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

Well alright maybe I was a bit harsh calling the guy plain stupid, I suppose I could see how he could get it mixed up. I guess things more experienced shooters would consider obvious isn't so obvious to new shooters with limited knowledge on guns.

At least he wasn't doing something like looking down the barrel to see if it is loaded, I think that would be a better example of plain stupidity.
 
I was shooting at American Shooting Center here in Houston at 100 yards and I can hear guys at the 50 yard range yelling "I actually hit paper!". Hell I'm still laughing till this day!
 
We have a few bullet holes in our overhead steel canopy, that covers the concrete pad and our firing line on the 100 yard range. A few years ago...a member had his guest firing a high power centerfire bolt gun, about 10 feet away from me. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw him put the butt of the stock on the bench, with the muzzle pointing about 30 degrees from straight vertical. Somehow...he must have had his finger on the trigger when he closed the bolt on a live round.

You guessed it --- POW --- another new hole in our overhead steel canopy. I came over to the location of the negligent discharge and looked at the new hole. It appeared that the trajectory of the bullet would have it land over at the target pits of our 200 yard range; though we do have people living in house's just over the hill, beyond the backstop, of our 200, 100 and 50 yard ranges.

I quickly went to the RSO to report the incident. The vice president of our range came out to get the name, address, phone number of the offender/guest...and told him to leave the premises. I don't know what happened to the member that brought the guest.

Another special event...was a YouTube video --- How to Shoot an AK --- filmed by a person who had a guy shooting an AK at our 100 yard range; though I never saw the video. The shooter appeared to be rapid firing his AK, with the muzzle pointed above the 100 yard backstop, though still in the wooded hill, just beyond our backstop. It was brought to the attention of our range committee, which had the member/negligent shooter permanently expulsed.
 
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Wish I could contribute but I can't. I only been to our gun range about 10 times the last 20 years and never anyone there. I go just to pick up brass. I always shoot in my yard. But some of y'all's stories are funny.
 
Years back, like 45-46 or so my dad, two cousin and I were at a indoor range here in SoCal.
This kid, maybe 21-22, walks in with a brand new Browning hi-power, bragging about his great, do-it yourself trigger job.
He proceeds to setup his target and then loads up his gun....................pulls the trigger and the hi-power proceeds to go fifteen rounds or so of full auto!
Range guy walks up the to the kid, one hand grabs the gun, the other hand, the back of young man neck.
Helps him pack up pistola and all his gear..................tells him goodbye and don't never, ever come back!:rolleyes:

*Some folks should never work on guns!:D
 
A couple years ago, a good friend had the opportunity to tag along with some experienced hunters and took his 2 teenage boys deer hunting. This friend and his family were experienced with .22LR, but had nothing for deer-sized game. I set them up with my oldest's .243 Weatherby Vanguard.

Before I let them take the rifle, I took them to the range to let his 2 teenage boys shoot and become accustomed to it. On the first trip out, the 2 boys were bragging about how good of shots they were and blah bah blah. When I got them behind the rifle, they were doing minute-of-deer at 100 yards.

After a couple rounds of them printing 5-6" groups and bragging about it :rolleyes:, they made the mistake of telling my daughter that she couldn't shoot the rifle better than them:eek:. She looked up at me, I gave her the nod, and she silently picked up her rifle, loaded 3 rounds, and promptly shot a 1.5" group:cool:. Afterwards, she set the rifle down, stood up, and walked back over to stand next to me.

The boys were in shock. Not another word was said by them about their alleged marksmanship.
 
Not so much strange but more frightening than anything.

Had a father and his two sons come to an outdoor range I used to frequent in AZ, the eldest son was around 16 while the youngest was around 10 or 12.

Long story short, the father was busy with the youngest son and taking shots down range while the eldest was fiddling with one of the other handguns they brought along that had jammed with a live round in the chamber (a .45 ACP of some flavor)

He had the handgun pointed at his dads waist muzzle facing down the line of benches with his finger on the trigger. An automatic recation was me going "WHOA!" and moving to get the barrel pointing down range (didn't actually get that far). Not exactly the best course of action on my part as I could have startled the kid into pulling the trigger inadvertantly, ending with him shooting his dad and possibly kid brother.

After a stern reprimand by the range master, they carried on without incident. The whole ordeal could have gone wrong in so many ways, thankfully it didn't.

@Globemaster3: I got a good chuckle out of that one, no need for words when your actions speak far louder and with greater volume. You must be one proud daddy, very luck you are for having a daughter that's interested in firearms.
 
