Backyard Range Logistics/Min Property Size?

[tapcon4]

Hi all,

Hoping to fulfill my longtime dream of having a backyard shooting range. Looking at buying a second home near Center Hill Lake (either an existing home, or a lot to build on), and wondering if anyone can shed some light on the logistics/legalities for shooting on your own property. I know some counties have laws prohibiting this (Davidson County as an example) but I'm not aware of any minimum property size requirements near Center Hill. With safety and common sense prevailing, does anyone have experience on this and what minimum lot size I should be looking for? Obviously it's incredibly case by case with each home/lot, but if anyone has experience with something similar I would love to hear it.

Thanks!

Edited January 1, 2023 by tapcon4

[gary_boom]

From my experience it depends on who you are and how much money you have and who your neighbors are and how much money they have.

[RED333]

TVA owns the land from the edge on the water up to a point on the bank, it will be marked. So be careful and know where that line is as it not allowed to shoot on TVA and unless it is deemed OK to hunt on.

[gregintenn]

Depends on how much you enjoy dealing with pissed off neighbors.

Look at the proposed lot. Pretend you now live in the nearest house, and you are an anti gun Karen type person. How happy would you be to find out a shooting range is coming soon to said property? That’s who you’ll shortly be dealing with.

[Alleycat72]

Suppressors are your neighbors friend.

[Scotty]

Just my $.02. How I found this forum was probably back in 2019 or so when I googled shooting from property in Tennessee and an old thread came up (feel like I reread it last couple weeks). Considering that’s how I found the forum I’ll share my admittedly lengthy experience. 
 

 I’m fortunate enough to have a place that’s secluded, decent sized driveway and other than a neighbor at the bottom of the hill (who i shoot with) no neighbors for many acres. The house beside me is unoccupied, and 5-700 yards away. Maybe over a quarter mile down the street Is another older couple, and grandson who lives on the property, and in the other direction the nearest house is easily a quarter mile. 
 

The older couple a quarter mile away I typically hear him sighting in rifles at the start of deer season. Occasionally hear someone run a magazine or two. As I’m typing this now someone has been doing some small caliber and rifle shooting for 45 mins up on the holler behind my house. It is definitely not uncommon to hear people shooting. I try to explain it to people back home, that it’s somewhat reassuring to hear gun fire, and that on most holidays one person goes out to fire off a few rounds it sort of becomes a chain reaction throughout the surrounding area. I joke that back home when we heard gunfire, we’d try to find a block built load bearing wall to get behind. But now it actually puts me at ease knowing that the neighbors are proficient in firearm training. Cops are most definitely 10-12 minutes away, and the times neighbors have called the response time was lacking.  It’s peaceful, just sitting and counting the rounds off in the distance.
 

We also look out for each other, such as when a neighbor had some stuff stolen off of his porch, I would leave my truck down there or sit on his deck when he was out and still shaken up about it. After the criminal was released (far too early for his three page rap sheet) from jail, and went back for an easy score on the same porch, a sort of unofficial neighborhood watch email group was created (I stay out of it but appreciate them doing that). I saw the older couple in their driveway and pulled in to tell them another burglary had happened and they thanked me, and we all watch the unoccupied house as sometimes people trespass (kids, copper thieves, misfits). The other morning I was hunting and heard a metallic tumble from the abandon property. Figuring the deer were spooked, I checked it out for them, while being mindful not to trespass.

So granted that’s a long backstory. Getting to the meat of it, I shoot on my property. I don’t with much frequently these days, maybe twice a month but in the past over COVID maybe  2x a week, even daily out of boredom for a week or so. I do shoot on nearly every holiday. I have a couple of friends come over and break in their guns once every couple of months. I let my neighbor and his friends shoot at my place when I’m not home. The advice I got from my elderly neighbor whose lived here all of his life was: Holidays are always fine, try to keep it to 30-45 minutes, don’t shoot after dark unless it’s pests. I have a natural berm, couple of plates and targets, and I know where all of my bullets are going to end up. There’s no chance of a stray going remotely close to anyone due to the landscape.

With all that being said, 80% of my property shooting is .22. Run a couple practice mags of 9, and the lady will run her .380. Other than that we plink from the porch. If you come over, you’re not going to be obnoxiously mag dumping 30-rds of 5.56/7.62. Sure some quick fire here and there or a training drill but you can do the redneck trash pile mag dump at your place and bother your own neighbors. Typically I end a session with 5-10 shells varying between slug/buck/bird depending on the season. I do this to try to be respectful, even though I know that I can legally shoot however (i had my neighbor shoot buck while I was down the hill at his place and the sound of buckshot/HD rounds travels loudly) . Most of the time I try to call my neighbor to make sure he’s not taking a nap. Heck, I’ve only run a dozen slugs out of the tactical shotgun I bought so far because I didn’t want to be creating so much noise echoing in the holler. Same for 10mm/.40.

 

I guess what I’m saying is maybe scout the neighborhood  I agree with it’s how much your neighbors make, my neighborhood is pretty much all generational families and not poor but not wealthy successful blue collar types. Since finishing this post, two other people have started shooting, I thought I heard a deer rustling and saw a car instead parked at the abandoned house and walked down to see if it was my neighbors or not. When in doubt, buy some land from/near the guy whose got a feeder out on the yard and a pickup. Get to know your neighbors, try not to overdue it, and let’s all hope that a Karen doesn’t move into the abandoned house next door. I’ve always said, you can say whatever you’d like to about me and I’m far from perfect… but I’ve always been a good neighbor. 

 

Edited January 1, 2023 by Scotty
Typo

[monkeylizard]

7 hours ago, tapcon4 said:

Hi all,

I know some counties have laws prohibiting this (Davidson County as an example)

That's only true in the Urban Service district of the county. As a general guide, if the city picks up your trash you're in the Urban Service area. If you pay a private company to do it, you're in the General Service area. Shooting is fine in the General Service area, but these days a lot of that is too crowded to do it safely. But there are still undeveloped/sparsely populated areas esp. in the NW corner of the county where shooting is legal and can be done safely.

I know this doesn't apply to the OP, but it may help a future reader.

Edited January 2, 2023 by monkeylizard

[Scotty]

I am on the Davidson line in GSA. Drives me nuts that my property taxes don’t cover trash pickup, but I figure it’s a fair trade-off to shoot. I compost most everything to feed the gardens and live a minimalist lifestyle so hard to accumulate much trash but even still. I don’t make enough waste for $500 a year to pay someone for trash pickup, recycle the metal and plastic (just because I’m cheap, I think large scale recycling is a scam), shred the mail and cardboard and food waste goes to compost. Work or friends let me toss the occasional bag every now and then. Forgot to touch on the Davidson county exception in my long rambling post.