Any strange/funny incidents you've witnessed at the range?

The range master asked me once to look after a couple (husband and wife) of new members on their second visit to the range. On their first visit they rented a .22 bolt action rifle and .22 revolver. This time they wanted to try a 9mm pistol. So, these really nice people ask me if I have any ‘tips’ to give them besides all the ‘technical’ instructions. Hey, she asked … so I explain her in the politest of wording that showing a lot of cleavage (as she was) is not a good idea at a shooting range because you never know where the hot brass is going to land. She even laughed at the joke about distracting other members. Guess what happened the very first round she fired with that 9mm … :D

Another day I was ‘instructor’ for 3 couples (mid/late thirties) that wanted to try clay shooting. There is one woman that looks so small and frail I offer to get a 20 gauge gun for her instead of the 12 gauge we were using. She bravely states she’ll give the 12 gauge a try and see if switching to 20 gauge was necessary. So I handed here the 12 gauge O-U and noticed that unlike all the others I didn’t need to give her any instructions on stance, shouldering, etc. The moment she got hold of that gun she looked like she handled one all her life. As a first time shooter she missed 1 of 14 clays, her husband hit 1 of 14 clays !
 
Earlier this year,,,

Earlier this year I was casually thinning the range of feral water bottles,,,
I was set up at the 50 yard range just next to the 25 yard range,,,
Up drove a gentleman in a Lincoln pick-up truck.

He set up a nice target stand about 12 yards from the bench,,,
Then he hauled out two ammo cans which were full of pre-loaded magazines,,,
They were for his AR-15 which he used to decimate his target as fast as he could load and fire.

I'm certain he fired over 500 rounds,,,
The magazines held 25 rounds,,,
I quit counting at 10 mags,,,
That was one ammo can,,,
He had two ammo cans.

All in all he wasn't there for 20 minutes,,,
Five minutes to set up his target,,,
Ten minutes of rapid fire,,,
Five minutes of cleanup,,,
And he was gone.

He left all of his brass as well.

I will say he tore one very small hole in his target,,,
Before he left he took it off the frame and neatly rolled it up.

Hey, this is after all America, land of the free and home of the strange,,,
He can have whatever type of shooting fun he wants to,,,
I just found that to be odd as all get out.

Aarond

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Murphy knows every man's number.

Poor guy: bad enough when your alone,
but with a whole bunch watching as well!?
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That's my norm,,,
Anytime I do something truly embarrassing,,,
You can bet your sweet mag-pouch I will be in a crowd of people.

Aarond

.
 
About 6 years ago I was at American Shooting Center in George Bush Park here in Houston. There was a ceasefire called and I was standing at the firing line talking with some friends with about 20 people down range.

Then this Vietnamese guy walks up, pulls a gun from his bag and just starts blasting away at the targets. I've never seen people downrange scatter so quickly in my life nor so many people screaming at the same person at once. :eek:
 
All righty, whippersnappers. Pull up a chair. Uncle Servo's got plenty for you...

The first one involved a guy who bought a box of .45 bullets. Not ammunition, bullets. He left, then returned a couple of hours later to shoot.

After a few minutes, he approached me and complained that he was having failures to fire. I walked over to the bench, and there was his pistol, along with a magazine packed full of bullets. Just the bullets. I had to explain the distinction between bullets and ammunition to him.

The second was a guy shooting a Mini-14 with his friend. In case you don't know, the Mini-14 is chambered in .223. Shooter #1 ran out of ammunition, then went offline to get some more. While waiting, Shooter #2 found a round of Wolf 7.62x39 on the ground, and decided to load it in the rifle.

I'm not sure how he got it to lodge in the chamber, but he did. There were gouges on the rim that suggested he slammed something against it. That steel case would not bulge, so we had to hand it over to the gunsmith, who was none too pleased with having to extricate the errant cartridge.

After it was done, Shooter #2 blanched at the gunsmithing bill and implied that he was being railroaded. In response, I asked him what had possessed him to do what he'd done.

He got a very indignant look on his face and said, "well, it's a bullet, isn't it?" Apparently, he thought all ammunition was interchangeable.

Number three was hillbilly Santa Claus. The guy was pushing 350lbs, and when he shot, he felt the need to bend over at a 90-degree angle. He was wearing sweatpants, and at one point, they just fell to his ankles.

