Craziest thing you have witnessed on the range.

[willie_pete]

A young newbie next to me was frustrated about not getting on paper. I offered some advice about removing the bolt and bore sighting it first, and that I thought he might be adjusting the windage the wrong way. "I KNOW WHAT I'M DOING!" he replied. When shooting resumed I put my next three rounds through his bullseye. He was happy for a while about 'his' success. But strangely he was unable to repeat it.

Not crazy, but it's what I got.

Yeah... I'm evil in a funny way.

that's cold.

i was was at an indoor range one day and a guy came in and laid out a .45 to shoot a few stalls down from me. First ( and only ) magazine went full auto. One round hit his target; six others stitched holes in the ceiling. He packed up and left after talking to the staff.

WP

[DRNurse1]

I heard about the 'Glenn' story when it happened as 'a guy was shot at a local range, looks self inflicted.' I work at a local trauma hospital, but I did not delve into it further and the local news was strangely quiet about it. I shop at SARCO in Easton, too, and had not heard the full story until now. I am sorry for your experience, and for his loss to the shooting community.

My addition to this thread is from a near miss: wife and I were shooting in a 'league'--RO, well constructed outdoor covered 25 yd bulls eye range--when some other club members showed up and wanted to join us. Third relay National Match Course (most folks only shoot one or two relays so we were the only two shooters left), Slow Fire Stage and we were down range scoring when the new folks showed up. The RO welcomed them then allowed them to unpack their firearms while we were still downrange. Scared the stuff out of my wife when I yelled at the new arrivals and crouched unsnapping my concealed carry holster (did not draw but that was the next step if the new arrivals did not leave their firearms on the bench and step back--I think that is what I yelled because that is what they did).

Needless to say we left immediately (did not complete the relay), and stopped shooting in this league. I could not bring myself to discuss that event with the RO or the league secretary (on the firing line during the event) at the time, but did manage to chat with the CRO about it later.

This kind of near miss is unfortunately common (muzzle sweeping the range, failing to follow other existing safety rules 'just this once'...) and only leads to a complacent firearm owner and hence to ND's. The RO is a Marine, shoots regularly at other venues and, I am certain, he knows 'the Right way' and, likely, the Marine way,' but I cannot believe he let that occur.

[imashooter2]

Nother one, Eccentric older guy came to the range most Sundays, must have been wealthy - always had the coolest guns. Semi-auto Thompson, 44 Automag, Hammerli free pistol, to name a few he brought over the summer. Always super nice, let us shoot his toys.
Shows up one day with this nice oak pistol box. Inside, two 6 1/2" model 29's, "A" engraving, zip tied. NEVER been cocked, we figured.
Nice we sez, thanks for sharing, those are beautiful !
Sly grin on his face, he holds up a pair of wire cutters.
No way, we sez.
Way.
Cuts em, loads em, and proceeds to shoot both, one in each hand.
Turns around when done, holds them out butt first and says "next?"
He came with 6 full boxes, left with 6 empty boxes !

Sounds pretty reasonable to me. I don't understand why a guy would buy an engraved gun and not shoot it.

[dilly]

I have also been witness to a new AR owner who didn't have the foresight to pick up an aft sight (pun intended) and just wanted to pop a few off as fast as he could. The shots kept rising up the berm and I am not sure they all hit it.

[Frank46]

On our old range it wasn't unusual to have cows wander around down range. Noise didn't seem to bother them. I had one directly behind my target once and all you could see was the legs. Then on the pistol range while firing had a police officer start down range to change his target. Everyone stopped shooting and he was ticked off as he got a royal chewing out from the shooters. And being in Louisiana you gotta watch out for snakes. more than once someone will go down range and all of a sudden it's feets don't fail me now. yep snake. then there was the idiot with the shotgun (loaded) who accidently shot up a display of western clothing as they had a cowboy action event at the range. That one cost him big $$$. And then there are parents who let their kids run around messing with other folks stuff while not saying anything to their offspring. That one got shut down in a hurry. Turns out he was not a member and due to his kids messing with other folks stuff was politely asked to leave. Frank

[brtelec]

Sounds pretty reasonable to me. I don't understand why a guy would buy an engraved gun and not shoot it.

I agree. Just a couple of weeks ago I bought a Stainless Ruger Bisley that is 100% engraved and of course unfired. Two days after I got it I took it to the range and put 100 rounds through it. Unfired guns are overpriced paperweights. I do not collect paperweights.

[Mik]

A shooter next to me on the firing line was shooting a 1911 without ear protection, his earmuffs were clasped around the back of his neck. When the RO yelled at him to put his ears on, the guy didn't holster, didn't put the gun down on the table, I don't think he even engaged the safety, he just reached up with both hands and put his ears in place, pointing the gun at his head in the process.

