Most embarrassing moments at the range

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Several years ago, I broke down and bought a black powder rifle. (1803 Harpers Ferry replica) Naturally, It had to be a flintlock. (Go big or go home.) This is not an easy thing to shoot well, to see through and follow through through the flash and the bang. In the beginning, it was all a bit unnerving to try to keep in mind. On one early outing, I managed to leave the ramrod (steel) in the bore. After a fearsome recoil that nearly pushed me over (shooting kneeling), I wondered just what I had done wrong. When I couldn't find the ramrod, I knew. It was never found, but it did go through my target backing. I have read stories of Civil War soldiers having shot their ramrods in the heat of battle. At least no one was shooting back at me. No excuse sir.
 
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Hands down, my most embarrassing day at the range was while running our club’s monthly highpower rifle matches. I’ll make it a brief as possible.

Our club range was 45 miles from home and match days, I carried at least 5 or 6 DCM issued M1’s, several cases of M2 ball ammo, plenty of rifle cleaning equipment & supplies, our PA system, score sheets, a few shooting mats, etc., plus my own competition gear, set up the range and open the gates around 0800. We loaned the club rifles to anyone wishing to shoot a match (which would qualify them to purchase a DCM M1 for $98). After the match, while we figured up the scores, a couple of assistants would supervise the cleaning of the club rifles by those who used them for the match. Well, it usually worked that way, but this particular day……

While we shot the first relay, I was very concerned about a very large black rain cloud which formed in the distance and was moving very slowly in a direction that would have taken it a couple of miles east of the range. Long story short, at the last minute, either the storm “exploded” or it turned nearly 90*, and was on top of us quickly when the bottom dropped out!

Did I mention, the range is located 2 miles from the pavement on a dirt road that turns to gumbo, as a friend would say, "quicker than a cat can lick his behind with his tail up and his tongue out" in a heavy rain. Of the dozen or more vehicles on the range that day, only 2 were 4WD!

Another club officer, who lived just a few miles from the range was driving a 4WD Suburban and volunteered to lock the gate and ride drag to pull out anyone who didn’t make the pavement. He said if I’d take the club rifles to his house, he’d help me clean them, so we had a plan!? But, you know what they say about plans.

While I broke down the commo system everyone pitched in and dumped the (very wet & dirty) rifles, ammo cans, mats etc. in the back of my (2WD, fortunately w/positrac rear end and mud grips) pickup, pit crew stowed targets in TH, and everyone made a mad stampede for the gate. I was the 2nd vehicle off the range and the road was already slicker than a seal in a snot barrel.

The road had a pretty high crown, so it was hard to keep it between the ditches. About a mile from the gate, I spotted the first vehicle that left the range had spun out with his rear wheels in the ditch, thus blocking the narrow roadway. Fortunately for me, he was just past the only fork in that roadway, so I quickly decided to turn and take the longer (only) path open to me. If I’d stopped I would have only added one more vehicle for the 4WD’s to pull out. My biggest concern at that moment was crossing a 20’ deep drainage ditch w/no guard rails, as slick as it was.

Well, I finally made it to the pavement, but I used up all of that slick mud road to do it....all three miles of it. When I finally got to my buddy’s house & pulled into his tractor shed, it was still pouring down rain.

Didn’t check my watch, but I did manage to clean all 5 or 6 of the club rifles and was getting ready to drive back out to see if I could find out how they were coming on getting everyone to hard ground when my (very muddy) friend drove up the drive and reported that they had gotten everyone out, “except whoever that was that took the north fork and plowed up that road so badly”.

Regards,
hps
 
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It wasn’t me that did it, but I was probably the one most embarrassed by what happened. My wife’s folks (her mom and dad) were up here from southern California for a visit. They weren’t “gun people” by any stretch of the imagination, but they weren’t anti-gun either, and I loved them both.

Anyway, one afternoon my wife asked them if they would like to go shooting. They said, “That sounds like fun,” so we put a couple of .22s in the truck and headed on down to the gravel pit - our “range.” As an afterthought, I’d thrown in my 30-06 and a box of ammo.

With careful instruction and observation, my wife and I let her parents run through nearly a hundred rounds of .22LR ammo using an open-sighted 10-22 and a Single-Six revolver. Then I made the mistake - I fired a round in my 30-06, and asked my father-in-law if he’d like to try it. He said he would, so I told him it was “gonna kick,” but I told him to “just pull it in snug to your shoulder and it won’t hurt.”

