Laws Regarding Shooting on Private Property

[PaulB47]

why not just call the sheriff and ask for permission to shoot on your property

Why not just shoot and stop begging permission for things?

I live S of Hillsboro and hear more shooting here than I did in Wyoming. I shoot in the gully behind my house. On the other side of the gully is another house with a new neighbor, who (it turned out) was uncomfortable with the shooting - the wife was, anyway. She contacted me about it, said it bothered her. Instead of doing my usual thing, like I would have when I was younger, of telling her to mind her own business, or that I can do what I please on my property, and so forth, we talked about it for a while. I offered to call her when I wanted to shoot, and wait on that until she was away from home. In other words I tried to accommodate her. Finally she said something like, "Oh, never mind, just go shoot when you want to!"

Moral of the story, get along with your neighbors, they won't give you grief no matter what the silly (and unconstitutional) laws say about it. Although even legally I believe as long as you are outside the UGB you are good to go.

I recall some years back there was some pressure in Washington County (Oregon) to restrict shooting outside the UGB too, by the hoplophobes, but the county commissioners were not having a bit of it - even the liberal Democrats.

 

[Heywood]

Why not just shoot and stop begging permission for things?

Exactly.. Do not ask permission, it will only make people expect it.
If your neighbors don't like it, they shouldn't live where it is common. You'll always have a few that do not. We had them moving out to where I live, usually Portland or Cali transplants that would whine about the gun shots and atvs. They are ignored by the other 95% of us.

 

[Martini_Up]

The Sheriff is not going to authorize you to shoot on your own property. I live on 9 acres out in the sticks - I shoot on my property all the time - So unless you live within the City Limits I wold say fire away ! There is no ORS that prohibits you from shooting your firearms - outside the City limits of an incorporated City.

so you missed the joke. it's ok. it's buried rather deep.

 

[Sabertooth]

Down here in southern Oregon outside the city limits all that is needed is a good back stop and make sure your not shooting at some ones house. Ya know common sense stuff.

 

[csa_ap_hill]

Why not just shoot and stop begging permission for things?

I live S of Hillsboro and hear more shooting here than I did in Wyoming. I shoot in the gully behind my house. On the other side of the gully is another house with a new neighbor, who (it turned out) was uncomfortable with the shooting - the wife was, anyway. She contacted me about it, said it bothered her. Instead of doing my usual thing, like I would have when I was younger, of telling her to mind her own business, or that I can do what I please on my property, and so forth, we talked about it for a while. I offered to call her when I wanted to shoot, and wait on that until she was away from home. In other words I tried to accommodate her. Finally she said something like, "Oh, never mind, just go shoot when you want to!"

Moral of the story, get along with your neighbors, they won't give you grief no matter what the silly (and unconstitutional) laws say about it. Although even legally I believe as long as you are outside the UGB you are good to go.

I recall some years back there was some pressure in Washington County (Oregon) to restrict shooting outside the UGB too, by the hoplophobes, but the county commissioners were not having a bit of it - even the liberal Democrats.

Exactly.. Do not ask permission, it will only make people expect it.
If your neighbors don't like it, they shouldn't live where it is common. You'll always have a few that do not. We had them moving out to where I live, usually Portland or Cali transplants that would whine about the gun shots and atvs. They are ignored by the other 95% of us.

yeah once you start asking permission were screwed just do it. As long as your outside city limits you should be good.

 

[ajgunner]

No hard legal facts, but I have been told that you need 5 or 15 acres to shoot on your own property. With that in mind I live in a development that consists of 2.5 and 5 acre lots. I also have 2 state troopers and 1 PDX city cop as neighbors. While none of them shoot on their property (mostly because of the lack of a backstop/flat gounds), we have plenty of neighbors that shoot all the time. One neighbor shoots at very sporadic times and number of rounds fired. I have never talked with them until they started in with the tanner rite. That got plenty of folks pissed. They don't shoot it any more, but do shoot every couple of days anywhere from a single round to an hour long session. When I do some shooting I call 2 neighbors first. 1 has a dog that is very gun shy and the other has multiple horses. Both are pleased to know that I care enough to at least give them a call first. 15 years and never had any issues. I do have the decency to limit myself to mostly 22's and handguns. If/when I want to rattle out a bunch of mags of 223 or big bores, I will make a 5 minute drive to a neighbors that has 500+ acres. To me this just seems like common sense---keeping good neighbor relationships.

 

[PDX1953]

Contact the Zoning & Planning office for your County. If they can't find the appropriate statute for it just shoot safely.

