Dumbest thing you've seen at the range?

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I used to shoot at this public unsupervised range. They had five or six shooting positions, all benches, and you had to shoot through little "windows" in the wall in front of the benches. They had these long tubes on the other side of the windows made out of corrugated culvert pipe so that your aim was limited - prevented shots over the berm. Sure was loud, though!

Anyway I show up one day, and this other guy there remarked to me while I was setting up that I just missed the excitement. He said there were a couple of other guys there - it was right before deer season and folks were checking the zeros on their hunting rifles - and he said one guy picked up his .30-30 lever action rifle and was getting ready to put it away when he had an AD into the concrete pad right behind another guy at one of the other benches. He said there was almost a fistfight over that one!

Glad I missed it!

That was the last time I think I ever went to that range. It was just too darned scary.

Worst thing was if a couple of teenagers would show up with an SKS converted to AK magazines. There's just something about that combination that brings out the stupid in people!
 
MikeNice said:
Saturday I decided to do some shooting before work. I went over to a family member's house to shoot. They have a nice area on their property with a large thick hill for a back stop. I was in the middle of emptying a 30 round clip of old 22lr ammo. This guy comes walking over the hill directly behind the target. I imediately put the safety on and pulled the rifle in across my chest.

He walked down hill directly torwards the target and then around it. He came up to me and demanded I stop shooting because I was disturbing his bird watching activities on the other side of the hill. I informed him that he was on private property and had no room to make demands. He called the cops to report my "discharing a firearm in the direction of a person."

Needless to say it took the deputies about three minutes to get there in full code 3. They came out of the car with guns in hand thinking they had an active shooter situation. I put my rifle on the ground and raised my hands. One of the deputies recognized me and asked if I was the one that called in. The guy stormed past me and approached the deputies screaming and waving his hands. In seconds he was eating gravel.

He was told to clear out and informed that making a false report is illegal. He was also told if he ever steps foot on that property again he would be arrested.
Click to expand...

Sure hope that guy learned his lesson. Most people have common sense enough not to waltz onto someone else's property and demand they stop shooting…
 
Recently I took someone to the range, which I don't normally do. She had been telling me how she used to go shooting with her dad, who's a retired naval officer. Before we hit the range, I aks that she understand basic safety and firearms funtions... she says yes.

No, she didn't. Myself and everyone else were flagged with my own loaded weapons. I felt like a total jack wad for turning her loose before making for cetain she knew how to use them.
Anyway, I took over, explained that she was flagigng everyone, including me, with loaded guns and to keep her finger off the tirgger until ready to fire. She corrected herself quickly.

I don't know what her dad taught her, if anything, or if she was just trying to get me to 'teach her', but all of her bad habits and shooting stances were corrected with little instruction. Still.. it's the first and last time it wil happen.
 
The range I shoot at has a few crude rifle rests made out of 2x4, just 4 inches or so suspended above two angles pieces. Most have some carpet pulled over and stapled down. They work okay.
There were two guys shooting some expensive rounds through expensive bolt-actions sporting expensive scopes, and I hear one guy complain about his groups to the other guy.
After a couple times, I look over to see that, while guy B has decent if not great groups, Guy A's groups are barely on the target, and he's resting his free-floated barrel--not his stock--on the rest at random points.
So I correct him, set him up, and lo and behold, a round within the 9-ring. Tuck his rest back in place, and one in the 10. And as soon as I go back to my lane, they start wandering again. He grumbles, I look over, and have to set him back up. Another in the 10, back to my lane, and he's got the barrel back on the rest.
I corrected him three or four times, and he noticed all of them, but he kept going back, so I figured 'heck with it' and went back to my .22.
Until 'PCHARK', and splinters came flying across the lane.
Turned out that the cheap rest had been scooting around and he just kept laying the rifle back down until he had the muzzle right on the rest, and found out that the 'handiwork' included a built-in angle to the top of it.


A more amusing one: my friend bought a Mosin Nagant 91/30. First range trip since it's severe cleaning, first target run out to 100 yards, first round. BOOM! He hoots, we laugh, look back down range--and discover that the lights past the 60-yard line no longer worked.
 
Read a few here and surprised not by the dumb stuff that I know happens But by all these high roaders that responded with. " I left" sure am glad y'all didn't have to be taught and shameful that you didn't have the patience of the person that taught you Disgusted
 
REALLY
If I see someone doing something dangerous
AND
you point it out to them
AND
they ignore you, and quite possibly in doing so CONTINUE to put you in DANGER

Leaving is a VERY good option, after all it would suck if you end up dead or something
NEVER forget that this sport is for keeps, kinda like skydiving, mistakes may not be survivable. Stupidity often isn't.

