Funny range stories?

Got to the range on a late summer day with a bay all to myself. Storms were near but nothing major. I posted several targets (copier paper with a single dot in the middle) on several stands when lightning struck WAY to close. I wait it out in my truck for 30 minutes of hard rain. When it was over my targets literally looked like wet toilet paper!

Mag dumps from a nearby bench are fun until they are not fun.

Rural public range, two 25 yard lanes shooting into a dirt berm. Targets were the usual collection of tin cans on the berm that one sees at such ranges. Two good ol’ boys were in one lane, emptying their revolvers as fast as they could, not hitting the cans they are supposedly “aiming” at. I had taken my wife there to familiarize her with my new .22 revolver. She fired it slowly, hitting 6 cans out of 6 on her first attempt. The good ol’ boys rate of fire decreased dramatically, and they tried to match her score. Funny how they felt they had to compete with her.

They couldn’t.

Remember ranges are different, I’ve lived on a cattle farm most of my life, cows have destroyed our shooting table more than once.

As a boy the most fun things in the world was to shoot cow poo with a .22 and watch it blow up. I shot one with a 450 Marlin once at 20ish yards and covered about 3 people, including myself, with cow poo.

Earlier this summer I pulled up to the range at my Rifle/Pistol club,,,
One of the members who I don't know was cursing up a storm.

It seems he had made the 30-plus mile trip to the range,,,
unloaded all of his bench gear and placed his target,,,
Then discovered he hadn't brought any ammo.

He searched all around the immediate bench area,,,
And practically stripped his car's trunk,,,
All the time cursing like a sailor.

I had some extra ammo and offered to sell him a 50 round box,,,
But he declined (politely) to shoot Wally World bulk.

He packed up to leave and as he got in his car,,,
I said, "Hey, you left your target."

He said, "Shoot it up,,,
I don't want to walk 100 yards for a piece of paper.

So I did,,,
For about a half an hour.

When I went downrange to take a closer look,,,
I found a CCI mini-mag 100 round case sitting on the stand base.

In it was 100 rounds of what I believe was ELEY ammo,,,
I didn't shoot it put instead put it in my range bag.

He must have carried it to the stand,,,
Sat the ammo down to staple his target,,,
And then forgot that he had taken it with him downrange.

I thought if I ever see him again I would give it back to him,,,
I eventually gave it to another bench shooter.

Bad luck for him,,,
Funny as all heck to me.

Aarond

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Good ole' slow talkin' and slow movin' Gus, but a very good shot, was shooting a bullseye target, where a perfect target, through 10 shots, would be 100.

His target was scored by another member and he shot a 99. When the score was called out to him, he slowly turned to everyone and in his own slow talkin' and slow movin' way said, "must have shot a 9."

Took a while for us to get our composure and start shooting again.

Autodidactic said:

Lol, are you sure it wasn't cow self defense against the table?

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Only thing ever shot a cow with was a spud gun, and once dad found out I got all the cow defense one could handle.

My no rifle club shoots monthly throughout the year. I even host a shoot at my place in March. We may not shoot too well....but we eat good!
One months shoot was held on a friend's property. He had set up a woodswalk through his woods. We were shooting at our clubs gongs which had been placed to make the shots interesting. We also had to have a foot touching a stake at each shooting position.
The rule is you can load, but not prime until you're in shooting position with your foot against the stake. ...muzzle downrange at all times. Our club president stepped up for his turn at the gong . He was priming when something slipped in the lock, and the hammer dropped on the frizzen of his primed flinter. He had the piece in the crook of his arm in classic priming position when the gun went off. Fortunately he was practicing good form with the muzzle downrange. Everything and everyone was fine when we realized that we had all heard the distinct ring of ball hitting the gong. Sure enough, his AD had hit the gong some 35yards downrange. He got a zero on that post because we all looked down and his foot wasn't touching the stake...

My very good friend taught the safety course at our local range and one day he asked me if I would attend so I could take his place if he couldn't make it. I agreed and he started the class introduction with basic gun safety. The gun he was using was a (Les Baer) 1911 that his brother had been shooting earlier. The first part of the lesson is to emphasize that no matter what you never carried a loaded gun at the range until you were in position and ready to shoot the target. To demonstrate he was using his 1911 and after taking it out of the case he pulled the slide back and a live 45 ACP round came flying out of the chamber and landed with a big "plunk" on the wood floor of the trailer.
My buddy is of Scottish descent and his temper is pretty consistent with what is generally known about these folks. I think all the ferocity of his former warrior clansmen came out because I have never seen anyone's face turn so red so quickly. He sharply told me to "take over" and proceeded to find his brother to make sure that he never returned a loaded pistol to anyone again.
I think everyone (especially his brother) learned that most important part of the safety course quite well after having had that particular experience in class.

