Ever get odd looks/awesome stories shooting a rifle?

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theriflespeaks1863

theriflespeaks1863

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Appleton, WI
So, I was shooting my '42 Mosin 91/30 (an Izzy, I call her "Tonya") a while ago, and something very strange happened...

I was shooting at my home range up in Appleton over break a few weeks ago, and I had just finished slinging some 203 gr. soft points at the 100 yard targets. I was pleased; my Mosin was performing quite well, and I was very confident about the upcoming deer season. :) As I was walking back with my old target from the berm, I noticed one of the RSO's (a man in his 60's with greying hair and a mustache) standing over my bench looking at my Mosin with a blank stare on his face- one of the few times I have ever seen a real 10,000 yard stare. This made me very worried, and I wondered, at the time, if I had left my rifle unsafe on the bench by accident or something similar. I hurried up to him and smiled, and I looked over the rifle- nothing was out of place, and the ECI was in the chamber. Everything was kosher. Then the following exchange took place, all the time with that very cold, vacant stare on the man's face:

"Hello..." (Me)
"Hi."
"Can I help you with something?" (Me)
"This was the first rifle someone ever shot at me with..."

At this point, I paused, and I imagine I went a little pale.

"Ummm... *quietly*...who was shooting at you?" (Me)
"Oh, I was in Laos, and our group ran on to a bunch of militia-types...one of those guys had one of these things...fired it at me from the hip. He missed of course...but I'll never forget the sound..."

That scared me. I had brought back what I imagine was a traumatic memory just with the sound of my rifle. After how many years, he still remembers the sound of a Mosin Nagant. This left me at a loss for words. After a few seconds of akward silence, I said:

"Thanks...for your story, and your service..."

He smiled slightly, nodded, and turned back to walk down the firing line. But he still had that vacant look on his face. I couldn't get it out of my head that the entire time I was shooting, he was reliving this...even now, I don't know what to think...

Anyone else ever had experiences like this while you were shooting?

Cheers,

-Chris
 
Last edited:
oops

It seems that, in haste, I may have posted in the wrong section. Mods, feel free to move this to General Discussion if you wish.

Thanks,

-Chris
 
never had that happen, exactly, but I've had people tell me how effictive AK-47's are from the receiving end while I prattle on about how great they are... that is pretty awkward as well, but it only serves to incubate a deeper confidence in my AK.
 
I was talking about an m1a before to my dad and a Vietnam came out of nowhere and told me he had killed tons of people with the M14 it changed the atmosphere pretty quick.
 
I have gotten the other side of that coin with my M1 Carbine.
In fact, I have to bring the real thing along when I take the 10/22 I mocked up as a carbine trainer (stock/sights/sling match) because I feel like a jerk not offering a mag to the old guys who used an M1 Carbine professionally - I'll gladly trade a magazine of ammo for some stories any day.
 
OP- Don't sweat it. If he's been a RO for very long, he's seen more than a couple. Hardly a Sunday paper goes by that doesn't have one in the Big 5 ads. One thing I've noticed is there is no constant single thing that'll bring on a bit of remembrance or even the creepy*****s. The doc at the VA likes to call it PTSD, but it's my little hang ups and quirky little annoyances and since no two guys are alike- I call mine the creepy*****s. May be a smell, a sound, a familiar looking trail, any number of things, but maybe not the same thing twice.

Anyway, the guy probably just had a moment in time sneak up on him. Sounds like you did fine.
 
Hey 10-96? Must be nice to be so sure of yourself that you can piss on other men's experiences. I know I have nothing like that I could say. Perhaps I'm misunderstanding you?
 
I've seen something very similar. One of my buddies (Roy) with whom I shoot High Power saw a Mosin that a kid brought to one of our matches. The exchange upon seeing the rifle:

(Roy): "Hey! I have one of those!" (Mosins)
(Me): "Really?"
(Roy): "Yeah! I got it in Veitnam!"
(Me): "No kiddiing?!?"
(Roy): "Yep...I traded a guy a full 20 round magazine from my M-16 for it."
(Me with a puzzled look): "You did?"
(Roy): "Yep, he (a Viet Cong solider) shot at me with it, and missed...but I didn't!!"

35W
 
Not while shooting it. Guy at a gun show here complimented me on my price on an SKS. I asked him if I should start the paperwork. He said, "Sorry. It's a great price for a rifle and I'd love to help you move it, but I've got a thing about buying guns that used to shoot at me. I am a Vietnam War combat veteran." I thanked him, welcomed him back home safely, and then sold him a Springfield M1A, which was more his style.
 
Wslewisiii- Perhaps you are misunderstanding. I told the OP he done fine and provided him only one 'for instance' just in case he was a bit confused. Maybe that provided for a bit of clearer understanding and maybe it didn't. What are you getting at?

