odd things you have seen at deer sight in

Many years ago in a Pennsylvania campground a group of young hunters would sight in their rifles using a horizontal board with a vertical board at each end to support the butt stock and the forearm. The problem was that the board was too long so that instead of supporting the forearm the barrel rested in the V notch. They would shoot a few of rounds and then tweak the scope. Then repeat this process over and over again. After a box or so of ammunition down range they decided it was good enough.

NRA Benefactor Golden Eagle

Many years ago I used to work the sight-in days at the Camillus gun club outside Syracuse, NY. That was back in the days when much of the Southern Tier was shotgun only. Many instances of guys not wanting to "waste ammo" at the 25 yard line to get on paper and then running out of ammo at the 100 yard line never knowing where they were missing. But there were also plenty of older guys who'd punch the bull with a Foster-type slug at 25 yards and call it good. They tended to know the limits of the platform.

Can't remember if it was a sight-in day or part of a hunter safety class. Took a .22 rifle away from a middle-aged guy the second time he swept me with the barrel. Clearly a newbie. I explained the problem to him in a matter-of-fact tone and told him that if it happened again, he was done for the day. He was apologetic, got the point, and proceeded to sight in without further problem.

Then there was the day that with at least a dozen guys on the line, a buck walked out of the trees beyond the 300 yard line, sauntered in toward the 200 yard line, grazed a bit, then wandered off to the south. It was a good crew on the line; they didn't complain (much) about the called cease fire.

Last month we had a guy come in saying he just got his gun back from the gunsmith because he was having trouble sighting it in. He starts shooting and bullets are all over the place. The guy I'm working with asked to see the gun and he said when he grabbed it he felt the barrel move. He puts it on the bench holding the stock down and proceeds to move the barrel so much it's obvious. The guy sees that his barrel wiggles but still decides he wants to sight it in and proceeds to shoot several more rounds before it sinks in.

One morning last month 3 deer decided to walk across the range in front of all the targets. The deer are very comfortable there and they will stand around grazing in the lawn near the parking lot or in other areas where people may be.

Another time at a different club at the silhouette range a group of elk decided they would have lunch just beyond the 200 meter ram right in the line of fire.

I don't really pay attention why others are sighting in or general shooting.

CoalCrackerAl said:

I don't really pay attention why others are sighting in or general shooting.

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These deer sight ins are for the general public we allow at our clubs once a year, not regular members that are shooting or sighting in. We charge a small fee and help the public with tons of knowledge as well as having a gunsmith or two ready to help when needed. It's not just some people sighting in. Each hunter has two members giving them their attention all for 6 dollars. One of us is always on a spotting scope to show on a target at the bench where the bullet hit.

Opening day is Saturday, and Friday afternoon, an hour and a half before the range closes, a neighbor and his son were puzzled, then half frantic, when they discovered the 243 WSSM ammo they had would not work in their brand new 243 Win.

I can't imagine shooting the wrong ammo out of a gun.

I also can't imagine not trusting a stranger or at least verifying by looking whether he's correct. Especially when I can't hit the target.

At our club we not only check the rifle's caliber but the ammo box as well as the casings inside the ammo box. When asked if these were reloads I would be told yes. I'd ask if they reloaded them and had been told no a few times. They had purchased them at garage sales.

For those of you who aren't familiar with reloading shooting some strangers reloads is a bad idea. You have no idea if they are safe.

Smaug said:

I can't imagine shooting the wrong ammo out of a gun.

I also can't imagine not trusting a stranger or at least verifying by looking whether he's correct. Especially when I can't hit the target.

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Slightly off thread but as a range officer I observed a fellow trying to load 45 colt into his new 45ACP. I explained and showed the difference. He was quite upset since he had just bought 500 rounds of the 45 colt at the gun show at our fairgrounds. (No returns on ammo policy)

epags said:

Slightly off thread but as a range officer I observed a fellow trying to load 45 colt into his new 45ACP. I explained and showed the difference. He was quite upset since he had just bought 500 rounds of the 45 colt at the gun show at our fairgrounds. (No returns on ammo policy)

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This kind of thing reminds me of why many states require some sort of training for CC. Some people know they want a gun but can't be bothered to read up and educate themselves. Heck, even just reading the MANUAL for his gun would have prevented your guy's mistake.

epags said:

Slightly off thread but as a range officer I observed a fellow trying to load 45 colt into his new 45ACP. I explained and showed the difference. He was quite upset since he had just bought 500 rounds of the 45 colt at the gun show at our fairgrounds. (No returns on ammo policy)

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Guess that would be a good reason to buy a revolver or lever-action.

Recently watched a gentleman with a new Axis which a local shop had mounted with a Leupold Scope. It was supposedly boresighted for him. He was having major frustrations that it wasn't on paper at 100 and the 7.62 NATO fmj primers were too hard for the gun to reliably fire. After a while of him getting upset, we offered to help by putting a sheet the size of a poster board at 50 with a single dot. He was bang-click 3 or 4 times for before it finally fired and missed the entire sheet. Pulled the bolt and looked through the scope was pointed in the dirt -- it had a 20° rail and he was sailing many feet high. We got it on target basically maxing out the adjustments. Only fired 2 more rounds out the boxes he bought, impacts about an inch or so off at 50. All the rest light strikes. Left setting as is since we couldn't tell if it was him flinching in frustration or not.

