UPDATE!!! Does anybody shoot at 10:15 PM?

[USAF385]

I'm sitting here at my girlfriend's place... she's busy with some work so I'm puttering around here...

I'm close to an open window and can all of a sudden hear gunfire for the past few minutes. Sounds like high capacity semi auto...

It's 10:15 PM. To me, it's a little weird. I can see someone wanting to do some night fire for various reasons, but I think if I lived in this area, I'd notify my neighbors. It's on the verge of being loud enough to annoy someone going to sleep.... I shoot at night maybe twice a year (mainly to have fun with tracers) but I have 102 acres and nobody that lives close enough to keep awake.

Oh wait, he just moved to a louder gun, now this CAN keep people awake. I think a visit or phone call should be made tomorrow.

Thoughts?

UPDATE IN LATER POST.

 

[Crazy K38]

he sounds like he is beiig inconcideratte,so a POLITE visit tommorow would be in order, and just explain your view, a call is too impersonal

 

[DeathGrip]

He's an A .Dont try to reason with inconsiderate fools like that. Trust me. Yet I don't know the situation. Has there been any friendly contact with this guy?

 

[m1gunner]

He may have felt the need for some night fire practice. This time of year, it isn't full dark till after 10 pm.

Inconsiderate ? it depends on how close his neighbors are.

I have done some night varmint hunting and can attest that folks really do not like late night gunfire, so we try to only do it in real remote areas.

 

[morsecode]

Or...you could send a few of your own tracer rounds in the general direction to let him know he's not the only armed lunatic in the neighborhood.

Seriously though, I might be inclined to get away from the open window for the time being. No telling where he's aiming.

 

[USAF385]

I've never spoken to him, but he seems friendly. He waves when he drives by and we're outside. She's spoken to him a few times when she's been out walking, but nothing more than a 2 minute conversation. He's probably mid thirties and lives alone. I think tomorrow we'll go for a walk and hope he's outside.

Pretty much I'm thinking of saying something along the lines of "I heard some gunfire last night. Was that you or was it coming from somewhere else?" If he says it was him, I'll say.... "Oh okay, good. Just making sure. Next time would you let us know so we aren't wondering" (then when he calls, fine. If she's trying to go to sleep, she could inform him or ask if he could be brief? I don't know...)

If he says it wasn't him (which would be a lie, I'm positive it was him), then something like... "Oh ok, just wondering. We heard gunfire and were just wondering where it was coming from because it was pretty loud. We just wished whoever it was would have let us know.".. or.. something like that.

Of course, I'll be polite.

 

[Crazy K38]

sounds pretty good man, hopefuly he will oblige and that will be that, good luck

 

[2Loud4You]

Around here that would be the hispanics firing "celebratory gun fire" according to the Asst. Chief of Police of my county.

 

[Faulkner]

Had that happen once. A neighbor decided to have a shooting session just before midnight. Must have cooked off a hundred rounds. Kind of kept me awake the rest of the night, so since I couldn't sleep anyway, I decided my hayfield next to his place needed mowing. Cranked the tractor up about 4:15 AM and mowed for a couple of hours. Got something stuck in the blade section around 5:00 AM and I must have banged on it with a hammer for 10 minutes before I got it out.

Saw my neighbor the next day and he asked me why I was up at 4:00 AM mowing and I asked him straight faced why he was up at midnight target practicing. We've gotten along great since then, he don't shoot after dark and I don't mow before daylight.

 

[m1gunner]

Around here that would be the hispanics firing "celebratory gun fire" according to the Asst. Chief of Police of my county.

That reminds me. When I was in NC, I lived next to one of the "projects" (that is what they were called then, don't know the current PC term for it).

The gunfire usually didn't START till after 10:30 PM on summer nights and often went till 0400 hrs.

Ahhh, the memories.

 

[Wickahoney]

As a retired LEO I think you are out of your mind!!! Is he doing something illegal?? If so call the police. If he is NOT, then I would leave him alone.

This is the kind of stuff that rapidly denigrates into something nobody wants. Before you go down there you might want to ask yourself exactly what it is you are going to do and or say when he say Yep, it was me what the ..... business is it of yours?

So do you say none, sorry to have bother you and simply walk away or do you escelate the situation and say well it disturbed me and the next time I'd appreciate a call in the future. Then what?

He gets angrier and says we live an unicorparated area and according to the almanac it was well within legal shooting hours. Shove off and never darken my door you...............

But you stay calm and appologize and go home?? If this does denigrate into a mess and he has done nothing wrong, just who do you think is going to get hauled off? The innocent home owner or the guy that came down and istigated a confrontation?

Might just me but if there was a time to be concerned it was last night. Is there an "UP" side by you going down there?

The wife owns her dads house in Nampa. I'm so used to living here on the ranch in the middle of nowhere, literally. I don't think in terms of disturbing the neighbors. The nearest ones are 53 miles away.

I was in town getting ready to leave on an elk hunting trip and had reloaded some ammo. I cycled it all through the rifle when I was done to make sure it functioned. Then I stepped out the back porch and dumped 2 into the big ole maple log laying in the back yard. THEN my brain engaged and I realized it was 2:30AM and while unincorperated it is a subdivision. I could see lghts coming on for miles!!

The switchboard at the SO was busy, go figure. I went out front and turned on the porch light and the driveway lights and sat on the back bumper with my hands in plain view. The SO made it in under 5 minutes.

