I Thought I Left a Gun at the Range!

[deltaenterprizes]

I thought I left my S&W 617 6'' at the range, made me sick to my stomach. I looked high and low in the safes couldn't find it. After calming down and not thinking about it, it popped into my head where it was. Today they are TWICE what I paid for that one. Thank God for small favors and restoring a little short term memory loss! [smilie=l:

[SciFiJim]

Uhoh Delta. You are starting to show the beginning signs of CRS! :veryconfu I've suffered from it long enough to know the symptoms.

[S.R.Custom]

It wouldn't have surprised me if you had. Over the years I've found a lot of stuff at the range-- A range bag with 500 rounds of handloaded .38 Spl wadcutters, an expensive adjustable rest for bench rest shooting, a Winchester model 12, a Bersa .22, and a Weatherby Mark V in .240 Wby. All of the items were left by themselves, sitting on the bench like the guys just plumb forgot to go back for that last trip of stuff while loading up.

The guy with the Weatherby came back while I was still there, and I knew the guy who left the Bersa, so he got his gun back too. I still have the other stuff; ads in the newspaper and posters at the range never elicited any calls.

[JIMinPHX]

Back when I lived in Boston, I occasionally went to the range up in Malden after getting off of a bar tending shift late at night. On one such evening, I got back to the apartment around 3:00am & started cleaning the guns that I had fired. Then I realized that I couldn't find my .45. I double checked my shooting bag. I checked my safe 3 times. I just couldn't find it. I was then pretty sure that I had left it at the range.

I drove all the way back up there & turned that place upside down looking for it. It wasn't there. I figured that someone must have found it & picked it up. The range had CCTV, so I figured that I could find out who it was once I got a look at the tape, but in the mean time, my big question was - do I report it missing ASAP or try to see the range tape first?

In a place like Boston, reporting something like that is a quick way to get your LTC revoked, but on the flip side, what if someone had taken it & was up to no-good with it?

I was really worried about this when I got back home again around 5:00am. Then I went to grab a glass of OJ & there, sitting on top of the frige was my .45. I must have absentmindedly set it up there when I went to get a drink after returning from the range the first time. What a relief. I had thought that my gun owning days were over.

After that, I didn't do so many late night trips to the range any more.

[jhrosier]

....
In a place like Boston, reporting something like that is a quick way to get your LTC revoked, .....

Anywhere in MA that would now get your LTC revoked.
A buddy had a gun stolen from his unlocked car when he made a quick stop for smokes on the way home from the range. Bye-bye LTC. He got the LTC back about ten years later. The gun was recovered minutes after the incident and was taken by the police for evidence (of his crime, not the theft.) He never got the gun back.

Jack

[Southern Son]

I normally do it the other way and leave them at home when I go to the range.

[azrednek]

I normally do it the other way and leave them at home when I go to the range.

I don't forget the guns, its things like ammo and mags I forget to bring to the range. About a month ago I brought my AR-15 and mags and ammo for my CETME that I left at home. I also left my shooting glasses with my dove hunting stuff. I just can't shoot through my every day progressive glasses. Last year ago I brought my 44 revolvers and 2 boxes of 41 mag ammo.

[copdills]

glad you found it, I bet that did make your stomach a little light lol, happens to us all

[cheese1566]

Surprising how often it happens. Our range is "private and only to paying members", which is only $15 dollars a year to get the padlock combination!

Since being on the force full time for 7 years, I know of 2 occurrences of long guns being left on the gun range table. An honest shooter them later brings them to the PD.

One long gun has been in holding for 5 years with out an inquiry and the ATF trace came to a dead end.

The last occurrence was this last summer when a shotgun and rifle was left on a table. Another honest shooter waited until he was done shooting. When he was the lone person leaving the range, he brought them down to us. Again nobody claimed them or inquired for 6 months. Two ATF traces were sent in and one was a dead end. Luckily, the other came back with a local resident's name. I called him and found they were his. He loned them to his son who had advertently thought his brother had loaded them after the shooting day. He came down in an hour and picked them up. Happy ending!

Another time when a private security guard left an unholstered loaded 357 Mag in the bathroom at a fast food restaurant.

[1Shirt]

I left a #3 Ruger at the range, drove back to pick it up, and found a note with a tel no to call if I could discribe the rifle. I called, discribed the rifle, and went and picked it up from the gentleman that I had never met before. Kind of restored my faith in folks!
1Shirt!:coffee:

[deltaenterprizes]

I have full blown CRS, it scares me and my stomach was in knots for a while.