At the same time, both my wife and I saw that her dad’s eye was right up against the scope. And we both shouted, “DAD!” as the gun went off.:eek:

It could have been worse. He didn’t need stitches, but he did bleed some, and he was embarrassed - but no more than I was. Probably less. That was ^%$$%&^ stupid on my part! I knew danged good and well my father-in-law didn’t know beans about guns, yet I went ahead and let him hurt himself with one.:oops::oops::oops:
 
In 2009 I bought my first new pistol since one I received from my grandfather in 1963 when I was 16.

The “new” pistol was a Ruger SR9c. After cleaning it, I went to a local range. I had a really difficult time loading the magazine and after 3 rounds I realized I loaded the magazine with the rounds backwards.

Looking to see if anyone was watching, I removed the 3 rounds and loaded them the “correct” way. Talk about feeling like an idiot. Duh!
 
redneck2 said:
Went to get my rifle and found it was still leaning against the work bench in the garage at home 45 minutes away
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I managed to lock our grandson's rifle in his truck when he was hunting with my wife and me on opening day of deer season this year. It's awful how that works - you know you left the keys in the ignition at the same instant the door slams shut.:uhoh:
At least we didn't see a deer while we were trying to get into the truck, and it was less than an hour back to town where our grandson had a spare set of keys. So we just left my wife sitting in the back of the locked truck with a thermos of coffee and some blankets while our grandson and I used my wife's and my truck to drive back to town. My wife said a cow elk with a good sized spike walked by, not 50 yards away, while we were gone. But she didn't have an elk tag, and she didn't even see a deer.:confused:
 
LoonWulf said:
Shot the bayo for my magnetospeed after making fun of people for shooting their eyeball chronos.......
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Hahaha. My ProChrono survived 2 shots over the years before a 3rd shot put it to rest. I'm lucky my range is in the backyard.

I've been embarrassed at our gun range on the farm by talking up a firearm that I've recently purchased and failing miserably to hit targets. I've learned now to be silent.
 
Not me but I was at the gun club and one of the guys was complaining that people were not picking up their brass. In mid rant he took a step on a fired cartridge. Down he went. We helped him up and he continued his rant. He took 2 more steps and did it again. Same piece of brass. Fortunately all he hurt was his pride. It was the only piece of brass in the immediate area.
 
I've never done any kind of dumbxxxx things at the range but there is evidence at both the trap and rifle range, bullet hole skylights in the roof, bullet holes in places that definitely don't belong. I'm just glad I've never been there when somebody was acting inappropriately except for one time I saved a drunk lady's eyeball. She held a Colt SAA .44mag with the hammer cocked up to her eyeball to get her sight picture and was about a millisecond from having severe facial/ocular damage. I yelled, she dropped the gun to her side and was like "whaaaaaat???" And I said my piece about how unsafe it was to put a .44magnum up to your eyeball in that fashion and told her she was also likely to lose a couple digits on her foot if she didn't take her finger out of the trigger guard with the hammer (still) cocked and ready, wished her luck and told my daughter we had to be on our way now since it was at this point obvious she was impaired mentally or otherwise..... I think both....
 
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gunlaw said:
Not me but I was at the gun club and one of the guys was complaining that people were not picking up their brass. In mid rant he took a step on a fired cartridge. Down he went. We helped him up and he continued his rant. He took 2 more steps and did it again. Same piece of brass. Fortunately all he hurt was his pride. It was the only piece of brass in the immediate area.
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Ouch. I love when people don't pick up brass. More for me :neener:
 
Didn't happen at the range itself, but on the way home. I was conceal carrying one of my range toys. "Concealed" because it was a 5 inch 1911 double stack riding in a high and tight with a baggy shirt thrown over it. I'm sure I was printing like mad, but it was supposed to only be for the trip home. We get to joking and realize we're all hungry, so I stopped at a Wendy's and we went in and chowed down. During the meal I went to stand up to use the men's room, and I felt a slight tug on my holster. I reached around and didn't feel anything, and didn't want to pull my shirt up in public. So I gave it a little wiggle and then proceeded to stand up. There was a "pop!" noise, followed by a "sproing!" and the hem of my shirt promptly shat 15 rounds of 45ACP all over the dining lobby floor, rolling and tumbling everywhere. :barf:

After a hasty cleanup and beating our feet we figured out that what had happened was, the plastic floorplate on the mag had been the perfect size to slip in between two of the wire tines that made up the chair back, and when I stood up the floorplate had slid up into a narrower end of the tines and snagged like a peg in a Keymod slot. The plastic cracked right at the edge and the magazine had shot all its rounds out the bottom with the full force of the spring behind them.
 
