"Odd" Things You Find On the Range

[.45Cole]

Found a Remington 700 bolt handle (just the handle, no gun, no bolt) and a bunch of blood spatter.

Best one!
A little different take, I was shooting on national grassland and saw an older guy (60's) loading a shot up tv into his Buick Regal. The TV was pretty big and the ranger that just left him came driving up to us. After the greetings he said that anyone caught shooting at anything else but paper would be taking it home, and pointed to the poor guy who got a new tv.

[GoodOlBoy]

I have found all kinds of oddball cases in my time from just obsolete stuff to cases that said one thing on the headstamp and you could look at it and tell that nope that wasn't what it was anymore. I found the little metal sight adjustment tool marked "Colt" that I had to file down slightly to get it to fit my blackhawk. I have found any number of sights, scope pieces, stock pieces, ramrods, etc. I think the oddest thing I ever found though was three chip mccormick 10 round 1911 mags that had been cut and welded into a single LONG magazine. I guess the guy REALLY musta wanted high capacity

GoodOlBoy

[Mumblypeg]

I saw, didn't really find, a toilet at a Forest Service range.... It had the tar shot out of it...... (I hope that doesn't get me scolded by the mods here.)

[Hickory]

When I was a kid, my dad moved our housetrailer onto the site of a long abandon railroad station. Part of the deal of living there was, he was to make the RxR station disappear.
My dad salvaged as much wood as possible and burned the rest, while raking up the leftover junk, my dad uncovered an old revolver as I was the closest one of the kids working next to him, he examined it then handed it to me and said, "Here you go, now you can shoot some Indians."
Years later I found out it was a Colt 31 caliber pocket pistol.
When I came home from the Air Force a lot of my stuff sort of disapeared, and nobody knew what happened to it.

[Mumblypeg]

I saw, didn't really find, a toilet at a Forest Service range.... It had the tar shot out of it...... (I hope that doesn't get me scolded by the mods here.)

Well.... I see it did get edited .... I'm a little confused as to why some get edited and others don't. I guess I offend some with my jokes.... Maybe if I had just said the "S" shot out of it, it could have been construed as "stuff" rather than "tar".... I'm just asking..... I didn't spell the word out..... tar doesn't normally go in a toilet....

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

I was shooting late in the day at a private range I belonged to. There was one other shooter there but he was many benches from me. I saw him leave but paid little attention to what he took with him. While I was leaving I saw that the man had left his M1 and box of ammo. We had no range master but there was a man who lived in a trailer rent free if he would keep people away who didn't belong there. I gave him the rifle and it was returned to the owner. I can't call that shooter absent minded or forgetful since I did the same thing a few years ago. I had been shooting my '03 target rifle and after arriving home I realized I had left it at the range. This was a public range so I called the range master and he said, I have been waiting for your call. I have also left ear muffs, lens caps, cleaning rods. cross sticks, [ black powder match] and breach seating device.

About 15 years ago, The Sibley County Sheriff's department was using our club's private shooting range for qualifications practice. I guess they found a AMT automag III (a 1911 clone, long slide in 30 carbine) laying in a 'open' pistol rug and a mil surp ammo can full of 30 carb ammo, sitting half way down the 100 yd range, in the grass.

Our club is right near the County Line, but in Sibley County. I live in Glencoe (in McLeod County) 5 miles away. Luckily, at that time, our club had very few pistol shooters and I knew them all. When Sibley County called the club president, He gave them my number first.

I was happy to take that call, ...as it was my pistol. Sadly, I didn't even know I left it there or that is was missing from my possession. In fact, I had to check my pistol cabinet to be sure it was missing. I got the call about a week after that shooting session, I was shooting several pistols that day. I guess that is what you call Lucky.
Jon

[gmsharps]

When I was a bout 14 my cousin and I rode our bikes to the local range and I found a bronze claw hammer head. Still have it today

gmsharps

[BrassMagnet]

I found a pair of custom race revolvers in a case at the 2007 Winchester World Cup. the match director recognized them and returned them to the owner.
I have left my Kowa spotting scope at the range. More than once! I still have it. It was returned to me every time!

[rondog]

I was picking up brass one night by flashlight and headlights and found a pair of pissed-off badgers that didn't appreciate me tromping around in their territory. Turned out they lived in a burrow dug into one of the side berms of Range #4. That was interesting. Mighty glad the truck headlights had them blinded and they couldn't see me, but they knew I was there and they let me know it!

[ShooterAZ]

I once found one of those distance measuring devices with the wheel and shaft. A different time a perfectly good AR15 magazine, another time a steel swinging target on a stand with 3 different size round plates.

[fatelk]

I was happy to take that call, ...as it was my pistol. Sadly, I didn't even know I left it there or that is was missing from my possession.

