We live in a rural farming area and only have an acre, but I can shoot as much as I want in my yard, if I choose to. I normally choose not to, as I dont want that type of attention, and I have a really nice range, just 2 minutes down the road. I annoy those neighbors.
I do shoot in the yard on a pretty regular basis, with load testing, or critter shooting, etc, but I dont "practice" here. My nearest neighbor is about 300 yards away, and the next nearest over 500. With the way the mountains and valleys run, the sound travels a long way, and EVERYONE knows who is doing what. Just because its rural, dont assume people arent still whack jobs. If anything, its worse out here.
As much as people like to hunt around here, many, if not most, are not what I would call "shooters". I shoot more in one outing, than most probably shoot in 5 years or more.
There is one boy up the road who shoots what most here consider "a lot", on a biweekly basis at his place. A couple of boxes at best. Ive been in the local Quick Mart and had people ask me if I "heard all that shooting" up our valley, and "it sounds like a machine gun (it doesnt
) and what do you think they were doing"? Its obvious it draws attention. Something I would prefer not to do, especially as much as I shoot.
One advantage here is, there are a lot of small gun clubs, and they are usually deserted most of the time. They are also a lot less anal about how you shoot (as long as youre safe), than the ranges closer to the cities. I can do pretty much anything I want, and shoot anything I want.