An hour at the range...

[rick_reno]

I spent today at my volunteer "job" as a range master at the local shooting range. Tomorrow is opening day of cow elk season - after what I saw today I'm going to find some body armor and spend the day hiding in my basement.
Our range is run by the city and they have a firm agreement with the neighbors about the hours the range can operate - the closing time as listed in the paper is the absolute time we have to stop shooting. One minute more and the mayor gets calls. Note: the mayor was shooting up til about noon - he's a serious shooter and a good guy.

Our rules are posted and I go over the essentials with every new shooter as they're signing into the log book. When time is short and hunting season is approaching it's pretty clear no one listens.

All these happened in the last hour of operation. I had twelve shooters show up after 4PM, closing time was 4:55PM. Four were kids. They were all planning on hunting tomorrow. Maybe it's the moon, I noticed it was almost full tonight.

some events...

1. Fellow shows up at the range with a new scoped gun that has not been bore sighted and one box of ammo. He comments "You range masters are supposed to be good at sighting in rifles". If he'd been the only shooter, I'd have gladly spent the time with him. When we're busy safety takes precedence over every thing else - and today I was busy.
2. Fellow shows up the range after drinking. He was apparently getting ready for his elk hunt early.
3. Guy shows up with his kid who has his (new to him) scoped '06. It took a lot of our first aid kit to stop the bleeding from his eyebrow when the scope slammed into his head.
4. Shooters sprinting forward to check targets while range is hot.
5. Shooter loading/handling guns while range is cold. We've got a red line painted on the cement behind the benches - when the range is cold shooters are told actions open and stay behind the line. When they're all back there and I've checked actions, I let people go forward to check/change targets.


The kids were pretty good. Compared to the adults, the kids were incredibly
good. Generally, we watch kids close. Today the roles were reversed. I'm glad I made it home - even if I did get called back up there to unlock the gate because someone forgot their phone.

 

[Powderman]

Sounds like a similar experience I had during our Sight-In Days.

1. Guys showing up with their favorite ultra boomers, shooting a 4 inch group at 100 yards and saying, "Yup. That's good."

2. Guys seated at the bench for an hour, chasing bullet holes and wondering why they can't get zeroed.

3. A person who was shooting at a 50 yard target and not hitting paper OR target board. His scope was soo loose it could be turned by finger pressure in the rings.

4. Scopes mounted BACKWARDS.

5. One guy showed up and was literally jumping out of his skin at each shot from another bench. What does he pull out to zero? A 30-378 Weatherby! Guess how he did?

Some good ones:

1. On a line full of guys, a 16 y.o. girl comes up with Dad. He hands her a sporterized Mauser 98, chambered in .30-06. She sat down, loaded up, and shot a 3 round group at 100 yards that was barely an inch. Shot another group on the smaller printed targets--same results. Said, "I think I'm still zeroed from last year." Dad was pleased.

2. A man brought his son out, his first deer season. Pulls out a .300 Weatherby. I'm expecting some hard times.

They stayed on the range for about two hours. At the end, the son fired a five round, 3 inch group centered, at 100 yards---OFFHAND.

 

[rick_reno]

Powderman - 4 inch groups would have been fantastic today. I saw - and I'm not joking at least 2 groups that were greater than 12 inches (different shooters) - and they left very happy. One fellow couldn't hit paper at all, so he started shooting at a 24 inch metal gong we've got hanging up. He hit the gong beside the one he was shooting at once - it's hung about 3 feet to the left of the one he was shooting at.
Another one of them complained that he'd just missed a deer earlier in the week that was "from here to the #11 bench" - a grand distance of approximately 15 yards. (Why do they tell me these things?)
It's duck and take cover tomorrow. I might go out Monday, from their late arrival at the range today I'm pretty sure most of these folks work - a luxury I don't enjoy. I'll also remember never to volunteer to work the day before cow elk opens again. I don't need or want to know that people like this hunt.

 

[Smokey Joe]

The R. O. is the law.

Rick Reno--You're doing yr civic duty helping out as the RO at this range. Kudos to you for it!! Pls don't stop! These poeple need your help.

The RO is the last line of defense for safety @ the range. With a range full of doobers, you have to be a real tough SOB when it comes to the safety rules.

Have been an RO myself but it was in a very friendly situation. Have been a soccer ref in both friendly and unfriendly situations (A soccer ref similarly holds the entire game in his hands; his decisions are second only to God's.) and when the crowd and/or the coaches get ugly (the players were never a problem, go figure) you just snap out the commands and make 'em all toe the line, and eject any that think this is some kind of discussion or negotiation. (I ejected exactly one person, a coach, in all my reffing. As my reputation spread--grouchy and tough, but fair and impartial--the cooperation rate rose.)

Have shot at a public range just before deer season--I will not make that mistake again.

But this year I joined a club, and will be helping with the annual Pre-Season Sight-In Clinic we use as a fund raiser. I may have stories to tell!

 

[rick_reno]

I've been doing the RO thing for over 10 years, I'm not going to stop. It lets me shoot for free if I volunteer a little bit of time and I have more time than money. We have "members" - who join the sportsmans association and then pay $10 a year to use the range. Total cost is $20 a year. I should add that none of these people who showed up yesterday were "members" - they're casual shooters (?) who apparently use the range one day a year, just before hunting season. It costs them $5 for a day fee.
I was talking with another RO last night about my experiences yesterday, he was there in the morning and I relieved him around noon. He commented that it's a good idea I'm not going hunting this weekend, even tho the weather is beautiful and I'd love to be out. I might give and do some grouse hunting...I'll be in a field and should be safe.
I'm going suggest that we organize a pre-season sight in over a couple of weekends. We did at another range I volunteered at and it worked good; we had a number of RO's on hand to help out, good spotting scopes and everyone had a screwdriver to help adjust scopes/sights. I think if we advertise it (make it free if needed) we'll get good attendance and maybe attract some new shooters to become members or RO's. The free thing won't go over good with the city management, but I'd rather have these shooters in a controlled environment than out in the woods banging away.

 

[Smokey Joe]

Site-in-Daze

Sight-in Clinics are a Good Thing. Re doing it for free--there are several clubs in my area that have a Sight-in Clinic, usually spread over the 2 weekends prior to season opening.

They all charge a nominal fee (usually $5/gun) and then have coffee/donuts available for a price also. Custom sighting in, and solving mechanical problems, are extra. My club provides an experienced shooter at each firing bench to provide help/guidance.

Every one of the clubs that does this is loaded to the gunwales with customers, from opening to closing.

There is a little advertising, mostly in the form of flyers posted in gun stores etc, and mebbe a small ad or 2 in the local newspaper. But nothing huge.

What I'm saying is, if you do a sight-in clinic, you will probably have all the customers you can handle, even if you do charge money. But it does take a fair number of volunteers to get it done.

The local public range is also loaded to the gunwales with shooters, just before season, and they don't have the personnel to give individual attention to each shooting bench, which is what some of these once-a-year warriors desperately need.