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.
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.