Most embarrassing moments at the range

NY Yankee said:

I was teaching a friend how to shoot, use, and clean an 870. At the range, I was teaching him how to load it. I was stressing that you need to press the shell far as you can into the magazine to be sure to get it past the catch so that the shell will not come back over the carrier. No, I didn't do it, he did. Not on the first mag full but the second, so I got to take the trigger group out. For some reason, I felt really embarrassed for him. I tried to make out like it happens once in a while, but it has never happened to me. I just felt badly that he thought he really screwed up. Fortunately, I always have a range box at the range with basic tools for working on a gun, cleaning kit etc. Everyone should have one.

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I have an Armorer's kit that I can do quite a few 'emergency' repairs or takedowns with, and use it a couple times a year.

Yep, ya can't have too many tools @ the range. When I was running our club's HP rifle matches 2x/mo, (one NRA XTC match and one F class/mo) my shooting box was a 2 drawer Kennedy machinist tool box w/small rubber jawed vise mounted on top to hold my rifle when I was not on the firing line or any rifle that needed some TLC.




Bottom drawer has an insert from a 100 round ammo block for my ammo, a block to hold my rifle sights securely + patches, bore guides a set of .308 & 30-06 go and field headspace gauges and misc. tools to do minor repairs on bolt and gas guns. Always contained M1 Garand extractors, firing pins, ejectors/springs and follower arms (the most common parts failures) on our heavily used DCM rifles.

Don't carry many tools to the range since I no longer compete, but have regretted the lack of such on more than one occasion.

Regards,
hps

Most of my embarrassing moments involve something that I forgot. Ammo, ear protection, staple gun, ect. Its not as bad now as it was when the boys were still living at home. I don't have as much "help" now as I did then.

There is a USPSA match two counties, 48 miles, over, which is pretty close as such things go.
They must think I am a real dumbbell, I once went in without a holster.
Again I attended with a 9mm gun and .45 ammo/magazines.
But shooters are goodhearted people and I was loaned the necessaries to compete.

entropy said:

With the old style retaining cap, you can just shove the thin end of the green plastic plug in the cap, then push the cap down with the top of the plug enough to start the mag cap, then screwing that down will push it down.

Or just find a stick small enough to fit in the hole in the retaining cap, about 6" long.

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I normally use a pencil.
Sitting in a duck blind, in the middle of a flooded field, in the dark, there aren't many sticks.

aarondhgraham said:

Getting to the range,,,
Setting up the target stands,,,
Taping up all of the targets,,,
Setting up the bench bags,,,
Unpacking the new rifle,,,
Searching the car for the ammo bag you realized is still sitting on your porch.

Fortunately a kind soul sold me two boxes of CCI SV,,,
And at the same price he paid for them.

Aarond

.

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I did that once. I put 3 or 4 of my guns into cases and put them in the car. We took a bunch of clocks and statues my friend had at his jewelry store that were either junk, ugly, or just worn out, to shoot up. We went to a place to shoot about 20 miles away, a gun store with both inside and outside ranges. I was a friend of a friend of the owner, and he was cool with us shooting old clocks and statues. My friend furnished the stuff to shoot, I furnished the ammo. We got all set up and I realize I don't have any ammo with me. So what we thought was going to be a $20 trip to the range ended up being over $70, as I had to buy a bunch of it, most of it 9mm, which he had for a decent price back then, like $10 a box, with a box of .45ACP for $15, and a box of .38 or.357 for about the same. I haven't forgotten my ammo since. I have forgotten my tools though, and that was almost as bad, back then. With most local stores not carrying handgun ammo anymore, forgetting ammo now would be a real hassle.

Got stung by a tarantula hawk I didn't realize had landed on the back of my neck when I swatted at it.

It's pretty hard to not cause a scene and be in that much pain gracefully.

Years ago, I was trying a friend's bolt action rifle. Shot the rifle and the scope smashed me in the face cutting me enough that blood ran down my nose. I laugh about it to this day, but was not funny at the time

Trashyshoots said:

Got stung by a tarantula hawk I didn't realize had landed on the back of my neck when I swatted at it.

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Curious, is it as painful as I read. I enjoy catching tarantula in se Colorado and see these big ole wasps and am leary of them.

