Anyone ever have a bad range day?

[Normandy]

Between range sessions, I acquired two old firearms, so took them to the range to test fire both of them.
#1 is a "Ranger" pump .22 rifle, built by Savage in 1939-40-41. I filled the ammo tube, and the ammo immediately puddled into the receiver. I discovered that it had no bullet stop. It's at the gunsmith's now, with fingers crossed he can make a bullet stop for it. Otherwise, it's a sweet rifle.
#2 is a 1920 Commercial Luger in .30 Luger. First round several inches high and left. Second round (after I cleared the stove pipe) several inches low right. Third round, after clearing a jam, was high right almost off the paper. Next round was several inches low left. And the pistol jammed very dramatically. Turns out the breech block was worn out completely in the rear, where the firing pin spring retainer supposedly holds the assembly together, but it didn't. The bore is 99% shot out, and the breech block is toast. I installed a repro breech block, acquired a nice replacement barrel, and the Luger is also at the gunsmith's, awaiting the 'new' barrel.

I always take a couple of pistols that I know will run well. Glock 19 and Ruger Mk.III .22.
They did NOT let me down.

 

[gp911]

I documented one on here years ago. Took several guns to the range with the following results:

The Blackhawk .45LC cut my hand open with some hot Buffalo Bore ammo then locked up when the Speer shotshells slid in the chambers.

The new P3AT kept jamming and then got stuck pretty good.

The new-to-me K-frame kept locking up when warm due to it's tight cylinder gap.

So I went home with three locked up guns and a bloody hand. Pretty lousy day.

 

[MRH]

Couple of typical things and one not so common:

- took the wrong caliber ammo along for the gun I wanted to shoot
- left all my magazines for one gun on my loading bench at home

- was shooting my M1 with a warm load on a hot day. After about 5 rounds, my partner, who was sighting in his hunting rifle, asked me to look at his target, since he couldn't see any hits. So I put the M1 down and looked through my spotting scope for any hits on his target. Found them a few inches off the target. Went back to my gun and shot the next round which fired OK, but the following round jammed. Looked at the action and discovered the extractor was gone from the bolt. I expect the round in the chamber got too hot. Never did find the thing and bought another one.

Mike

 

[Grimshaw]

Had a 70 year old lady making fun of my shooting. I was awful all over the paper that day

 

[captmoto]

Last trip to the range was outstanding. I've had days where the safest place to be was in front of me. Couldn't buy a sight picture, felt like I was wearing a baseball mitt on my trigger hand. Still beat working.

 

[Arizona_Mike]

Does having a Savage barrel come loose count? Never happened before or since . . .

Mike

 

[captmoto]

I went one time in a Santa Ana wind (southern California). It wasn't windy at my house. The range is up in a canyon, and so windy I had to push my car door open with my legs. I couldn't look into the wind, too many rocks flying at me. I hid behind the rangemasters hut for a minute before I gave up and left.

Sounds like West End Gun Club.
Red Wind, we only call it Santa Ana winds but is actually Santana (Devil) winds. Symptoms are the same as Chandler described them though. Throw in a full moon with Santanas and it really gets weird.

 

[HoosierQ]

Oh yeah. I have ABMD (Google it, eye thing) and if the wrinkles are in the center, it's bye bye bull's eye. Those are bad days.

 

[Potatohead]

Heck yea, I have one sometimes. I always wonder whether I should leave or keep shooting..

 

[grubbylabs]

Quote:
I went one time in a Santa Ana wind (southern California). It wasn't windy at my house. The range is up in a canyon, and so windy I had to push my car door open with my legs. I couldn't look into the wind, too many rocks flying at me. I hid behind the rangemasters hut for a minute before I gave up and left.
Sounds like West End Gun Club.
Red Wind, we only call it Santa Ana winds but is actually Santana (Devil) winds. Symptoms are the same as Chandler described them though. Throw in a full moon with Santanas and it really gets weird.

Up here in Idaho, we do everything in the wind. I could not imagine how bad it must be in the Dakota's.

Yup, and it usually has to do with me being in a hurry to get as much load testing done as possible. It seems that any more I am always doing load testing. I work six days a week, so any free time I have at the range is valuable and sometimes I make the worst of it, instead of just relaxing and enjoying it.

