You never know what you'll see at the range

[M-Tecs]

I was at the public range years back and saw a guy sighting in for the upcoming season.
He had a high end Weatherby with a scope on it the size of your leg.

He got done, picked up his brass, went over to the trash can and was rooting around taking all the rifle brass he could reach.
My buddy pointed over and said, "Look, that guy is beating us to the range brass we aren't supposed to take".
Then he went over and got into a new Mercedes. One of the real big like diplomats have to drive them around.

I thought to myself, 'Getting rich is hard, but staying rich takes a lot of work'.

Was there a sign or posted rules stating to not take brass out of the trash?

[Winger Ed.]

Was there a sign or posted rules stating to not take brass out of the trash?

Oh yeah.
They sweep fairly often and there are signs on all the ranges that say 'all brass on the ground belongs to the range'.

I was on good terms with the range masters and they'd let me sweep & take what I wanted if it wasn't busy.
They said it saved them the trouble of doing it themselves.

That's why I never learned to anele rifle brass. With a few thousand each of the common calibers I load,
.30-06, .308, .30-30, and plenty Magnums in .300 & 7Mag, I've never fired any of them enough to worry about it.

Other than that, they were pretty strict about brass. You were welcome to take your own, but that was all.
They sorted and sold once fired rifle brass at the time for $5.oo per 100 common stuff and 50 of belted Magnums.
And sorted pistol brass sold by the pound for about double what the scrap yard would pay.
2-3 times a year they fill what didn't sell into 5 gallon buckets in one layer of a pick up bed, and it went to the scrap yard.

[frkelly74]

I have seen some things, There was a guy trying to sight in his shotgun for deer season. From his viewpoint he could see his slugs hitting high on the bank. So he adjusted his scope down to get on the target. Next string hit higher. He became angry and would not listen to me telling him he was hitting the ground about half way to the target and his slugs were skipping to a high impact on the bank. He needed to come up, not down but could not accept that I might be right. Then there was the guy loading bird shot in his Muzzle loading pistol and shooting at a piece of plywood about 10 yards out. First shot produced some ricochet and he got hit hard enough to make little red marks on his exposed flesh. Oddly , he thought , second shot same result . And there was the guy trying to shoot a 9mm parabellum pistol using 9mm Makarov ammo. The guy at the gun store said it would work. It didn't.

[Wooserco]

Last weekend I helped my club at sight in days we have four more days coming very few shooters came out .
I had one Lady with A Winchester model 94 with a side mount scope was shooting all over so I said let me check your mounts . Sure enough the mounts to the side of the rifle and the mounts to the scope rings were loose . To make things worse the scope was turned so left and right was up & down and up &down left and right I verified what was what and wrote it down . After tightening the mounts she was shooting small 50 yard groups with the 30-30 .
Another guy was shooting a .300 Blackout and he complained about the blast from a guy at the other end of the range . I told him he is shooting the same weight bullet as you but over a 1000 f/s faster. He was shooting a .300 Weatherby with Weatherby 150 grain ammunition . He was having terrible trouble getting the scope set I forget the brand it has the locking up down ring and the adjustments were very stiff.

I have seen a bunch of things mentioned above the past few years .270 in 30-06 . 41 mag in .44 mag 30-30 in .32 Sp. and found 9 mm cases there fired in a .40 S&W. About the goofiest guy at the range was shooting a Rossi levergun in .45 Colt he had the right ammo but said something about .45 short colt we told him there is no such thing. He got the gun sighted then it jammed the last shot was 6" high at 25 yards and there was an ejected .45 acp case with the next one jamming the gun . He had a few in a jacket pocket and it was high end self defense ammo , no harm was done to the gun or him -this time!
Last year I did see a nice old Remington 740 JAMMED by a reload the owner bought from a gun show it was a over pressure load that stuck in the chamber and the case rim was ripped off . I got the stuck case out and told the guy to have the gun looked at by a gunsmith before trying to shoot it again. It looked OKAY and seemed to lock but who would want to chance a cracked locking lug or some other issue , The primer pocket was HUGE and the shell was very tight in the chamber.

That wouldn't be Cadillac Sportsman's Club, would it? I'm a member there. Used to shoot high power rifle. Life got in the way and now only use the range for load development and recreation. Great club, people and facilities.

[Advil]

There actually is a round frequently called 45 Short Colt... 45 Cowboy Special. You can buy it retail through Starline. Used for a few odd guns and probably mostly a handful of cowboy action shooters to reduce case volume.

https://www.starlinebrass.com/45-cowboy-special

But I doubt that guy knew it.

[15meter]

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.

We call those sideways bullet holes "line cutters" or "cheater loads". We had an experienced hand loader show up with a new cast boolit load to try at our local military rifle match. He had 20 out of 20 hit the paper side ways and almost won the match. It was amazing how well they actually grouped.

Next time I see him, I'll ask him what caliber it was, it may have been a 7.5x55.

He decided he needed a little more load development before the next match. Half a dozen years later he's still getting razzed about the "line cutters".

[CastingFool]

ROFLMAO, yep, been there, done that.

A few of the CCW qualification classes I attended were smaller with folks who didn't reload. At the end of the class they looked at me funny as I collected all of it.

One of our indoor ranges didn't care about brass on the floor and had a few long handle brooms. Whenever I got a chance I'd sweep up all the brass I could reach. The staff like it cause it saved them some work at the end of the day.