The deputy and I had a nice talk and he came on in and looked at guns and I suspect made sure the wife was still alive and we talked elk and I promised to behave in the future and he left.

None of the neighbors from any distance showed up then or later.

While your honest intent is not to cause a fight or provoke an incident your stated actions have a fairly high chance if you persist. FRom your avatar you looklike a pretty big ole boy. you may not percieve yourself as theatening, what about your neighbor?

"Honest officer, he came to my house and was angry and confronted me. I tried to calm him but he just kept getting angier. I tried to disengage but he persisted. Fearing for my life I finally was forced to shoot him. Then I called you" "I'd have called soner but the situation simply escalated too fast to do so".

Nope, sorry I don't see ANY "UP" side.

RWT

 

[MrJT]

As a retired LEO I think you are out of your mind!!! Is he doing something illegal?? If so call the police. If he is NOT, then I would leave him alone.
........................................
Nope, sorry I don't see ANY "UP" side.

RWT

Gotta disagree.

Let's say he doesn't say anything. What will the shooter think? Nothing. Nobody says anything about it, so of course he'd not think a thing of it.

Someone mentions it and he realizes he was indeed loud (perhaps he thought others wouldn't notice). The OP stated a pretty good way of bringing it up. Very un confrontational. In fact, the way he put it he wouldn't even be asking the shooter to STOP.

What if you heard a neighbor hootin and hollerin outside one night which kept you up? Would you mention it to them? Calling the cops is a good way to make a new enemy.

I don't know the lay of the land, but it sounds irresponsible of the shooter to be doing this at this time of night, especially without notifying anyone. Irresponsible isn't really the word.. more inconsiderate.

HOWEVER...... you may consider waiting to see if he does it again. Perhaps this was a one time thing he wanted to do for whatever reason.

 

[Steave]

If I'm firing something in my yard at 10:45 it's suppressed and you won't hear it.

Sarcastic comments aside, Wicahoney it 100% on the money.

 

[Wayne02]

Is this in a city type environment where there are noise ordinances and the like? Otherwise it doesn't sound like the noise kept you awake, but it "could have"? What is your beef here, specifically? That you want him to inform you before he does some shooting? During the day or just at night?

I would not just go for a walk and hope he is out there. If you want to talk to him, go down there, knock on his door and talk to him face to face about the issue. Communication is a good thing in most cases, otherwise wild assumptions are often made by both parties.

 

[BarbC]

I'd say, "Hey man, did you hear all that shooting last night? I thought maybe the revolution had started and I was all set to run home and bring back my arsenal!"

The point being to approach him with good nature and humor.

 

[gunlovingirl]

Gotta disagree.

Gotta agree with MrJT who's gotta disagree. As long as there's no past problems between the two of you, ask him about it. When you let something go that's bothering you, that's when it can escalate. Sounds like you're going to check into it in a calm and friendly way, and I don't see anything wrong with it. To me, you're showing respect by handling it that way, and an issue with a neighbor usually won't just go away if it's ignored.

 

[2152hq]

Alot depends on the area you're in, how close the fireing is to your house, if there are any noise ord. in effect where you are,ect.
Safety is an issue if a complaint is made either FTF or futher up. Noise factor is also a concern but considering the hour of the day and the number of rounds being fired it is a valid point in most areas.

If this is something he has done in the past and knowing how most any gun owner does NOT like to be told how they cannot use, shoot, carry their firearms (especially on their own property),,,a very negative response would most certainly be coming back from the neighbor if you confront him about the night fireing directly.

A friendly conversation eluding to the incident but when 'discovering' it was him, only asking to be notified in advance of future nite fireing will not diminish the incidents IMHO. In fact it may increase in the future as you have given your OK of sorts to it and after the first couple of notifys I doubt that you would hear from him again before future nocturnal range time. The noise will continue if not get worse. Nothing accomplished there.

It's called a neighbor problem,,that can escalate to a neighbor trouble very quickly. "Private property and what I can do on my property with my legally owned guns is none of your business".. is where it can go real quick.
You don't seem to know him that well nor does your GF. You may not be there at all times if the neighbor decides to come callin' because he sees you two as the problem.

Right now it sounds like a noise complaint and a safety issue not knowing where the rounds are actually coming from and going too and the number of them also is an issue.

If it happens again, I'd call it in as such and let the local L/E check it out and have a word with him about his habits before you get involved.

JMHO
and Be Careful

 

[USAF385]

Lots of good advice. I really appreciate it. I don't have any real neighbors so these situations are foreign to me!

Update: My girlfriend heard about 30 more shots after 1 AM.

The area is rural. He does have an area on which it's safe to shoot. The guy's house is maybe 1/4 mile away from my my GFs. There are more than a dozen houses within a 1/2 mile radius, two of which are close to his place. There is at least one elderly couple I know of who live close to him, and a couple with young kids as well so I wouldn't be surprised if someone actually said something to him already.

I think I'll let it be for now and see what happens. I'll keep you all updated though.

 

[Herknav]

I have, but it's still daylight this time of year in Alaska.

I really have to be careful about that. You get manic in the summer and completely lose track of time. A buddy fired up his lawnmower about 1AM one time. His wife came running out of the house with the "slash across the throat" sign. He asked what was wrong and she told him what time it was. :rofl:

 

[GatorFarmer]

Maybe he was having chupacabras problems, or perhaps the greys came for him, and he didn't want to go down without a fight. Whilst we choke about it, even now the poor guy is laying there dead, empty rifle at his side, drained of blood and impaled by the probulator...