 

[Ky Larry]

Anyone who would ask such question has obviously never played golf.

 

[Zach S]

I can't look at a golf course without thinking "what a waste of a rifle range"

 

[bannockburn]

I don't recall any bad range days except for one that was mainly weather related. A buddy of mine and I were both off on Presidents Day so we decided to go to the range, an outdoor place out in the middle of nowhere. About a foot of snow was already on the ground and a howling 30 mile an hour wind coming out of the northwest (never a good thing), gave us a wind chill factor of about 10*. At least the wind was to our backs at the firing line but then there was the trudge through the snow to set our targets at the 100 yard line and then the walk all the way back again. I think we only did that twice.

We stayed for about a couple of hours, burning through a couple of hundred rounds of .223 through our AR15s. Didn't really have anyone else around to bother us as we were the only two idiots out there that day. Even the range owner didn't want to come out of his house. He just stayed inside and held on to our drivers licenses til we ready to leave. All in all an interesting experience but nothing I would ever want to do again at the range.

 

[12Pump]

2 of them:

Several years ago, found that an free and open range now was redesigned and had a range master and strict rules. The range master followed me around suggesting that I pay a $5 "donation" the whole time. Plus, he wouldn't let me shoot any of the targets I brought, insisting that I was only allowed to use "NRA certified" paper targets, which I would have to pay $1 for from him. My blank paper targets with hand-drawn bullseyes weren't acceptable, nor were my water jugs or pop cans. He also wouldn't let me use my range bag as a rifle rest, wouldn't let me shoot my tactical shotgun at anything but flying clay targets (which I didn't have), and said I wasn't allowed to pick up empty brass laying around either. I never went back to that range.

A few years later, I went to a dedicated rifle range that had a "public day". It's a 600 yard range and people can only shoot from 1 distance--determined by the range master. I asked in advance what range they'd be shooting that day and they said 100 yards. So I drove out there with my .22 rifle and shotgun (to shoot slugs with), and then discovered they were shooting at 200 yards based on a last-minute request by one person. I figured I would try shooting anyway, but was not allowed to shoot my .22 because of what they called "safety concerns", and I wasn't allowed to shoot my shotgun because shotguns aren't allowed there, even if using slugs. They say slugs are hard on the target stands. So I just sat around watching other people shoot.

I haven't been to that range or any other since then.

 

[bldsmith]

Have had the typical forget stuff days. Usually can fix them since I bring more than one gun. But There are a few that have stood out.

My first gun was an 03-A3. I decided to have it sporterized. Had a GS put new sights, polish and blue the barrel and stain and finish the stock. I had this done in TN while I attended my first school in the Navy. I was reporting to my first duty station in Ca and went to shoot my new old rifle. Looked down the sight and squeezed one off. This was long before I had any type of optics and a spotting was out of the question. Got ready to take another shot and looked through the rear peep. Could not see the front blade!!! It was gone!!!! The range officer saw I was a bit perplexed and came over to see what was up. Well we finally found the front sight. It was about 15 feet behind me. The GS in TN drilled through the barrel and only had one or two threads of each screw holding the front sight on. End of the day for that one. Nice thing is my uncle just put some longer screws in the sight and it was ready to go.
So back at the range about a year later. Yes this was all I could afford to do. And this was my BD gift from my wife, a range trip. Have my nice sporterized rifle with new screws in it ready to go. Take my first 3 shots. Again no spotting scope and iron sights. SO I could not tell where the heck I was hitting. Walked to the tgt and nothing. Not a single hole. So I guessed and raised my rear sight and another 3 rounds. Nothing again. Crap, shot all but 2 rounds out of the box of ammo I had. My rear sight was adjusted the the max. Decided to aim about 6ft low at 100yds. I hit the TGT, TWICE.. The front blade was too low!!!! Crap. Took another 3 years to get a taller blade. At least I finally took 2 caribou with that rifle before I had to sell it off.

