Bullets leaving range hitting houses

[jackson1]

The root of the problem is you can't cure stupid. Was rifle range chairman at my local gun club for many years and could regale you with some pretty unbelievable stories. Put gun in some fellows hands and their IQ to them jumps 50 points. Making polite suggestion is met rather rudely. As result we have a no blue sky barrier in front of our firing points. I understand and support safety, but I now have to step outside to adjust my scope.

 

[Texas10]

They should change that. It is an inroad to be abused by progressives. Thankfully they can be voted out, which is hopefully what will happen the the "judge" who put Shelly Luther in jail.

I lived in TX for 12 of my 24 years in the USAF.

I don't think it can be any more abused than it is now. For a more first hand opinion, ask Michael Morton who spent 25 years in prison for killing his wife, a crime he did not commit. That was in the county i live in.

 

[davidjoe]

Texas doesn't require judges to have a JD or be licensed to practice law. Anybody can run for a judgeship, it's an elected position.

County judges don’t have to be licensed attorneys, but state district court judges do. Yes, most of our judges are elected.

 

[jonbearman]

I would guess a 50 foot berm is in order and some idiot will shoot over that as well. They pulled that stunt with a club I used to be in except the house was 180 degrees from our berm. When they came to court with the bullet it was new out of the box. The club put up sky beams designed by the NRA and some have still shot the beams and posts holding the spancrete beams. We are being forced out of business so to speak by beta family's who just hate guns.

 

[bobm]

Range owner quotes from the news article.

The president of Lake Bailee, XXXXXXXXX, says those bullets aren’t from his range. He says they're from people hunting on the land between the range and Gephart Road.

“You’ve got people barking up the wrong tree,” he told WCPO. “Even if I took out all the baffles, took out the tree line … I still could not hit that lady in the window. It couldn’t happen.”

 

[dc.fireman]

We had skipping rounds leaving our club, on our 100, 200, and 300 yard ranges. We built $2M worth of baffles, and berms behind each yardage to make sure it never happens again. The conditions on a few of the baffles tells me that it was worth every penny.

 

[hpshooter]

"We built $2M worth of baffles, and berms behind each yardage to make sure it never happens again. The conditions on a few of the baffles tells me that it was worth every penny."

Fairfax Rod and gun at Manassas ? Have shot Highpower, Smallbore prone and one BR for score match there in years past. One match was after the baffles went up. The Izaak Walton range at Centerville is baffled also. They had a similar situation years ago and I was told the "offending round" was a complete .45ACP cartridge found inside a residence, came through a windo. No glass found inside the house, all broken glass was outside.

 

[Dusty Stevens]

"We built $2M worth of baffles, and berms behind each yardage to make sure it never happens again. The conditions on a few of the baffles tells me that it was worth every penny."

Fairfax Rod and gun at Manassas ? Have shot Highpower, Smallbore prone and one BR for score match there in years past. One match was after the baffles went up. The Izaak Walton range at Centerville is baffled also. They had a similar situation years ago and I was told the "offending round" was a complete .45ACP cartridge found inside a residence, came through a windo. No glass found inside the house, all broken glass was outside.

That happens all the time. Main issue is the police will go and make a report with pictures like a crime scene. They dont know any better sometimes

 

[Dusty Stevens]

Theres some proper baffles. A round cant leave this range unless fired out the back of the firing line

 

[K22]

One of the clubs I belong to had this problem many years ago. The house is in back of the rifle and pistol ranges about 200 to 300 yards. There was no doubt that a rifle bullet hit the house - the police extracted the evidence. Thankfully no one was injured.

The club was shut down by court order. The club officers met with the judge and owner and agreed to erect barricades that make it impossible to elevate a firearm above the heavy build high earth works back stop. The property owner was given a life time free membership to the club and the club paid to repair the damage to his house which was minimal. Every since there has been no issues. If you get caught shooting in front of the barricade you are immediately expelled from the club and reported to the local police. The club has surveillance cameras all over the place to monitor compliance.

 

[gunsandgunsmithing]

Baffles are a great idea but the smart ranges own property all the way around their range. They can sell off lots for homes with deed restrictions stating that the buyer must be a club member..or NRA, etc..Lots of legal insulation there, if the closest homes never complain but the ones a block over bitch about anything from stray bullets to noise pollution. The best part is, those lots can possibly pay for the entire range. We're potentially talking about a few thousand acres here...paid for by lots sold around its perimeter. I believe the BR club at St. Louis does this.
It may not stop every possible moronic move but it fixes a lot and the old saying...ya can't fix stupid, is true.