Mine, been that guy
I was at the short range mix pistol/rifle range of my local range (they have 15 ranges from 25 yards to 400) I knew the min for long range pistol was 15 yards and like a jackwagon, I didn't bother to read the range board, I had a few guns out to shoot with my brother. I was shooting my shotgun, letting him waste some bird shot at a 25 yard target, with a close target at 15 yards, broke out the tokarev, about the same time the RSO walked that way on his smoke break (Gotta love no smoking ordinances). Got tore up one side and down the other for not shooting the MINIMUM distance, in front of my brother. Big red range sign, RIGHT BEHIND our position, right on top (where it was repeated pointed out, with words like stupid, and 5th grade teacher)

He was pissed, I told him, NO we were wrong, put the shotgun away and moved down to one of the pistol ranges that was deserted. He still was pissed when we went back into the range shack to check out. I pointed out that we should have read the sign.
 
I was at the range last summer and a woman in a sports bra looking thing was shooting a Bushmaster. She was and older fit woman. She was set up at the lane next to me. I was shooting my M1. I asked her if the brass would bother her and she said no. I cracked off a few rounds and she still told me the brass wasn't bothering her. In fact, it was ejecting in front of her. I think everyone has been at the range and been showered with brass, but I was worried about the sports bra get up she was wearing. Sure enough when I fired another round, a hot 30 06 shell casing went right down the front of that sports bra. She jumped up and started patting her chest. The shell casing left a little red mark right between her endowments. I did feel bad, but she assured me it was her fault for wearing the outfit. I shot my 1903 for the rest of the time she was there.
 
Hands down a guy sending his 4 year old or so son down range to change targets while the range was hot (guy 2 lanes over still doing a mag dump with a 30 rounder and others still shooting).:banghead: He even yelled at us for us stopping this from happening and then at his son for being afraid to do it. Public ranges with no supervision are dangerous at times.:banghead: Some people are just plain STUPID.:fire: He left shortly after while yelling at the kid for making a fuss around others. We should have reported him but did not want to see him in a police confrontation while agitated AND armed. Never saw either of them again.
 
Young guy at the range rents an AR15 with an ACOG. Clips his target on the carrier and proceeds to move it out to the 5 yard mark and start shooting at it with the ACOG ??
 
I've learned that guys who show up with handguns that are suitable for carry but who don't have holsters can be very dangerous. I think those of us who carry every day tend to have a higher degree of awareness for our guns in the presence of third parties. People who have "range guns" or are "target shooters" sometimes don't have the same level of situational awareness. One example of this occurred a few months ago.

When I practice with my handguns, I have my holster and magazine pouch set up exactly as I carry. I do not understand people who carry concealed but then train differently. Anyway, I was working from an AIWB holster with a horizontal mag pouch at 11:00, both concealed by an untucked shirt. I draw and move and shoot and do a bunch of stuff that not many people at my range have ever seen, never mind do. I love my range, but most of the members, while good people, mistake target shooting for preparing for a self-defense scenario, but I digress.

An old timer with a Browning Hi Power apparently took an interest in my set up and drills. The range goes cold, just after he had put in a magazine and chambered a round. So he is standing there, making small talk during the cease fire time, and he's holding this gun. He has no holster into which to put it. I'm thinking, the range is cold, maybe politely tell this old guy to kindly bench the blaster until we go hot again. Before I get the chance to say something, he motions to me as if he were pointing at me and asks, "What kind of rig is that?" Unfortunately, his pointer finger is attached to his hand in which he is holding that Browning. He realized what he'd done just as I told him I'd really rather he didn't point his gun at me. He was apologetic, and I was gracious, but I kept a very close eye on him until he left.
 
CCW permit class. First thing the guy next to me does after the pistols are loaded is turn around WITH the pistol in his hand to ask the instructor a question- pointing the gun right at his belly in the process.

This was only seconds after the instructor reminded everyone (for the umpteenth time) to keep things pointed downrange. :banghead:
 
Location undisclosed

A Safety Officer at my local IDPA match was walking a group through a course of fire. This group is mostly newbies and he asks us all to gather 'round for a demonstration of proper reloading technique. He turns uprange to face the crowd, draws his gun, points it directly at my chest and executes a flawless reload sequence. He used an empty mag so he never went "hot" but still I didn't expect to get muzzled by the SO of all people!
 
The guy next to me in my class farted out loud, really loud, and then acted like nothing happened.
 
I live and shoot in a lightly populated state with literally hundreds of square miles in which to hike, shoot, recreate, etc. There is a highly popular, and extremely large and accommodating shooting area quite close to town. I have only rarely shot at a sanctioned range, as the idea of a stranger with a firearm two feet away cranking off rounds sets me on edge a bit, my apprehension given credence not only by personal experience, but by the accounts in this thread as well.

This area has multiple pull-offs for a mile or more with ranges out to five to six hundred yards in some places, and more than adequate backstops on both sides of the road. Needless to say, plenty of room for everyone to shoot safely and separately as long as people respect the space of others, which they usually do.