I've never been embarrassed at the range, but I've had some memorable days.
- been chewed out by a half-deaf octogenarian who was angry that I told him he should not dash off down range until the line was called cold, and accused of wanting to shoot him.
- second shot fired at the 300yrd 18" plate through my Garand missed, but cut the chain clean in half
- on bags on the bench, concentrating hard on sight picture with my new 300BO AR, and after he third shot looked at the target in binos, and found an excellent 6 shot group. The trigger was doubling, but cyclic rate was so fast it was an almost imperceptible stretching of the recoil. New trigger parts ordered that afternoon.
 
I really enjoy shooting my Morini M22 rapid fire olympic 22lr outdoors in bullseye fashion rain or shine, summer or winter. I had been shooting at the fifty-foot slow fire target, working up to at least a 93 or 95 with a couple of X's. I kinda get excited when those rimfires start getting in the ten ring. I briefly exchange pleasantries with the two men and women, earlier, on the firing line when one of the gentlemen came up to me just as I was about to touch off my last shot into the ten-ring. He asked me, "Would you like to marry my sister?" I said, "Are you serious?" He said, "YES". I politely told him,"I have been married for fifty-two years and not about to start over, THANK YOU," and promptly shot a SIX down at 7 o'clock. What is the chances of this happening
 
Most embarrassing moment was in the middle of a match where I had to nock down a steel popper target at about 10 yards. I missed with all six shots from my revolver and the range officer was getting frustrated when I went for a reload.

When I looked down at the gun a bullet was sticking out of the barrel. Not one of the six exited the barrel and I kept shooting. There were no low sounding reports so the RO never stopped me thinking it was a squib.

A friend took the barrel off and cut it in half that proved they were all in there. Later I found from the bullet maker that the bullet had a thicker jacket then what I was use to and would not work in my barrel with the load data i used.
 
.308 Norma said:
It wasn’t me that did it, but I was probably the one most embarrassed by what happened. My wife’s folks (her mom and dad) were up here from southern California for a visit. They weren’t “gun people” by any stretch of the imagination, but they weren’t anti-gun either, and I loved them both.

Anyway, one afternoon my wife asked them if they would like to go shooting. They said, “That sounds like fun,” so we put a couple of .22s in the truck and headed on down to the gravel pit - our “range.” As an afterthought, I’d thrown in my 30-06 and a box of ammo.

With careful instruction and observation, my wife and I let her parents run through nearly a hundred rounds of .22LR ammo using an open-sighted 10-22 and a Single-Six revolver. Then I made the mistake - I fired a round in my 30-06, and asked my father-in-law if he’d like to try it. He said he would, so I told him it was “gonna kick,” but I told him to “just pull it in snug to your shoulder and it won’t hurt.”



At the same time, both my wife and I saw that her dad’s eye was right up against the scope. And we both shouted, “DAD!” as the gun went off.:eek:

It could have been worse. He didn’t need stitches, but he did bleed some, and he was embarrassed - but no more than I was. Probably less. That was ^%$$%&^ stupid on my part! I knew danged good and well my father-in-law didn’t know beans about guns, yet I went ahead and let him hurt himself with one.:oops::oops::oops:
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Same thing happened when my younger son was 6 or 7; We visited my Dad down in SW TX, and went to the range. He wanted to shoot my Dad's .223 Handi Rifle, and put his eye right up to the scope! I said "Don't do that!" right when he shot. Fortunately, I keep a medic bag in the truck, and bandaged him up. The next day we went to Ft. Davis, and the tour guides all thought he was cute in his kepi and "Red Badge of Courage". :p


Gus Chiggins said:
I got through 2 stations at the trap range and realized I had picked up the wrong Browning BT-99 out of the gun rack. The owner was getting panicky thinking someone had left with it. Doh!
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Seen that happen a few times. One friend solved that with a Lapua sticker on the stock of his BT99AR. (He shoots .22 matches also.) I solved it by having guns few people have; My Ljutic, an Ithaca 4E SBT, an 870 TB, and an 1100 Competition. The TB used to be common, not so much anymore.

