Craziest thing you have witnessed on the range.

[abqcaster]

A petulant college kid. He had a Ruger target pistol and was shooting at bottles not 10 feet from him and missed every one. He threw a temper tantrum like a 4yo and shot at the ground while he was walking away from the stand and TOWARD his group of friends. Dang near shot his own foot. I was gonna give him a pice of my mind, but the "range master" beat me to him. It was sight....

[novalty]

TenTea,

Thank you for carrying extra hearing protection. I carry 3 sets of ear muffs in my bag, and a couple spare sets of foam plugs. My father-in-law has almost gone through entire plastic bin of the foam plugs to family/friends that have forgotten to bring ear protection. Absolutely baffles me when people show up without any, have a couple in-laws that will show up and refuse any offered to them, and fingers in the ears are not enough. Not sure why someone would want to risk loosing something as valuable as their hearing--especially when people are offering to help.

[docone31]

I had forgotten the dude next to my wife and myself today.Had a real crappy looking traditions kit that he built. Right.To make a long story short, he had ..50cal, .490 balls handy and he told me, as I had a front stuffer and it seemed to work to him, he kept tearing patches.Set the coffee down, put down the beer, or scotch, and get ready.His rifle barrel said, .45cal.He was driving .50cal balls down the bore with a mechanics hammer. His measure for powder was a film cannister. He filled it kinda half way for the best shot.We left as he was pounding the ball in the bore.Mall Ninjas, nitwits with Muzzleloaders, time to go home.What has happened to people?The Mall Ninjas were using hand signals on the firing line.

[TenTea]

TenTea,

Thank you for carrying extra hearing protection.{snip}

You bet.
Having been close with many of my elders who had/have hearing loss due to gunfire and heavy equipment noise, it seems like an important protection.
Whilst in my youth, I've run many loud machines, attended many loud rock concerts, and hunted many a duck blind with 12 gauges firing near my head, without protection...I feel compelled to save what I have left and don't wish others to suffer permanent damage.
Hearing is an aid to good living.

[JWT]

I was shooting at an indoor pistol range when a guy started setting up at the next lane. He had obviously rented the revolver. The guy couldn't hit the target at ten feet. I had set down my gun and stepped back to see what was going on and maybe offer some help. I watched him take the loaded revolver and look down the barrel while he still had his finger in the trigger guard. I packed up quick and got out.

[Deliverator]

Why is it that everyone here seems more than willing to leave these people in ignorance rather than address the issue? If you see someone climbing up a ladder that isn't on sturdy ground do you just walk away and let them fall? Or do you run over and grab the ladder and hold it until they can climb back down and readjust? Next time you see someone doing something unsafe, tap them on the shoulder and let them know they are doing something unsafe and you'd like to help them fix that so they don't do it again. If they refuse, just tell them you warned them and walk away. Then if they blow their foot/hand/face/neighbor off they did so while intentionally ignorant of safe practices rather than just uneducated.

[JWT]

Over 20 years ago I was shooting my SMLE over a hay bale on a makeshift range. The guy at the next hay bale was shooting a fancy stainless Ruger Super Red Hawk with a matching Leupold scope. Every time he pulled the trigger it would knock my safety glasses crooked and flatten the grass for a good 20 yards. I backed off to watch the show. After another couple cylinders the glass in the scope broke. He removed the scope and continued. A few minutes later the top strap broke. He wasn't hurt. He just seemed irritated at the poor quality of his equipment.

[JWT]

Why is it that everyone here seems more than willing to leave these people in ignorance rather than address the issue? If you see someone climbing up a ladder that isn't on sturdy ground do you just walk away and let them fall? Or do you run over and grab the ladder and hold it until they can climb back down and readjust? Next time you see someone doing something unsafe, tap them on the shoulder and let them know they are doing something unsafe and you'd like to help them fix that so they don't do it again. If they refuse, just tell them you warned them and walk away. Then if they blow their foot/hand/face/neighbor off they did so while intentionally ignorant of safe practices rather than just uneducated.

