Looks like I have a neighbor problem

[Jeff H]

I've read all of the neighbor issues on this forum and the old forum and I've always been grateful to have not been involved with any of these sorts of problems....until now.
I had a neighbor move in last October. His place butts up to my most productive area. I introduced myself a week before gun season and wanted to give and get info on where /if he was going to hunt. He had never deer hunted before but said he had planned on hunting in the old blind at the edge of the field. I explained that the blind was on my property and that I would have my 16 year old son in that blind opening morning. I showed him where his line was. He was off by a couple hundred yards.
For the record I have no issue with him hunting on his place. I tried to be encouraging and willing to share info with a new deer hunter.
This year I've been building a new box blind and it seems every time I show up he ends up shooting near the edge of his property line. Last Saturday he was close enough that we could hear the slide on his pistol as he chambered another round. Again I have no problem with someone shooting on their property as long as they are safe and responsible. He may shoot every day when I'm not there I have no idea. Sunday my wife and I are working on the new box blind when we hear 4 shots and then a WOOOSH. He hit the power line and it dropped to the ground. The line runs at the north end of his property and bisects mine. It is also 40-50 feet from my box blind.
Yesterday I called the power company to report it. The tech that went out to check on it called me to let me know that this guy has a target set up on the edge of his property and 100 yards down range is my box blind.
So I called the Sheriff with that info. I had my 2 kids and my wife down range of his target all day Monday.
Hopefully he, the Sheriff and I can have a civil discussion about it later today. I'm hopeful the guy is just clueless. I can work with clueless.

 

[OkieKubota]

If he hears you over there working and is still shooting in your direction that is not clueless...that is criminal!

 

[Blizzard Ridge]

You are already more patient than I am. I have been in a situation where trespassers were doing a deer drive across my property that my kids and I were hunting in, not to mention that my house sat within 100 yards of it as well. Needless to say I jumped in my truck and parked it in the woods about a foot from one of the trespasser doing the shooting. I then nicely proceeded to tell them if I caught them on my property again I would have the game warden issue tickets. But if I ever saw them pointing a gun in the general direction of my kids or myself again that I would take that as a threat and when my children are threatened then they better be ready for a fight.

 

[W33kender]

Yes, you do indeed have a problem. The more I read about such folks the more I love my dog. I wish you and your family a safe and satisfactory resolution. Only advice is nip it in the bud. Get the law involved, get it on record now and early is all I mean.

He sounds like a passive aggressive bully of sorts.

 

[j-bird]

I bet you money he isn't clueless. He is simply being a crappy neighbor.....because he can. He figures if he is miserable then he will try to make everyone else miserable as well. He was hoping you would roll over and let him trample all over your place and that you didn't have a spine to confront him about it. I have a bad feeling that you are in for a long row to hoe with this guy. Your going to find damage to your blind, missing trail cams and he is going to cause a ruckus every chance he knows you are there. You need to take every precaution now before he has too much time to think about the underhanded things he can do to make things even worse. I know I may sound like I am not giving this guy a chance, but in most cases folks that start out down the path you describe do not deviate. IF he was interested in being a good neighbor he wouldn't have done the things he has already. I will also tell you that a guy like this isn't going to be afraid of a "no trespassing" sign either. IF you hang cameras you will want to get one that sends you e-mails of the pics as I bet that little feature may come in handy down the road......when they end up missing or blasted to pieces. Sorry - in general I don't trust people. I would much rather be proven wrong in my assumption of them not being trustworthy than to assume they are and then be wrong about that. Worst part about property ownership: #1 - trespassers, #2 neighbors - often times they are one in the same. Good luck.

 

[Paradise725]

Yeah that is negligent and likely wanton endangerment of you and your family. I hope he is clueless for your sake and that you can get him straightened out. Good luck.