When I was qualifying for my cpl, I asked the instructors if it was OK for me to pick up my brass, as I was reloaded my ammo. They had no problem with that. Matter of fact, one of them mentioned they liked to see those 45 holes I was putting on the target, everyone else were shooting 9's. When the shooting was over, I started picking up my brass, and to my surprise, a bunch of other students started picking up brass and dropping it into my bucket. I think I ended up with 4 lbs of brass.

[fredj338]

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

Further proof most gunshop guys dont know poop.
My boss bought a new M27 a couple years ago. He went to the LGS for ammo & asked for 357s. He came back with 100rds of 357sig which he has no pistol for.

[nelsonted1]

I was in a pistol match a few years ago. A bullet out of my 1911 came back and struck the bottom of my glasses lifting them up a 1/2" which really scared me. I said the steel plate had to be adjusted. They ignored me. The next guy had much heavier load in his 1911. The first round came back hitting him in the chest hitting him hard enough he bent way over clutching himself with both hands. I complained to the range employee. He said he wasn't going to do it. He said we all signed waivers so suck it up. I didn't go back

Ted

[nelsonted1]

Even with waiver signed having a complaint and doing nothing about it is probably forcing on negligence.

Also, I was at a gun show in the early 1990s. Usually at opening on a Sunday the dealers are talking to each other having a good time. That morning it was as silent as a tomb. I asked what happened. I was told one of the guys was at a bowling pin match in Iowa and a .45 ball bullet came back hitting him in the forehead killing him. The guys were thinking about how it could have been them. .45 ball is notorious for rebounding.

[poppy42]

I have seen some things, There was a guy trying to sight in his shotgun for deer season. From his viewpoint he could see his slugs hitting high on the bank. So he adjusted his scope down to get on the target. Next string hit higher. He became angry and would not listen to me telling him he was hitting the ground about half way to the target and his slugs were skipping to a high impact on the bank. He needed to come up, not down but could not accept that I might be right. Then there was the guy loading bird shot in his Muzzle loading pistol and shooting at a piece of plywood about 10 yards out. First shot produced some ricochet and he got hit hard enough to make little red marks on his exposed flesh. Oddly , he thought , second shot same result . And there was the guy trying to shoot a 9mm parabellum pistol using 9mm Makarov ammo. The guy at the gun store said it would work. It didn't.

I shoot a lot of Makarov (9x18). You would be amazed how many people think it’s perfectly fine to shoot 380 (9x17)out of a gun chambered for 9x18! I even saw someone try 9x19 out of a Makarov! Thankfully the chamber was not deep enough and the gun wouldn’t go into battery! Considering how much higher pressure 9x19 is!

[BobT]

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


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

The remnants of the belted case I extracted from the chamber said .300 Winchester. I never would have believed it, but that's what came out of the chamber when I was finally able to open it.

[StrawHat]

Further proof most gunshop guys dont know poop.
My boss bought a new M27 a couple years ago. He went to the LGS for ammo & asked for 357s. He came back with 100rds of 357sig which he has no pistol for.

Sounds like your boss doesn’t know any better either.

Kevin

[StrawHat]

Several times, I've been on the line next to someone with a new handgun. I'll finally hear the guy say something along the lines of, "This is the worst gun I've ever had. Can't hit anything with it." Along with some salty language, of course.

Finally, I said, "Do you mind if I try it?" I tried it and it shot just fine, small groups, at or new the bullseye. I'm no great shooter by any stretch of the imagination but it's not usually problematic at short ranges.

The owner of the gun would tell me something like, "Wow, how did you do that?"

I'd reply, "Just doing the basics. If you like, I can show you some different things."

"Sure!"

In about ten minutes of coaching on basic grip, trigger control, sight picture and sight alignment, stance, etc., the guy would be on target and thanking me profusely. Occasionally someone would offer to pay me but I always decline. It just feels like paying it forward.

--Wag--

Out of four pages of posts, this is the only one that shows someone helping a new shooter learn the sport. I guess everyone else is too busy. Or we expect new shooters to know everything about the sport.

Kevin

[Shanghai Jack]

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???

The famous muzzleloading single shot 9x40 semiauto. Only fits in the chamber that way.

[Larry Gibson]

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!

Entirely probable the cases were formed from 300 WM cases. There have been several confirmed S.E.E.s with the 257 Weatherby cartridge.

[dipstick]

7 MM mag will chamber in 300 Win mag. Cases come out with really short neck and group looks like a shotgun pattern.

Another occasion, two show up to sight in for hunting season. The “expert” had done all the reloading. First guy says “is this normal?”. “Sure, that’s the way it’s supposed to be”.

They had to beat the bolt open on every round. I left. They didn’t want my opinion.

[dondiego]

Out of four pages of posts, this is the only one that shows someone helping a new shooter learn the sport. I guess everyone else is too busy. Or we expect new shooters to know everything about the sport.

Kevin

Many of the newer shooters at the range already know more than I do and rarely accept my recommendations.

[15meter]

Many of the newer shooters at the range already know more than I do and rarely accept my recommendations.

Like the guy at Maybee walking around with a loaded AK, one in the chamber and a full magazine sweeping the line with the muzzle. I asked him politely to clear the action and remove the magazine until I instructed him to load for the stage at a military shoot.

He told me that he was perfectly safe, he had been in the army and knew how to handle firearms.

It took about 3 seconds for it to get a little testy. He did clear the rifle, but I made it abundantly clear he did not need to come back.

He was offended.

Didn't bother me a whole lot.

But I'm a jerk.

[justindad]

My rule is that if I need to act stern in order to make a situation right, the other guy is the jerk for putting me in that position. Walking around with a loaded gun like that ought to get you booted from any range where there’s more than one person to a berm.