Range Hazards? - What are yours?

[WNTFW]

What are some range hazards you encounter at your local ranges?

I guess people and guns could be a primary hazard. So I left them off as it is a given. You are welcome to list them as they are a big part of safety and could easily save a life.

I was thinking along the lines of secondary hazards. Those that might be encounter when no shooting is taking place. I didn't list everything, just the short list.

Ants, wasp, spiders and snakes are the critter hazards. Sun/heat, mud and lighting are the environmental hazards. Anything more is range specific.

Wasps nest (paper of mud) under the benches can be a hazard.
The paper wasp love to get on the toilet paper roll in the port-o-let. Most guys don't notice them going in. I try to stay out of port-o-lets as a rule.

I don't see ant piles on the raised shooting points at the ranges where I shoot. I think they must be spraying for them. I still look for them. Ants are just relentless.

I watch for snakes as well. More so where there is some cover. A few ranges here (police) have snakes on a regular basis. One has alligators

I did have a spider hitch a ride in a rifle case. I happened to open it outside for some reason. Big eight legged brown hairy monster thought he owned the space. Now I keep everything closed up better and less available to infestation.

** I attended a class where the instructor addressed safety first off. It went into where are we bringing the GSW and what are we bringing them in. It was sobering but effective. Now I alway have a map to the ranges left at home. I know the local hospitals where abouts. I call home periodically, But on arrival and after departing at a minimum. Everyone knows the others emergency contact info. Knowing where the keys to the vehicles are is easy to do.


Hopefully this will be interesting and educational.

 

[EddieNFL]

Diamondbacks, Cottonmouths and Coral snakes and black bears. We have one named Buddy Bear that comes out whenever he pleases...including during matches. We stop, wait and he eventually wanders back in the woods.

The biggest threat is uneducated shooters.

 

[WaltonS]

Extreme heat (any time of year), 8 shooters firing in a narrow concrete corridor, employees that handle weapons unsafely (Sorry, but your converted Glock 17 isn't all that cool when you're hitting everything BUT the target and I'm seeing a half-dozen ricochets off the wall!) and a steel backstop at the end of the 20 yard lane keeps me from feeling at ease whenever I find myself going to the indoor range.

 

[Nushif]

I do not have that many hazards. At the indoor range?
The occasional mishandling of a gun I have seen cleared ...
At the quarry?
Falls, sprained ankles, glass and other debris.

That is about it though. Not much worse than the average crossing of a street. 8)

 

[benEzra]

Heat, mostly. Occasionally, mud, if we get a lot of rain.

 

[CapnMac]

My primary hazard has been in not having cash for the 18 mile drive to the range.

I stay hydrated, so that's not a risk. But, I imagine the buffalo grass out there is tinder-dry in our 'exceptional drought' conditions of late.

Normally, the only other risk is other people over-reacting to mud-daubers, grasshoppers and the like (or standing on fire ant mounds) while handling arms.

Or, for those not educated on jobsites, who fail at basic things like not leaving open canned soft drinks unattended around yellowjackets, then not checking the can before taking a swig . . .

Now, one year, I was at a less-used bit of the line (out from under the overhead) prone on a mat. Got to watch a Sphecius convallis at close range. Not being a cicada, I was nonplussed. The same could not be said for others on the line, S.Convallis is a big brute to see, but not at all aggressive (unless stressed).

Now, roaches and flies, that's different, I've far too good an idea where they have been. Takes a great deal of concentration to not go flittery-a-jibbet with such alit on me.

Oh, and there is a hazard in that there are some people 2.5 - 3 miles away (and at a diagonal) from the range who have claimed rounds from the range have shot up their trailer.

 

[Clifford]

Heat.... This is AZ.
My outdoor home range has some bees that really like to take a swim in your soda when you're not looking. You learn to shake your can and listen for a buzzing noise before taking a sip. Also, watch out for any local law enforcement, in the last 15 years the only AD's that lead to injury have been the LE boys shooting themselves in the leg or foot. While practicing with their firearms. That last one is simply a friendly jab, thou its true.

 

[TheCol.U.S.M.C.]

Yep Heat i AZ july can be tough if you like to shoot. You really have to love shooting to go out in 115-119+ day, guns just never cool down

 

[gun addict]

people, a bunch of guys showed up at the range without shirts yestoday shooting their high point and jenning (jamomatic) sideways, i'd take heat and wasp over that anyday

also hot brass but that's nowhere as bad as when we're on the firing line in the Marines

 

[Jason_W]

Up my way, it's deerflies. It's hard to concentrate when 10 of them are buzzing you.

 

[ObsidianOne]

Wasps, ants, and spiders? These are really that big of an issue?
We have rattlesnakes out here and scorpions, but I've never seen one. Knock on wood.
Biggest hazard for me when I go out shooting in the desert (not a range) is nimrods who don't understand that they need to have a good sized hill as a backdrop.
Went out to my shooting spot one day, heard gunshots in the distance, ignored it, as it is normal. Walk to set up targets, bullet whizzes past and kicks up dirt 10 feet away from me. Promptly got in my truck and got out of there.

