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Firearm Ordnance in my township?

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Hey guys I searched for a couple days and read almost the whole local ordnances. 

 

What I want to know is if I can shot .22's in my back yard.

 

I guess if there is nothing about it in my local ordnances I need to go by the state ones?

 

I live in Upper Deerfield Township.

 

 

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450' from structure apply?

 

As far as I'm aware, that's a hunting regulation only.

 

I couldn't find anything in state law that disallows shooting less than 450' from a structure, but local towns may have adopted something along those lines.   The question is, would that actually result in arrest or just a ticket?

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And we all know that the PD always tell you law right?

 

"Can I shoot a 22 in my yard?"

 

"No"

 

Don't ask them if you are allowed. Ask them "please tell me what municipal ordinance applies to me firing a gun on my property."

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Stop into Township Hall. They will give you the right answer. If they do allow it you will more than likely

 have to meet their specs for A back stop even though you just want to shoot .22

 

Also, Not trying to sound smart, But look at what your club goes thru all the time.

 

I had to get A variance approval, Which involved contacting my neighbors to get their approval.

And Im on 18 Acres of land.

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Do NOT ASK YOUR TOWN!!!

 

Holy hell dont you people learn..

 

 

Either look up the town ordnance on line or get for them at the town hall. DO NOT ask such a direct question, some idiot asked here about bows and now they literally wrote in an ordnance a month later.

 

Your town may never do such a thing, but the chance is there.

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I'm in Hopewell (the one near you), I shoot in my back yard all the time.  There is no state law against discharge on your own property.  If Upper Deerfield doesn't have an ordinance, there is none. 

 

But, there are always other things they could charge you with if somebody complains.

 

My advice is: don't' call the township.  If they haven't passed an ordinance, don't tip them off that they could do so.  And since you don't have a local PD, NJSP won't know each township's ordinances.

 

By the way, the ordinance above is for Deerfield, not Upper Deerfield.

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I know of one guy who got a visit from NJSP when he was shooting on his own property.  He was bump firing his AR and somebody called that they heard automatic fire.  Troopers showed up, asked a few questions, told him to have a nice day and left.  This was Pittsgrove Twp. so it may have been the Woodstown Barracks, not Bridgeton.

 

He farms and was far, far, away from other properties and houses so your mileage may vary.

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Do your neighbors like you?

One of my neighbors was watching me shoot full auto suppressed. I had a plastic bottle hanging from my woodpile by a string. I had my sliding glass door open and I was shooting at it from the comfort of my dinning room table. It was about 2030 and getting dark. All of the sudden I notice the guy in a white T-shirt and shorts at the corner of my fenceline just standing there watching.

 

I get up and close the door, go into my office and wait for the cops to come. Nobody comes. The neighbor did give me a wider berth after that, though.

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Gotta use common sense.

 

I shoot in my yard when I don't hear kids out or when it's not warm and I know not populated. And that's with a back stop and 6 miles of woods.

 

I passed an 8 pointer one year because I knew the kids were waiting for the school bus and that's a few hundred yards away.

 

I don't want to make waves. Sometimes if the neighbor's kids are out I'll grab a parent and invite the kids to shoot.

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I did ask my township and they had to look it up. Lady stated that the only thing she could find was a noise ordinance that could be of concern if someone complains. The lady said, if the njsp (my police dept.) are ok with it go for it. She "suggested"  that I build a backstop, which of course I did. Never bothered to call njsp and I have a nice shooting range out back. Now, I do have at least 5 miles of woods between my backstop and the next road, with no houses. It's pretty cool when I shoot, it seems like everyone in the neighborhood starts firing off. Usually, if I'm home I'll return the favor if I hear some shooting. You don't worry about complaints when everyone around you shoots too. Been shooting for 3 years at least couple times a month and so far not one problem. My township is pretty cool though, I also asked about off road dirt biking and hunting on township land and they said "do what you want we are OK with it. Just be safe"

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This is NJ shooting in your backyard is probably a really bad idea, but not because of any hatred of guns.  Think about all the lead that you are depositing on your property.  One day you will go to sell your house and someone will do an inspection and by that time there will be some new crazy rule and because they found heavy metal your property will now be classified a Super Fund hazardous waste site and you will have to spend millions to clean up the site. :(

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Elemental/alloy lead is not very mobile in the environment. Serious problems due to ranges do happen but are the exception not the rule. And usually just a matter of the size of the impact area and reworking of soils and backstops over decades. One or two people shooting at a 6' berm for 20 years would most likely create a situation that can be remedied with a few buckets from a backhoe. If it would ever come to that, which is extremely unlikely. Also, lead impacted soil in NJ is not considered hazardous waste unless it is "characteristic toxic" (D008) under federal law. Otherwise it is ID27 and very cheap to get rid of. If it is D008, it is about the cheapest hazardous waste to get rid of (~$160 per ton) and would need to have a TCLP test result higher than 5 mg/l to qualify as D008, which again is unlikely from a metallic lead source.