[MaryB]

I was on the 300 yard range at the local club I belong to getting in some long distance practice with my Savage axis 223(prairie dog range where we go is around 300). Dude pulls out some really rickety looking rifle, then unloads some 50bmg rounds. I packed up and moved 20 feet to watch. One of those cheesy single shots where you attach the round to the bolt then put the bolt in to fire. First 3 were fine, 4th went off as he was inserting the bolt. He tore one finger half off, shrapnelled his entire right side and the bolt embedded itself in the side of his car.

After doing some forst aid to stop the bleeding I waited for the EMT's and ambulance to show up. Ask we waited the guy mentioned he was shooting his own reloads from some powder a guy gave him that he wasn't sure what it was... the first 3 rounds had damaged the bolt badly and the 4th went off when the firing pin snapped forward with the bolt out of battery. Next time the guy came to the range he thanked me for the first aid. I promptly started packing to move to a different lane and he gave me a look of "what?". There was no way I would stay next to that dude while he shot handloads...

[Bent Ramrod]

No gory experiences for me, as yet at least, thank God.

I was checking out my Chrony with match .22 rimfire to see whether I was getting realistic numbers, which I was. I'm always happy on those none-too-frequent occasions where I seem to be getting good value for a low price. On the bench next to me was a guy with the same model Chrony, at the same distance from the muzzle of his rifle, only it was a .243. Every time he fired, the Chrony shivered on its tripod like a sapling in a wind gust.

The skyscreens on the Chronys at that time were attached to the instrument by a piece of cardboard with a hole in the center, marked for scope or iron sights. I was interested to see that this arrangement was not loosened by the blast from the .243, and congratulated myself again on my purchase.

Then the guy said, "Well, that's enough for this one," cased the .243, and uncased a Model 71 in .348. I opened my bolt so he could go forward and reposition his Chrony a little farther away, but he made no move to do so, setting the 71 in the bags, loading a round into the chamber and sitting down. "Don't you think your chronograph is too close to the muzzle for that big rifle?" I asked. "We'll know in about 2 seconds," he replied, with an air of breezy confidence, and pulled the trigger.

Both cardboard skyscreen holders disintegrated into a cottony swirl of paper pulp, the plastic screens flew straight up, and the Chrony sagged down as one leg of the tripod telescoped inwards. But it caught itself at the next notch and didn't fall completely over. I was watching the front of the instrument while it reeled, and was amazed to see the numbers roll up to a reading of 2530, which I figured had to be pretty close to the standard velocity of the cartridge. I again experienced happiness over my purchase, but the guy at the next bench seemed a little put out, sacking his rifle, cleaning his stuff off the bench and leaving forthwith.

"'Tis sport to see the enginer hoist on his own petard." I think Hamlet would have gotten a kick out of this one too,

[shooterbob]

Went to a public range and had an older gent sit down in the lane next to us and uncased a Beretta 9mm. He had shot a couple of mags and all the sudden my buddy grabs me and tells me to stop shooting and back off the bench. Apparently the guy was admiring his gun or something turned it across his body and popped one over my head. I didn't say a word as the look on his face told me he knew what he had done. Left very quickly.
Another time was at a range shooting a 300h&h and a guy with an AR shows up and sits down in the bench next to me. I lean down on the scope and as I'm about to fire, I see movement in my scope. The guy was charging the target on a hot range. He was almost running while shooting. The guy on the other side of him did fire as he didn't see the movement. Ro went berserk on the guy, and we never saw him again.

[merlin101]

A slightly different range, impact area for field artillery. During a FTX at Ft Sill years ago base piece had fired two rounds (155mm HE) and the battery was prepared to fire two rounds for effect ( total 12 rounds) when all of a sudden I hear to FO screaming in the radio "CHECK FIRE CHECK FIRE CHECK FIRE" I jumped on the land line and passed the order on and held my breath! No loud BOOM thats good! Turns out a couple of nimrod soon to be privates decide to take a deuce N half for a joy ride out in the impact area! They came close to having 1200lbs of hot steel land on em.

[chuckbuster]

How about a 7-8 year old shooting a Taurus Judge..... Hands barely made it around the grip

[Deliverator]

My brother told me a story of a couple nimrods deciding to remove a stuck HE round from a 155 using a LMTV and a howitzer cleaning rod. First they tried to push it out with just the rod. Since that didn't work they decided to wheel the barrel down flat and slam into the rod with a 5 ton truck. Shortly there after they called EOD.

EOD guy showed up, pointed out how stupid and dangerous what they were doing was, put a small explosive charge in the breach, closed it, and detonated it after moving everyone WAY WAY back. The round went down range but didn't detonate, and the howitzer was toast.