Edit- And please feel free to further expound on how I pissed on anyone's experience, came across as "sure of myself", or how you prefer me to edit my speech patterns for future reference in this fine public forum.
 
10-96,
I see absolutely nothing wrong with what you wrote. In fact i thought that what you wrote was very well thought out. I would like to know what the asterisks are covering up though.

I'm not sure what wlewisiii is getting at. Hopefully he will come back to explain.
 
theriflespeaks1863

Watch the History Channels "Vietnam in HD" with new footage to put the Viet nam war in perspective. It was called the "South East Aisian War Games" in the latter part of the war by our servicemen, you had a draft and you had to serve with people who didn't want to be by your side or serve their country.

FWGL.gif

wargames-1.gif

wargames.gif

bigedp51-Ed Horton ;)
USAF Military Airlift Command (MAC) 70-73 C-141s and C5A "You Call We Haul"
(women called it the Midnight Air Command) :eek:

midnight_air_command-a.gif

C-141 AirEvac Clark AFB Philippines

MAC-1.gif

POW-3.gif

POW-4.gif

POW-1.gif

A small piece of history, part of the Red Cross from the first C-141 to land in Hanoi North Vietnam and bring our POWs home.

IMGP2247.gif
 
Once you've been in a war zone certain sounds, smells bring it back don't think it's as much fear at the time as the disbelief or confusion of the moment. My first memory of Vietnam is the sound of a full auto AK chatter as I hit the floor my first day there when someone outside the fence opens up, I was the new guy flat on the ground while the old guys stood and laughed at me they were accustomed to the sounds I was not but still tighten some when I hear an AK having said that I enjoy shooting the AK:D, one of the top battle rifles IMO.
 
Bless his heart, my dad was like that. He had PTSD when PTSD wasn't yet recognized. A crop duster brought up being shot at by the air force (He was an FO in Korea), pointing anything at him made him dizzy and put the pointer in serious danger.
 
Great story. And I can definitely understand not "buying guns that used to shoot at me"...

I also think that all who served should be proud of the fact that they helped the USA survive, grow and thrive to the point where our old enemies sell us their surplus guns and ammo to affordably arm more and more of our citizens. E pluribus unum.

Thank you veterans! I wish that more veterans would share your experiences like those above. You make all us who have not served better and smarter people with your stories.
 
My dad, WWII Army, apparently went through some bad stuff in Europe. He's 92 now and while he'll mention things every once in a while, he doesn't share much. While I've never served, between reading "Band of Brothers" and "The Pacific", I have some inkling of what he may have seen. Apparently the guy he was when he left was not the person that returned - a shame. I haven't invited him to the range yet, but won't blame him if he says no.
 
My dad, WWII Army, apparently went through some bad stuff in Europe. He's 92 now and while he'll mention things every once in a while, he doesn't share much. While I've never served, between reading "Band of Brothers" and "The Pacific", I have some inkling of what he may have seen. Apparently the guy he was when he left was not the person that returned - a shame. I haven't invited him to the range yet, but won't blame him if he says no.
Click to expand...

Wow, God bless the man...you're mighty lucky to still have him around! I'm not trying to sound cold or morbid, but have you ever considered asking him if he'd consider allowing you to set up a video camera and "interviewing" him? Basically just a casual chat about his life, his experiences, the changes he's seen, things like that? If he'll talk some about his war experiences, that would be great, but otherwise just details of his life.

I wish I'd done that with my parents, something like that would be priceless to me now. My dad wasn't a vet, but both dad and mom were machinists during the war at Mare Island Naval Shipyard, making parts for ships. There were a helluva lot more people involved in the war than just the guys pulling triggers, and they all had stories. I wish I had some of my parents stories recorded.
 
kb58:
You might know that there are people who are quickly collecting as much info as they can on these guys' stories, while just a shrinking fraction of the veterans are still around. Bits of their stories are somewhere on a website, maybe many websites.

My father-in-law could remember almost zero in his last two years. He had been a career Quartermaster, and in England (early '44) volunteered and was attached to the 101st in all the campaigns.

Back to guns: A guy who worked in a large gun store North of Millington TN, which finally went under, told me that he did not like selling AKs ("clones"), because of friends who were killed by them in Iraq.
 
Odd looks? Some old fudd at the range was bashing my 9mm AR and called it a ghetto blaster. Whatever, I could still outshoot him and his Viagra needing ass anyways.
 
