BELCHERTOWN — A Hampshire Superior Court judge has mostly cleared the Granby Bow and Gun Club as the source of stray bullets that hit four Belchertown homes in 2023 and 2024, instead finding hunters trespassing in the surrounding woods could be to blame.
The residents of Mountain View Drive have kept their leisure activities inside since bullets first hit their homes. The first two incidents occurred on June 27, 2023, when bullets hit a home at 135 Mountain View Drive and shattered a glass door at a home on 120 Mountain View Drive. Another sliding glass door was shattered by a bullet at 147 Mountain View Drive on March 29, 2024. Then on April 4, 2024, a resident at 143 Mountain View Drive found two bullet holes in their shed.
The street is about a mile away from the Granby Bow and Gun Club rifle ranges. Based on the proximity to the club and the timing of the bullets, the residents alleged the club was the source of the projectiles.
The residents spent the last year litigating a preliminary injunction request to halt the gun club’s long-range operations, but on July 31, Hampshire Superior Court Judge Michael Callan denied the injunction.
In a 17-page decision, Callan found only the damage to 135 and 120 Mountain View Drive could have possibly originated from bullets from club property. He did not say whether the projectiles came from the range itself or somewhere in the heavily forested 278-acre property.
“Where errant bullets originating from the Club range have been remedied, the remaining risk to Mountain View Drive residents is from trespassers and other gunfire from off Club property,” Callan writes.
Since the bullets were found in April 2024, the Granby Bow and Gun Club greatly improved its safety measures by installing cameras at firing lines and in the wooded areas of the property, court records state. The club also now requires range safety training for all members and has added color-coded arm bands to show member status. Safety procedures are strictly enforced. Callan said the changes have “significantly enhanced the safety of the Club,” noting there have been no Mountain View Drive homes hit by bullets since April 7, 2024.
He said allowing a preliminary injunction would “do nothing to address the remaining risk as the injunction would not apply to other nearby shootings, and is unlikely to deter trespassers.”
The four Mountain View residents were disappointed in the outcome but pleased by the new safety precautions, their attorney Randy Milou said in a statement. The case is still early in the litigation process, but Milou said he is working with the club’s lawyers to negotiate a settlement. If the parties cannot come to an agreement, the case will move to trial next year.
“As the judge stated at the conclusion of the hearing, we are neighbors, whether we like it or not,” Milou said. “We remain hopeful that the parties can reach a fair and equitable resolution, and that we can work with the gun club moving forward to help keep the Mountain View Drive neighborhood safe.”
The Granby Bow and Gun Club expressed satisfaction with Callan’s decision through its attorney, Martha Dean.
“The Club is grateful for the court’s careful consideration of the evidence and to be fully operational while the litigation continues concerning what the Club maintains have been years of baseless public claims,” they wrote in a statement.
Before the safety measures were put in place, there was a lot of non-club-member gunfire taking place on the club’s property, with Granby police records including a log of gunfire-related incidents in town, the decision notes. While some calls were about range activity, Callan said other reports discussed gunfire when Granby Bow and Gun Club was either empty or not open.
Long-range shooting reconstruction expert Eric Warren, who submitted an affidavit in the case, discovered several other points outside of the range where projectiles could have come from. In addition to the forested land around the club’s shooting range, Warren found spent cartridges and a tree stand in the forest west of Mountain View Drive.
After finding evidence of hunters along a logging road near an Eversource right-of-way, the club installed security cameras in the wooded property areas to monitor trespassing activity. The cameras have caught many non-club members on video. The club has been “aggressive” in sending cease-and-desist letters to any unsanctioned shooters on its property.
With the new evidence of trespassers, the court ruled out the club as a source of the bullets that hit homes at 147 and 143 Mountain View Drive in the spring of 2024. The court disregarded a letter from the Northwestern District Attorney’s Office that said the bullets came from a March 29 rifle training event. Warren found the bullet that hit 147 Mountain View Drive likely came from southeast of the club, and the other bullets came from somewhere between the club and Baggs Hill Road.
Ballistics expert Lucien Hagg noted that an escaped bullet from the range would have shot through the 143 Mountain View Drive shed. These two bullets also had corrosion, which the decision said removes them from the relevant timeline.
However, Callan rejected Warren’s claims that the bullet recovered at 120 Mountain View Drive did not originate from club property. Other evidence and testimony suggests the bullet came from either the range or the surrounding wooded area. Under Massachusetts law, the gun club would only be responsible if the bullet originated from its range, the judge ruled.
According to a tracking and scheduling order filed on Aug. 21, the full discovery process has just begun and will continue into next year. Without a settlement, the tentative trial date is on or after June 21, 2027.