Hmmm... it has be being called "Dumb ass!" in front of the whole class by Tom Givens, on the rangeline, during his Instructor Development Course. The tempo of drills he was running us through was very quick, and one drill called for a specific number of rounds in the magazine in the pistol. I ejected the magazine and was downloading it as quickly as possible with my support hand thumb, while holding my pistol in my firing hand. When I got down to the last round I wanted to remove, the damn magazine decided to puke out two rounds instead of one. So I stuck the magazine between the ring and pinky fingers of my firing hand and knelt down to retrieve a round on the ground to load in my magazine, while keeping my muzzle pointed downrange. That's a big safety no-no! I should've holstered my pistol and not knelt down at the line. But I was in such a hurry and not wanting to hold up the rest of the class. Givens' embarrasing scolding was effective and I didn't f-up again for the rest of the class.

Trashyshoots said:

Got stung by a tarantula hawk

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I admit I had to Google "tarantula hawk" to find out what they are. The site I found (U.S. National Park Service) said they're mostly in the desert southwest, and they have "an incredibly painful sting."

Pew-Pew said:

Years ago, I was trying a friend's bolt action rifle. Shot the rifle and the scope smashed me in the face cutting me enough that blood ran down my nose. I laugh about it to this day, but was not funny at the time

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I had that happen to me, with a friend's Mosin Nagant that the scope mount had been JB welded to the receiver. Fortunately, I just got a bump on the forehead, and was able to laugh when it happened.

ericuda said:

Curious, is it as painful as I read. I enjoy catching tarantula in se Colorado and see these big ole wasps and am leary of them.

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Absolutely obliterates your senses with pain. 0/10 don't recommend. I've read they're pretty docile if you don't mess with them, but yeah, I swatted what I thought was a horse fly, and it turned out all I did was pin that bugger to my neck with my hand / shirt collar. I kind of get what I'm assuming is a minor ptsd everytime I see them.

.308 Norma said:

I admit I had to Google "tarantula hawk" to find out what they are. The site I found (U.S. National Park Service) said they're mostly in the desert southwest, and they have "an incredibly painful sting."

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Brave wilderness has a video where he let's one sting him, all he can do is plant his cheek into sand, yell, and make gurrrrrrrrrraaaaaggghh noises for a long while. That's about all I did as well.

Some years ago, at a local indoor rang, I noticed a couple trying to figure out how to shoot a handgun they rented. The gal was tall and good looking wearing a nice dress and heels and the guy was well dressed in slacks and a button down shirt. He was a little shorter and had a slight build.

After watching them fumble for a bit, I asked if they'd like some help. With relief, they answered yes. They paid attention and were a quick study and soon were able to shoot on their own.

I tried to figure out what the relationship between the two. I could tell they were close, more than just out on a date. But they weren't husband and wife or boyfriend or girlfriend. More like real good friends or perhaps brother and sister.

I hinted that I thought they might siblings or perhaps just good friends, but they didn't answer, just glanced at each other and shared a smile. I knew there was something... off, but I couldn't put my finger on it.

When it came time for me to leave, I packed up my gear and said my goodbyes. "It was nice to meet you" and shook hands and gave my name. The gal responded "Thank you so much for your help. My name is Kathy." When I shook hands with her friend, I was shocked to hear her say "and this is my friend Debbie."

I managed to quickly compose myself and said "Nice to meet you as well, Debbie." (I don't remember their real names.) That's when it struck me what was odd. While Debbie was playing the role as a man, the pair still acted like two female friends.

A couple of years later, a book came out about a couple of women that conducted an experiment. For about a year, they went out together, one assuming the role of a woman, the other as a man to study how people treated each of them in public. I don't know if Kathy and Debbie were those women, but I've often wondered.

I've told the story before but...

I had a new-to-me 1903 Colt .32 that I took to the indoor range near my house. I was in lane 1 next to the wall. As I was preparing to shoot it for the first time, I noticed the chips in the concrete floors, walls and ceilings no more than 3 or 4 feet in front of the bench, and thought "what kind of idiot screws up that bad?". Five seconds later, I rack the slide and like a machine gun, 6 rounds fire - slam fire from a stuck firing pin JUST at that point where it will feed, and just enough that it will set off the round. The gun was pointed downrange...mostly...I added 6 new chips in the floor and wall about 5 feet downrange. It scared the heck out of me.

Not gonna lie. I launched a 1911 recoil spring cap downrange while disassembling it.

3x in one visit.. Slippery little buggers.

jmace57 said:

I've told the story before but...

I had a new-to-me 1903 Colt .32 that I took to the indoor range near my house. I was in lane 1 next to the wall. As I was preparing to shoot it for the first time, I noticed the chips in the concrete floors, walls and ceilings no more than 3 or 4 feet in front of the bench, and thought "what kind of idiot screws up that bad?". Five seconds later, I rack the slide and like a machine gun, 6 rounds fire - slam fire from a stuck firing pin JUST at that point where it will feed, and just enough that it will set off the round. The gun was pointed downrange...mostly...I added 6 new chips in the floor and wall about 5 feet downrange. It scared the heck out of me.