I went to the public range one day with an old Enfield No4 Mk1 about 2 years ago. There was an older gentleman with what looked like his grandson shooting a .22. I noticed the older guy kept looking at the Enfield and he had a British accent. If I have enough ammo I always offer to let someone try shooting, but always give a quick familiarization brief on the gun before I hand it over to them. Well I offered to the old man if he wanted to shoot it and he said "for sure." I started the brief on how to use it and he replied "son I can teach you a thing or two about this rifle. I carried one on SWORD beach June 6 1944." I gave him the rifle and a 30 cal can of surplus .303 and said knock yourself out. Shoot all you want. We talked a little bit and it was great to talk to a Vet of D-Day but also get a perspective from the British side. Overall it was one of my favorite days shooting. And I can say that after all these years the old Brit was still accurate as hell with a No4.
 
30 (?) years ago I got an invitation to shoot at Camp Roberts form a Reserve Brigade Sgt Major. I went down with Dad and a friend of his. I shot pretty well and Cliff, Dad"s friend thought he could shoot as well with a Garand as I did with an M14. From the bench I outshot him. Cliff asked rangemaster if he could move in front of the benches. On a whim the rangemaster said yes. We went down to a lonely section of the range, cleared it, , targets were reset and Cliff went out front with his Garand. Targets popped and Cliff hit the ground, two shots and rolled, two shots and rolled, he must of been countiing rounds because the clips he left behind all had only one round left on them. When he got done he had the shakes, Dad got him coffee and donuts from behind the range. When everything was calm, everbody walked that firing line. Every target serviced out to 300 yds, only 2 with one hole. EVERY target hit at least once. Cliff survived Korea and his stories he could tell are in my safety deposit box, on paper and tape recording. My father was a combat medic 3rd Bn, 6th Inf and after Cisterna finished WWII in presidio San Francisco treating combat shock.
I have a brother in law, nice guy but he will not fly. He and his wife go on a cruise they take the train to get there. He was a door gunner and went down more than once. My wife's uncle will not get on a boat, he was Guns on a Yard Mine Sweeper out of Pearl and lasted through 8 island invasions until tagged on Pelieu. His YMS went down without him in the later typhoon. I have stories from all of these and more in that safety deposit box on tape and transcribed to paper. For each person in there it is something different that sets them off.

blindhari

Sgt Ranger
Like my father before me
 
You might know that there are people who are quickly collecting as much info as they can on these guys' stories, while just a shrinking fraction of the veterans are still around.
Click to expand...
Agreed, but with what he went through he doesn't want to remember. From what little I've pieced together, I'm here because the Germans managed to miss him, many times, and one of their 3000-lb railgun shells failed to detonate when it hit the building he was guarding. He said however, that the kinetic energy collapsed the entire building and killed everyone inside. The good side, if there is one, is that he had absolutely no hard feelings against the Germans, who he refered to as "scared kids, just like us." Guess he wasn't around any of the POW camps...

On the other hand, when I was a kid, there was a old neighbor who absolutely hated everything Asian. Apparently he'd been through some really bad stuff himself, and after reading "The Pacific", I have a lot better understanding why that may have been.

Back to the topic-at-hand, it really drives home the point that this sport that we do "for fun", is a very different animal in different conditions, ones that change people forever. That said, I would like to shot a Garand, just to get some sense of what our guys used back then.
 
sounds and stories

Sounds, smells are unforgettable. The little ting, ting sound as small arms fire hits a humvee doesn't go away. a 308 or 30-06 on a painted plate some times hits the wrong note.

funny range story.

When i still had the high and tight i went to the public range with my 556 ak. Half an hour into my afternoon two thuggish looking guys came on the range. Gold teeth, gold chain, white t-shirt and their drawers around their knees.

They had a most exquisite RRA carbine so of course i struck up a conversation with em. Nice fellows actually. They put a 200 dollar red dot on the rifle and had no idea how to zero it. they were using kentucky windage and aiming 5 ft off to hit the plate.

i helped em out and got em on paper at 25meters.
 
Realising he was in a unique position, the Vet outreach counseler at our local Jr college encouraged PTSD vets to write or talk about thier past. I have my safe deposit box of stories, this counseler has transfered stories from the time he was hired (1967) till now. All wars, actions, incidents what ever he could encourage them to talk about. Until the last of his cases die he will not release any thing. I have a safety deposit box, his accounts however take the release of two legal firms and hopefully some day they can be used to help. Over coffee awhile back and my wife's choclate chip cookies he told me that his stories went as far back 1902. He never got paid what he was worth as a counciler. Also he was a Tonga Islander who went Marine, really big guy, even larger heart.

blindhari
 
OP- Don't sweat it. If he's been a RO for very long, he's seen more than a couple. Hardly a Sunday paper goes by that doesn't have one in the Big 5 ads.
Click to expand...

It's probably just the first MN that RO had seen make it thru a full mag w/o failing to feed or requiring a mallet to open the bolt.

BSW
 
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