On Wed, 12 Jan 2005 17:43:09 GMT, RogerN wrote:

Are there laws as to how far you must be from a road to shoot a gun? A
neighbor said you are not supposed to shoot within 500 feet of a road.

That depends on a ton of things, not the least of which is "where in the
world are you?"

The
reason I'm asking is because I have ~4.5 acres but it is all frontage. If I
stand close to the road, I can shoot away from the road which seems safer
than being away from the road and having to shoot toward the road.

Of course.

Shooting
parallel to the road puts the aim in the direction of houses down the road
either way.

Not good, and if I was in one of those houses, I'd be ****ed.

In my situation, the safest seems to be standing near the road
and shooting away from the road with miles of fields behind the target and
backstop.

Assuming a good backstop, this seems the only logical approach.

I'm in Illinois and have googled for state and federal laws, so far I have
only found that you must not shoot within 1000 feet of schools, etc.
Haven't found anything saying you must be 500 ft away from the road.

Maybe he's thinking about the hunting regulations, which are
designed so that you don't hunt from the car or road. Plinking
doesn't have that limitation. Perhaps rec.guns would be another
good place to post this question (see you there, maybe?) Similar
"personality" to the group; mostly helpful, some grumpy, some
helpful grumpy sorts.

Dave Hinz