What is the oddest thing you have seen happen at the range?

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Hawk on target

I was shooting an AR-15 at a 100 yard target when this hawk or falcon of some type flys down and lights on the top edge of my target backing. I stopped fireing for a few minutes to see if it would leave. When it didn't, I took another few shots at the target, since my group was pretty tight and in the center, and the bird didn't even flinch. He didn't even leave the target until I packed up and walked down to take down my target. He flew off as I approached the target.
 
>>>>The guy sounds like an idjit regarding the hearing protection, but do keep in mind that if you're shooting at targets on the ground, the bullets _can_ bounce off the ground, go over the backstop (if it's not high enough, of course...) and keep going... and going...<<<<<<<

This is Alaska, there's nothing beyond the range but an empty mountainside. This guy was just being a horses behind and perhaps trying to show off his safety consciousness for his kid - his now deaf kid.

Keith
 
We were having a Utah TFL shoot out in the desert. Doug444 had brought out a really big boyscout shade tent. You know, one of the really really BIG shade tents with thick metal legs and everything.

I'm shooting my pistol when a strong wind begins to blow. This is the west desert and we can get really strong gusts. I holster my pistol and hold onto my hat. I hear shouting behind me and I turn to see that the giant tent is rolling rapidly out across the desert.

Thinking quickly I realize that I run full tilt boogey I would be able to intersect the tent before it gets away. I go into full tackle mode, aiming for one of the big supports. I figure I can take it.

Think about that for just a second. This tent is the size of a sail on a good size boat. Quite a bit of energy stored there.

It hit me so hard! :D I went flying. I guess it was very entertaining for the other TFLers present.

Dang that tent. I coulda been a contender.
 
re: odd things

I've seen quite a few of the "folks downrange before the all clear" and etc, but here's a goof that happened to me.

I was at my local range with a friend when another club member of our aquaintance showed up to sight in his .243 for the upcoming deer season. He was bragging to us about how great it shot, and insisted that I try it out.
I picked up the rifle, put a round in it, and sighted it offhand at a target. When the trigger broke, I was greeted with what felt like sand blowing across my face and (thank the Lord) onto my shooting glasses. When I put the rifle down, I found that I was bleeding from a cut on the side of my nose. We had to brace the bolt against a bench and push down on the rifle to get the bolt open; the case fell out of the chamber, and the primer fell out of the newly enlarged primer pocket.
After wiping off my face and trying my best to keep from punching the goof who did this, I asked what in the world was in those .243 cases.
He was really surprised by this turn of events. He couldn't understand what had happened - the ammo he had given me was ammo that he had loaded up for deer season. He had found a great, top end load with 70 grain bullets for groundhogs; it shot so good he told us, that he had just used the same powder charge with 100 GRAIN BULLETS FOR DEER SEASON. It couldn't be that much different, could it?!
After he packed up and left, my friend had the line of the century. He came over to me and handed me one of his revolvers, and said, "Here, shoot this; I'm afraid to!". I about peed in my pants.
 
Maybe not so odd after all ...

PD annual qualification with shotgun. FTO officer arrives with just one veteran officer who, shall we say, is not known for being an especially proficient pistol person. FTO puts silhoutte target on carrier and runs target out to 15 yard line. FTO hands officer Remington 870 with aprox. 18" barrel and gives instructions: 5 rounds, no time limit. Officer loads and fires 5 rounds of 12 gauge 00 buck (9 pellets per round). FTO retrieves target, observes, folds and places in trash. They put the 870 back in case and leave. I retrieve target from top of trash can and unfold. 4 holes on the left edge of (minimum 20" X 30") paper. :eek:
 
setting off a car alarm motion sensor about 30 feet away and up a hill. With the concusion of a 50cal. Did it three times before the guy figured it was just best to leave it off.

:)
 
I saw an unnamed world champion shooter pop off a few rounds from an Ingram pistol Gangsta style. He hit paper. Would be in Front Sight (The USPSA magazine) had I a camera. :D
 
Oddest thing?

I went to an indoor range over the weekend; first time at an indoor range in maybe a decade.