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[OkieKubota]

When we first bought our 80 the west neighbors son's didn't like it because it was where they hunted for many years because my aunt who owned the property lived far away and never posted or fenced it but then we came in and fenced and posted so they decided to make as much noise as possible whenever they knew I was there. It is kind of an awkward situation becausese they own a long skinny 30 next to our 80. They built their house at the back of their land and just 80 feet from our property line so basically they are very near to dead center of our hunting land on the west side right on the line. When I would drive in the gate their dogs would bark and then they knew I was there so it was time to shoot, play loud music, scream and holler, rev engines, etc...It got to where when I showed up I had to park at the neighbors up the road and walk down to get a decent hunt in. Sometimes this gets better (or worse) over time. In our instance it has gotten better. The 3 sons have now moved out. 1 had his wife and 3 kids there as well and from what I can tell the woman lives there alone now. She is a great neighbor by herself and always friendly but her son's were resentful. I only know of one instance when 2 of the son's trespassed on our property and it was because they heard a dozer clearing our north plot before we moved in and I suppose they thought that may be where our house was going. Other than that the fence has absolutely stopped all trespassing issues... It may not be like this always but I am enjoying the peace and quiet since we moved to the property now

Hopefully you can resolve this peacefully...

 

[kansas-Andres]

Guy sounds like a nut job. Hopefully things get better.

 

[CTM1]

I spent many years shooting competitively while also serving as a Range Officer and instructing new shooters.
My blood boils when I read or hear that people are putting rounds down range where there is any chance of people being in the
line of fire or even offset by 90 degrees. The overwhelming majority of active shooters really have no idea how many rounds
ricochet. Anyone who doubts this needs watch a nighttime shoot when tracer rounds are being fired as it will really open their eyes.

I hope local LE ends what this guy is doing ASAP.

 

[Jeff H]

I spent many years shooting competitively while also serving as a Range Officer and instructing new shooters.
My blood boils when I read or hear that people are putting rounds down range where there is any chance of people being in the
line of fire or even offset by 90 degrees. The overwhelming majority of active shooters really have no idea how many rounds
ricochet. Anyone who doubts this needs watch a nighttime shoot when tracer rounds are being fired as it will really open their eyes.

I hope local LE ends what this guy is doing ASAP.

My kids have shot competitively as well and I have a close friend that has built and run several shooting ranges. I've watched him approach people he's never met at public state run ranges and coach them on safely handling their firearm. There's just no tolerance of it. I always go back to the first rule of gun safety. If you don't know what it is, well, we've got ourselves a problem.
Do you still shoot matches ?

Jeff

 

[Jeff H]

Update. Sheriff stopped by twice yesterday. No one home. Power company tech was there Tuesday and no one home. It was quiet when I was there on Monday. I stopped by yesterday evening and found no one home. Waited till 7:30 or so, them left. No dogs barked when I rang the bell so I think they must be out of town. I'll be down on Saturday or Sunday and will try to catch them home then.
I went down to the corner of the yard where their property line meets mine and found the targets. The red line is the property line. Green line is just a trail. Google earth measures the distance as 99.62 yards from the targets to my tree stand.

 

[Kabic]

So do you think he is shooting parallel to the property line? I think I can make out the power line at the top of the picture.

 

[catscratch]

The angle between his house, his targets, and your house kind of sucks!
It would be kind of fun to tape about 10lbs of tannerite right behind the center of his target. Would give him a good reason to re-locate it. Of course I'm just kidding about that tannerite part!

 

[Jeff H]

The way his targets are positioned would indicate he is shooting across the property line which puts my stand 100 yds down range of his targets. Then again on Sunday he shot down a power line which would indicate that he was shooting North and parallel to my property line. That's across a different property line. The power line and his north property line are one in the same. Here is a picture of one of the targets leaned up against the tree. It was taken from my side of the property line. I'm facing almost due East.

 

[CTM1]

My kids have shot competitively as well and I have a close friend that has built and run several shooting ranges. I've watched him approach people he's never met at public state run ranges and coach them on safely handling their firearm. There's just no tolerance of it. I always go back to the first rule of gun safety. If you don't know what it is, well, we've got ourselves a problem.
Do you still shoot matches ?

