RATHDRUM - Leland S. Chase, who considers himself a genuine Idaho hillbilly, can't stand any more of the unrelenting gunfire that has been rattling the hills near his mobile home.

"I am not anti-gun," said Chase, 58, pointing at the mounds of antlers in his storage building near his home along East Chilco Road northeast of Rathdrum. "I don't want to be shot at, either, while I'm working away in my garden. There has to be a balance."

The shooting, which goes on day and night across Chilco Road from his property, is reckless and is putting people at risk. It's not unlawful to discharge a weapon in the area of Chilco Pond.

Chase said shooters there set up targets and blast away with his house, and others' homes, sometimes directly in the background.

"It is a dangerous situation out here," he said Tuesday. "Nobody seems to be using any common sense."

He purchased his property in 1992.

The area where the shooting is occurring is undeveloped. Powerlines and some heavily rutted roads cut through the property, which is owned by Coeur d'Alene attorney H. James Magnuson. Magnuson said the property is used to "grow trees."

Another neighbor, in a letter to Magnuson, complained about the gunshots which are aimed toward Chilco Road and residents' homes. The neighbor also complained about the constant "mud bogging" on Magnuson's property.

"This frustrating and disturbing situation has decreased our residential land value and quality of life," wrote Jo Chandler, in February 2010. "We all live here for the beautiful rural setting, peace, quiet, and abundant wildlife."

Kootenai County sheriff spokesman Lt. Stuart Miller said deputies know the peace has been shattered at times near the pond, and officers are citing everyone they can catch on the property.

Chase said deputies have done a "tremendous" job of late, and the shooting and general hell-raising has diminished somewhat.

A 23-year-old Hayden man was convicted by a Kootenai County jury last week for exhibiting a deadly weapon after he discharged a handgun near the pond when sheriff's deputies were at the scene responding to a report of nighttime gunfire. The incident occurred during the spring of last year, and nobody was hurt.

The deputies testified that they were scared for their lives when - standing in the open in the dark near the pond - a shot rang out. They saw the muzzle flash and thought they were being targeted by somebody on a hill overlooking the pond. The deputies returned with a volley of fire toward the hillside where the muzzle flash was spotted.

In an interview with law enforcement investigators after his arrest, the shooter, Kerry N. Damiano, said, "We wanted to go off into the woods and shoot some guns and drink a couple beers like we usually do on a Friday night."

Damiano said he fired his gun, a 9 mm pistol, in the air to scare away "Chilco hillbillies."

Chase observed, "It's not OK to shoot at deputies, but it's OK to shoot at Chilco hillbillies? OK, maybe I am a hillbilly, but I have other names too," including grandfather and U.S. Army veteran.

In clearings around the pond, bullet casings litter the grounds along with beer cans. Make-shift targets are set up in numerous directions. Almost everything out there has been shot at, including power poles, trees (some smaller ones have been split and fallen over from repeated blasts), ice chests, boards, plastic bottles and clay pigeons. All kinds of garbage out there is riddled with bullet holes.

Chase said he has often hollered at the shooters from his front porch a couple hundred yards away, only to be told to "relax."

He has been shot at twice while on his property, he said.

"I can tell you the bullet sounds like a cross between a bumble bee and a hummingbird when it whizzes by," he said.