Miss Black Rifle Disease
Regular Member
I thought I'd post this experience up:
My friend wanted to shoot my AR-15 and she has a house and land in rural Boutetourt county Virginia with enough room to shoot so I packed up my black rifle/ammo and headed out there. I had been there before but couldn't remember the exact property situation. Her land is in a very country area where homes are very widely dispersed and nowhere on her property are any of her neighbors homes even visible. Once I got there and assessed her land for a safe shooting position I determined the only safe place to shoot without a proper backstop that would keep missed rounds on her property was to set our shooting position in her front yard by the road shooting into her property towards a bluff. The bluff was tall enough to stop any rounds from leaving her land. So we set up and shot about 200 rounds. Almost to the minute I fired the last round I brought two Boutetourt County Sheriff cars came driving up.
The first thing out of the lead deputy's mount upon seeing two women with an assault rifle was "now that's what I'm talking about!"..I immediately knew he was at ease, lol. My friend asked if we were doing anything against the law and he said no. He said they had received complaints about the hi rate of fire. I was at one point doing some rapid fire but my weapon is not F/A. He got out and the second deputy also walked up. Talked to us a bit and brought up that we may be violating a law requiring shooters to be 100 feet from any road. He then asked for both our names and SS#s.
Normally I would have told him to go pound sand, but being we may have been in violation of the road proximity ordinance I decided cooperation was the best course. Once he got back the all clear on me and my friend he walked around her property to suggest alternate shooting positions. He told us as long as we complied with that law there is nothing her neighbors can do about us shooting. But I will say he kept asking about where her property ended. I suspect he may have been fishing for info to use for a citation charging us with shooting onto another's land. I may have been a little paranoid about that as his land inquiries may have been just an attempt to help us find a better shooting position not that I really needed it.
My mistake was clear in not thinking about the likelihood of a street proximity law. But this property is so rural that such a thing never occurred to me. Lesson learned. Overall I will chalk this LEO contact up as a positive one. The lead officer even pulled his patrol carbine out of his trunk to show me. After all was done we talked AR-15's and ammo for a bit then the LEO's left and we proceeded to drink beer..
My friend wanted to shoot my AR-15 and she has a house and land in rural Boutetourt county Virginia with enough room to shoot so I packed up my black rifle/ammo and headed out there. I had been there before but couldn't remember the exact property situation. Her land is in a very country area where homes are very widely dispersed and nowhere on her property are any of her neighbors homes even visible. Once I got there and assessed her land for a safe shooting position I determined the only safe place to shoot without a proper backstop that would keep missed rounds on her property was to set our shooting position in her front yard by the road shooting into her property towards a bluff. The bluff was tall enough to stop any rounds from leaving her land. So we set up and shot about 200 rounds. Almost to the minute I fired the last round I brought two Boutetourt County Sheriff cars came driving up.
The first thing out of the lead deputy's mount upon seeing two women with an assault rifle was "now that's what I'm talking about!"..I immediately knew he was at ease, lol. My friend asked if we were doing anything against the law and he said no. He said they had received complaints about the hi rate of fire. I was at one point doing some rapid fire but my weapon is not F/A. He got out and the second deputy also walked up. Talked to us a bit and brought up that we may be violating a law requiring shooters to be 100 feet from any road. He then asked for both our names and SS#s.
Normally I would have told him to go pound sand, but being we may have been in violation of the road proximity ordinance I decided cooperation was the best course. Once he got back the all clear on me and my friend he walked around her property to suggest alternate shooting positions. He told us as long as we complied with that law there is nothing her neighbors can do about us shooting. But I will say he kept asking about where her property ended. I suspect he may have been fishing for info to use for a citation charging us with shooting onto another's land. I may have been a little paranoid about that as his land inquiries may have been just an attempt to help us find a better shooting position not that I really needed it.
My mistake was clear in not thinking about the likelihood of a street proximity law. But this property is so rural that such a thing never occurred to me. Lesson learned. Overall I will chalk this LEO contact up as a positive one. The lead officer even pulled his patrol carbine out of his trunk to show me. After all was done we talked AR-15's and ammo for a bit then the LEO's left and we proceeded to drink beer..
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