Jeff

Stopped a couple of years ago as the head of our group really lost focus and it was no longer worth the time.

 

[Fish]

I called my neighbor early this spring when their boys were sailing bullets over my head from their pistols. Neighbor was rude to me and suggested i was the one with a problem, not them. I said if i heard another shot, they would have a visit from the law. I pointed out how much i didnt want that to happen, but that they simply could not shoot at targets, on a hilltop, facing my property.
Something soaked in, cause i havent heard them shoot since. Hopefully your neighbor will get the point.

 

[Jeff H]

I called my neighbor early this spring when their boys were sailing bullets over my head from their pistols. Neighbor was rude to me and suggested i was the one with a problem, not them. I said if i heard another shot, they would have a visit from the law. I pointed out how much i didnt want that to happen, but that they simply could not shoot at targets, on a hilltop, facing my property.
Something soaked in, cause i havent heard them shoot since. Hopefully your neighbor will get the point.

Thanks Fish. I am hoping the same. I still have not made contact with him yet. Was there last Wednesday then again on Sunday. No one home. I'll get to him eventually. They can think what they want of me but the Sheriff is already aware of the issue. One way or another it will get stopped.

 

[JFK52]

What a butthead. That is a totally inadequate backstop behind his target, if he is using the tree as a backstop. I predict you will have a lot of problems with this character. I don't live on my hunting land and I have had many problems over 25 years. In all instances, it was neighbors or people that neighbors let onto their property that were the cause of the problems. I had the sheriff issue a repeat trespasser a ticket and give two others verbal warnings. There is an accident waiting to happen with his irresponsible shooting. I also found that a letter from a lawyer stating that legal action my be in the works if his conduct persists works on some occasions. Just a shame because this type of behavior just eats away at your head and prevents you from enjoying your land.

 

[boot]

Update. Sheriff stopped by twice yesterday. No one home. Power company tech was there Tuesday and no one home. It was quiet when I was there on Monday. I stopped by yesterday evening and found no one home. Waited till 7:30 or so, them left. No dogs barked when I rang the bell so I think they must be out of town. I'll be down on Saturday or Sunday and will try to catch them home then.
I went down to the corner of the yard where their property line meets mine and found the targets. The red line is the property line. Green line is just a trail. Google earth measures the distance as 99.62 yards from the targets to my tree stand.
View attachment 2897

Send him a copy of this and maybe an aerial image of the entire property line boundary just to make sure he officially knows the lines and can't use that age old excuse of " I didn't know where the property line was exactly"

 

[Jeff H]

Well I finally caught up to my neighbor on Friday. He had apparently been out of town until about 3pm Friday. I met him at 4:30. I told him I was very concerned about his shooting range and the fact that my blind was 100 yards down range. I also mentioned the fact that he had shot down a live power line. He denied both but I didn't let up. He knew that I knew he was lying. He actually said he does not actually shoot at the targets. He said they are there to get the deer accustomed to the human form. I'm not sure if he's really that stupid or if he thinks I am. Either way I don't buy it and I told him so.
On a positive note he was quick to offer his hand for a handshake and he said that there will be no more shooting at his place until rifle season and that those shots will only be fired at deer.
All in all a positive outcome in my mind. It could have gone bad quickly and as long as I had stewed on it my trigger was short. I believe he is extremely passive aggressive. He mentioned he works nights. So I'm hammering, sawing, and making nine kinds of racket building my blind and it pissed him off enough to grab a gun head to his property line and rapid fire some shots in a "ill show you who's boss" kind of way. Yet when confronted face to face he was overly nice.
As I was walking away with everything settled he says "by the way, if you have 100 acres why did you build your blind right behind my house?" That's when I knew for sure all the rest was B.S.

Question, does spreading 10 lbs of Milorganite along the property line make me passive aggressive too ?