Last year, a member brought a father and his approx. 12 year old son to our 50 yard outdoor pistol range. The kid was shooting with a standing two hand hold with a 9mm semi automatic pistol. I was standing about 30 feet to the right of the trio on the firing line; the father was standing to the right of his son in line with myself.

The kid took a shot downrange, when the spent shell casing hit the 4" diameter steel canopy support pole just to the right of him. The shell casing ricocheted and came back to hit the boy in the right facial cheek area. The startled kid whirled 90 degrees to the right, which resulted in the muzzle of the loaded pistol --- WITH SAFETY OFF --- being pointed directly at his father's chest.

The member said...WHOA, WHOA, WHOA --- while trying to get the waif to point the pistol downrange with physical gestures. The member admonished the boy, by telling him that he almost shot an killed his father.
 
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Kimio - Our range rule stipulates..."That any member that brings guest's, shall have only one guest/member firing at a time, while being visually monitored by the member if the guest is shooting."

Last Sunday at the range was a real doozy. Recently...we've had an influx of new members at our range. Seemingly...two new members with three guests, came over too set up right next to me on another bench five feet to my right.

They had two AR's and a 9mm semi automatic pistol. Of course...one member opened up the pistol case --- with the muzzle not pointed downrange, but directly at my stomach. I told him like I've told dozens of others before at our range...when on the concrete pad that accommodates the firing line, keep the muzzle pointed downrange at the backstop when uncasing/casing the firearm from the case; unless it's pointed upright.

One of the same guest's tried to fire his AR --- to no avail --- because when I offered to open up his AR to see what the problem was, I found that the buffer pad/spring detent had sprung because when he put his new stock on he did not have the buffer tube flush with the detent.

Last but not least...the other new member that brought his AR, was ask by the other member whether he had cleaned his AR from their last shooting session? The member countered that he had not --- with the other member admonishing for having him not cleaned his AR.

After removing the AR from his case ...he layed the rifle on the firing bench --- loads his magazine up --- pulls back the charging handle, and guess what pops out of the ejection port? You guessed it...A LIVE ROUND THAT HAS BEEN RESTING IN THE CHAMBER, PROBABLY SINCE HIS LAST SHOOTING SESSION, which could have been days or weeks. He said "Oh no...a live round." I didn't say a word, but only frowned on the fact that he was carrying around a loaded firearm all this time.
 
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50 yard range yelling "I actually hit paper!"
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I pretty much did that drill, except I was muttering to myself, not yelling. And it wasn't my fault!

An indoor range (H&H in Oklahoma City area) and it was the first time I had fired a Glock, many years ago. I rented it and was required to fire their ammo in their gun.

And I had no idea of why I made no holes on the paper at 40 or 45 yards, whatever the longest distance was. I held way left, way right, down a little, up a little, could not put any holes in the paper :eek:

I finally got a bullet hole and hauled the target back to find that the bullet had gone through the target sideways. Yup, dirty old range Glock fired with lead, non-jacketed bullets. I suspect that barrel was so leaded it acted like a smoothbore. Later I learned that lead bullets are a no-no with factory Glock barrels.

Bart Noir
 
I finally got a bullet hole and hauled the target back to find that the bullet had gone through the target sideways. Yup, dirty old range Glock fired with lead, non-jacketed bullets. I suspect that barrel was so leaded it acted like a smoothbore. Later I learned that lead bullets are a no-no with factory Glock barrels.
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I've put thousands of rounds of leads through Glocks. If the lead's hard enough, and you keep the barrel clean, it works just fine.

I've seen so many goofy things over the years. One thing that does stand out as neat was a squib that stopped just short of leaving the barrel. I wish I had a picture of it. Heard the familiar "poink" of a squib going off and the RO stopped him before he could get another shot off. And you could see it sticking out the end of the barrel.
 
I have a couple of interesting incidents.

This one wasnt on a a range it was just out in someones land I know.
A couple years ago, me and my friend take a couple other friends out there to shoot (them not being so experienced we had to explain a couple things to them, I dont think we did a good job). First one goes up to shoot I believe it was a glock 19 were all watchin and talking and such and not noticing till about half way through that he doesnt understand the concept of semi-auto, thats right he had been racking the slide after every shot so there was a bunch of cartridges at his feet. We then laughed and explained how its suppose to work.

Next up was his brother, I dont particularly find this one as funny.

He takes the gun goes forward to shoot, proceeds to go through about half the mag or so then turns around and starts walking back toward us. The barrel was moving with the swing of his arm and apparently his finger still on the trigger because all the sudden BOOM! and a nice hole apeared in the ground rite in front of me. Needles to say I was done for the day.


