I'm looking at buying a house with some property and want to be able to freely shoot on it. I'm not sure I am reading the regulations right. We are looking at a property with 20 plus acres that has a housing development approximately 50 yards from the property line. The regulation says it must be 300' from structures, houses etc. The shooting will be taking place further than the 300' limit but the bullets will be traveling closer than 300' to the targets. Does anyone see any problem with this?

Thanks! Sammy

(a) No person shall discharge a firearm for the purpose of target shooting within 300 feet of developed recreation areas, including parking lots, administrative and maintenance facilities, dwellings, camps, cabins and yurts, bathhouses, campgrounds, campsites, playgrounds, athletic fields, beaches, pavilions, picnic areas, and boat launches and trails, or within 100 feet of any stream, river, pond, lake or other water body.
(b) Target shooting shall not be permitted at Robert Frost historic site, the Urban Forestry Center, that portion of Odiorne Point state park located on the east side of NH route 1-A, Opechee Bay state forest and Shieling state forest.
(c) Target shooting shall not be permitted from Memorial Day weekend through Columbus Day weekend within ¼ mile from developed recreation areas.
(d) Target shooting shall be permitted on the Connecticut Lakes Headwaters Tract in accordance with the public recreation management plan.
(e) Only firearms chambered for rimfire ammunition, center-fire handguns and rifles, muzzleloaders and shotguns shall be permitted, and all shell casings shall be removed daily and disposed of offsite by the user.
(f) Fully jacketed, armor piercing, steel core and tracer ammunition shall be prohibited.
(g) Only targets designed for target shooting shall be used, except explosive target compositions shall be prohibited, and all targets shall be removed daily and disposed of offsite by the user. Shooting glass bottles, household appliances or standing trees is strictly prohibited.
(h) The department shall prohibit target shooting in areas where such activity is permitted when the department determines there is a lack of compliance to this section by users, or the department determines it is necessary under Res 7301.07.

From looking at your schematic it would seem
you have 200 yards from where your shooting (discharging) to the next dwelling? Should be good, but IANAL.

What kind of housing development is it? Is it a 55+ community or apartments/ condos with people of all ages?

Be prepared to deal with people trespassing onto your land. Wether it be kids or people walking their pets.

As far as the distance, legally it seems like you’re good to go but I’d almost guarentee you’ll get the cops called on you and the general consensus would be that you’re shooting too close TOWARDS a populated area.

On second thought it looks like I have the full 300' from the housing development if google maps is correct. That 300' is all untamed woods. The shooting benches ideally are going to be 350 yards from the nearest house. I just can't see anyone going to the trouble of walking through that. Of course I would do my due diligence and have signs posted. It would be very difficult to make it though to the clearing

I don't want to be a dick neighbor although shooting steel suppressed is going to be noisy.

I forgot to mention it is in city limits. Small town. Don't know if that changes anything.

Ideally I would like to host appleseeds at the property. I'm very social and getting together with like minded people is what I'm all about.

If you’re planning on hosting events have you considered registering as a range? Not sure what the requirements are or the hoops to jump through but it could possibly gain you protection from neighbors as well as noise ordinance and such.

Technically most folks not from around here would call some of our cities small towns.

Is it within the compact part of a town as defined in RSA 644:13?

Many of the restriction's you list above, I've never heard of or really doesn't affect people in a practical manner statewide.  There may be location based restrictions, but that is determined by the state under our state preemption law.  You've apparently found many of them, so you just have to ensure you're not near them.

For the most part firearm laws in NH with regards to generic target shooting boil down to RSAs 207:3A, 207:3c, and 644:13.

I will caution you with the Appleseed mention, that some towns may use zoning to shut it down.  There was mention of a private property owner who wanted to put a multi station skeet/trap range on his land and zoning was going after him-not sure what the outcome was.  Another reason I'm happy to be living in a no zoning town.

Ooh good point!

Applicable chapter regarding protection:  RSA 159-B

Late edit to add, while I mentioned zoning above, zoning would have a field day with creating a range.  Look what happened in Holderness when Pemi wanted to expand.

Wow, you guys are great. If this works out I would like to meet up with some of you for a shooting session.

Thanks again.

If you are in the Urban Compact area it is a no go

I think the rules/laws OP posted are for in NH parks only.

The NH state law is:
Section 207:3-a
   207:3-a Prohibition.   It is unlawful for a person to discharge a firearm or to shoot with a bow and arrow or crossbow and bolt within 300 feet of a permanently occupied dwelling without permission of the owner or the occupant of the dwelling or from the owner of the land on which the person discharging the firearm or shooting the bow and arrow or crossbow and bolt is situated. Whoever violates the provisions of this section shall be guilty of a violation if a natural person, or guilty of a misdemeanor if any other person.

eta: so it's fine if I shoot off my porch

I suggest you plan to do most of your shooting suppressed.  So, if you don't have suppressors, I would start the process.

The problem with the adjacent housing development is that multiple households may complain about the noise.

Our nearest neighbor is probably 600 feet from where I shoot, but complained about the noise.  Consequently, 80-90% of my shooting is suppressed, and almost all done with a rifle.  He originally threatened to sue, but never did.

What town are you in?  If you are on firm legal ground let them file a suit and counter sue for harassment.

There would be no legal grounds for a suit, but having recently moved here, I wanted to show I was willing to compromise. Or, maybe I just wanted an excuse to buy more suppressors.

In my opinion shooting suppressed is being a good neighbor.

Shooting for a while without without a can is the equivalent of ripping up and down the street in a car or bike with straight pipes. Obvious exception for a single shot while hunting, etc.

Agreed with the bold, but disagree with the entire premise of the second sentence.

Everyone shoots around here.  It's a different person every day.  Yesterday, it was the libtard up the road blasting away for a a couple hours, today it was a different guy that sounded like he was pretty for deer season or maybe practicing before he took a class at Ridgeline.  The day before it was a dude with a shotgun doing whatever.

Shooting makes noise just like everything else.  I pick and choose what hours I run a saw so I won't mess with my neighbors too much.  I do the same when I shoot.  I'll typically run saws longer than I shoot, so I guarantee that is more annoying for folks.

If suppressors were easier and less expensive to get, I might change my mind.

We disagree then. I don't fire up my gas powered saw if the cordless one will do the job. Shooting unsuppressed is unnecessarily loud. Cans aren't that tough to get. They should be cash and carry, but they aren't.

My closest neighbors are pretty good about not making too much unnecessary noise. I do the same in return.

I am a member of a club about 20 minutes away if I feel the need to shoot without cans.

I would add that a lot can depend where in the state you live and your proximity to nearby homes.  Having 15-20 acres in southern NH surrounded by recent developments is much different than the middle or northern part of the state IMHO.  That being said saw noise and gun noises are part of living here, I make no attempts to hide either nor do I mind if others make them.

Personally I shut the saw off and stop shooting when the sun sets, but on the weekends in the fall I’m going to crank the saw up early and cut all day.  My neighbors do the same.  

As FDC said above pretty much every day of the week one of my neighbors or me is shooting.  Last weekend one of my neighbors was going at shooting for a good 6-7 hours, I personally enjoy hearing folks enjoy themselves outside.

As to the OP, as others have said IMO it looks like your good on distance however is caution as others have that depending on the type of brights you might have to put up with some BS calls.  In my experience the local LE has been easy to deal with on those kinds of calls but YMMV