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Distance you can shoot from a house
- Thread starter Stefanlg55
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500ft, for both IIRC
- Joined
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better info here
Unless you are on a range.
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check into town bylaws as well
Billsail
NES Member
This.
This is MA we're talking about. You are really much better off joining a gun club. Far safer for your LTC.
HorizontalHunter
NES Member
Most clubs don't require that someone have an LTC to be a member. So your parents could join a club and bring you.
I don't know where you are. Wayland Rod & Gun Club will let you join as a junior member. http://www.waylandgc.org
You would need to come to the club with your parents, but you would be the member.
Originally Posted by Kevlar
With permission, you can be as close to the house as you want. (500' without permission)
regarding the road, you must be at least 150' away from a PAVED road.
better info here
FIFY
With permission, you can be as close to the house as you want. (500' without permission)
regarding the road, you must be at least 150' away from a PAVED road.
better info here
FIFY
I am going to assume you are talking about shooting as pertaining to the act of hunting as that is how this post started. If you are in a town that has no bylaws requiring permission to hunt private lands and the land is unposted you can hunt it. If there are bylaws requiring permission to be gotten to hunt or shoot firearms then you better find out who owns it and get permission.
Where you are required to have permissions it is your responsibility to know the boundries of the properties you hunt and stay off lands you do not belong on. Plat maps at the town hall's acessors office can help you determine property lines and owner information.
Discharge laws are
The right thing to do is to find the owner and ask permission. For all you know it's private land and the owners are camping out that day. And, speaking for myself, if rounds starting coming my way on my property then I will be sending plenty of rounds back. So be safe, respect property rights, and ask permission before shooting any land you don't own. I say the same for hunting, despite laws that permit hunting on land that is not posted. It may be legal, but it's not respectful.
edit: just realized this is an old resurrected thread
Last edited:
![[thinking]](/xen/styles/default/xenforo/smilies.vb/010.gif "Thinking [thinking]")
There isn't, at least not as it applies to that law. But case law in Mass. has held that when it isn't defined, that you revert to the commonly understood definition or other meaning found within the law. There's a few definitions in the MGL's for them, here's one:
MGL 81-13:
Note the "as used in this chapter" language.
That was my impression. While colloquially we may think of a "highway" as being a high speed, limited access road, I don't believe it is interpreted that way for this section of the law. If you hunt near a paved road, you do so at your peril.
PART I. ADMINISTRATION OF THE GOVERNMENT
TITLE XIX. AGRICULTURE AND CONSERVATION
CHAPTER 131. INLAND FISHERIES AND GAME AND OTHER NATURAL RESOURCES
Chapter 131: Section 58. Shooting upon or across highway; hunting near dwelling
Section 58. A person shall not discharge any firearm or release any arrow upon or across any state or hard surfaced highway, or within one hundred and fifty feet, of any such highway, or possess a loaded firearm or hunt by any means on the land of another within five hundred feet of any dwelling in use, except as authorized by the owner or occupant thereof.
Therein lies the problem, as with most MGL's the language used is not common clear and concise. What is a state or hard surface highway? 131 definitions do not describe what the legislators meant by those words, leaving some room for interpertation. A bike path on state property, owned by the state has a hard surface, but could it be defined as a highway? Most of the courts have changed it from state or hard surface highway to = public way, while also inclluding stuff that does not fit the public way definition like bike paths.
One word of caution is check the by laws of the town you will be in, you may be 100% complaint at the state law but some towns are creating 1000 foot buffer zones.