Seven bays, seven+ shooters. Every kind of handgun from old S&W's to Ed Browns.

What was odd? Compared to the targets of the other shooters, I looked like a world-class champion! And I'm not a good shot by any stretch.

I gotta go back there more often. :)
 
I always get odd looks when I set up army men complete with burms, jets, and flags at 100 yards and take them out with my Marlin 880SQ. I then bring back the remaining parts for an analysis.

-SquirrelNuts
 
I was at an icehouse /shooting range near Helotes Texas.

Yes. beer, pool, darts, and shooting.

There was a sign stating no alcoholic beverages could be taken
on the range.

You could drive right up to whatever burm you wanted to shoot at. This place had previously been a limestone quarry and there were several small areas where you could drive in and shoot
with a rock wall as your backstop.

A fellow with a Thompson was in one of these areas off right behind me. He began firing off a 50 round drum.

All of the sudden I felt and heard whizzing and whooshing all around me. I got behind my car and hit the deck. At least 30 rounds came within 5 feet of me and were ricoheting off my table as I was directly 180 degrees from his rock wall backstop.

As soon as he ran out of ammo I threw my guns in the trunk and
peeled out of there.

I thought about driving up and telling him he was a deadly menace and idiot but I wasn't sure if I could get there before he changed mags and let loose again.

I still can't understand how the shooter lived through his own fusillade.
 
Well, I have been downrange once, when a kid sat at the bench during a ceasefire, and sent a .22 downrange, luckily no where near anyone. There were four adults with him, and they were standing around BS'ing instead of supervising the boy. The adults were rather icily informed that they should pay attention. :fire:

*****

Once in Texas, I was just taking a break when a coyote ran onto the range. I jokingly said to the owner, "are coyotes in season"? He got excited, ran out to the line and started yelling, "that coyote ate my cat! Get him!"

A couple AR's were brought into play, and the coyote did not survive.:D

*****

A generously endowed young woman having a hot case drop her shirt. Were she not in a booth she might have seriously distracted some other shooters.

:evil:

*****

One guy shooting a arty Luger, a real nice one, at an indoor range. Lugers throw their brass straight up, of course, so the guy was getting beaned on the head about every other shot. He was developing about a two second delayed flinch as a result.

*****

A rank beginner who bought himself a .300 win. mag as his first gun. He sat down at the range, touched it off, and I hear from the next bench:

BOOM! "uhhhhhh"

Lucky for him it had no scope on, otherwise he'd probably have a scar to this day.

*****

Not at the range, but once I set a coke can in a mesquite tree, and started shooting with my .44 Smith, which was loaded with full power loads. On the third shot, half the tree fell over:eek:
 
An "interesting" little story I posted on TFL. It oughta fit nicely on this thread.

Ka-POP! A Stupid Story, Or, Don't Let It Happen To You!!

I'm at the outdoor range with a buddy and his friend. Both are gun people, but they own modern stuff, AR's and the like. I had brought a #4 Enfield and my trapdoor Springfield that day, and one look at a 45-70 and my buddy's friend HAD to try it. He'd NEVER seen bullets that fat for a rifle before. One of my favorite things is watching other people's smiles when they shoot the old Springfield, so I was watching when he pulled the trigger. There was a funny little 'pop', and he turns to me and says "It didn't go off." As I was watching, I had seen something hit the dirt bank, but there was NO recoil.

Hmmmm. That rifle gives you a pleasant shove without fail. And it's never misfired for as long as I've owned it.
Did my 100-year-old firing pin finally run out of luck? No, wait, what hit the berm...?