Set up a scoped ar with a bipod, ammo can next to it, and a shooting blanket, target at 300 yards. Random stranger drives right up next to my vehicle and parks as if it were the next available spot at a convenience store, pulls a target out of his truck and goes walking down range AS WE ARE STILL ACTIVELY FIRING! Guy never says a word, or acknowledges anyone else is there, all the while looking over his shoulder periodically as if this was some sort of annoyance to him!! Keep in mind there were MILES of other available shooting spots. Who does that??

We packed up quickly and headed on down the road.
 
I've seen a guy spinning an unloaded .357 Magnum on his finger like he's Billy The Kid. I pointed out that would get him banned from the range forever and got the anticipated response of, "It's not loaded."
I have also seen a father and son walk downrange at a skeet range (really just a field ringed by trees on public lands- large enough for maybe 3 shooters at a time) to start picking up unbroken clays while other shooters are still shooting.
There's always those that show up without eye or hearing protection on the public ranges. I bring extra earplugs and will hand them out. I've noticed that some hunters think it's wimpy to use them though.
 
Here in Southern California you have no choice but to shoot at a range and as far as I know there are no more public ranges anymore so it cost money to do so.

Anyway, I have seen many scary things going on while at one range in particular. My young son and I were shooting at the pistol range when a young couple showed up with what looked like a brand new auto of some sort and, after figuring out how to load the mag and which end to put it in, they took turn firing down range at basically nothing...they had no targets, etc. After a few clips they started shooting at rock on the ground and eventually one that was right in front of the bench. The jacket from the round hit me in the leg but gladly it had slowed enough that it just left a good scrap/bruise. Needless to say I had some very harsh words with the male before raising hell with the range owners.
 
At my CCW class an older man in his 50's tried to load his magazine waiting on his turn. We were told by instructors that our spotters would load for us as we could only have 5 rounds at a time. It was all good though as he tried to load them backwards with the primers pointing up out of the front. He was pulled aside and given special education from then on.
 
7.62x54R inside a .308...


I'm glad that's the dumbest thing I've seen (and brought to the person's attention).
 
My Concealed Carry License class what held in a room at a kind of ritzy country club condo development. When advance-registering for the class we were instructed to bring the pistol that we were intending to qualify with to the classroom session, but to NOT bring any ammo and to make sure the pistol was unloaded.

During the classroom session (a big part of which was watching a video of some boring bald guy explaining the use of force laws to us) the instructor, who was a police detective in his real job, would go out to each student, pick up their weapon, and take it to his desk in the corner of the room and give it a quick inspection to verify that it worked properly, the pencil test, whatever. It so happened that my seat gave me a clear view of the instructor performing this inspection.

Several times during his inspection he opened a weapon and found loaded magazines and chambered rounds.

Why can't people follow simple instructions?
 
At my current club they have a "plinking range", which is a covered shooting position at the edge of a ravine with a little creek at the bottom. You are supposed to bring any safe target object, such as tin cans, whatever (no glass), and toss these on the opposite slope above the creek and below a rope suspended about 3/4 of the way up the opposite slope - this defines your impact area for your rounds. You are specifically not supposed to shoot into the creek - either the water or the nearby mud, as the mud will splatter back over everyone, and there is always a danger of ricochets off of the water.

Anyway I was there one morning shooting one of my percussion revolvers. I had tossed an old metal coffee can across the creek to use as a target. These two guys show up with a big .44 magnum DA revolver of some sort. First, they start blasting away at MY can, which kind of ticked me off. They then fired a couple of rounds into the creek, splashing everyone else with mud. Finally, just as I finished charging and capping my revolver - meaning that there is no convenient way to unload it other than shooting it - one of these guys walks behind me (while others are still shooting - yells "Can I have a cease-fire?" and immediately walks out past the shooting bench onto the range.

Now our range rules are that when anyone is forward of the line, all guns must be unloaded, grounded on the bench, and are not to be touched until the all-clear is given. With my percussion revolver I could not quickly make it safe.

I hollered out for him to stop, but he ignored me. Other shooters also yelled, and he finally cam back. I explained to him that I could not just unload my revolver after it was charged and capped, and that he needed to wait while I took my six shots. He didn't seem like he cared, but he did wait.

Dumb people!

Honestly, of all of the various ranges and disciplines we have available to us at my club, including a 600 yard rifle range with pits a la Camp Perry, the plinking range is where most of the trouble occurs.
 
One officer lighting up several others during an Active Shooter drill. Came around the corner, saw the other stack rounding their corner, and opened up. So glad it was a training day and not an actual AS call-out.
 
a 18 year old punk kid dressed in bdu's and a ski mask and body armor with a tricked out ar that must have weighed 18lbs. i asked him what he was doing and he said he was training with his rifle for when he becomes delta force. this kid was maybe 5'9'' and a good 300lbs. i just laughed and got back to shooting.
 
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