeth with machine guns and night vision
>Two guys with chainsaws scare me out of the woods

It was bad enough we were discussing the legalities of shooting them when they were coming in from the clearing.

Well only 8 in our crew at the camp site. But yeah

Some event footage for those of you who read the great wall of text

You should of ran into the woods naked with just your NODs and a tomahawk.

Mspaint really sets the scene.
Well done.

Damn, rough night

Screaming men are shooting weapons (you assume into the air or ground, and not at you) while tresspassing towards your campsite. At any moment a bullet could have killed one of you. Legally I think you guys had every right to stop the threat.

Glad you're ok Chase.

I've heard a few instances of gunfire while camping too, but never right next to my tent.  That was one of the reasons why I bought my first gun almost 16 years ago.

You were well prepared too.  Well done.

friendly fire gets returned

You didn't pick up any heat signatures with the coti?


That said, AK mag dump into the tree line.

That's crazy.  Hopefully the landowner follows up with you with what he finds.

Yep it worked well. I saw two individuals pop out with the COTI from the woods. Think there were 3 though based on the voices. 2 men and a woman and others came to the same conclusion

Granted I could have also seen them simply with the nightvision since they were walking around with flashlights. Although they would kill them from time to time.

Once back into the woods though the thermal wont pick them up with the vegetation covering them. I could see their lights on the canopy of the woods as they moved about

Supposedly the other guy I was with has action shots of all this with some nightvision recorder. I havent seen the footage yet however

Those two idiots are lucky they weren't shot.

I'd suppose that, had they raised weapons after entering the clearing, you'd have been cleared to go hot.

That's some crazy shit, OP.

Glad no one got hurt.

You can’t shoot someone for shooting guns in the woods.

Unless they shouldered the gun and fired or was going to fire at you.

It’s not within your rights to just randomly shoot people who have been shooting.

Maybe they heard that song in your video, I would have wanted to open fire just to make it stop!  

Seriously though, sounds like you crossed paths with some drunk, dumbass, rednecks. Glad nothing bad happened.

Sounds like you found out why you need a COTI or dedicated thermal too.

Edit: didn't see post above about having it. Yeah, at that point having decent visual on them would be a green light for me.

I would have plopped that 249 on the roof of a truck and let it eat into the tree's.

What an F’ed up situation.

Mister Chase, don't make us pull your Hoosier license! Bang bang, chop chop, dig dig- donezo.

So as long as they are in the woods and shooting from the hip at you then its GTG.

Got it.

Are you sure of the property lines? someone isn’t.

Lmao that was discussed

We didnt have the beltys though

With nvg sneak up shoot them in the chest and say they  were shooting at you

Glad you are ok !

I read that whole post and the only thing I came away with is.


"I should buy an MP5SD"

I found the property line or what I believe the property line to be. Its not too far off to the left of where the woods starts

When they were shooting deep and to the left there was a chance that was someone elses property

However they hopped the wire fence to get to the clearing and the shots off to the right were definitely the land owners property. They were well into the property we were on when the morning shots rang out

All that said the people we believe it to be does not own the adjoining property according to landowner

Lol there was a DJ there and I had to drown out the sound of his weird music choices . If you listen close you can hear the 8675309 song at one point in the video

Did anyone tell the landowner that his property was being trespassed by crazies in the night or call the local PD?

A reloading forum member enters this thread.

Wow. What county was this?

*makes mental note to not go camping with these guys*

So you only pulled security for 1.5 hours before you gave up?

I would have been up all night or left like the other guys.

Dafuq

I thought maybe a tac bro. 'The shooter went, this way'.

What fucked up commie state do you live in that you can’t shoot armed trespassers?

Good on you for being prepared OP

I'm also pretty sure you have a full power cat toy on that SD too, or is it a C?

I might have shined that full power IR pointer around their facial regions

This shew!

Also I would like to say well done on the OP OP, the real story, MS paint for comparison, and a TLDR for the quick passers by.

Attached File


Not sure what we would have done because if you had fired warning shots they may have fired blindly back. But also agree that was close enough to return fire, would have to be there of course.

I don't come to ARFcom for the free legal advice, that's a bonus.