Charlie Martinez said:

He sharply told me to "take over" and proceeded to find his brother to make sure that he never returned a loaded pistol to anyone again.
I think everyone (especially his brother) learned that most important part of the safety course quite well after having had that particular experience in class.

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I'd say your friend is equally at fault for not checking the chamber as soon as the gun was back in his possession.

I've only been to a public range once in my life. There's one in the National Forest about an hour away, and it's a 200 yard range. My buddy and I got it into our heads that we needed to go over there and shoot our deer rifles prior to season (mistake #1). So we load the truck and drive an hour over there. When we get there, the place is packed. People were waiting for benches, and most of them had brought their lunches and "refreshments" out while they waited. Kids and dogs running everywhere. So, we in our infinite wisdom decided to wait (mistake #2). After waiting an hour, we finally got a spot to shoot. We set out our targets at 50, 100, and 200 (mistake #3), set up our rifles, and started to shoot. He went first and shot his targets without incident. While he packed up, I went to take a leak, and when I got back I settled down into my rifle when I noticed my 50 yard target already had 2 holes in it. WTH? I went ahead and checked my zero anyway and went to the 100 yard target. Just as I settled my crosshairs on my target, I watched the wooden stake it was nailed to disintegrate. The inebriated idiot next to me had shot it! Needless to say, I was becoming somewhat hostile. I then noticed that said idiot had a (rather nice) metal swinging 22 target on the 50 yard line; 3 shots from my '06 quickly made scrap out if it. At this point, we began packing up to leave as the guy was becoming belligerent. I turned and explained to him in the most charming manner I knew, where he could go and what he could do when he arrived there. We left and went home, vowing never to return, and since then we've sighted our rifles in the hayfield below the house; it offers safe shots to 350 yards. But perhaps best of all, I don't have to worry about surly intoxicated rednecks shooting my targets!

Mac

Last fall I took my 12 year old daughter to the range, and after we'd been shooting a bit another member showed up with 2 guests, a boy about the same age of my daughter and another guy who I assume was his dad. I noticed as the other member was setting up and explaining things (sounded like they were new shooters) the 2 guests were discreetly watching my daughter shoot at paper targets with a High Power, but once they were ready to start shooting they stayed over in their bay for awhile. The bay they were in was steel targets only, and I'd hear a "ping" once about every 10 shots with the Ruger Mark-something with a 9ish inch barrel they were shooting which pretty much confirmed my suspicions that they were new shooters.

After she'd had her fill with the High Power (it was the first time I'd let her shoot a centerfire handgun) my daughter wanted to switch to my Buckmark and started shooting at the rimfire only steel targets in our bay. I guess the constant "ping, ping, ping, ping" got the dad's attention because he started watching our bay again, looking more and more frustrated with every mag she'd go through and making contact with about 75% of her shots. The boy on the other hand was trying to play it cool, making a point to never look remotely in our direction. At this point I was finding it amusing and stopped shooting just to reload mags for her. Eventually she finished the brick we'd brought, and instead of opening another I decided it was time to leave and let them train in peace. She'd made her point, intentionally or not.

When my oldest granddaughter was 6 I gave her a savage rascal for Christmas. a few weeks later it was warm enough to go and try it out. after some instructions and sight in she was shooting good groups at 10 yards. so we decided to move the target out to 25yards. while we getting ready a guy showed up and asked if he could set out a target. while we were waiting my gd decided to go warm up in the club house. So I watched him attempt to sight in a very expensive looking 22 rifle. My gd comes out and proceeds to shoot the bullseye out of her target, the guy starts swearing throws his gun in the case. I asked if there was a problem he says "I quite, a kid with a $50 gun outshoots me with a $500 target rifle. I'm done" and he left.

I had taken a lady friend out to have some fun teaching her to shoot. It was an outdoor range (Twin Ponds Rifle Range, north of Mt. Pleasant) way back when I was stationed in Charleston, SC with the Navy.

In short order, she was happily plinking away from a bench at shotgun shells we set up on a log using my bolt action .22 rifle.

A few others were out there shooting that day, too, all of us with .22's.

Then along comes another shooter, plops his gun case down on the bench top next to ours along with several boxes of .44 magnum ammunition. During a break, he sets up a target while the rest of us go about similar activities. When the range was hot again, he pulls out his revolver, loads up, puts his Mickey Mouse hearing protection on...and proceeds to blast in the general direction of his target as fast as he could pull the trigger while still throwing the slugs somewhat in the direction of the berm downrange.

And every time he pulled the trigger, my lady friend was jumping, which was throwing off her shooting.

I watched this guy for a few minutes. His pattern was to empty his pistol downrange rapid fire, take his Mickey Mouse's off, reload, then put his hearing protection back on and repeat. All this while the rest of us are plinking away with our .22 rifles, heedless of the fact that he should be wearing hearing protection while anybody is shooting, even if it's "only" .22.

Not hitting much of anything, mind you.