[gnoahhh]

Years ago I found a S&W M39 at the range. The guy arrived after I was already shooting. We chatted, he fired a bunch of rounds, and left. After I was done shooting and packed up to go home I noticed he had left the Smith on the bench. I had never met the guy and never got his name. I took the gun along with me and called a couple of local sporting goods stores until I found a clerk who recognized the description of the guy. Long story short, I called him, he checked his range bag and realized he was missing the gun. He gave me the correct serial # and we met up. Happy ending. Three months later I read a news report of the same guy being murdered by his wife. She knocked him out with an empty champagne bottle, then finished him off with- you guessed it- his M39 S&W 9mm.

Moral of the story: don't drink champagne with a pissed off wife who also knows how to shoot!

[Farmall 1066]

There's a Bushnell rangefinder on a gravel road somwhere North and West of Bridgeport, NE!
I know I left it on the bumper while loading up, after shooting prairie dogs!

I once was packing fast, hailstorm moving in in the Sandhills, and jumped in to head to civilization. I shifted into gear, and noticed my AR-15 still on the hood! I haven't made that mistake twice!

Andy

[Hip's Ax]

Ten years ago I forgot my shooting jacket after practicing for high power, left it right on the line in a suit jacket hang bag. Luckily the RO had it, he broke my chops some but gave it back. Every since then and I make an additional trip back to the line after everything is back in the car, I stand there and look hard all around before I leave.

[Shooter6br]

I tried to forget the wife ......But she found her way back..............Just kidding.Take some good Fish Oil caps or other supplements for memory. I do a double check when I leave the range. I have lost little things like scope caps etc,

[bonza]

Take some good Fish Oil caps or other supplements for memory

I bought some of those, but I can't remember where I put them!

[OutHuntn84]

This post makes me so happy ... just to know I'm not the only one!!! LMAO

One day I was sitting in my chair watching the boob-tube and thought about an old Lorcin 380 I didn't shoot hardly at all ( Just had it cause I couldnt get rid of it ) and I couldn't think where on earth it was. I checked all the usual places called a few folks that I might have loaned it to, even asked the wife. No luck so then I tear apart my reloading room trying to find it. Wasn't concearned about its value just that it was unaccounted for. So long story short after destroying the house looking for it I found it in an ammo can in the garage and I still don't know why in the heck it was there.:veryconfu

[madcaster]

I am lucky,I only left a priming horn,I THOUGHT!:sad:
About 4 months later I found it at home.:roll:I was so happy to find it again.
I have heard of guys losing guns and bows beside the roads where they have been hunting,leaned the weapon against their vehicle ot on top of it while they removed their coveralls then pulled away.Some are too ashamed to ask I think.
Most have been returned to their rightful owners I think.

[400cor-bon]

the older one gets, the more CRAFTy they become

like Can't Remember A Flippin' Thing!!!!

[KCSO]

As a rookie I carefullly hung my gun belt from the stall door as i was engaged in the Christian Science reading room. Then went back on patrol, wrote 4 tickets and came back to the station for a new ticket book... and met my Sgt. holding my gun belt! I worked 1/2 a shift w/o my belt. Boy howdy, 3 days w/o pay for being out of uniform, improper storage of firearm, and according to my Stg. being a no good rookie S#i! for brains!

Now I am older and the BOSS! So I keep a gun in my desk, one in my car and one at home, just in case.

[shdwlkr]

At the private range I shoot at when time permits we find all kinds of stuff being left and we have quite a few LEO's in the club who know almost every member and I have turned stuff into the one I know real well and almost every time he has able to tell who it belonged to and even a phone number to call.
We take special care to make sure nothing is left as LEO's train on our range and they do razz us on their finds if they are any good.
Our range is way out in the country so it would be a good place to find a firearm and get away with it as most of the time the range is occupied by one or two members shooting. I have showed up a couple of times when non members had gotten over the fence and were being disrespectful and been a help to the one member that was asking them to leave. Once we started out with just the two of us and ended up with 10 of LEO's members helping them to understand the error in their thinking. Nope not a good thing here to be on a members only range and not a member or guest of a member.

[lead-1]

I was BS'in with the owner of a small shop during deer/gun season one time and these two guys came in to sell a Remington 11-87 camo slug gun. They couldn't settle on a price and the guys left with it, the owner and I had never seen them before and had no idea who they were and before they left they told us no big deal we found it anyway. A day later a guy I know comes in looking for that shotgun, when he loaded the deer in his truck he left the gun leaning against a tree then drove off. We told him about the two guys and tried to describe them to him, seems he talked to them when they stopped to look at his deer, so they knew the gun was left and probably circled back to get it. The guy then goes to the Police who then calls the Sheriff and tells them we got his gun and won't give it back.