I had the range officer speak to him immediately.

[blademasterii]

Do you have any idea what kind of pressures you have to achieve to blow up a ruger super redhawk? I would think the recoil and muzzle blast alone would be reason to second guess your loads. I run 19g of 2400 under a 240g boolit and it has a little snap, but well within pressure range. I can't imagine the recoil of loads that would blow up a srh.

[JWT]

His friend said it was a compressed load.

[blademasterii]

Of what, Unique? I'm pretty careful to stay well under max loads and I own primarily rugers which are known for being overbuilt. It doesn't take max velocity to take game or punch holes in paper. More powder is more money.

[Southern Son]

Two incidents spring to my mind. When I first got my Remmington 300 Winny Mag, I started handloading for it. The only place I could test these loads was Malabar Rifle range. I was a noob of the first order and happily shooting my loads when an older gentlemen sets up next to me. He pulled out one of the most beutiful Mauser rifles I had seen. He loaded up one round and liit it off. My first thought was "what the hell caliber is that?" It made my 300 loads sound like a BB gun. I looked over at him and saw him struggling to open the bolt. The 2 ROs came over to see why his rifle was waving all ove the place to find him with the but of the rifle wedged between his legs while he tried to open the bolt with BOTH hands. The ROs were two nice fellows so they offered to help. I stood back to watch what was going on. I then heard on of the ROs ask the old fellow "Where did you get the ammo?" The old bloke said with a thick accent of some sort "I make them." The RO then asks "How much of what type of powder did you put in it?" The old bloke holds up one of his handloads and says "Gun powder, I use gun powder......." he then held his finger along the side of the loaded round and said "this much gun powder........" I was gobsmacked, this silly old fool had just let off a bomb nex to my head. The ROs couldn't open the bolt on the rifle so it was put away and the old bloke left.

The second incident happened a few years ago at a BPCR event on a Shooting range at Captains Mountain. We were shooting from the 1000 yard line at a big metal buff. There was a range road that ran onto the range about 500 yards infront of our firing point. To stop anyone using it, we had a gate put up and we would lock the gate and leave a sign on it. The road actually swung around from that gate and went back up past our firing point, where we had a second gate, also locked. What no one knew was that the road had in the past not swung around and gone up range, but it had gone straight out onto a public road. It had been so long since that length of the track had been used, the bush had grown over it. Where that track joined the road, there was a locked gate with a warning sign. Anyway, just as the bloke next to me was about to fire (I mean about to fire, his finger was moving onto the set trigger of the 50/110 Sharps he was shooting), a bloody car drives out of the bush and onto the range. Everyone except the shooter saw it, but lucky for the goose in the car, the shooter heard everyone screaming "HOLD FIRE!!!!" and he stopped and looked up. The RO jumped into his car and raced down there to tear the goose in the car a new one. After a few minutes of the RO and the guy in the car talking, the RO lets the other guy out one of the gates and he drives back up the range to where we were all waiting. We were wondering where the car had come from and asked the RO what had happened and if the idiot in the car was going to be able to sit down any time soon. The RO then tells us about the gate on the public road and how about 10 years earlier it had been the main entrance. The RO then explained that the goose in the car had in fact been one of the high ups in the the Queensland Sporting Shooters Association of Australia (Those orange buttons over most of the Australian Members Avitars are the SSAA membership), and that he had let himself in throught the gate with a key that he had because of his rank in the SSAA. The reason he came in through THAT gate was because he had not been to that range in a few years and had missed the main gate (that he had to have driven past to get to the gate he used, in spite of the big signs saying MAIN GATE). At the time this happened, the Captains Mountain range was being billed as the number one SSAA range in Queensland and this twit, inspite of his rank in the SSAA, couldn't find the main gate and enter the range without nearly getting a 695 grain lead wake up call.

