Posted on 05/09/2008 10:30:04 AM PDT by Puppage
Wallingford (WTNH) _ A Durham homeowner says bullets from a Wallingford gun range are hitting his house. Today, officials from the state, the gun range, and News Channel 8 trekked into the woods to find out more.
Pat Dinatalia built a multi-million dollar home in the woods of Durham. He loves wildlife, and has seen deer, elk and even a bison on his 130 acre property.
What Pat doesn't love are the bullets piercing his house. One has hit the siding, another his garage door.
"I have sat out here on a Saturday or Sunday and had bullets whizzing over my head," Pat said.
News Channel 8 rode along with Pat, state police and a lawyer from the Blue Trail Range to find out what the source of the bullets are. Following a half hour ATV drive, they found bullets in various places and a state environmental expert logged all of them into his GPS for evidence.
Shell casings that may be from a machine gun were even found.
"Unfortunately, a bullet flying out of the sky at that velocity could kill somebody," explained state Rep. Ray Kalinowski (R-Durham).
Craig Fishbein is the attorney for the Blue Trail Range and says safety is the number one issue for his client. "It's never been established, ever, that it's coming from the Blue Trail Rifle Range. Even state police reports from back in 1999 did not establish it came from Blue Trail's range," he said.
There are no laws restricting rifle ranges, but Pat says that should change. "Someone has to take legal action," he said.
Pat says he doesn't want to see the range close and describes himself as a sportsman and a gun owner. He just wants safety measures put in place.
Same thing happened here. A guy wanted a range closed and called the cops when he heard bullets hitting his roof. The police got a ladder and recovered several UNFIRED complete 9mm cartridges. Unfortunately, he was not arrested.
“and has seen deer, elk and even a bison”
Bison in Connecticut?
Bison are becoming a real problem I guess .
Yep. They just HAD to get "machine gun" in there somehow.
How predictable.
Was someone firing a machine gun on the property?
No?
Then the casings were "planted".
Cute story ... but not relevant. This guy's house really has been hit, and the folks in the story found a number of spent bullets lying outside the shooting range.
That's a real problem that needs to be dealt with. Bullets should not be leaving the gun range like that.
Anywise, I was out shooting, and this county deputy pulls up on the road behind where I was shooting and comes down. He says he has to check it out because a woman who lives down the road has complained that bullets are whizzing by her house. He checks out my setup, says everything looks fine. Then I show him what I was shooting, and he immediately apologises for troubling me, he's just required by law to check on any complaints, but he can see that the call must have been bogus.
The reason?
I was shooting my Mossberg 500 .12 ga shotgun, firing #10 steel shot, with my pistol grip on while practicing my skills at shooting from the hip.
Seeing as the closest house is 1/2 mile away, how the hell could a casing get there?
Strong ejector spring?
Outstanding!!
Clumsy Robin?
After nearly 10 years the police haven't gotten to the bottom of this? Ever heard of trajectory? Send the 5th grade math and science classes out and they'd have it solved toot sweet.
which came first...the home or the range...??...if the range then why would he build a home in the vicinity of the range...??....if the home then why would the range be allowed to operate so close to a residence...??....
Yeah, sure, they are all over the woods in Connecticut. Or this guy is a lunatic.
What's with using the guy's first name in the story? Is he the reporter's brother or something?
The range. Been there forever & a day.
That doesn't sound much like shooting from a range, where brass nobody wants is collected and sold as part of the profit. Sounds like some idiots were just shooting in the woods without ensureing downrange was clear.
That's aside from the fact that any machine gun a civilian would own shoots the same bullets, or bullets easily confused with, those fired from regular rifles or pistols. A .308 Winchester looks like M-60 ammo, and a .223 Remington looks like M-16 ammo.
then he was stupid for building there.....
A multi-million dollar home?
For that price, it should at least be bullet proof.
Seriously, what do THEY think happened? A “machine gun” at the range fires super-duper bullets that eject the casings clear out of the range into the woods? What kind of idiots are these “investigators”?
Even IF there are bullets from the range hitting the home - which is doubtful, which was there first? The range or the house? If someone builds a home downrange of a rifle range, they shouldn’t be too surprised if a stray bullet finds your property.
See post 17
What proof is there that they are coming from the range?
I am not a real expert on guns, so I have to ask this...
Can you tell, on sight, whether a casing was from a bullet fired by an automatic weapon or a semi-automatic weapon?
How are they validating the claim that the casings were from a machine gun?
Dang right. They just abot et up all my petunias!!
(I've seen coyotes here in CT, but never Bison)
He has Discovery Channel
But at least after flying 1/2 mile the brass wouldn’t be hot enough to burn you...
There are some unique characteristics on a very few models of select fire capability that actually can be detected by simply looking at a shell casing. However, I believe even most of those arms have a semi auto version in which the components impacting the shell casing are identical to the select fire version.
Short answer? HIGHLY unlikely.
What a load of BS.Elk and Bison are not even native to the Northeastern U.S.If he has those animals there he placed them there himself.
As for the Deer; I have plenty of those myself.Along with turkeys and other wildlife.
I just think they're trying to close this rifle range.Its the only range in that part of central Connecticut that I can recall.
This was as the bottom of the article. At least they were professional enough to correct it:
**This story erroneously stated that the homeowner, Mr. Dinatalia, had seen elk and bison on his property. Actually, he keeps the elk and bison in a pen on his property.
It has not been established that the projectiles are coming from the range. If spent brass was found in the woods on or near the homeowner's property, and outside of the range's property, one might hypothecize that at least some firearms are being discharged outside of the range property, and thus outside of the control of the owners of the range. As an old street cop, I would also wonder if the reporting party had anything to do with that.
Geez, someone has a problem writing an article.
Shouldn’t take him more than two days to make a dirt berm.
If he can’t, he can hire me. I’m reasonable and won’t steal anything.
LOL That was great
I like how he used Boomstick too.
I've shot at the Blue Trail Range. Not only do they have a dirt berm, they have a lake and a 700 foot hill as well.
Then call CSI and collect evidence and start a REAL investigation.
This happens to ranges all the time. Some dimbulb activist who cannot take the time to get his facts straight files a complaint which (depends on the jurisdiction) is taken seriously WITHOUT INVESTIGATION.
Usually even a brief examination of the facts can produce an unexpected outcome.
For all we know the guy has fired at his own house with his own firearm, if they are in fact bullet holes at all.
Best regards,
That is because Pat owns a machine gun. I’ve heard that he fires it over the head of the dirt bikers that buzz through his property
That is because Pat owns a machine gun. I’ve heard that he fires it over the head of the dirt bikers that buzz through his property
I agree. They chased around on ATV’s and logged all of the bullets they found with a GPS. I spend a lot of time out in the woods working and used to do a lot of hunting. I don’t recall a single instance of finding a bullet. (Spent brass sure - but bullets?!)
Except for the time I did a job however at an airforce base. And did come across actual machine gun bullets. They were actually cartridges still on the band (or whatever you call it when they are all linked together). Seems they practice shooting from helicopters and I guess it gets jammed or the band breaks and a group of 3 to 10 cartridges would break free.
But I digress. That probably isn’t what they found here.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.