Got a new place to shoot.

Unfortunately....

...I think the approach a fairly widespread.


I freely admit that since my experiences in shooting with other folks around are very very limited I am making a generalization which may be completely unfair.

I have never been to a sanctioned CAS event. I have never shot with others at a club operated range. I will assume that these environments have a way of weeding out the idiots.

I stopped riding bikes in groups for the same reason. The Harley dealer's only criteria for selling bikes is, "Do you have the money?" There is no test for maturity.

This thread could go on a long time with each of us relating our own experience. The conversation has probably outlived its usefulness. It is actually a little painful to read and post. wouldn't bother me in the least if it Gary deleted it.
 
wouldn't bother me in the least if it Gary deleted it.
Click to expand...
Then why did you start it?

This is nuts. The population is a Gaussian distribution. If we all pattern our actions based on the 3 sigma points we'd never leave our beds.

You're perfectly free to live in a cocoon if you wish, and you're certainly free to voice your opinion regarding other's actions. But in doing so you need to accept that the response you get may not be something you enjoy; if that happens, don't complain.
 
I shoot out around where idaram shoots. And I'm fortunate to be a member of a private club with a fenced, locked outdoor range.

Up in the mountains, there's a gravel pit where my dad and I shoot. It's well off the beaten path and I think that we've only come across one other person shooting there. It gets used, but people are pretty good about keeping it clean.

I've shot at public ranges, both supervised and unsupervised. Some have been fine, others terrible. It's kind of like most things in life.
 
In Spartanburg Cty, Sc there is a public shooting range for free. Only pistols can be shot onWed. They usually have targets set at 30 to 35 ft w/Plastic barrels to set your stuff on. The BP shooters are ususally to left end while others shoot everything that is new. The only problem is hearing the large crack of powerful handguns as exposed to the beautiful thunder of BP. Most are enthralled w/ BP guns but they too will empty hundreds of brass cartidges without wanting to know how to shoot C/B.


WBH
 
Just to belabor a point...

Which way is it?
....I openned this multilog with a statement which went something like: I avoid shooting with others because a relatively small number of shooters exhibit habits I don't like.

Then later in the thread I contradicted myself saying that there are too many folks who shoot in a way I don't like. One might be prompted to ask, "Well, Hoy, Is the number of people you don't like high or is it low?" "Which is it, because it can't be both."

Mykeal is right

Mykeal, because he studies this kind of thing and because his mind works this way, brought up the fact that human behavior can be predicted using the "bell curve". Of course he is correct. Considering just "safety", in any group of thirty shooters, one will be so scrupulously careful as to make himself a pain in the neck (High end) and one will be so fool hearty that he could easily wind up hurting someone (Low end).

The bell curve revisited

I think there are three factors which place shooters on the safety curve. Namely, experience, training or indoctrination, and motivation to shoot responsibly.

I shot an awful lot while on active duty and always with a lot of folks present. There was always a very small group who really needed close supervision. Attitude? Experience? Training? Who knows?

Out Take

I don't know if my threshold is too high (Likely), or if I just seem to attract idiots (Not likely) but the Sunday I was describing is the first time in seventeen years that I found myself shooting with others present. And on that day I was shooting with people who made me uncomfortable. Experience? Attitude? Training? So one hundred percent of the people I have shot with over a seventeen year period were undesireable as I define undesireable. (How is that for bending statistics!?)

I also said early in the thread that there are other reasons I like to shoot alone. These reasons attach to a quest for solitude in a normally rather hectic life and the embarrassment of how finnicky I am when I shoot. (I am not overly safe, just terribly finnicky.) I am avoiding other shooters as much to save them as to save me.

NOW TO THE MEAT OF MY RESPONSE

I have said that I believe that there are three factors which place shooters on the curve. I think there are groups of people who are likely to have these three factors in great amounts. They are high on the curve. Police officers are among these folks and people who post on this forum are also among these folks.

I certainly hope that no complaint I have made about other shooters is presumed to extend to anyone here. I think I know everyone here well enough not to make that generalization.
 
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