As for the hunting on public land read below:
PART I. ADMINISTRATION OF THE GOVERNMENT
TITLE XIX. AGRICULTURE AND CONSERVATION
CHAPTER 131. INLAND FISHERIES AND GAME AND OTHER NATURAL RESOURCES
Chapter 131: Section 59. Reservations, parks, public lands; hunting; state forests
Section 59. A person shall not hunt, or in any manner molest or destroy, any bird or mammal within the boundaries of any reservation, park or common, or any land owned or leased by the commonwealth or any political subdivision thereof, or any land held in trust for public use; except that the authorities or persons having the control and charge of such reservations, parks, commons or other lands, may, with such limitations as they deem advisable, permit the hunting, within said boundaries during the applicable open season of any birds or mammals. The authorities or persons having the control and charge of such reservations, parks, commons or land owned or leased or held for public use, the director of law enforcement, his deputy directors of enforcement, chiefs of enforcement, deputy chiefs of enforcement, environmental police officers, deputy environmental police officers, wardens and members of the state police in areas over which they have jurisdiction and all officers qualified to serve criminal process shall enforce this section.
This section shall not apply to state forests acquired under section thirty or section thirty-three of chapter one hundred and thirty-two or any other provision of law, or to state parks and reservations under the control of the division of forests and parks of the department of environmental management. Nothing in this section shall be deemed to prohibit any agency of the commonwealth or any political subdivision of the commonwealth from permitting the hunting, during the applicable open season, in any area owned or leased by it, of any bird or mammal, or from entering into agreements with the director for the establishment of wildlife management areas.
Both of the laws above were taken from: http://www.mass.gov/legis/laws/mgl/gl-131-toc.htm
TITLE XIX. AGRICULTURE AND CONSERVATION
CHAPTER 131. INLAND FISHERIES AND GAME AND OTHER NATURAL RESOURCES
Chapter 131: Section 58. Shooting upon or across highway; hunting near dwelling
Section 58. A person shall not discharge any firearm or release any arrow upon or across any state or hard surfaced highway, or within one hundred and fifty feet, of any such highway, or possess a loaded firearm or hunt by any means on the land of another within five hundred feet of any dwelling in use, except as authorized by the owner or occupant thereof.
Therein lies the problem, as with most MGL's the language used is not common clear and concise. What is a state or hard surface highway? 131 definitions do not describe what the legislators meant by those words, leaving some room for interpertation. A bike path on state property, owned by the state has a hard surface, but could it be defined as a highway? Most of the courts have changed it from state or hard surface highway to = public way, while also inclluding stuff that does not fit the public way definition like bike paths.
One word of caution is check the by laws of the town you will be in, you may be 100% complaint at the state law but some towns are creating 1000 foot buffer zones.
As for the hunting on public land read below:
PART I. ADMINISTRATION OF THE GOVERNMENT
TITLE XIX. AGRICULTURE AND CONSERVATION
CHAPTER 131. INLAND FISHERIES AND GAME AND OTHER NATURAL RESOURCES
Chapter 131: Section 59. Reservations, parks, public lands; hunting; state forests
Section 59. A person shall not hunt, or in any manner molest or destroy, any bird or mammal within the boundaries of any reservation, park or common, or any land owned or leased by the commonwealth or any political subdivision thereof, or any land held in trust for public use; except that the authorities or persons having the control and charge of such reservations, parks, commons or other lands, may, with such limitations as they deem advisable, permit the hunting, within said boundaries during the applicable open season of any birds or mammals. The authorities or persons having the control and charge of such reservations, parks, commons or land owned or leased or held for public use, the director of law enforcement, his deputy directors of enforcement, chiefs of enforcement, deputy chiefs of enforcement, environmental police officers, deputy environmental police officers, wardens and members of the state police in areas over which they have jurisdiction and all officers qualified to serve criminal process shall enforce this section.
This section shall not apply to state forests acquired under section thirty or section thirty-three of chapter one hundred and thirty-two or any other provision of law, or to state parks and reservations under the control of the division of forests and parks of the department of environmental management. Nothing in this section shall be deemed to prohibit any agency of the commonwealth or any political subdivision of the commonwealth from permitting the hunting, during the applicable open season, in any area owned or leased by it, of any bird or mammal, or from entering into agreements with the director for the establishment of wildlife management areas.
Both of the laws above were taken from: http://www.mass.gov/legis/laws/mgl/gl-131-toc.htm
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