[shooterg]

On our Range any firearm not in use(held by and in control of the shooter) must have mag removed if applicable , action open, so any RSO can visually see that any firearm not in use is clear . I wouldn't have touched that 1911, but would've asked the owner to make it safe(per our Range site rules).

[MaryB]

I generally go the range mid week now, avoids all the mall ninja types and the idiots who just bought a gun and had to shoot it that weekend...

[higgins]

The fellow several years ago who refused to take the disposable earplugs I offered him for either himself or his son - people were shooting centerfire rifles under a roof.

The genius who refused to turn his scope windage (or it could have been elevation) knob in the other direction even though his shots were going further and further in the wrong direction.

The expert who first told me how much he knew about military rifles and later asked me if my Finn Mosin was an M1 (the prominent front sight protector ears must have thrown him). There are more but they don't readily come to mind.

[catmandu]

Back in the early 80's I went to my local outdoor range. Firing line and benches. There was about 25 feet of grass and the parking lot. I was just going thru the front row when something skipped along in front of me. I stepped on it and picked it up and right quick dropped it. It was hot! It was a cylinder with two halves of cylinders on each side. About that time two shooters start yelling and swinging on a third shooter. He 'was' shooting a S&W M29. Reloaded his own. Remembered that the shell used to be full up to the boolit base. Bullseye instead of Unique.

Paul

[flyingmonkey35]

So that the range today shooting my Winchester 30 30 at a gong 100 yards when somebody yells that thiers a squirrel on the range what should we do.


Sure enough there is one on the 50 yard line.

I reposition and blow it away.

And yell out what squirrel. They all turn back and point to find it dead.

Crusty looks were given.

RO told me never to do that again.

Not shoot cross range.

[MaryB]

This wasn't on the range today. It was at the gate. I drive up in my pickup. Park in the driveway and proceed to watch this guy trying to take the g ate apart with a pair of pliers. He finally notices me and turns red. I point to the sign and ask him to read it. He says "members only" I asked for his membership card and of course he didn't have one. Held him for the cops because he had damaged the hinge on one half the gate and was trespassing. Cops show up roll their eyes and said "again?" turns out this dude seems to think he can trespass on the range because it is next to a city park(range is privately owned). Cops hauled him off, I opened th eother half of the gate and scrape through and turn around and close and lock it. We do not leave the gate open unless it is a trap match, it is locked the rest of the time to keep people from driving in and possibly getting shot by an irate member

[StratsMan]

Summertime, at a public range a few years ago, no RO... Some yahoo's show up with a variety of guns, including shotguns and exotic ammo... You know, the fancy 12 ga stuff you see online and at gunshows... they're blasting away at empty beer boxes they threw out 15 feet in front of them, projectiles skipping over the berm... even the "flamethrower" type ammo was skipping.... sure enough, some smoke starts rollin' up from beyond the berm. Everyone quickly calls a cease fire and runs downrange to put out the fire. Check that: everyone except the yahoos that started the fire went downrange... After the fire was smothered, the yahoos were nowhere to be found...

[Bob in Revelstoke]

This was a long time ago and I have never forgotten it and still chuckle at the recalling of it.
I was at the range by myself when a gentleman older than me came to the firing line He had a single action 45 Colt and fired a few rounds off hand. He then proceeded to lie down on his back with his left hand behind his head and his knees bent. He held the .45 against his right leg and was aiming at his target. I remarked that that was not the right thing to do. He didn't say anything, but the look I got said, Don't tell me what to do kid. So, I didn't say anything more. He let one fly. Now, I have seen people jump up in the air , but never seen anyone come straight up from a prone position like he did. There was smoke comming from his blue jeans and he did a short dance. He then packed up his gear and left without saying anything. I have since learned that this is a modified Creedoore Position and requires good leg protection. I have often thought of trying it but now that I am nearly 80 yrs. old good sense has told me not to try it. But I think of it often and still chukle to myself.