Then I just built a new AR15 in 264LBC. Took it to the range. Could not get it to group for crap. Went home and ordered a new bolt carrier. Took it back still not able to group. I am talking 5-6" at best. Had fired off 80 of the 100 rds I had. Was getting ready to pack up and went to put the rifle in the case. Felt something move on the end of the barrel. The thread protector was loose. Took it off and fired off another 5 rounds. .6". Now to get back and see if I can repeat it.

 

[Ignition Override]

Bestimmt! Definitely.
After forty rounds I finally stood by a partition to catch some brass, and noticed that the fresh factory (Sellier & Bellot) cases ejected from the Mauser Hsc handgun have somewhat bulged brass.

A seasoned WW2 handgun guy studied it and said that some nit wit had altered the shape of the feed ramp. He claimed that the rounds are "unsupported", and what look like small blisters seem to indicate such.

Somehow won a bid tonight for the only replacement .32 Auto Hsc barrel (plus the slide) on the Internet.
Hopefully no "nitwit expert" altered the feed ramp at all other than to polish it.

 

[splithoof]

Seems like a lot of the stuff I am reading here focuses (for the most part) on two main elements: forgetting to bring necessary gear, and RANGEMASTERS. I can easily deal with not bringing the proper gear, but I truly hate dealing with "Range Nazis". i don't need some donkey following me around for anything.

 

[Gun Master]

Right on !

I think their normal greeting is, "Heil Hitler".

Man, they can crimp your good day !

 

[hAkron]

Left the .40 barrel in the P229, but brought the 357 Sig ammo.

 

[acamk37]

Launching 203 grenades and trying to use the tangent sight is always fun...especially if you're left handed. Busted my lip up pretty good...became is strict leaf sight kind of guy after that.

 

[Walkalong]

Well, I did drive 45 minutes to a range once, with only one gun, a rifle, with no bolt. *sigh*

Nothing to do but load up and drive back home.

 

[CornCod]

I would have a bad day at the range now and again, but then I figured out that energy drinks and their caffeine induced jitters are not a good combination with handguns!

 

[fedlaw]

A bad day at the range is when I learn nothing about myself or my tools, even if the only thing I discover is that I need to shoot more.

 

[bikemutt]

I rarely make the forgot something mistake these days, probably from an earlier education. Hauled horses two hours for the ride of a lifetime, left keys for tack room at home. That was the day I learned to ride bareback

 

[Carl696]

My bad range day was several years ago at a private range I belonged to in NJ.
We had over 125 members, but during the week it was rare to see more than one or two other shooters.
This one day I was working up a load for my friends Ruger #1 in 22-250.
I had my press powder measure and chronograph set up and started to load and shoot.
After about a half hour another member showed up and set up on the bench next to me.
We shot for a while; I then stopped to clean my rifle. While cleaning we started talking about different guns we had and the ones that got away. At this point the other member said he had to leave. While he was packing up I went and set up some new targets.
After he left I loaded up three rounds and was about to fire, when I realized I did not have my safety glasses on I reached over and put them on.
When I pulled the trigger I knew something very bad had happened. I got a face full of gas and powder, and the fore end had split in my hand. The first thing I did was to check for blood there was none! I tried to open the action but it would not budge.
Trying to figure out what happened, I pulled the heads from the two other rounds both charges were within the load manual range.
I started going over what I had done before pulling the trigger to figure out what caused the blow up. When I got to the cleaning rods (I use two one with a jag one with a brush)
The rod that had the jag did not have one now.
I had the answer, while I was cleaning the bore and talking (mistake 1) the jag and patch unscrewed and stayed in the bore. I did not check the rod after cleaning (mistake 2) and I did not check the bore after cleaning (mistake 3).
One good thing I did not sustain any injuries other than to my pride.
Now I had to tell my friend I blew up his favorite chuck gun.
When I told him he was amused, and wanted to mount it in his trophy room (something that be a good source of ribbing for years)
I told him I had already sent it Ruger to see if it could be fixed.
About two weeks later I received a letter from Ruger stating that the gun was beyond repair. If my friend would give up ownership they would send a replacement.
Two weeks later I received a brand new #1 at no cost! ( I had told them it was my fault)
I always liked Ruger but after that I can’t say enough about them.