.22 Safety Question

I doubt it to be honest. But then again, I do shoot on DNR land.

The owner of the range appeared after awhile and seemed irritated that I was shooting a .22 at the 100-yard range and violating the rapid-fire rule

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His range, his rules. Doesn't really need a reason.
Were the rules posted anywhere? If so, you have no excuse. If not, now you know for the next time. If you try to argue with him don't be upset that you may be told not to return.

I'd say you were fine, if there were no rules posted, he can jus stay mad, or be an upstanding person and inform you if you were doing something wrong.

But there is a possibly of him being mad that you could shoot better than him with a .22 at 100yds.

I'm genuinely just wondering if there was something I missed regarding safety.

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Possibly a combination of the rapid fire and the fact that a .22 at 100 yds requires quite a bit of "hold over" and if overdone can miss the berm.

Comanche04:

You admit you were violating a rule on rapid shooting, and that the range owner told you "several times" that there are nearby houses.

You certainly did miss something. You missed being told to stop what you were doing. Perhaps you were a bit slow on the uptake?

I probably was shooting a little fast - maybe one round every two seconds or so.

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Wow!

I have always been told that .22 rounds can travel a great distance and ricochet easily.

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http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/learning/hunter_education/homestudy/firearms/bullets.phtml

Sounds like the guy owned a glorified airgun range.

Next time put up the .22 and get out your Mosin ... see if he thinks that is any "safer".

I probably was shooting a little fast - maybe one round every two seconds or so.

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i personaly wouldnt consider that rapid fire. when you say rapid fire i think pulling the trigger as fast as possible.

also what does he expect people to shoot on the 100 yard range? sling shots, bows, maybe throw rocks at targets?

Comanche04:

My apologies, and no offense intended.

I didn't say you were unintelligent. You clearly are not. Being slow on the uptake happens to all of us, and is not a measure of intelligence. It's more closely related to being distracted or incredulous.

I'm sure the rapid fire (local rules, I guess) got the owners attention, that's what put you behind the 8 ball. Shooting a 22LR at 100 yards is not uncommon but the skill to do it accurately is. He may of had some concern for his target frames. At any rate, now you know not to do anything that will attract unwanted attention from the RO when shooting on a rifle range.

What is 'hold over'? I assume that you are saying that this the time it takes to re-sight your target. My goodness. This is a 22 caliber rifle that essentially has no recoil. The last time I had my little Remington 22 With its 2 power Daisy scope at the local National Forest range, I was putting 100% in a 3 inch circle at 50 yds while firing around 2 rounds per second or a tube of 16/18 (I can't remember its capacity) in around 10 seconds. That is why they are so fun to shoot.

Comanche,

No blood, no foul.

As it sounds like we all agree on, his range, his rules, and yours to abide by.

However, 1 round every two seconds doesn't sound very rapid to me, nor do I see anything strange with doing it with a .22.

It almost sounds like you were shooting at the Garland TX range. They had a problem a while back.

Let's remember that this is a private range and he is extending a courtesy to folks. He was probably concerned with the Public Relations involved with his "many houses" nearby. He probably made an arrangement with some of the people in the "many houses" that people would "take it easy" on the range, however ill-defined that might be.

So take it easy. His range, his rules, and be thankful he lets folks shoot there on occasion.

By the way, did you know beforehand that it was a private range? Did you aks permission first?

A six-pack (or other little token) now and again for him might be appropriate, too. (This might even guarantee a spot to shoot even if he closes it to general access. I'm sure he shoots there, too.)

I shot prairie rats for many years on the farms around the Superior-Louisville-Lafayette areas, thinning out (you'll never get rid of them) their prairie rat population. The even let me shoot around their livestock because they trusted me, and every once in a while they'd slip me a ten for ammunition or whatever.

But they knew I was a responsible shooter, and they knew (I told them so) that the ammo I was using hardly ricocheted at all. I was using 52 or so grain SX (Super Explosive) Hornady bullets at high velocity in my .223, and basically, if one of those bullets even hit a blade of grass*, it would just shatter, and the particles did not go very far after that.

Terry, 230RN

* The "blade of grass" imagery is for the sake of illustration, but I never heard one single "pwaaang" of a ricochet in the ten years I used this load. These bullets had a very thin, almost foil-like, jacket and would not hold together at all even on a glancing impact, especially since they were spinning at about 190,000 RPM. On the other hand, .22s do not have enough velocity or spin (~70,000 RPM) to break up (unless they hit something like a steel plate head-on), and the whole bullet will ricochet for long distances.

Possibly a combination of the rapid fire and the fact that a .22 at 100 yds requires quite a bit of "hold over" and if overdone can miss the berm.

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A plausible explanation. And a .22 can travel a mile. It may not have much power when it gets there, but can still cause personal injury or property damage.

The "houses nearby" part still doesn't add up. Are they directly downrange?

Rapid fire is probably a noise issue with the homeowners. He's probably had careless people with .22s shooting up the target holders at 100 yards while trying to figure out the holdover and decided to outlaw it.

Ask him.

Everybody has an opinion. Mine would be that 1 shot every 2 seconds is NOT rapid fire. Not even close.

The "hold over" needed for a 100-yd shot would depend on many things, but average ammo with a rifle zero'd at about 50 yards would only need a hold over of 5 to 6 inches. Even if zero'd at the muzzle, hold over would be only about 12 to 14 inches. Again, this all depends on the ammo's ballistics, but these are fairly reasonable hold over estimates. That berm would have to be awfully short for this to be an issue.

His range, but based on your comments, the owner is being a bit of goof.

My guess is that the landowner is less worried about 'hold over' than he is about bullets hitting short of the berm and richocheting over it. Bullets hitting the ground can easily leave the ground at an angle exceeding the angle they hit with. I have witnessed bullets 'bouncing' over berms many, many times.

My club uses a single berm for both the 100 and 200 yard target frames on one of its ranges. We cannot shoot pistol caliber rifles on this range for this very reason. We must use a separate range at the club (with 100 yard berms) for those rifles.

Shooting Ranges

What bothers me is some guy that willl take and empty a clip as fast as he can, whem i'm trying to shoot ity-bity groups. Ranges should not allow that kind of shooting, just controlled firing. Al