I heard a couple of observers loudly invoke various dieties, and I looked over to see the problem. Full moon, folks. Not pretty. Thing is, Santa kept on shooting. He hadn't noticed.

It fell to me to tap him on the shoulder and find a diplomatic way of asking him to pull his pants up and keep them up while shooting.

Some days, I just have to remind myself that this is the life I chose. :rolleyes:
 
isnt miracles like this enough to make you wonder why we would actually go to a public range where we have no idea of what cracker jack for brains genius is next to you with a WEAPON.
 
Sad, but he got what he deserved

Last year, I was at a public, outdoor range, shooting at the 25 yard line. There was a family there which consisted of a mother and father (late 30's), a teenage son, and a daughter who appeared to be about 10-ish. They were 2 benches away from me with no one occupying the bench in between.

At one point, the father and son begin shooting a 500 S&W revolver (at least it looked like it to me, may have been 454 Casul or something else, but a large frame revolver with massive recoil and very loud). After about 20 rounds, the 10 year old daughter asks to shoot it. The father and son began laughing, and thought it is a good idea to let her shoot it. The poor girl could barely hold the thing on target. At this point I am having flashbacks to those asinine YouTube videos where idiots give small women/children guns that they have no reason firing and they proceed to get injured, but I keep my mouth shut and simply observe.

Well, she touches off a round, and the gun goes flying out of her hands. Thankfully, she is uninjured, but the gun hits the cement. The father proceeds to become irate that she scratched his gun and is berating her for dropping it. This ends their day at the range as they pack up and leave. As they were walking away, I could not help but think that he got what he deserve for letting her shoot that hand cannon.
 
I was shooting at an indoor range that had a layer of rubbery chunks stacked up on top of the slanted backstop. Maybe chewed up tires, I don't really know. They helped to keep bullets from bouncing back on the shooters.

There was a gent who verged on geezer age, as I do now, but I hide it well:D He was firing .45 ACP from old GI boxes. And he had not noticed that every round was a tracer.

Yup, he set the backstop on fire. The counter guy had a fire extinguisher and he moved rather sprightly after I told about his burning range. It was not a big fire and it was soon out but this fun added a new smell to the burnt gunpowder fumes.

Bart Noir
 
Nothing as interesting as what's been mentioned here thus far, but thought I'd share it anyway: two weeks ago a couple of good friends and I were at the local indoor pistol range. My two friends were sharing the lane next to mine; one was shooting a .40 PX4 and the other, a Ruger SR1911.

While I was between shots, I heard a muffled BWOOMPF! from their stall, looked over and saw them fussing over the 1911. Dave said the last shot sounded funny and proceeded to clear the gun by dropping the magazine and racking the slide. The shell did not eject and remained firmly stuck in the chamber. A bit of jimmying with a small screwdriver finally released the case, which fell out and was revealed to be... a .40 S&W case that had expanded and split at the case mouth.

There was no damage to the barrel, as far as we could tell. Moral of the story: make sure you know exactly what ammunition you are loading into your magazine!
 
I was in the retail section of an indoor range and gun shop here in Central Maryland, when I overheard a story told by two gun clerks. Some guy was shooting at there indoor range, when he had a negligent discharge with his pistol. His bullet hit the overhead sprinkler above his gun booth, which then proceeded too flood out the whole range. They mentioned that some other shooter's could not understand why the range had to be closed down for the day.

I was out shooting at that same indoor range at my gun booth one day, when I turned around towards the range entrance, and noticed a girl that was sitting on the floor with her back to the wall, dry firing a double action pistol. {I did tell her to stop her foolish actions.}


Same indoor range: Two guys come in and one starts loading up his 500 S&W pistol. I was a bit concerned as too the way the novice was loading it. I walked over and stood behind him...he had the pistol pointed down about two feet in front of his feet. He grabbed the pistol with his left hand on the left side of the cylinder's breech face, and cocked the hammer with his right hand thumb --- he must have had one of his fingers on the trigger --- when...BOOM...the bullet hits the concrete floor two feet in front of him, ricocheted up into the left wall, 15 feet downrange. Upon detonation...he DROPPED the pistol on the floor, while suffering a three inch cut on the palm of his left hand; from the breech face blast.

The store clerk roughly patched him up, and told him he needed to go to the hospital for stitches. Instead of going to the hospital right away...he goes BACK to his gun booth too do more pistol shooting; as I proceeded to leave and go out the door of the gun shop/range.
 
