To clarify.
I know that police like guns. I beleive most of them recognize what weapons I have and what they are capable of, and respect them as quality instruments. However, police around here do not seem to like these types of weapons being in the hands of "kids".
As far as how often I went shooting, it used to be just about every day last summer. I once went through 1000 rounds of 223 in under a week. Not cheap dirty wolf rounds either.
I fully understand police doing their duty and checking to make sure the weapons are not stolen/wanted/etc. However, being hassled about shooting in legal spots repeatedly, time and time again, really starts to get on your nerves.
Case in point: At one point we had permission to use this huge open field in the middle of nowhere. It was a cornfield right after harvest, a bunch of empty rolling hills and woods surrounding it. 200+ acres I beleive.
The first few times we shot there police came, giving various reasons ... someone driving by saw us/heard shots, neighbors heard shots, police saw us on patrol, etc. Not a big deal, as it was a new location and we expected this.
So we started calling ahead before we went here, leaving a message with the operator of the police station, telling them where we would be at what time and leaving a number we could be reached at. The operater was very friendly, and said she'd relay the message to officers in the field in order that they wouldn't be surprised by our activities.
After doing this, I was quite surprised/annoyed when 4, yes, 4 police cars arrived on the scene and both state and local police came out toward us. The exact words of the local cop as soon as we came into hearing distance:
"You guys are done here. We just got a bunch of noise complaints, you guys are done."
The local cops said they never heard a word from the operator ... they said that she certainly didn't know the law, and that "that's what we're here for son". They said that since they had gotten a noise complaint, we were no longer allowed to shoot here, and had to leave. This one cop examined my AR for a good 10 minutes, and kept asking if it was full auto or "just" 3 round burst. I couldn't beleive it.
This is just one spot out of a dozen or so locations where I have been needlessly and pointlessly harrassed by police that have no legal legs to stand on. We were shooting on private property, a good distance from the road, with a good backstop, with permission of the owner, with clean weapons obtained legally. We were still kicked off and treated like criminals just the same.
That being said, I never have argued with a police officer while holding a gun. That's just begging for something to go wrong.
As soon as I see police cars roll up, my weapon is cleared, set down or even cased. We then walk over to talk to the police, in order that they don't have to come out into what they could consider a potentially hostile area.
I've had my fair share of disagreements on location with police over our right to shoot, but very rarely do they concede any points to me, and I normally end up leaving in order to avoid further escalation. It is ridiculously annoying to have every legal right to shoot somewhere and still have to obey a cop and leave for the sake of peace.
Various friends have put in formal complaints when situations like this happen, but I never have. Little good has ever come of them, as the same type of thing kept happening over and over. I almost gave up shooting at one point, as the sheer enjoyment of shooting was constantly being trampled by police probing.
Either way, it's a much safer route to argue your points as a civilian in a police station rather than as an armed potential threat in a remote field.
As far as automatic gunfire goes, just about every noise complaint we have ever had has included this. I've been followed out into the woods before by a police Explorer, and when the cops heard a single AK dumping a 40 round clip at an empty keg, they flanked us. They told us that machineguns were illegal in the US, and that we were all under arrest. How ridiculous. My friend ended up handed his weapon to the cop, telling him it was not full auto, and telling him to see for himself. The cop emptied to rest of the clip, beleive it or not. They left shortly after. Come to think of it, we probably could have gotten them in trouble, as I don't think police officers are supposed to be discharging weapons as tests of legality.
Oh, all this aside, I almost got arrested the first day I had my benelli. My friend bought it at 8pm, decided he didn't want it by midnight, and sold it to me by 1. I couldn't wait till morning to try it out, so I went out to one of our "safest" spots to try it out. Apparently the sound of 00 buck being dumped at 3 AM carries a ways, as 4 police officers with spotlights come out after me. Ooops. I told them I just couldn't wait for morning, and that I was just testing it out. They didn't seem very amused.
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