Unbelievably stupid

Regarding human stupidity, you have to remember that half of all the people in the world are of below average intelligence.

I had that happen twice at the same unstaffed public range and promptly paid $250 to join a club. I haven't had an issue since.

Human Stupidity: We had a local Doc who was a menace. He came in with a Mauser in 220 Swift. The good Doc was on a rant about his rifle. The piece was aimed at me across the counter. One of those intuitions told me to check the rifle. I reached across and opened the bolt. Out came on 220 Swift round. That individual has also gotten into trouble for safety rule violations at the local shooting area. I spoke to another fellow shooter who was a Doc about the incident had the gone had gone off. The surgeons, he shared, could have saved you. I don't trust Doctors. The Doc with the 220 Swift, in his right mind, was a great generous man who had helped us all. Sometimes, being in la la land is the issue not stupidity.

Sniper66 said:

I only shoot private land or my private rifle club. I realize that everyone may not have the access that I enjoy, but try to find it if you can. i quit hunting/shooting on public land about 20 years ago. Too many yahoos wandering into my shooting lane and a friend had his car burglarized when parked on public land. If you look hard enough and network with friends, you may be able to find accessible private property. Be careful out there.

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NC has some shooting ranges set up in National Forests. They have rifle lanes and pistol lanes. They are rustic but monitored on occasion. They are remote but worth the trip. I’m fortunate to have family farmland to shoot at so I only have to drive a half hour to shoot for free. Anyone not authorized will be prosecuted. Friends shoot with me and hunting is restricted to authorized, letter carrying friends who have asked. Those total three.

I only have one comment.

I don't know if the OP carries at the range but I wouldn't have unloaded with some random jackass wandering around my area.

FL-NC said:

Either it was a dangerous form of harassment or a suicide attempt- unless it was a dare. was there another guy behind you holding his beer?

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Not just the guy holding his beer but the guy holding the video camera. Imagine the propaganda video the antis could have made if you sent a round over the innocent trail hikers shoulder.

My town is surrounded by National Forest, and my closest shooting spot is about a 10 minute drive away. The nearest range is an hour drive away and costs $28 per 1.5 hour session. So it's an easy choice for me.

That being said, it's not always a good experience and if shooting with friends we all have to be range officers. I don't shoot with some of those people anymore because they weren't safe.

I've had some weird occurrences happen including a time an old man walked towards us about 20 degrees off of where we were shooting. A ricochet or deflection could have hit him.

The thoughts I have on the OPs experience are drugs, dementia, suicidal, antigun disruptor troll, sue happy, or mentally unstable. Nothing to do but keep an eye open while you pack up and leave.

I stopped going to public ranges after a similar issue happened. My friends and I were there shooting, and the firing line was packed. These younger guys (we'll call them The Idiots) needed to set up a target, so rather than call for a cease fire they start giggling and ran out into the range, during live fire, to set up a target. After that I decided that I'd rather pay a membership than deal with the idiotic general population.

Desert Heat said:

Was he texting?

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I don't know, the last time I passed a vehicle wandering all over the road because the driver was texting, it was a 70yr old man. Go figure.

stillquietvoice said:

True if that were the case. They still would have had some of shooters leaving. Not escalating was the best choice and safestthing to do.

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You definitely did the right thing. I just have to wonder how often these stupid acting people are actually trying to set us up.

Just recently I've had a couple of similar situations to post #61 above. First time was at the public range, shooting on the 100 yd. Everyone was sending lead downrange and my buddy stops me, points to a guy who was already 20 or so yds downrange. Apparently he thought he needed to check his target (ever heard of a spotting scope?) and just went for it during live fire. Another shooter yelled at him and he ran back where he was informed he needed to call a cease-fire before going downrange. His reply was something like he didn't think he needed to call a CF just to check targets .. I've also had something similar happen at a private (paid membership) range where a guy was shooting pistol and didn't want to interrupt us (we were shooting rifles). I informed him I absolutely didn't want to fire rounds downrange while he was checking targets and from then on he waited or called a CF.

stillquietvoice said:

If they are it's a dangerous game.

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Anything for their cause.

Had the same thing happen to me. I was shooting at a non-official "range" when this person with a Ruger single-action revolver in a tied-down "gunfighter" holster walked from behind me toward the backstop. Halfway there he turned, patted his gun, and said; "I got to practice with this!" Now, my home State is a nice place, but has a high percentage of peckerwood jerks like this guy. I've never been more tempted to shoot anyone before or since. I just safed and unloaded my gun, and left. Now, I am careful where I go to shoot, and tend to use public ranges.

I would have let the rangers go after him.

That is probably your best bet. Still watch out for stupid though, that dude is everywhere.

Legionnaire said:

Stupid, or intentionally disruptive? My guess is some anti sentiment mixed in.

Edit: Looks like wahsben and I were thinking along the same lines.

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I would have to agree, intentional.

There is very little public land in Texas, so one must either own some property, have a friend who does, or lease a place.

I committed armed robbery once at a public range...

I was living in Iowa and there was a tiny state park of about 200 acres 15 miles away. There was a large dirt berm set up and it was commonly used for target practice. I arrived one Spring afternoon with a Ruger Single-Six .22 and set up some cans for plinking. There was another vehicle parked there and the occupants nowhere to be seen. The berm was situated so that mostly farmland was behind it with the forested park mostly to the left.

I yelled out that the range was hot and I was about to begin shooting.

After a few minutes and a couple of cylinders, a man emerged from the forest to the left, shaking, with his hands in the air and clutching a brown paper sack. He dropped it as he shuffled to his car and yelled, "just take them!" before he jumped in and sped off.

I was dumbfounded and walked over to the paper sack and inside were a bunch of morel mushrooms.

I grabbed my targets and got the heck out of there (even left the mushrooms, lol).

I had never heard of morel mushroom hunting and just how valuable they were. My wife's uncle later told me that there have been robberies in the area of mushroom hunters and the man must have thought that was what I was doing.

I never went back to that park and moved out of Iowa as soon as possible. Just a weird state.