DarkswordDX said:
Didn't happen at the range itself, but on the way home. I was conceal carrying one of my range toys. "Concealed" because it was a 5 inch 1911 double stack riding in a high and tight with a baggy shirt thrown over it. I'm sure I was printing like mad, but it was supposed to only be for the trip home. We get to joking and realize we're all hungry, so I stopped at a Wendy's and we went in and chowed down. During the meal I went to stand up to use the men's room, and I felt a slight tug on my holster. I reached around and didn't feel anything, and didn't want to pull my shirt up in public. So I gave it a little wiggle and then proceeded to stand up. There was a "pop!" noise, followed by a "sproing!" and the hem of my shirt promptly shat 15 rounds of 45ACP all over the dining lobby floor, rolling and tumbling everywhere. :barf:

After a hasty cleanup and beating our feet we figured out that what had happened was, the plastic floorplate on the mag had been the perfect size to slip in between two of the wire tines that made up the chair back, and when I stood up the floorplate had slid up into a narrower end of the tines and snagged like a peg in a Keymod slot. The plastic cracked right at the edge and the magazine had shot all its rounds out the bottom with the full force of the spring behind them.
Click to expand...

Except the spring was in front of them; they should have kind of dribbled out after the follower, with no spring force on them whatsoever.
 
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redneck2 said:
Not at the range, but I went deer hunting once. Saw a nice buck crossing the field. Went to get my rifle and found it was still leaning against the work bench in the garage at home 45 minutes away

Made a short day
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Done that goose hunting before. Get to the field and start getting gear and decoys and realize I forgot my gun. I did walk all the way to the deer stand once and then realize I forgot my rifle ammo in the truck. Just this season I had a nice buck walk by me opening morning and realized I hadn't chambered a round in my rifle. Sort of kicking myself but worked out good because I might have decided to shoot him but a nicer one came along about an hour later. It happens LOL
 
Was lining up a shot with my FA 454 Casull. Iron sights, so taking it slow & steady. Completely spacing out the "be prepared to control the recoil" part of the equation. Gun shot back & the hammer spur hit me right between the eyes. Broke my shooting glasses. Had blood streaming down my face. All witnessed by a father & young son about 15 feet away. The hammer also has a checkering on top. That checkering pattern was printed in my face for a couple days.
 
Gus Chiggins said:
I got through 2 stations at the trap range and realized I had picked up the wrong Browning BT-99 out of the gun rack. The owner was getting panicky thinking someone had left with it. Doh!
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Seen similar stuff like that at cowboy action shoots. When it's really bad is when someone got someone else's gun and jams it up with the wrong ammo. I keep a rifle scabbard at out big regional or national shoots and keep it slid over my rifle when I'm keeping it in the racks with other peoples guns so know one mistakes it.
 
I watched a Mr. Knowitall run his mouth bragging about how they did it in the Marines, how he loads his ammo, how to sight in a scope, on and on and on he wouldn’t just shut up and shoot. Then he dropped his rifle on the concrete. I wanted to feel bad for him, I really did. But I did not.
 
I enjoy loading a pistol or two into the tail bag of my sport bike and heading out for a ride. The back roads to the range are nice and twisty and, if the range is crowded and I decide to skip it, I'm still out enjoying a fun ride. The clubhouse is "below" the shooting range and hosts shotgun shoots once or twice a week. When those are held the lower lot is jam packed with all manner of pick-ups and SUVs. Every time I ride past on the bike, I get some very interesting looks. 5 years in and I've had quite a few conversations about being 50+ and riding a sport bike down a dirt road...

Most embarrassing moment was, fortunately, when I had the range to myself. After packing up, I decided to take a short cut through the grass, in front of the clubhouse. Totally forgot that there are multiple metal "clotheslines" running from the front to the resettable metal shotgun targets. Ran into them at about 10mph, one hit right across my visor and one across my throat. Was able to brake/clutch quick enough that I didn't decapitate myself but had to get off the bike, massage my throat, and get my breath back. Real thankful no one was there to see that stupidity!
 
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