 

[Clifford]

Obsidianone, I run across the same nimrods down here in the deserts surronding the valley. Every couple of years I run across some dimwit that thinks its acceptable to shoot down a traveled trail instead of into a hill. I cannot understand how someone is so dense that they really think its safe to do such a thing.

 

[Shienhausser]

The indoor range that I go to has been pumping in 100+ degree air from outside. I am finding it unbearable. Heat stroke unbearable after a couple hours of heated shooting.

You'd think that for one of the largest indoor ranges I have ever seen (always busy), they could afford air conditioning or at least something better than a couple box fans here and there. I may go somewhere else until the winter.

 

[Nugilum]

Mine was the tools playing with the firearms.

 

[rodregier]

Outdoor range - Ticks :-(

Indoor ranges that aren't careful about accumulation of unburnt powder have had flash fires when unintentionally ignited. None around here (fortunately).

 

[RustHunter87]

yeah the bugs are out hard

 

[Dnaltrop]

Heat (at least the lobby is AC'd)

Lead ingestion ( Indoor shooting is fun!)

Getting distracted out of my good habits by a good conversation. Both serious risks, only the first one is dangerous though.

 

[WNTFW]

"Wasps, ants, and spiders? These are really that big of an issue?"

Only if they get you. Then some people have bad allergic reactions.

Wasp are pretty easy. If you leave them alone they leave you alone. Problem occurs when somebody doesn't know they are there. Hornets can be worse.

Ants will tear a person up. They have a way of getting a swarm on you then commence to biting all at once.

Spiders are low on the list. We do however have brown recluse, black and brown widows.

I'm in S.E. LA. so scorpions are not problem.

Jason_W,
I have had the pleasure of being in deer flies - what a treat! Gnats are a ton of fun too.

We shot at a camp a while back. We drove through orange trees, then pasture, then to the marsh. Gnats, mosquitoes and full auto into a backstop with a bee hive. Alligators were watching from canal.

One range I used to frequent was a borrow pit. The debris on the ground included glass, sharp metal and boards with nails. It was unregulated so some wild stuff would happen there.

 

[armoredman]

Last range trip was seriously disturbed by two bees who wanted to make friends. I was lining up to shoot my rifle on the bench when I spied one actually hovering in front of my chest behind my shooting hand. never got stung, but took some of the fun away, not to mention valuable time before the temps here in Southern AZ climb to furnace levels. Range opens at 7AM, sun is already high up by then summer time.
I never ever bring soda to the range, cold water in a clear container only.

 

[Tim the student]

Eh, not much. Heat and cold is part of the game, and not exclusive to the range.

Maybe angry otters I guess.

 

[esheato]

West Texas here.

Fire ants are everywhere. I got tagged on the kneecap the other day. Didn't ruin the day, but I'm glad I had some ice in the cooler to apply to it.

Thorns...everything has thorns. I'm totally serious, every single bush has giant thorns. My son (4yo) didn't understand when I was always telling him to stay on the road....until he stuck a giant mesquite thorn through his shoe and into his foot. Now he listens.

Supposedly a lot of snakes around but I have yet to see them.

I've met the scorpions but they were in my house, not at the range.

Ohh..the unceasing heat. We had a good run of 105+ for a while in June. Absolutely miserable after 10am. The gun would never cool down and I was sweating just lying on it. I was enthralled when Midway changed the color of their shooting mats from black to OD.

I think that's about it...

 

[WNTFW]

I never saw thorns or otters coming.

I need to google Sphecius convallis.

 

[jbkebert]

Ticks were the problem yesterday.

Heat and cold this is Kansas. Yesterday it was right around 100 degrees today 103. In December and January well last year it got to -11 degrees.
My deer rifle performed well in both extreams.

 

[CapnMac]

Well, I really ought be more specific, it's not the wasps and hornets in actual attack of a person--but those people who respond to wasps and hornets with high-pitched screeching and St Vitus' dancing about, all without having rendered the arm they are carrying safe, first. (If equipped with a laser, the club-style light show is equal parts pretty and horrifying.)

WNTFW, S. Corvalis is the Pacific Cicada-killier Wasp. Looks like a yellow jacket, only more orange, and about 2x, 3x the size of a paper wasp. It's big enough to dig a burro large enough to entomb an adult cicada. It is also large enough to fly carrying a paralyzed cicada. Looks like some sort of scary prehistoric wasp, but is quite timid. Will be found near where there are woods with seasonal cicadas.

Drought in Texas has decreased the number of cicadas, which has made S. Corvalis a more common sight. And the "hate all bees and wasp/hornets on sight" crowd reacts poorly. Which then agitates the really, really big wasp with a whopping great big stinger designed to puncture cicada exoskeleton, to act in self-defense.

Now, I've been to some places made Central Texas seem as barren as an operating room. I'm not a giant fan of creepy-crawlies; but I also have a repertoire of not-flinch to overcome "make small girls noses and flail about uncontrollably" reflexes, too.

 

[rondog]

I'm a member of a private club with a very large range waaaaay out in the country, great place. I'd stopped by one night on the way home from a road trip for work to use a porta john and pick up some brass by flashlight, and I was accosted by a pair of rather perturbed badgers. They had a den in one of the side berms of range #4, and I guess I interrupted their evening.