I leaned down and told my friend "Just concentrate on your shooting and ignore this guy as best you can."

I watched him...and the next time he emptied his gun and pulled his hearing protection off, I reached down into the cooler next to me, pulled out a can of soda, and tossed it out about 30 feet or so. Then I pulled out my .22 magnum Automag II from my hip and off-hand shot the can, which spectacularly split wide open, then fired the remaining 8 shots from the magazine to make the can hop around with each shot.

.22 Magnum from a 6 inch barrel, by the way, is impressively loud.

This guy scrambled for his hearing protection and when I stopped he said "Holy cow! Is that the .30 caliber carbine?" (AMT made the Automag III in .30 caliber carbine, so he at least knew enough to recognize the general make/model.)

ME: "Nope. .22 Magnum. By the way, make sure you keep your hearing protection on while people are shooting."

He left not long after that.

The closest thing to a funny range story is.
My first speed rifle was an Axis 22-250 with the factory scope.
I worked up a hand load that consistently shot under half an inch for 3 shots.
I always went early on Saturday when the mag dumpers are nursing a hangover.
I was setting out clays on the 200 and 300 yard berm.
A guy sets up with a rifle that cost more than my pickup. We strike up a conversation and he suggests shooting a water bottle at 200 yards.
He wanted a sighter. So we shot 3 at 100 yards then shot the bottles.
When we walked out he glanced at my target. Asked me what I was shooting. Went back and packed up.
I really enjoyed the early morning coffee and guns.
The most notable rifle was a M1A that had been worked over and had an amazing scope on it. That shot better than 90% of target rifles I've seen.

My daughter was on her college archery team years ago and the field had a reverse berm, a 20' hi "berm" behind the firing line. I used to set up behind her on the hill with my spotting scope to track those $16 target arrows that went thru the target.

One day, when we got there, there were four guys in camo with compound bows and a styro deer on the rack in front of the straw bales.

Daughter goes down and puts up her target, backs up 50 yds and starts plunking them into the gold with her Hoyt recurve.

Meanwhile, down on the right, the "hunters" back up 15-20 yds and shoot Bambi's legs, hams, and sides with thier compounds.

After 2 sets of 3 arrows, the hunters took their toys and left the sandbox.

I used to coach shotgun for 4H a lpng time ago. Arizona sent several teams to the 4H nationals. I didn't get tp go because of work, but the other coaches said on the second day it rained and there was tall about canceling but it would adversely affect travel arrangements.

So everyone grumbled and donned their rain suits except the AZ teams.
The AZ team shot without raingear. Heard they laughed and carried on and had a good time because they were used to the fact of such low rainfall in the desert. And they shot their way to 1st and 2nd.

I remember one time my dad was in our pasture shooting a rifle at the bench, I noticed when he shot he picked up 2 things. He’s was 400ish yards away so I couldn’t see real good but I could tell he was picking something up off the ground on his left side, I knew one was brass the other I had no idea.
I eventually went down to the range and figured out he was sighting in his 338 at longer range for an upcoming elk hunt. Turns out every time he shot it knocked the hat off his head.

I thought it was much funnier than he did.

I went to the commercial range, one Saturday morning, I never go on weekends. I go to the pistol range and get set up. 2 benches over is a 20-something, with a cheap, tacti-cool 9mm, doing mag dumps and hitting the backstop, mostly. I finally decided he wasn't going to stop and asked for a cold range, so I put up my target.

Se walked down the 10 yards and I pinned on my target. Glanced at his, he had taken down, maybe 10 hits out of 30 rounds. He clipped on another target.

Se get back to the bench and take my 1911 out of the bag. He is loading mags and I hear him smirk. Look over and he says, " hmmmmpf, 1911, can't hit $heet with that junk."

I put in a mag, lean against the pole on the awning and pop off 4 shots, shooting the 4 clothespins holding his target. His target floats to the ground, his jaw drops, he loads his "crap" and leaves.

Took 2 grandsons (9 & 11) out to "play".

Had couple hundred Cowboy Load .38s. 98gr LRN 3gr Unique,

They taking turns, banging away, Both doing a good job hitting the 7 yard going, with the SP101 2" DAO.

Oldest was loading the last of the rounds, I see the younger going through the truck. He comes back grinning and waits to get to shoot.

I sit back and wait.

He takes the gun and loads a cylinder full of 125gr JHP .357Mag.

Pulls the trigger and BOOM!

Oldest hollers, "what was THAT!"
Youngest lays the gun down, "I'm done!"

I find it pretty funny when I'm pistol shooting off hand and mosquito hawks light on the tip of the barrel between shots. Happens quite often here in SE Louisiana.

Also, fun to watch newly born piglets decide to come out of woods and start running across the rifle line when it's hot. The sows are savvy enough not to do that. The entire line courteously stops firing so that the piglets can go their way...

Bayou52