Would you obey this range command?

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Just to take a different tack on this - was there ANY cause for concern regarding ricochets from the plate you were using? IMM, that would be a legit concern to make you stop (by using normal commands as everyone has stated), otherwise, he seems to be on a Napoleon complex trip
 
I'm just guessing but it sounds like you were at the rifle only line where pistols are not usually allowed. You asked for permission to take a few shots and they let you. After a couple of mags, they felt like they had given you a chance to shoot and would have preferred you to move to the pistol line. Not an uncommon practice.
When I shoot my Contender pistol on the rifle line the ROs keep an eye on me until they can see I'm a competent and safe shooter. At some ranges they just don't like mixing rifles and pistols. Your story seems perfectly plausible and so does the ROs instructions. He gave you a chance to take some shots and after a while he felt like it was time to put the rifle line back into order.
 
russ69 said:
I'm just guessing but it sounds like you were at the rifle only line where pistols are not usually allowed. You asked for permission to take a few shots and they let you. After a couple of mags, they felt like they had given you a chance to shoot and would have preferred you to move to the pistol line. Not an uncommon practice.
When I shoot my Contender pistol on the rifle line the ROs keep an eye on me until they can see I'm a competent and safe shooter. At some ranges they just don't like mixing rifles and pistols. Your story seems perfectly plausible and so does the ROs instructions. He gave you a chance to take some shots and after a while he felt like it was time to put the rifle line back into order.
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Exactly, and I never disputed that part... the core of my question was the fact that the RO was seated, with his face turned completely away from me when issuing the order to stop. I thought it was impolite, and imprecise - he was facing a line of about ten other shooters. So I continued firing until he did the right thing and stood up, faced me and issued me a clear directive, which I immediately complied with.

As for the plates, they were well over 100 yards away - I suppose that's enough distance that a .22lr wouldn't have much deflection risk? Curiously, when I first asked for this "favor" they reassigned me to a bench that was at a bit more oblique angle to the steel, and dismissed my concern that I was now shooting at them from more of an angle vs. nearly head-on.
 
academy said:
Wish my range had a similar policy. I made a mistake on the pistol line the other day, and the range officer practically gave me a hug while explaining it to me. I didn't know the guy from Adam, and he felt comfortable enough to put an arm around me and a hand on my other shoulder in the 90 degree heat. I deserved the lecture, but I didn't want a hug from the RO.

Should I have said something to him about it? I don't like hugs from strange men, even on a cool day, and it just seemed inappropriate for him to hang on me while lecturing me.
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Students in the NRA RSO course are taught to ask permission before touching anyone. "If I may" or something similar, and then only between the elbows and fingertips if possible. I think it would be perfectly reasonable for you to ask him not to touch you again.
 
45_auto said:
Get your gun fixed so it works like it's supposed to, and it'll lock that bolt back automatically for you when you finish the magazine.
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At that range the command was "fire what you have in your guns and cease fire." As I had 30 rnd mags I thought it was polite to remove the mag and fire the rnd in the chamber. No mag, no lockback
 
from what I read I think you did just fine. I have never understood why so many ranges have rules against pistols on the rifle range. If you can hit a plate at a given distance what does it matter if your using a pistol or a rifle.
 
I would suggest trying to find a range without range officers, sounds like you have to beg for the privellage to shoot what you want when you want.
 
Thankfully, my usual range is awesome - great people, no martinet RSOs, and pretty decent hours.
It's only lacking the ability to handle centerfire rifles (I shoot lots of .22 rifle and centerfire pistol there.)
I only went to this place because it's the only place reasonably close by to shoot centerfire rifles at anything resembling a challenging range.
 
a few reasons

Guessing here, but one possible reason for no handguns on a rifle range is that the mix of arms makes the firing line harder to supervise.
It takes quite a bit more body and arm motion for a rifle to sweep the line, therefore the safety violation is 'easier' to notice. With handguns, sweeping can happen much more quickly, with less body motion; it is therefore harder for the RO to notice.

Another reason is that the firing cadence of handguns can often be out of sync with that of rifles.

Finally, rifle targets are much further out and so they take longer to walk out to.

It's like race cars on a NASCAR circuit: they all travel at more or less the same speed, and handle more or less the same. Throw in a Chevy Vega in the mix and see what happens...
 
parsimonious_instead said:
...RO was seated, with his face turned completely away from me when issuing the order to stop..
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If you hear an order to stop, or think you might have hard an order to stop, it's best to pause and make sure everything is OK before you continue to shoot. I wear double hearing protection so I often have to look around and make sure a cease fire wasn't called and I missed it. Safety first, proper politeness second.
 
1. It sounds like there was something going on from the get'go... some kind of miscommunication from the start. Pistols not usually allowed on the rifle lanes/range? Minimum/maximum caliber? Simply the way it was asked?

2. Range rules should be clear and never 'overlooked'. More importantly, range Commands should be simple and obvious as previous posts have indicated.... "Cease Fire, Cease Fire!".

3. If ever an RO was unclear to me about Any action in question, I would do my best to clear it up with them first immediately. If I thought their command still unclear or perhaps even negligent, then I would take it up with whoever I could find above them in position once off the range. If I couldn't get a satisfactory resolution, then I wouldn't go back to that range.
 
Blue Mountain? Just a wild guess. Don't answer if you think it's telling tales out of school.

I've never been there, partly because I've heard lots of stories like yours. It's almost like they go out of their way to be unfriendly bordering on hostile.
 
Toivo: yup, Blue Mountain. Interestingly, the guys that run the pistol pits are a heck of a lot nicer than the duo up at the "big bore" range. I'm not likely to return to the "big bore" segment of the facility for a while, since I got to enjoy my SKS and the challenge of ringing the steel with my .22 rifle and pistol.
Russ, Gunner: I agree that I should have been a bit more proactive about clarifying this "order to stop" however - the fellow was still seated after I heard him say this. In addition, contrary to most of my experiences in life in which asking clarifying questions puts people in an authority position in a better frame of mind, these guys seemed irritated when I tried doing so.
 
parsimonious_instead said:
...these guys seemed irritated when I tried doing so.
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Yeah, some ROs go out of their way to be jerks. I have gotten the "fish eye" every time I shoot something out of the normal everyday firearm. I think they just want to make sure you are a safe shooter. Once they see I'm safe (and shooting small groups) their attention goes to someone else.
When I'm a RO, some guys will attract extra attention until they prove to be safe, it's just the way it is. It's best to just go with the flow and politely follow instructions, after a while, they will see you are no problem.
 
I went to my first USPSA match today at that same range. The young RSO I had an issue with showed up to participate. (I couldn't due to lack of equipment.) That's OK since not shooting enabled me to get a better sense of the layout of the stages, some information on where to set up, where to load up, clear the weapon, etc. Having that sort of "non-firing preview" will probably make for a better experience when I actually do shoot.
In any event, he didn't recognize or acknowledge me. I didn't try to talk to him, but I observed him shooting a stage, and he seemed to do quite well.
I reviewed some of the YouTube videos of that shooting club's prior matches, and he seems to draw, present and shoot quite smoothly and quickly.
Looks like a worthy competitor (I hope that I am!), as do some of the other guys who participate. I don't anticipate spending the big bucks on those "clip on" style holsters and bigger bucks on turning my stock pistols into "race guns." :)
 
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