That is lucky for sure. Twice I've accidentally left guns behind. A couple decades ago we had been shooting way out in the boonies about an hour away and when I got home I realized the Mini14 was missing. An hour drive back in the dark and it was still leaning against a tree where I'd left it.

A few years ago I had been at the gun club range and was driving home. My wife called my cell phone to say that someone from the club just called the land line to ask if I had just left my Ruger .22 pistol there. Yep, turn around and drive back.

Nowadays I'm much more careful. I make a list of everything I brought and triple check before leaving. You just can't rely on memory.

[mjwcaster]

Not me but a guy at our club blew up his 38 last year with someone else's reloads.
Blew the cylinder in half and the top strap completely off.
He unofficially maintains the range and is there almost every day, cleaning up.

Just a week or two ago he was cleaning up and found this piece of junk, threw it in his pile.

When he got home and was sorting things out, he noticed the piece and it was his top strap.

Still hasn't found the cylinder half.

Matt

[Freischütz]

Over the years I found three interesting things on the range:

1. A box of 40 S&W - all fired in a 45's chamber. All were swollen and split. Actually I've seen this several times.
2. A complete Madsen M47 bolt. Turned it in at the range office. Never claimed.
3. A cardboard box sitting by the gate accessing the range. After three days of rain it was still there so I became curious. It contained several thousand primers which were in their original boxes. Interesting way to get rid of unwanted components. If they put a sign on it, it would have been gone within 10 min of range opening.

[threewheels]

the local security company rents our range and after they left I found 2 cases 00 buckshot , a case and a half of 40 S&W and 3 holsters loaded them up took them home called them up they sent one of their trucks around to pick it up the next week the were looking for a new training instructor

[destrux]

I wouldn't be surprised if those primers all worked. Did you try them?

I had a neighbor give me several boxes of primers that were soaked and falling apart, stored in a leaky horse barn for decades... and they all worked.

Over the years I found three interesting things on the range:

1. A box of 40 S&W - all fired in a 45's chamber. All were swollen and split. Actually I've seen this several times.
2. A complete Madsen M47 bolt. Turned it in at the range office. Never claimed.
3. A cardboard box sitting by the gate accessing the range. After three days of rain it was still there so I became curious. It contained several thousand primers which were in their original boxes. Interesting way to get rid of unwanted components. If they put a sign on it, it would have been gone within 10 min of range opening.

[gray wolf]

Not something I found, BUT, Some day -- someone -- will go to a range and find an old Skeleton of a man.
It will be wearing a T-shirt that says Gray Wolf on the front, and on the back it will say:
Just one more shot.

[colt 357]

My son and I when looking for brass and getting lead have found everything but a gun. including a kitchen sink. I found 2 swiss army knifes, a percussion cap holder. a new 4 pound hammer and we have a jar full of assorted live ammo found on the range. picked up over 500 rounds of 22lr with no primer strike over one summer came in handy this year as its hard to find 22's here. they all fired free 22's

[bruce drake]

threewheels...try walking downrange on a training area after being told that your sister platoon has been locked down for missing gear during a night helo training operation.. Found a M60 Machinegun barrel down in the mud along a creek in some sawgrass after about 6 hours of beating trail looking for the thing. Was the most popular guy in the company for a couple of days after that trip to the range.

Now, I just need to find a cache of lead ingots and jugs of Unique powder....

[Bullwolf]

One morning on my way to the Carson City Nevada range, I found a completely intact car door laying in the dirt by the side of the road on the drive in. The door never even made it all the way into the range, which probably explains why it sill had intact glass, side view mirror, paint, and even the inside door panels and controls. Strangely enough, there wasn't even a single hole in the door. I couldn't guess why it had been removed and left there other than to be used as a target, yet it showed absolutely no damage.

I tossed in the back of the truck and drove it out with me. I took the door to the dumps with my garbage on my next trip.

Many people think the range is a place to just dump their junk for free, this car door didn't even make it all the way to the range. It got just dropped in the dirt by the side of the road on the way in.

I understand the lure of breaking a glass bottle, or even shooting up a TV (heck I've done it too) but the lazy people who leave their messes for someone else to pick up are just trash themselves. I really hate it when people litter up a shooting range.

I am blessed with being able to shoot on my own property. I often have to clean up my own messes, and a few left by friends as well. I think it sucks that people don't treat their own public shooting areas with at least the same respect.

Leaving trash all over the public shooting range is an simple way for us to lose the ability to shoot there. It also makes gun enthusiasts in general look bad.



- Bullwolf

[fatelk]

picked up over 500 rounds of 22lr with no primer strike over one summer came in handy this year as its hard to find 22's here. they all fired free 22's

I knew I couldn't be the only one with a stash like that; I was just a little cautious about admitting it. Some folks really look down their noses at firing live range pick-up .22 ammo. If they look even questionable I'll pull the slug for the lead, but otherwise they work fine in my old beat up Remington 12A.