Another incident happend while I was out trap shooting at the range one day. I was sitting down this round for some reason I dont remember why , when I look to the spots left of us and see a dad and a younger boy around 14 or so there shooting. Then it looks like the kids shotgun jammed or something or he had put on the safety and didnt know what was going on cuz he had the gun point straight down at his feet while he was trying to figure out what was happening, the dad notices and moves to him quickly and pulls the barrel up a little bit then BOOOm he gets covered in dirt and theres a 16 gauge crater a good 4 ft from this kid.


The lesson is never assume the person your going shooting with is as knowledgeable about firearms as you.
 
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I was on our 50 yard outdoor pistol range about 10 years ago --- We have stand-up wooden pistol table's. While one pistol shooter was located 10 feet to the left of me on the firing line, I heard a funny sounding explosion from his location. Turns out...one of his handloaded 45acp rounds rolled off the table, with the primer hitting the concrete pad below and exploded. Neither myself nor the other shooter were hurt in the explosion.
 
Spent brass in cleavage on more than a few occasions.

Spent brass in some guy's flip flop.. Okay it was me. Unsafe I know but I was in a national forest and stopped by the range for an impromptu CCW shoot(had some ammo). Old timers were patting me on the back laughing at my hot foot dance(after I set the pistol down mind you).

A doe wandered into 100yd range right after we called a hot range after checking targets. The laughter could be heard a mile away.

Guy pulls up in a new range rover with his sbr and a pistol. I start talking to him during a cold range about how long the paper work took. He says "I cut this bi*ch myself and I don't need no da*n stamp". I lecture him for a second about the penalties,how law enforcement frequent this range and whatnot. He says I'm full of it and goes back to shooting.

I see him the next few times I come to the range and just kind of ignore him. FWC(florida wildlife) comes into the parking lot. Something tells me to stick around for this. They aren't pushy with checks or anything just hang around for a few min to see if everyone is being safe.

Can't fix stupid and he left in handcuffs that day.
 
I've put thousands of rounds of leads through Glocks. If the lead's hard enough, and you keep the barrel clean, it works just fine.
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He did say it was a range rental (generally not kept, in any sense of the word, "clean"- more like "rode hard and put away wet", on a daily basis) with range ammo ...... meaning, generally "the cheapest ammo that could be made/remanufactured" ....
 
Certain pistol novice's that are new to the shooting sports, have a peculiar way of aiming a pistol sometimes.

For example: I was shooting at our 50 yard pistol range about eight years ago, when a family walks up to the firing line; including ole' grandma. The member's take turns shooting...when it's the grandmother's turn.

She stood with her arms only slightly extended and aimed a 1911 with the front sight only. Meaning...she had to cock the pistol about 45 degrees upwards --- with total disregard of the rear sight --- and aimed at the target with the front sight only.

That being...the muzzle of the pistol was pointed way over the designated bullet impact backstop, and into the tall trees beyond the backstop an over the hill. I took a look at her aiming technique --- apparently the family was going to let grandma shoot that way --- so I quickly walked over and put a verbal quick stop to the proceedings.

Same thing happened last Saturday --- only at our 100 yard range --- when a cute young blonde was performing the same kind of wacky aiming technique, with a 9mm semi auto pistol. Her boyfriend...who was standing right next to her, was seemingly oblivious to rounds going up beyond the impact area and into the woods beyond. I was 10 feet to the right of her --- and was about to say something --- when the RSO walks over and stands behind her for a minute while watching her shoot.

He{RSO} said: "Ms....I can't see your rounds hitting anywhere!!! I walked over and spoke to the RSO: "That's because she's shooting up into the woods."

I politely told her boyfriend that he will have to teach her how to aim the sights. He just stared at me without saying a word. The blond replied that this is her "first shooting experience." After the incident, the blonde seemed to correctly aim the pistol sights.
 
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Hi all, been a while since I posted since I've last posted.

About a week ago I went back to the range to test out several batches of loads I've been working up. So I'm bent down and picking up some of my cases to inspect them when the case I'm hold just disappears and I notice a buzzing feeling in my finger. On the ground is a spinning piece of lead. After a quick check to see if I'm ok, I walk 3 lanes over to the only other guy on the range, wait for his slide to lock back and politely tell him that he shot me as I handed him back the ~1/8th of the 9mm that bounced back at me. I asked him if he needed any tips which he declined. After looking at his target I thought to myself it might be safer to pack up.
 
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