"Open it," I say, "something went off." So he flips up the breechblock and says "It's stuck." Huh?? Trapdoor extractors are known for ripping right through cartridge rims, just ask Custer and his boys. So I get him to hand the rifle to me and what should I find? This clown had a brain failure and put a .303 BRITISH cartridge in my 118-year-old rifle! The rim is the about same thickness as a 45-70 and had neatly dropped into the rim groove in the chamber. The primer had been hit on one side, and the case was too small in diameter for the extractor to grab it. I turn to this guy and tell him "You just put a HIGH-pressure SMOKELESS round in my 1882 BLACKpowder gun THAT HAS A RECIEVER MADE OF CAST IRON! WHAT THE F--- WERE YOU DOING?! I THOUGHT YOU SAID YOU WANTED TO SHOOT THE BIG BORE! .303 DOES NOT BEGIN WITH A FOUR!!" :what::mad:

Needless to say, he turned white in the face and apologized. He really did know better, and knew all about putting the wrong ammo in a gun. I was more concerned about him getting hurt than spraying my favorite antique rifle all over the range, so I quit yelling at him as he was OK. At this point one of the R.O.'s was edging over to our little "discussion group" and kind of craning his neck, watching what was happening.

I took the cleaning rod out and pushed the case out. It popped out freely. The front two-thirds of the case had stretched to fit the chamber, neatly sealing off the gasses, and the neck had split. Brass is amazing stuff! The bullet had gone rattle-clunk down the bore and wandered off somwhere down range into the dirt bank. The difference between a .311 bullet and a .458 bore prevented any kind of pressure building up, which saved us all from a disaster. The range guy figured out there was no harm done (except to a bit of injured pride) and didn't say a word to anybody. My conclusion? Don't put different kinds of ammo on the same bench, even if they ARE drastically different.

I still have that ".303/.450" case. It makes for some wild speculation when people see it. Today's lesson: Ask for a raise, so you're not too poor to PAY ATTENTION! ;) :rolleyes: ;)
 
The strangest was at Camp Shelby on the artillery range, there are old vehicles downrange to shoot at. Well the range was opened and the fso chose an old school bus for the first round, well it was about 100 meters off, as he called in an adjustment all of a sudden 2 guys in blaze orange came out of th ebuss 90 to nothing. Seems that these two had decided that th ebus was a good deer stand for the first day of the season.
 
Not odd but sure painful!

Shooting my .357 revolver and having a grand old time. Picked up my .45 AMT backup (don't get ahead of me here!) and fired that sucker using my thumb over strong hand grip. Those Ginsu steak knives got NOTHIN on the AMT slide, let me tell ya! Deep! I now have twin parallel scars on the back of my left thumb and a new grip that I use for everything! You should see me open a ketchup bottle, yep, both thumbs to the side…
 
reprint from a while back. LiquidTension, where you and Ryan at the range with me when this happened?

There was a match at my gun club this morning which I was not participating in, so I had to go to the local public range. Usualy there are the requisite bubba types with their scoped 30-30's and such, but today was different. I ran into a real, true, bonified armed and dangerous mall ninja...and his sidekicks. Personaly I have never felt the need to wear BDU pants and a boonie hat to the range, but I try not to be prejudice about folks who do. Unfortunatly, these jokers fit the profile in more than just attire. They had some pretty nice gear consisting of USP Compacts w/ surfire lights attached and a few Ak's w/ drum mags. Oh yea..and a video camera..UHOH. I had already seen some pretty unsafe gunhandeling just on the walk from my car to the shooting area and desided that I wouldn't dare go downrange to put up a target around these guys. I settled down on the far end of the shed to watch the 'tactical training video' in production. The first order of business was to rattle off a 75 round drum from the Ak. Ofcource he turned to the camera guy and spewed some incorrect, garbage primer about the AK before taking up a 'from the hip stance', lowering his Oaklies and letting loose. About 10 of the rounds hit the silohette, the rest went into the ground, over the backstop and landed God knows where.
If that wasn't enough, the mall ninja and his sidekick then proceded to show off the ultimate in tactical manuvers. Basicly, the sidekick was doing a low ready, slow walk towards the target with the mall ninja in a crouch, walking behind him (for some reason All I could think about was "If plan A is taking multiple .308 rounds to the back...). As they got closer to the targets, the sidekick let loose with his USP Compact. When his pistol ran dry, the mall ninja took up a firing position around the sidekicks right shoulder and fired as the other guy reloaded. When the mall ninja ran dry, the sidekick fired as the ninja ducked back behind him and reloaded. On the second rotation, the sidekick fumbled his mag and tried to catch it, moveing ever so slightly out of the choreographed patern of movement and put his elbow in the ninjas line of fire. Luckily, the ninjas lightening reflexes saved the day and the sidekick didn't get a blown out elbow. Either that or it was just luck that the fumble and grab happened between shots...naaa. Guess they will have to add trauma plates duct taped inside elbow pads to their tactical load-out next time. I almost expected the ninja in the boonie hat to shoot his sidekick's elbow to teach him the error of his ways. We all know that 'on one hand, ninjas dont give a crap, but on the other hand, they are very carefull and precise'. I really thought he would have started flipping out and killing people.