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Those short pistol cartridges make for an amazing cyclic rate of fire, don't they?
Had similar experience with a new to me Luger once. Fortunately on a private range w/lots of vacant ranch land downrange. Pistol was pointed up @ about 45* angle when it ran the full mag dry (so fast I thought it was a double charged handload) until I noticed slide was locked open.
Regards,
hps

While qualifying with the Sheriff's SAR Posse. The weekend before we were on a search and my horse slipped on some granite and took a fall with me on board.
The range master gave the command to commence firing and I rapidly put my first six rounds on target---the target on the next lane over.
The adjustable sights got knocked cattywompus during the fall, which is now why both my CCW pistols have fixed sights.

I brought my new 30-06 to the range and had them bore sight it. At random picked a box of core lokt 180s to try out of the several flavors I brought to try. I think one shot of the mag was on paper tat 50 yards. They boredighted it again and brought out a lead sled. The shots were on paper, but it looked like a shotgun pattern. Range guy walked away shaking his head, probably wondering if I would shoot the next target on the line instead of mine. I decided to try a different flavor of ammo and the first three shots were touching. The rifle just didn't like 180s or core lokts as it turned out

brewer12345 said:

The rifle just didn't like 180s or core lokts as it turned out

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Things like that happen. My wife and I went through a whole box (100) of Hdy 139gr BTSPs trying to make her Ruger 77, 7mm-08 group instead of "pattern." We tried everything, including different seating depths, different powders and powder charges, and different shooters.
Finally, when we only had 2 of those 139gr BTs left, but we had 5 cases charged with powder, I stuffed 3 flat-based Hdy 139gr bullets in the 3 remaining cases. Those 3 bullets went in an inch at 100 yards.
My wife's Ruger 77 has never seen another boat-tail bullet in the 35 or so years she's owned it. Yet we've both had good luck with boat-tail bullets, including Hdy boat-tail bullets, in a lot of other rifles.

This was actually just about a month ago. I recently got my first muzzleloading rifle and took it out for the second time, still learning the ropes. I'd been using .015 patches and decided to try .010s since it got pretty difficult to load after two or three shots without cleaning the bore. The second one practically slid right in, without any effort needed with the ramrod. Even though a .010 patch should be plenty with my .440 ball, I was a little worried it was too loose and could be a potential danger, so I consulted someone I knew was knowledgeable about these things. He said it should be fine and he'd just shoot it, so I did. The sound of the rifle going off was horribly loud, much, much louder than every shot I'd taken prior. While I took a moment to regroup and make sure I didn't just blow up my rifle, I realized I'd simply forgotten put my ears in...

John Joseph said:

While qualifying with the Sheriff's SAR Posse. The weekend before we were on a search and my horse slipped on some granite and took a fall with me on board.
The range master gave the command to commence firing and I rapidly put my first six rounds on target---the target on the next lane over.
The adjustable sights got knocked cattywompus during the fall, which is now why both my CCW pistols have fixed sights.

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Those can get knocked off also. Ask Harry Tracy.

I lost a nice doe to the front blade on my .50 Hawken getting knocked to the left. I ticked her brisket. I followed an initially thick, then thinning blood trail until dusk. I found where she'd slept the night, a few drops there, and no blood trail ; I found her trail, but no blood; I had the .50 slung and was using the 1100 with a Hastings slug barrel that I had slung when I shot the doe.
The next day, I test fired the .50 at the farm. 2' to the left at 25 yards!

Here is one for ya. It wasnt at a range per se but at a combat course. A SWAT officer from somewhere in Virginia had a negligent discharge that hit me in the thumb during the cqb portion of the class. The round split the difference between my thumb and the quad rail on my rifle.

wvfarrier said:

Here is one for ya. It wasnt at a range per se but at a combat course. A SWAT officer from somewhere in Virginia had a negligent discharge that hit me in the thumb during the cqb portion of the class. The round split the difference between my thumb and the quad rail on my rifle.
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Yeesh. I'm assuming it was the other guy who was embarrassed...

I've told this story before, but anytime someone tells a "I forgot my..." story, I think "I can top that".

I would always forget something at the monthly NRA Action match, so eventually made up a very thorough checklist. It included everything I could possibly need on the day except for the gun. So of course, at the next match I showed up with everything I could possibly need except for the gun.