Shooting At Home

[crh19425]

Hey Guys, new to the forum and I am glad I found it. Lots of good info in here and I hope you can help me with my question. So recently I moved out of downtown stroudsburg (monroe st.) to escape the scum and drug infested area within town. I moved back out in the woods to a nice 6 acre property near Shawnee(middle smithfield twp). Being new to the township I was wondering what their gun laws/ordinances are like pertaining to discharge and shooting at home. My property is bordered on 3 sides by cliffs/hills about 40ft tall and there are no houses or building past that. Also I would only be shooting my Mossberg 500, no rifles.

Thanks in advance!

[crh19425]

So I just emailed the sheriff's office and they got back to me in a few minutes. They said it is up to the zoning officer of my twp as long as you are out of the safety zone 150yards away from any homes or playgrounds.

[Swarner793]

Two things. First, it depends on the Township. It is not "up to" the Zoning Officer. It depends if there is an ordinance against it. The ZO only gets to enforce the existing ordinances. However, contacting the ZO should get you the answer. If he says no, ask what ordinance it violates.

Second, I think the "safety zone" is in the Game Code and usually only deals with hunting.

Be safe (and get a good backstop).

Scott

[crh19425]

Thanks ill check with the ZO. The one area of the property has a great natural backstop of dirt. Ill report back when I find out more

[mrnyman]

monroe county and its townships are very lenient with shooting, the sheriff's office pointed you in the right direction but swarner is right , it depends on the township's ordnances. on 6 acres as you describes you should be good to go , i wouldnt sweat it , just be reasonable with your neighbors, e.g no late night or early morning gunfire, no bullets landing near their houses etc. and no one will complain.

bear in mind that if contact the zoning officer he/she might want to come out for a look. they do that up by me.

enjoy , mike

[NShortino]

Middle Smithfield Township has no ordinances against shooting that I was able to find. I read through the zoning rules here pretty thoroughly, and couldn't find one mention of firearms in it at all. With 6 acres and a backstop, you should be good to go with shooting. The only issues you might have are with noise levels. You can't have constant noises over a certain level, but unless you're shooting hours on end every day, you shouldn't have an issue. Also be mindful of the time you're shooting. Late night/early morning will surely piss off the neighbors, though it's not necessarily 'illegal'.

That being said, a lot of your neighbors are probably NY/NJ types who will duck under their kitchen tables every time they hear a gunshot, and may even call the police to report it. I doubt they'd ever respond to a call like that though, and even if they did the most they would do is tell you to keep the noise down.

I shoot on occasion at my house (which is also in Middle Smithfield), but usually keep it limited to .22's, usually supressed, so the noise is way less of an issue. I've never had any police show up, and as far as I can tell the neighbors don't care.

Lastly, welcome to PAFOA, and welcome to Middle Smithfield Township! Your house wouldn't happen to be off Murray Hill Road would it?

[Vrez]

Welcome to the forum. Wow. I envy you on your move. I am over in Price Twp. I bought a pump shotty over a year ago and haven't found a place to test it. I hope you hae success with getting the Mossberg out. I'll be listening for you if I am near Shawnee.

[tsafa]

6 acres of property is big enough so that at least some parts of your property will be 450 feet from a house. Put your berm there. If you have a lot of trees that is good because they are good sound buffers in the summer and keep prying eyes out. Evergreens are even better because they are green year round. If you don't have evergreens, have some planted to obscure your shooting area. Wait until the fall when leaves drop so that you can see where you need to plant those evergreens. Consider a 800 foot fallout area if you are shooting clay birds. Only use number 9 or 8 shot and best to have trees in the back to help catch the flack.

Privacy is always a good thing. I had one occasion where I was shooting on my property before spring and cop came up my driveway and asked me what I was shooting at. He said he spotted me from the road. I said my backstop and he left. The point is that it is better if they can't see you in the first place and have no cause to come on your property to ask what you are doing. That is when I got the idea of planting evergreens. You might be better off asking if you can hunt on your property. There are laws on the books that actually favor that. If you can hunt on your property, no reason you can not target shoot. Remember not to volunteer information. It can't help, it can only hurt.

Zoning Officers may try to sell you a permit in order to put up a back stop. The vampires will classify it as an improvement and jack up your property taxes. I consider that "land scapping" and there should be no permit requirements for planting grass on a small hill. Government (Fed, State, Local) does not exist to help you. They exist to support and maintain themselves. They see you, the property owner, as a giant ATM machine to get money out of and be a tax-slave for them. You would be better off talking to more people who shoot on their property in the area and seeing how they get by.

[fallenleader]

i guess this is a bit of a rezz, 3 weeks.
but i live out here too, in a community.
as far as i know, your not allowed to shoot or hunt in communities, some planned community act stuff.
thought i might throw that out there for some confirmation and consideration. please and thanks.

unfortunately i'm only on 1 acre i'd love to shoot at home.

[moonclip]

I was curious inregards to this as well...

received some enlightening answers in the subsequent thread link:

http://forum.pafoa.org/general-2/143...-backyard.html