 

[raylo]

Especially if you have a constitutionally friendly sheriff I would think it smart to have a talk with at least a deputy without being overly intrusive. It helps a bunch if you have a CHL when you talk to them. I swear mine's like some kind of gold card with law enforcement.
Go down to the Dept and with an ariel of your property and just inform them of your intentions showing that you are being perfectly safe and considerate of your neighbors and slip into the conversation that you wanted to make sure there isn''t any history of people complaining about firearms owners in the immeadiate area. If they recieve a call involving a complaint against you, they already know who you are and exactly who they are dealing with. If you already have a bad relationship with your sheriff you may want to see if something like this could improve it. I've known felons in states where felons can own black powder rifles that have good relationships with law enforcement. When the sheriff gets a call that the felon has used his BP rifle in some alleged crime or assault the sheriff knows it was likely self defense, due to the nature of the accused, who isn't necessarily a bad person or career criminal.
I live on rural acreage in Columbia County that borders 100's of square miles of (now) Weyerhauser timber land. The new owners are not as friendly as Longview Timber was. We've had no problems though. I did have an occasion when a friend came from a considerable distance to have some range time with me. Some elderly woman who brought two children with her to visit my neighbor absolutely lost her mind because we were shooting and left the premises honking and flashing her lights practically waving a white flag out the window screaming 'don't shoot us'. we were downhill facing away from the house she was at and the road she was on the entire time and she was aware of it. No rocks or metal to be concerned about ricochets. I set down my pistol and walked up to speak to her with hands visible and before I could say anything she insisted that 'they don't allow shooting around here anymore.' I explained that I had just shot right in that same spot a few days before with the homeowner of the residence she was just visiting. I never heard any more about it nor did I bring it up as those neighbors have sold and moved but I gathered from the other neighbor that the woman was a general trouble maker and had she not been warned sternly by the people she was visiting, I would have recieved a visit from the sheriff. There's always a busy body around.

 

[tionico]

why not just call the sheriff and ask for permission to shoot on your property.

whoever you get on the other end of the wire may or may not know the LAW, and thats what hyou're after. Further, if its legal you do NOT need or want to "ask for permission". If it is not legal, someone's "permission" over the phone won't get you off the hook.

Most counties in the west have websites, find the one about property, look yours up by parcel number or address. Should be a link to mapping, when you get there, typicallhy along the left side is a whole slew of tickboxes for features to turn on and off. You want parcel numbers, property lines, perhaps roads.... and, at least in the three counties in Washington I've actuall looked at, one of those tickboxes is "(no) shooting zones" or some similar term. Tick that one, and it will show whether YOUR parcel is a legal shooting zone or not. Mine IS, but the other side the next street south (half mile) is a strict NO SHOOTING ZONE for any reason...
I'd also go to the part of the county website that lists all contyh ordinances. Typical headings for the category of laws you need to check will be something like "health and safety" or "peace and security"... headings under that should direct you to firearms laws.rules. May also have a search bar at the top of the ordinance page. Enter "firearms". Typically, shooting on your own property is a positive right... you may, unless some law/rule says you can't.

 

[Migo]

This part in Oregon's ORS 166.220 is confusing to me:

"...within residential areas within urban growth boundaries..."

Some here refer to city limits and the Metro UGB, but many small rural towns have UGBs surrounding them. Does anyone know if you can legally shoot outside city limits, but within their UGB, if your land is zoned agricultural or farming, but still has a house on it?

 

[DuneHopper]

Around here, can't be anything with in an Urban growth boundary if its unincorporated you can do it thats my understanding . Not a lawyer, but I stayed an Holiday Inn Express last night.

 

[python287]

Urban growth boundaries involve planning issues normally - if you are outside a City - I don't think you would have any problems.

 

[RVTECH]

Down here in southern Oregon outside the city limits all that is needed is a good back stop and make sure your not shooting at some ones house. Ya know common sense stuff.

Pretty much the same here in Central and South Deschutes county - it's the 'common sense' part that sometimes gets forgotten.....

 

[The Heretic]

Urban growth boundaries involve planning issues normally - if you are outside a City - I don't think you would have any problems.

Not in large metro areas - there are places outside city boundaries in Washington county where shooting is not allowed, same in Salem. I think I posted this before - the county will usually have a map online or otherwise available to show no-shooting areas in the county.

 

[Goosebrown]

I don't shoot on my property but we are looking at a place where I can and will. I plan on doing it during reasonable hours and I plan to let the neighbors know I shoot.

One thing that does bug me though is shooting at night or early. Seems common courtesy to keep it down when people might need to be sleeping

 

[porkchopexpress]

I live in Marion county (near Woodburn) on 20 acres and shoot regularly. So do most of my neighbors. I can't see them, but I hear them often. Even full auto is heard fairly regularly.