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A good friend and I were trying out a newly acquired 30-06 rifle at a public range.
We weren't really fond of public ranges, but seeing that we were the only ones there, it looked pretty safe in all directions.
Until my very tall friend decided to seek some shade, and shoot from under a not so tall shelter roof.
With the very first round he rocked back with the recoil and whacked his noggin on the roof, stunning himself real good.
He then fell forward like a cut tree, kerplop, face first, holding the rifle at a perfect port arms.
Fortunately the ground was soft and he didn't really hurt himself much.
But he did dirty up the gun some.
 
A few of my witnessed special events on an outdoor range, here in Central Maryland:

On a very windy day --- with the wind going from my left to right --- two shooter's came up to the left of me, while I was shooting in the benchrest only part of the 100 yard range. He was shooting a high power bolt gun --- when he stands up an says, {with his rifle lowered from his shoulder on his hip} while he's fingering his safety an trigger..."safety's not working, SAFETY'S NOT WORKING!!!" --- POW --- the bullet impacted the ground in front of him towards the backstop about 15 feet from us; just missing a rock lined ditch. Meanwhile...all the bullet debris from the bullet impact {dirt, small pebbles and grass} blew directly into my face, while being helped by the high winds. I was lucky that I had my safety glasses on, because the lenses were covered with dirt.

The two shooter's left in a hurry. I told the RSO about the incident...and he ask me whether I saw the negligent shooter's range badge number? I told him that I failed to catch and record his range badge number. The RSO shook his head an walked away.
 
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a .40 S&W case that had expanded and split at the case mouth.
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I see that a lot when folks get their ammunition mixed up and end up shooting 9mm through a gun chambered in .40.

Shooting .40 in a .45 raises a host of potential problems, owing to the shorter case and the higher pressures.
 
Many of them.
Most notable was when two of us were shooting Barretts at 400yds (our range had 12 ID RCP for first 20ft then narrowed to 24" with railroad ties to keep the long range shooters from going over the backstop). Four wannabe gangbangers jumped the locked gate and came over to where we were shooting. we were in the prone position concentrating on our shots and didn't see them. When we fired the muzzle brake goes out the sides and recoil is about like a 12ga. We heard them yelling after we fired. These idiots were standing/kneeling less than 10' from us, we looked behind us and they were all on the ground with one kid bleeding out of his ears. Not a single one had any ear protection and didn't even bother to cover their ears. The shockwave hit them and knocked three of them down. We called the range manager and he contacted the SO and EMS. The were there in less than 5min. Once the deputies got the full story they just shook their heads.
Some people are just plain stupid.
 
After a few minutes, he approached me and complained that he was having failures to fire. I walked over to the bench, and there was his pistol, along with a magazine packed full of bullets. Just the bullets. I had to explain the distinction between bullets and ammunition to him.
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WOW :confused:. There's a difference between simply being ignorant, and just plain stupid... that's just plain stupid. Even my mother who knows next to nothing about guns would know the difference between just bullets and a cartridge.
 
Even my mother who knows next to nothing about guns would know the difference between just bullets and a cartridge.
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Well, not everybody does know that. The terms are used so interchangeably, I can't really attribute that to anything but ignorance.
 
A few years ago my dad and I took a friend of ours to the club we were members of to sight in his slug gun. We were watching him have trouble finding his hits. Then after about the tenth shot the scope flies off his shotgun and over his head and lands in the dirt about ten feet behind him. Fortunately we didn't laugh, much. ;) That ended his day at the range tho.
 
Oh boy do I have some good range stories.
Ok so i'm at a local public range shooting and I look over at the guy next to and see he is firing either an old Colt or FN pocket type pistol. Everything go is ok until it goes click instead of bang at which point he turns the muzzle of the pistol towards his face to look down the muzzle now i'm on the ground waiting for the bang. Thank God it didn't happen but he was ask to leave and never come back. The other one that defies logic my buddy was at the sheriff's range qualifing after he finnished the order to clear your pistol was given. He dropped the mag racked the slide the round I kind you not landed on a rock where it pierced the primer and exploded send brass all over I was not close enough to get hit but my buddy had little cuts all over from the brass.:eek:
 
WOW . There's a difference between simply being ignorant, and just plain stupid... that's just plain stupid
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As I have been taught in life,
Ignorance is a lack of knowledge
Stupidity is having the knowledge and not using it.:cool:
 
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