Apple a Day
New member
I just came in from an indoor pistol range.
There I was in my own lane with a brand new .22 SA revolver, alone and happy at the serenity of being able to get familiar with my new acquisition and to focus on what I jokingly call my marksmanship skills when the door opened and two youths walked in.
They were in the 18-25 age group, dressed like Allen Iverson clones, and sporting a self-loader. Although there were four lanes (I was in spot #2) the range is split in half. Rather than heading to the empy half they parked to my left and started blazing away. Apparently they were renting the pistol because when I asked them what they were using they had no idea. It took them a minute to read the slide.
Now, I know the basic safety rules (it's always loaded, keep pointed downrange, finger off the trigger, etc... but there are a few courtesies I try to keep in mind like:
-cleaning up your brass! That one is posted but the gangstas next door didn't. I cleaned up most of theirs while I cleaned mine. They'd left long before.
- if there is room, I don't take the lane next to someone I don't know, esp. if I have a self-loader which is going to shower them with empty casings.
-I try not to begin blazing away while someone else is already firing. Kind of like bowling when the person in the next lane is stepping into their delivery. See the above rule. I find it tough to focus when 9mm casings are bouncing around me like visions of sugar plums the night before Christmas. I take the time to analyze my groups, load mags, connect the dots on the targets and see if they make anything Freudian, etc...
- I use colorful language from time to time: " Son of a b****. Well if he'd been a pirate he'd be short one parrot!" or " D***it! Low, but at least he's the last generation of BG in his f***ing family!" but there is a limit. If you yell GD, MF, or Sh after every shot it gets a bit tiresome.
What other rules of courtesy do y'all suggest? I am not analy retentive but would hate to appear as big a jerk as those guys did today. Thanks in advance.
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Those who use arms well cultivate the Way and keep the rules.Thus they can govern in such a way as to prevail over the corrupt- Sun Tzu, The Art of War
There I was in my own lane with a brand new .22 SA revolver, alone and happy at the serenity of being able to get familiar with my new acquisition and to focus on what I jokingly call my marksmanship skills when the door opened and two youths walked in.
They were in the 18-25 age group, dressed like Allen Iverson clones, and sporting a self-loader. Although there were four lanes (I was in spot #2) the range is split in half. Rather than heading to the empy half they parked to my left and started blazing away. Apparently they were renting the pistol because when I asked them what they were using they had no idea. It took them a minute to read the slide.
Now, I know the basic safety rules (it's always loaded, keep pointed downrange, finger off the trigger, etc... but there are a few courtesies I try to keep in mind like:
-cleaning up your brass! That one is posted but the gangstas next door didn't. I cleaned up most of theirs while I cleaned mine. They'd left long before.
- if there is room, I don't take the lane next to someone I don't know, esp. if I have a self-loader which is going to shower them with empty casings.
-I try not to begin blazing away while someone else is already firing. Kind of like bowling when the person in the next lane is stepping into their delivery. See the above rule. I find it tough to focus when 9mm casings are bouncing around me like visions of sugar plums the night before Christmas. I take the time to analyze my groups, load mags, connect the dots on the targets and see if they make anything Freudian, etc...
- I use colorful language from time to time: " Son of a b****. Well if he'd been a pirate he'd be short one parrot!" or " D***it! Low, but at least he's the last generation of BG in his f***ing family!" but there is a limit. If you yell GD, MF, or Sh after every shot it gets a bit tiresome.
What other rules of courtesy do y'all suggest? I am not analy retentive but would hate to appear as big a jerk as those guys did today. Thanks in advance.
------------------
Those who use arms well cultivate the Way and keep the rules.Thus they can govern in such a way as to prevail over the corrupt- Sun Tzu, The Art of War