[flyingmonkey35]

A slightly different range, impact area for field artillery. During a FTX at Ft Sill years ago base piece had fired two rounds (155mm HE) and the battery was prepared to fire two rounds for effect ( total 12 rounds) when all of a sudden I hear to FO screaming in the radio "CHECK FIRE CHECK FIRE CHECK FIRE" I jumped on the land line and passed the order on and held my breath! No loud BOOM thats good! Turns out a couple of nimrod soon to be privates decide to take a deuce N half for a joy ride out in the impact area! They came close to having 1200lbs of hot steel land on em.

Buahhaha

Had something similar with a bunch of boy scouts looking for a camp site.

Heard the scout mastery state he's camped there hundreds of times. Ignoring the fence and signs et...

Hozaaza
Redleg

[Ed Barrett]

A few years ago I was at a public range up by St. Joe. Four fellows showed up and started shooting mosin m44's with surplus ammo. They started out at the 100yd. range then the 50 yd. range then the 25 yd. range, where I was shooting pistol, I tried to explain to them that the sights on most military rifles are set for human sized targets at 100 to 200 yds. They explained to me that they knew more about guns than I could ever learn.

When they went to leave they were putting there guns in zip up cases. One of them said that you should always pull the trigger to make sure there is no pressure is on the firing pin spring. Well one by one they half unzipped the cases and pulled the triggers. The third one had the gun go off blowing a hole in the case. They all quickly threw the guns in the trunk and started to leave. About that time smoke started coming from the trunk, they started to panic and bailed out of the car. I told them to open the trunk while I got a fire extinguisher out of my truck. It turns out the flannel lining of the case caught fire and that started the plastic on fire. It charred the wood on the forend wood. One of these geniuses told the the others that the gun was ruined because the barrel had lost it's temper and the gun was defective because it went off when it should not have.

The threw the gun in the trash barrel and left pretty fast, probably because I was laughing so much.

That gun had a pretty good bore and after shooting some cast loads in it.

[M-Tecs]

My local trap and skeet club has rental firearms. Middle age man rents one to shoot a round of skeet. He is on my squad. He walked to station one and put the barrel in his mouth and pulls the trigger. He flopped two or three feet into the air. Seemed like 30 seconds but it propely was only a couple.

[Jack Ripper]

My local trap and skeet club has rental firearms. Middle age man rents one to shoot a round of skeet. He is on my squad. He walked to station one and put the barrel in his mouth and pulls the trigger. He flopped two or three feet into the air. Seemed like 30 seconds but it propely was only a couple.

That wins for craziest.

[docone31]

Just got back from the range today. Lots of 400lb Mall Ninjas in all black with black head coverings. They all had Mosins and Sks's. It was amazing watching them walk to the 100yd target stations. Some had compression stockings, most waddled and sweat like crazy. They got back and were huffing and puffing. Sat through that firing round, and started to get ready in the next. Several had bandoliers and leggings. It was amazing.I was sighting in my Hawken, the front sight is too high. I been playing with patch thickness, lubes, ball size and load.Well, one range officer came to our table, picked up my 1911 and started racking the slide!I kinda resented that. My many years on a bike, my particular desire to have no one touch anything, the callousness was incredible. I have been a member of that club longer than most of them even knew it was there.I was fuming, one Mall Ninja was discussing how his Mosin could do MOA at 1000 meters for rapid fire. He was telling how he could do it, even with heavy wind and factory ammo! Spam can ammo in a factory chamber with a reamed muzzle.What a shot that guy was. He never fired though, just told others how to do it.I spoke to the top range officer and told him what the other did, he will take care of it, and we left the Ninjas to do their amazing shots that no one saw.We just left early.I know how much to file the front sight, never did fire the 1911, it did well all the other times.We just left.Times have changed for sure.

[TenTea]

I've given out a couple dozen sets of foam ear plugs for people (families) who come to a shooting range without any ear protection.
A couple years back, here comes dad, mom, 8 year old girl and newborn baby, still nursing and maybe a couple months old.
No one wanted plugs from me, but I near begged the 8 year old wear them (she was shooting a .30-30) and they complied.
Mom just covered the newborns ears with her hands and stood behind the firing line while centerfire rifles were loosed.
The baby cried, but no big deal to them...

Then there are those that bring their dogs to a rifle range and onto the firing line.

Common sense ain't so common.

[crawfobj]

I hate going to the public range for the reasons you guys have pointed out. I've been fortunate I guess. The craziest thing I've seen was a guy that prematurely discharged his 7mm rem mag and launched the projectile over the berm. The other side if the berm is the sporting clays range and a golf course beyond that. I know a few guys that have had bullets buzzing by them while playing that course. Just one more reason for me to not pick up a golf club.