Its hard to tell what happened next, I packed up my gear and headed home.
 
bic pen pistol quals & short eye relief scopes on shotguns

I know this is an old thread but I just found it and I gotta add my two stories:

1. USN (1982)- On subs, in order to stand topside security watch, you gotta qual with a .45 once a year. I don't remember the specifics of the quals but its something like 23 out of thirty shots into a man size sillouette at 50 feet, no time limit.
 
bic pen pistol quals & short eye relief scopes on shotguns

I know this is an old thread but I just found it and I gotta add my two stories:

1. USN (1982)- On subs, in order to stand topside security watch, you gotta qual with a .45 once a year. I don't remember the specifics of the quals but its something like 23 out of thirty shots into a man size sillouette at 50 feet, no time limit. Marine range with jarhead ROs. We were seriously shorthanded of qualified watches so the Chief Of the Boat (cob) loaded all of the nonquals and guys who needed recirt. onto a bus and took us to the Marine range. After everybody shoots his qual string, we take down our target and take em to the cob. He's sitting at a table with a very grizzled looking marine gunny, scoring the targets. For everyone who didn't make the qual grade (not me ;) ) he takes out a really fat ink pen and punches enough holes through their target to give them a passing grade. I've never seen anyone give as contemptuous looks as that old jarhead did to the dudes that didn't qualify.

2. Sighting in a buddy's(buddy 1) slug gun for deer season. Me and a different buddy(buddy 2) go to the range to sight in our slug guns and take another guy's(buddy 1) who can't go to sight it in for him. He had put a cheap rifle scope on his. I sight in mine, buddy 2 sights in his, and we go to work on buddy 1's. I can't see crap through his pos scope so I screw myself down into the stock and get a cheek weld way too close to the scope. I touch off a round and - no surprise - that scope leaves a nice little half moon above my right eye. Buddy 2 laughs his a$$ off, tells me I don't know what I'm doing, takes the shotgun and does exactly the same thing. There we stand, both of us with blood running down our faces and nothing to wipe it off with when and old guy drives up, gets out, takes a look at the two of us, says nothing, gets in his car and drives away. I swear we were both completely sober when this happened.
 
Salpalinja:
My girlfriend managed to jam both an SKS and an AK in one day. She wasnt too interested in shooting them, so she just held the rifles next to her shoulder and not in firm contact while being lazy, so the SKS short stroked, and the AK failed to eject. Being the girl that she is, instead of admitting to limp-shouldering the rifles at first, she said my rifles sucked and said she wanted to shoot my pistols instead (she'll shoot the 1911s until we run out of ammo, but doesnt like rifles that much as she's cross dominate). I think the yelling she got from the RO taught her to never say that an AK sucks again when it was her fault it didnt work. Thankfully he yelled so I didnt have to find a gentlemanly way to approach the problem. :banghead:

Kharn
 
I was at the range one day, showing about 10-15 Boy Scouts how to shoot, most with 10-22's, aome with hi-caps, some with levers and pumps, and one with a bolt action. As we were firing at targets, someone screamed, "SQUIRREL!" and there, at about 10 yards, a squirrel had poked it's head out of it's hole and began to run across the range lengthwise. A string of fire erupts from every one of them, and the terrified squirrel sprinted like a soldier crossing no-mans land, with puffs of dirt exploding all around him. One of the men supervising even drew his Glock and began firing. The poor rodent finally made it to another hole, unscathed. That gave us a good laugh.
 
After launching my 10th or so 30.06 out of the M1, a wild turkey waltzed out right in front of me about 75 yds. in front of the shooting bench. It stood there for several seconds and then moved on.
 
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