tldr: Can you point me to something I could reference for hunting/gun safety and/or policies to incorporate into HOA bylaws?

I'm in an HOA in a rural neighborhood in a rural area just outside of ATL. Most lots are only 5 acres, but some own multiple lots together and some people have lots of 20, 30 acres, etc.(I have 25 acres and back up to 300 acres of uninhabited county land). In fact half the neighborhood backs up to the uninhabited county land.

I hate HOAs and wish we didn't even have one, but I got on the board just to make sure they don't do anything dumb. We've had a bunch of issues lately involving dumbasses with guns and nonresidents deer hunting in the neighborhood/. They don't know where the lines are, so they go on other people's land. Or they wound a deer and then go on other's property to try to locate it. I know that's trespass, but if it's not actively going on, the police don't want to fool with it. And we are probably 30 minutes away from the Sheriff's department, so they take forever to get there if it's not an emergency.

The original bylaws said no guns, period, but everyone has been ignoring it. We've had issues with people being irresponsible. An NFL receiver had his posse over shooting "machine guns" late at night at trees according to a homeowner and other homeowners who I trust said they've heard bullets whizzing through their trees (they think the guy, another guy not NFL guy, had targets hanging off of tree branches with nothing behind it). We also had a guy who owns 5 unimproved lots allow a good number of nonresidents hunt on his land. Not sure if he's getting paid for it or what. A couple of weeks ago two sheriff deputies came to my house in patrol cars and in uniform to ask if they could bow hunt on my land. I'm still a little p.o.'ed about that. Scared us to death.

Most residents are good and will target shoot or hunt at reasonable hours, being safe, etc. But a 5 acre lot is pretty small and if you aren't being safe, that's a problem. The police have been called but they don't care unless it is an active situation or just don't want to deal with it.

The board has decided to amend the bylaws to allow guns, but we want to put reasonable limitations and prevent nonresidents from hunting deer/turkey or having non-residents hunt in the neighborhood. We also want to reference/incorporate good practices.

It is hard to legislate common sense and courtesy. Be careful, it is a slippery slope.

I also just want to get rid of the gun restriction. I shoot off my second story back porch at steel targets I have at 25,33, 50 and 100 yards, but my house sits on at the top of a steep hill and if anyone misses, the shots go into the dirt. If someone else gets on the Board, they may start enforcing the no gun restriction because of the idiots.

There is a neighborhood in Chappel Hill that allows hunting on a large 300+ acres community owned property and the minimum lot aka is like 10 acres.

I don't know what the name of it is, will try to find out, but they have HOA language that is something like this.

Gunny456 said:

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You guys are setting yourselves up for bad consequences. If you or others are shooting at targets that don't have proper backstops or berms and a bullet travels out of your land it can be catastrophic.
You have mentioned that there is "uninhabited" land behind your property or backs up to your property. I would not want the liability of a ricochet or stray bullet going into that property. Just because you think it is uninhabited is no guarantee that a person can't be in on that land.
Having folks shoot firearms on 5-25 acres without proper backstops or berms is an accident waiting to happen.
Maybe that's why the original rules said no shooting of firearms?
I would still check on what your county laws say about firearms and acreage minimums on hunting.

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As I said, my targets are safe. Where I'm at my property abuts a reservoir. The uninhabited property where I'm at is on the other side of a reservoir. The other houses are not on the river/reservoir but abut uninhabited county land that goes upriver. All my targets are on my land. I am in the Chattahoochee Hill Country. The 100 yard target is at reservoir level, which is at 735 ft and my house is at 860 elevation. I'm on my second story porch which is 15 feet above that. 140 foot drop. Any miss goes into the dirt. My other targets do not have that much of an elevation drop, but they all do and they have hills on my land behind them that are way above that. A miss on those other targets would go into the hill (natural dirt berm) behind them.

The other morons are shooting without elevation drop or berm.

There was an area around Harper that I remember being around 1000 acres or so that was high fenced and game managed. The " lots" were a minimum of 50 acres and the landowners could hunt Axis, Blackbuck and Whitetail. They had harvest limits.
They also required shooting berms/backstops to be built that had certain construction requirements and specs that had to be met if folks wanted to target shoot.
Each landowner could harvest one blackbuck or axis per year and a certain number of whitetails. The landowners could invite guests…. but what the guest killed counted toward the landowners numbers.
Don't know if they still do it or not. If I remember it worked pretty well for the landowners.
They all paid a yearly fee for protein to be fed and the wildlife biologist.

Not sure how it's a troll thread when I am looking for serious replies and language to incorporate into the bylaw I will be drafting.

Thank you for the serious replies. Those are helpful.

Gunny456 said:

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Understand. But that's just your place. But from what you have described all your neighbors may not have the geography that you do and there in lies the problem.
Not to be argumentative, but I have our ranch land that is hills and timber, as the Ozarks is, and my nearest neighbor is about a mile away. I still have backstops and berms to shoot into. To me it's the prudent thing to do to be safe imho. All it takes is that one bullet…..you can't call it back.

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I didn't take your post as argumentative, but agree that some of the houses, especially the 5 acre lots without natural elevation, do not need to be shooting. Unless they build a berm.

I know nothing about Georgia other than I can't stand it. In Texas (and likely everywhere else) it is illegal for you to shoot if your bullets leave your property. Remove all firearm restrictions from the HOA. Federal guidelines are beyond restrictive already.

This had a yearly fee as well, I also think that it may have been now only…

Yes sir. Hope it all works out for you. Main thing is do whatever you need to do to be safe.
Good shooting sir!

CactusThomas said:

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I know nothing about Georgia other than I can't stand it.

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There are only a few people who are a problem. They are going to amend the rules, so I just want to make sure they are not too draconian and make sense.

The others on the board wanna do stupid stuff all the time, like they wanted to tell one guy he couldn't use his easement and tell a lady she had to move her mailbox to the other side of her driveway. I put a stop to both.

If you have seen Parks & Recreation, think of the Ron Swanson character. He hates government and wants to destroy it from within. Same. I'd disband in a heartbeat if I could. That would be my ultimate goal. I hate HOAs and every experience I've ever had with them is bad.

Way I see it, you got two options.

Establish a sanctuary HOA against all gun control or disband.