 

[PhilKeil]

A few years back they had a issue at the range we practiced at. The guy had made previous complaints about noise etc. Then he called and reported a shot had penetrated his house and called the sheriff as well as the owner of the range. The owner got there after sheriff arrived. Guy immediately became hostile to owner. Sheriff started investigating and something did not look right. then he figured it out. The shot came from the inside of house not outside. then in front of the range owner the sheriff confronted the guy and he admitted he did it. He then showed the officer his gun and it appeared to have been recently been fired. The guy ended up going to jail for filing a false report. I think to compound the issue the guy was also a convicted felon and was not supposed to have a gun.
Good luck with your issue

 

[Cochran]

Years ago we had a similar problem at one of the clubs I belong to. The range was shut down a for few days. I was told that the club brought in a ballistics expert to investigate. It was determined that the rounds were fired from down the road from our front gate and launched at a high angle. The expert compiled quite a bit of data. I seem to recall someone saying the ballistics guy was from Sierra bullets. Never had another problem that I'm aware of.

 

[antelopedundee]

A local shooting range is being accused of bullets leaving the range and hitting houses. They have been accused of this multiple times over the past few years. Is it possible to use some math to prove if they did or did not leave that range? The house is about 5000 feet from the back of the range and the lastest incident is a .224 bullet but not sure of the weight. I do not have any affiliation with either parties but am curious.

https://www.wcpo.com/news/local-new...pwVVf8dkeJBLKk6FALEHvKPf9vM3O5jtFhRtrlfTKCzHY

From the link.

"The president of Lake Bailee, Jesse Vonstein, says those bullets aren’t from his range. He says they're from people hunting on the land between the range and Gephart Road."

Hunting season doesn't normally last all year. Simple to correlate the time of the bullet hits and whether or not there was anything lawfully huntable with centerfire rifles on the land when said bullet hits occurred.

Also when hunting there's not much reason to shoot at more than a couple of degrees of elevation.

 

[JSH]

You can’t teach common sense.
You can teach safety, but Inorder for it to work it has to be practiced continually.

There is a cure for stupid, but it is illegal in 50 states.

I have seen some really crazy goings on in the past 20 years at our club. Bullets going where they shouldn’t. We used google to figure some angles of flight. Some one was really stupid to get them to fly the way they did. Last time I checked bullets had a tough time making a hard right turn while in flight.

I have been given a few “pet” names by some. I am past being nice, seems if you don’t come off as a complete A hole they don’t take you serious.

I was nice and mentioned to a fellow he was cross firing. Awh shucks I am sorry. I went back to my bench and shot. I will be darned if he didn’t do it again! His excuse, he was only going to shoot a few more and didn’t want to move!
I got his member # and license plate, had his key card shut off and sent him a letter to attend a BOD meeting.
He showed and was buddies with some on the BOD. The did pretty much nothing, because nothing happened.
Fast forward about 12-15 years and windows get broken and holes in the roof, now it’s an issue

Sorry to be long winded gents, but this stuff just ticks me off. There is zero reason for out of the range bullets. A HUGE amount of folks do not understand trajectory.
And, a 9mm can go over 500 yards easily.

 

[243winxb]

a no blue sky barrier in front of our firing points.

Works well to keep bullets from going into town. I shot at a range in Kimberton, that had something like this internet photo.



Pennsylvania has a grandfathered law , covers noise coming from older shooting ranges. Cant be shut down because of noise.

 

[flintcreek6412]

We are our own worst enemies. Our police range used to be the best in the state 30-40 years ago. Had Hogan's Alley ranges, long range sniper range, 50 points of fire for handgun to 50 yrds.

But 1100yrd behind the berm is an airport. Bullet holes in hangers were being found and I heard, but can't confirm, a plane had a bullet hole. Range was shut down about a year while they built up the berms. Kept happening. Finally everything was shut down and they put up a block structure with metal baffles all the way from 3yrd line to 25yrd line. The baffles are painted white and are literally littered with bullet marks.

It's freaking embarrassing to see.

Now look at where I shoot long range at Camp Atterbury. Luckily its a military base with hills and endless miles behind the pits. We use electronic targets and when guys can't get on paper(6ftx6ft) at 1000yrds we often find they have gotten lost on their scope turrets and are 10 or 20 MOA high. Yep, instead of 26MOA dialed in they are at 36-46. I haven't done the math but those baby's would leave most ranges. And the thing is we have a 100yrd target set up so they can verify their zero yet rarely is it used. They all swear they know their zero and are all cocky about it and insulted when you ask. And then there are the sling guys that slam fire and the bullet hits the ground in front of the line if the muzzle is down. You don't even know about the ones that fly over the target.

 

[Herzo]

At our 60 year old club, we drill into all members the possibility of losing their club should any round leave the range. We have been called "fudds" on line because we insist on aimed fire only and don't allow full auto or bump fire. We don't care....we are not about to allow a careless act threaten our club.

 

[338 dude]

Texas doesn't require judges to have a JD or be licensed to practice law. Anybody can run for a judgeship, it's an elected position.

WTF?

 

[Joe Salt]

Hate to say it but you need to know who is shooting at your range at all times! And I believe Cameras set up with time and date people are there may be the answer.

Joe Salt