Range Safety

Yikes!! The trajectory on a couple of the shots appear to be really close to that guy.

That's been out for quite awhile. But still quite frightening.

GEM said:

That's been out for quite awhile. But still quite frightening.

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This
That would have been bad for everyone involved.
This shows what just going through the motions can do.

What gets me is that the guy downrange taping targets seemed totally oblivious to all of the shooting until the shooter became visible. How could he not know the stage had gone "hot"? If a stage has that much cover screening in place then someone needs to be in a position to see the entire range to call "clear" - and in this case the R.O. could not see the entire range. What we have here is a failure to communicate.......

Major screwup by safety officer for sure. We try and avoid opaque walls for that reason.

Wow that is dangerous.

That is NOT something to take lightly.

Not a good situation. Safety protocols need a serious re-visit. Thankfully no one was hurt, or worse.

What Drail said...how could the target setting guy not know (and be reacting, like hitting the deck) after several seconds of gunfire on his range?

I would have peed myself when the first shots came, LOL.

Loved the look on the shooter's face as he turns around.

I've seen that one before, and I can't even watch it again! It just makes me sick. What gets me though, is the lack of range safety on the actual line. I've seen a lot of people handling firearms inappropriately while on the line.

I have never been on a range set up like that. There was shooting going on at the beginning I which I assume was on adjacent ranges. If the target hanger was doubled up on hearing protection, could he have not realized the shooting was nearby right away? It is easy to zone out when all the sound around you is muted.

You can't pin that on the clueless target taper......that is 100% the fault of the safety officer. When he pushes that beeper he better know that his range is clear.

This is why you always do an ankle check. Squat down and look under the barriers. It's very easy to miss a person behind target boards if you are just looking toso high.

At our range, checking behind the barriers prior to shooting is mandatory for that reason. I can't imagine risking shooting someone because I didn't spend the few seconds it takes to look behind the barrier.

YIKES!! Safety officer should be fired and removed from the club and range for ever!

GarySTL said:

Major screwup by safety officer for sure

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bainter1212 said:

that is 100% the fault of the safety officer

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joem1945 said:

Safety officer should be fired and removed from the club and range for ever!

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This can't be pinned entirely on the SO. The clueless dude downrange shares the blame, as does every one of the shooter's squadmates. The only one not to blame here is the shooter.

Yeah, they should take up a collection to get a hearing aid for the clueless dude downrange or lash him to the sign up table.

That seemed to be some kind of professional sanctioned type event, I would not expect that in that environment.

failure on several levels
with guns such a hot topic now a days this kind of STUPIDITY does not help it could
of been much worse what were they thinking :banghead:

The ultimate responsibility lies with the RO holding the timer. When that guy is me, if the stage has a complicated barrier arrangement like that one, after scoring I head to the back of the bay where I can see behind every one of the barricades and make sure I'm the last guy out.

But the guy downrange also needs to look himself in the mirror and ask:

-Why was there 10 seconds of shooting on his own bay that went unnoticed by him? There is a serious volume difference on your bay vs. even the ones right next door. If he's double plugged and that is the reason (which I doubt)... he needs to go to single protection. You need SOME hearing at a practical shooting match, to hear RO commands, etc, and especially gunfire on your own bay.

-If you are taping targets and look around and you are the only guy you can see, chances are it is time for you to yell "paster help" or something to let people know you are downrange and the stage isn't reset. If you are the only guy down range for the length of time that it takes for everyone else to be up range, have the next shooter make ready, and start shooting, and didn't think anything of being down range all by yourself for that amount of time, it points to the same root issue as the first one:

The guy downrange is suffering from a dangerous lack of situational awareness and doesn't need to be there either.

Luckily no one was hurt... this is EXTREMELY rare, as there are millions of stages run every year in practical shooting competitions, and few people have ever seen anything like this in person. It is a one off situation that hopefully will remind others to pay attention to what is going on around them, whether they are holding the timer or not.

This video was used in an RO class I took last year (and I had seen it before then). It makes my palms sweat every time I see it. We talked about it at my club when it first went public, and reminded everyone that EVERYONE needs to be on the lookout for this kind of situation.

We carefully check and have had to get some of those brass peckers out of the setup a few times.

This is also why I purposefully squad myself with other young guys. I have been on squads with several old timers who like to sit down and shoot the bull instead of tape targets and pick up brass. (Sorry old timers, don't mean to offend).

That way I am not left all alone to tape five targets by myself, and then when I call for tapers the guys sitting down look at me and frown like I am annoying.