Saw some guys trying to sight in a shogun with the scope turned 90 degrees. Elevation on the side and windage on the top. I knew at a glance what the issue was , but, was told I was ignorant and that my parents weren’t married. Several other people chimed in over half an hour , or so, and were told the same thing. According to the shooters it had been mounted by a gunsmith. After they run out of ammo an ancient member of the club was finally able to get them convinced it was wrong. He also got them to admit it was done by the teenager at the box store. He then bore sighted it , adjusted at 50 yards , and proceeded to punch a nice group with his own ammo. He handed it back and told them not to touch any thing until after deer season then give him a call to get the scope mounted right. I guess he felt he owed it to them as the shooters described the ancient dudes grandson to a T!

Last September I bought a new deer rifle; a Tikka T3X .270, added a Vortex scope and the gun store bore sighted it; or so they said. A friend an I took it to the range for sighting, and started at 50 yards. Nothing on the target. We moved it to 25 yards; nothing, and I even aimed low. We put a target on the largest piece of cardboard we could find; it was shooting way up and way left (like feet). This is a reputable, local gun store. Next time I’ll bore sight it myself.

@Legionnaire , Camillus is my club for the last 10 years. I always check my sights before public sight in to avoid these situations, and there are an enormous number of new members in the last few years, many of whom are relatively new gun owners. I prefer to coach friends when it's quieter and always watch when on the line for newbie type errors. My personal pet peeve is someone handling a firearm when people are downrange. I'll stop that immediately when I see it, and invariably get the "I'm just...adjusting the scope or some other BS", and "it's not loaded!". I try to be polite but firm and almost always get a reasonable response. In general the new folks are ok with some guidance about the rules. I also try to not be "that guy" and offer unsolicited advice unless they're really struggling and looking for help. I really like the facilities and people there.
My weird sighting in story was my own issue. I have an old Enfield Mark III * that was sporterized before I ever got it. I spent way too long and way too many cartridges a few years ago trying to check the zero, couldn't get it to hold a group. I finally noticed as I dialed a new number of clicks to adjust the scope that the entire scope was wiggling in the mount. The mount has teeth that lock in on the rail and over time the recoil had torn up the interlocking portions. Had to revert to shotgun for that season and get a new rail/mount. Lesson learned lol, look for obvious issues sooner

I could write volumes on some of the things I've seen "hunters" do at the range getting ready for deer season. Improperly mounted scopes, terrible shooting habits, and so on. Often followed by ginormous groups 100 yards downrange from a bench and someone saying "good enough". I just hope they miss completely more often than they gut shoot/lose deer. I do know a guy out of state that processes game for people who don't want to do it themselves. He's told me some very disturbing stories about the condition some of the deer show up in to his shop.

I wasn't there that day but several regulars told me a deer, an actual deer, walked right across the rifle range while the range was hot. No, no one shot the deer.

I don't even hunt but one day while driving east of Yuma to get a train, my conductor says "is that someone riding a horse"?!

Looked up at the notch on the Ridgeline above the tracks and started wishing I had a rifle with me.



What an awesome sight!

We started that whole "sighting-in days" thing almost 2 months ago now (lots of special seasons, plus pronghorn, elk, deer, etc.). Lots of muzzleloaders early on. Let's just say - so far no one has gotten shot. We also have a couple of guys that run a sight-in service using machine rests at the range. LOTS of folks come in with lots of guns ("it was my turn to get 'em all done this year" ), and probably 75% just pay their $20/gun and them pack up and leave. Amazingly, we often see the same guys back week after week - "missed an elk at 200 yrds last week - don't know how that happened" rofl. I, too, have seen several mis-mounted scopes (2 within an hour last week). I'm lucky that a lot of folks take my advice and start over on the 25-yd. range before they "just verifying my 200-yd zero", but many don't. Then proceed to go through a box of .300 Win Mag or other very expensive ammo on the 200-yd line before finally deciding it might be a good idea to at least move over to the 100-yd range. Yes, I've seen plenty of folks leave after getting a 4+" group off the bench @100 (which may or may not be adequate depending on the game/distance they encounter), but I've also had plenty of folks that want to "figure out my ballistics so I can hit an elk at 750-yds", but can't keep a group less than 4" @200. Tough to do since we only have out to 300. I guess it takes all kinds.

kcofohio said:

Guess that would be a good reason to buy a revolver or lever-action.

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Not really. I was at the local public range once when an elderly couple showed up with their brand new Taurus Judge, a box of .410 shells, and a box of .45 ACP that some dum dum at a big box store had sold them.

My main amusement comes from how there is a direct correlation to how many people are at the rifle range to how close it is to opening day.

Doesn’t seem to matter whether they are avid shooters or not.

Maybe not for sighting in but I was done with public ranges afterwards after two incidents.

One time during a hot line, the guy to my immediate right decided to get up and go place another target up and start walking past me as I was getting ready to fire my first string.

Second was when I chose to be away from folk further down the line because one of the guns I had brought had an obnoxious brake on it because of it's caliber. I did it out of consideration of others. Well some chuckler thought he was going to set up next to me and start shooting his braked 458. I didn't know if he was doing it on purpose to teach me some weird lesson or not but I do know that I politely asked him to move over and to give me some space. He chose not to and made my time firing very miserable. So I chose to wait until he was distracted in his cell to pull out and setup my Barrett M107A1 perfectly where he would definitely get that blast. Only took two rounds to make him go red. The RO was watching the entire time and knew why I had moved so far away and thought that the guy was wrong for messing with me like that and knew what I was going to do in return.

Ya, I only go now to public outdoor ranges during the fire restrictions and that's IF I have no other choice.

Let me get this straight. There are actually ranges out there that have to check my weapon, ammo and the likes before I am allowed to shoot? Personally I don't pay attention to other shooters or get into their business unless I am ask or see some flagrant safety issue...

I no longer hunt so I stay away from the rifle range during "sight in" season.