 

You'd be much worse off spilling a few gallons of gasoline (or Heaven forbid chlorinated solvent metal cleaner/paint stripper from a hardware store) if discovered, depending on the hydrogeology.

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Ftfy.

Nope. I have disposed of thousands of tons of lead waste, perhaps tens of thousands, as non-Haz.

 

Lead impacted soil is only hazardous if a TCLP test is higher than 5 mg/l, and that would be as a D waste.

 

Further, far less than 1% of contaminated sites are addressed under federal programs in NJ. They are addressed by the NJDEP.

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I'm no chemist... But I've shot at Hudson Farm and prior to that club that place was like a nature preserve or something. I've asked them how they got the state to approve it and I was told "the lead is nothing, the plastic wadding in the shells is way more damaging to the environment that's why we only shoot special shells here."

 

I said "really the lead isn't an issue?" Right as two deer and a turkey walked by. He goes "the lead is nothing"

 

True story.

 

Like I said I'm no chemist but this place is primo environmental and if they say lead is not an issue in the ground then I believe it.

 

The only place steel shot has to be used is one station that shoots over water.

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I think you guys are missing the point about the lead.  First, while animals may flourish right now where there is lead; we all know that lead exposure has long-term impacts - but even that was not the issue.  The point is that while there may not be any laws right now, there is a high probability there will be in the future.  Just like people never thought they would have a problem with lead paint or asbestos, think about what you need to do about remediate if you try to sell a home today that has either one.  I would not think it a good idea to be spraying lead all over your property, it will likely bite you down the road. 

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I look at it this way, where do we get lead from in the first place? I'll give you all a hint it's not from outer space...

I think we get it from the same place we get asbestos.  That has nothing to do with anything.  There were chemical companies that dumped lots of stuff in NJ in the 50's and 60's and much of that was legal then, or even if not legal was a slap on the wrist type of thing.  Those companies, if not sued out of business today have been forced to pay hundreds of millions to clean up what was once not considered a major problem.  That is all that I am saying, it is probably not prudent to fill your property with lead.  Just because it might not be a major issue today, I would venture to guess within 10 to 20 years it will come back to bite you.

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That would mean pretty much every revolutionary and civil war battle field up and down the east coast and out to the Mississippi are all contaminated as well. I'm sure these days there are subdivisions built all over where these battles were fought. There aren't too many places in this state, you can't wave a metal detector around a little while and come up with a mini ball.

 

Besides if your shooting everything into a raised berm in a concentrated area, it's not to hard to remove whatever you shot into it. Nothing is going to be below the surface too far unless your shooting into the ground. I'm sure you may possibly get some spalling, but a few scoops with a rental skid steer and a sifting table could be cleaned up in a weekend.

 

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I think you guys are missing the point about the lead.  First, while animals may flourish right now where there is lead; we all know that lead exposure has long-term impacts - but even that was not the issue.  The point is that while there may not be any laws right now, there is a high probability there will be in the future.  Just like people never thought they would have a problem with lead paint or asbestos, think about what you need to do about remediate if you try to sell a home today that has either one.  I would not think it a good idea to be spraying lead all over your property, it will likely bite you down the road. 

 

And maybe someday we'll discover that Lemonaid, Apples, and wearing T-shirts causes diseases.  I'm not going to start imagining all of the things that might happen someday and alter my life around them.

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And maybe someday we'll discover that Lemonaid, Apples, and wearing T-shirts causes diseases.  I'm not going to start imagining all of the things that might happen someday and alter my life around them.

Hardly the same thing, and you are being quite silly.  You might not like what I am saying, but it is a path we are very likely to go down.  Lead is a proven health hazard.  It has been removed from gasoline and paint due to those known health hazards.  It is not a leap to speculate that it's presence in the soil will some day soon become a big problem in property transfers.  Just think about other common things like underground fuel tanks, and what has to be done to sell a house that has one.  Or consider if you have lead paint on windows and want to replace them.  It is only prudent to imagine what might happen some day when you are talking about materials that are known toxics that already have serious environmental regulations.

 

Things have gotten so crazy with lead that the government has come into a range I frequent and made an issue of what happens with the wipes the gunsmith uses when cleaning guns.  It really is not a matter at this of if, its a matter of when regulations will clamp down even more than they already have.

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