You never know what you'll see at the range

[beagle]

Was at the range. Deer season coming on and zeroing was in season.

Old fellow was down to the left shooting a Mosin Nagant. He'd shoot, use a cleaning rod to remove brass and have at it again. I asked if he was having trouble. Said, yeah, won't extract the case. Looked at one. No rim. What? Headstamp said .308 Winchester. Enlightened him that it was the wrong cartridge. He told me the guy at the gunshop said they'd work. Kept on firing. I moved farther down the line. Case fireformed nicely.

Never know what you'll see at the range./beagle

[johnsonian09]

I love it when the guy next to you says their handgun won’t shoot, they flag you, you take it from them point it at the target and it shoots fine…

It’s a wonder why more people don’t accidentally get hurt then already do.


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[dondiego]

A .270 Winchester cartridge will shoot in a 30-06 rifle too I found out as a Range Officer at my club during the deer season sight in but it is not too accurate.

[Recycled bullet]

My curiosity got the better of me and I found out that they fit into each other. The casings were headstamped 9 mm. Maybe they were fired in a 40 Smith & Wesson???

[Der Gebirgsjager]

Most likely 9s fired in a 40-- but they often split.

DG

[atr]

there are a lot of people who should NOT own firearms

[dverna]

I am thankful I no longer need to use public ranges.

[GregLaROCHE]

there are a lot of people who should NOT own firearms

There are a lot of gun dealers that shouldn’t be selling firearms. This is one example.

[BobT]

Was at the range. Deer season coming on and zeroing was in season.

Old fellow was down to the left shooting a Mosin Nagant. He'd shoot, use a cleaning rod to remove brass and have at it again. I asked if he was having trouble. Said, yeah, won't extract the case. Looked at one. No rim. What? Headstamp said .308 Winchester. Enlightened him that it was the wrong cartridge. He told me the guy at the gunshop said they'd work. Kept on firing. I moved farther down the line. Case fireformed nicely.

Never know what you'll see at the range./beagle

I have seen some interesting things at the range! I think one of the most interesting things I've seen though came into the little gunsmithing shop where I work part time. We had a regular customer bring in a nice old German Weatherby MarkV chambered in .257 Weatherby Magnum. This fellow had managed to load and fire a .300 Winchester Magnum in his rifle! The stock was broken in two at the back of the magazine box, the bolt was stuck (I had to use a long cheater bar to open it) and the action was warped. Aside from a chunk of wood missing from the stock the rifle was otherwise mostly intact and the bullet had managed to make it down the bore. If anyone ever doubted the strength of the MarkV action, fear not!

[Finster101]

there are a lot of people who should NOT own firearms

There are a lot of people who should not breed!

[kungfustyle]

There are a lot of people who should not breed!

You out of the gene pool. I guess that's what the Darwin awards are for.

[trapper9260]

Too many are not taught right. Or they do not want to do their own research. Yes some gun sellers should not sell any guns since they do not know really anything about them. By tell some one to use a cartridge that dose not belong in the gun is just not right , if one is not sure all they need to do is do a search on their phone it will tell them what ammo they can use in the gun. I am glad, I that I do not deal with a gun range . I made my own in my back yard.

[parson48]

I remember being in a Dick's Sporting Goods years ago and overheard the sales person telling a fellow that they had a 30-06 muzzleloader in the gun rack.

[Texas by God]

I have seen some interesting things at the range! I think one of the most interesting things I've seen though came into the little gunsmithing shop where I work part time. We had a regular customer bring in a nice old German Weatherby MarkV chambered in .257 Weatherby Magnum. This fellow had managed to load and fire a .300 Winchester Magnum in his rifle! The stock was broken in two at the back of the magazine box, the bolt was stuck (I had to use a long cheater bar to open it) and the action was warped. Aside from a chunk of wood missing from the stock the rifle was otherwise mostly intact and the bullet had managed to make it down the bore. If anyone ever doubted the strength of the MarkV action, fear not!

The .300 Win Mag will not fit in a .257 Weatherby chamber. It must have been something else.


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[BP Dave]

Years ago as a range safety officer I learned that 7mm Mauser would fire just fine in an 8mm Mauser rifle, although inaccurately. When I tried to point out that not all "Mauser" ammunition was the same, the owner was dubious and informed me that the different "mm"s meant different power.

On another occasion a group of young men were shooting an SKS. I think they had crappy ammo, and it kept jamming. Finally they couldn't get a jam unstuck, so they laid the rifle on the table, packed up, and started heading home without it. I went after them to say they forgot their rifle, and they told me to keep it. I went ahead and cleared the jam, gave it back to them, and suggested they try some different ammo. I remember at the time weighing what to do--maybe they're the types that shouldn't have guns and I would have done society a favor by keeping it. Or maybe I prevented someone from getting soured on shooting his first time out. It's been a quarter century since then, so I guess that question has probably been settled one way or the other.

[slim1836]

I am thankful I no longer need to use public ranges.

Ditto

Slim

[35 Rem]

Yeah, I never worried about public ranges for a long time until I started thinking about how messed up some people's knowledge about guns are. Especially the novice reloader who thinks he knows it all but really knows very little. They can blow a gun up shooting on the bench right beside you and you suffer the consequences. I haven't been to a range in at least 10 years - probably 15. I do miss the fun conversations you might have when running into a shooter with common interests/back grounds.

[jdgabbard]

My curiosity got the better of me and I found out that they fit into each other. The casings were headstamped 9 mm. Maybe they were fired in a 40 Smith & Wesson???

That was a common problem back when I was still wearing a badge. Every time we went to the annual training claim the instructor went over this in depth. It's also one reason we standardized on one caliber.

[TurnipEaterDown]

Couple things that struck me odd over the years:

25 years ago I was near a fellow who was forming 220 Swift Improved, and had a puzzled look, so I asked him why. He noted nearly all his primers were failing, and wondered why. I asked him about the load -- 'non max powder charge' was his reply. I asked him about the bullet, it looked like a Hornady. He said it was - 70 grain. I told him that the 70 grain Hornady SP was Not 224, it was 227 inch, and shouldn't be used in that gun. Impossible he said, his friend gave them to him for that purpose.
Some people don't know enough to own wildcats.

Another memorable experience was recent.
Fella I had met a few times was sighting in a 223 Ruger 77 VT rifle at 50 yds. Nothing was hitting target. I asked him about looking down the bore and aligning scope to it. He said "why? a different load all hit the target yesterday, just a bit high". I asked him about bullet weight, said the ones the day I talked to him were 55s. I said that should probably be OK. He said, the target from yesterday is still hanging, and wanted me to see how close they were to the aiming point, so we walked down range. We got there, and I asked him what the weight of the bullets were he shot the other day. 70 grain match bullets he said.
I had never in my life would have believed this could happen: 5 shots at 50 yds, all within a probably 2 inch circle, and all completely sideways ~ 1 - 1.2" slots. Yes, 5 completely unstable bullets all "grouped" during sighting on a 50 yd target.
I told him that the R77 was a 223, not 5.56 spec for twist and that this was very likely either 1:12 or 1:14 which would not stabilize a pointy match 70 gr bullets like a 1:7 5.56 chamber in a typical AR platform rifle would. He looked at me Very puzzled. I still kick myself for not taking his target after he left. Statistical oddities are interesting.

[rmark]

I had a friend who worked the sales counter at a decent sized gun store- and occasionally he talked people out of buying guns.