Dumbest thing you'll never live down at the range

[Dbl0Kevin]

What are some of those bonehead mistakes that you've done out on the range that you're almost embarrassed to talk about?

For me it would have to be when I had to qualify during the police academy. Everyone knew I was a gun guy throughout and always asked me gun questions. I even had a multitude of nicknames from the instructors such as Takckleberry, Psycho, Francis (as in don't call me Francis) etc.

So anyway.....finally comes range week...the time I've been waiting for after 17 weeks. All week I'm shooting just about perfect scores and going head to head with a friend of mine who was a former air marshall and delta force operator (damn he was a good shot). So then comes the last day and time to fire for qualifications. We shoot a 60 round course and you need 80% or 48 hits to qualify. You carry five 12 round mags and do mag changes throughout. So I'm goin through and have a perfect score and think the shooting award is all mine. Until that is I go to reach for my 5th mag and see that it's completely EMPTY!!! I look down in horror as I realize that I was talking to someone when I was loading up and hadn't loaded one of the mags in my pouch. I made a plea to the instructors on the range but no dice......had to qualify with the ammo I had on me. So minus a whole mag I shot a 48 out of 60 and qualified with the bare minimum. :banghead:

As you can imagine I've had my balls busted many times for that incident. Whenever the Capt. from the range sees me he always says that whenever he talks to new recruits he tells them about the guy that came through that could shoot the wings off a fly....he just couln't count!

 

[Travis McGee]

Good story! I'll bet you're the king of counting rounds and mags now!

 

[Chupacabra]

I hit a target carrier one time. The bullet fragmented and put a nice tare through the top of the target. It was with a S&W99 in .40 and I should have dry fired to get to know the trigger, as it was a little different than other guns I had shot. I yanked it so badly that the shot went high.

I'm never going to live that one down. :banghead:

It was a good learning experience though. I haven't hit the target carrier since!

 

[Trebor]

I went up to the line for a string of fire at LFI 1 with all my mags empty. I'd gotten talking to Mas and one of the instructors between relays and forgot to reload. I got a little ribbing for that one.

 

[DougCxx]

I shot a hanger once at the usual gun range, it was the first and only time I had destroyed one. The hangers they use are small PVC-tubing, because they are easier and cheaper to fix than the brass rod they used to have--so when you hit the hanger, it's obvious--it generally shatters. And then they charge you $5 for a new one. I used to joke with the range guys about how I'd see people hang a 2x3-foot target, run it out 10 or 15 feet, and fire a shot--blowing the hanger into pieces. Once I even saw someone do this on their first shot. And they knew from my regular visits that I only had smallbore target-style guns, and was a slow-fire precision-style shooter.

...So I bought a S&W 647 (17hmr 6-shot 8-inch barrel, the first revolver I have ever owned) and the first time at the range with it, I hung a usual bullseye target out at 25 feet or so, loaded the gun, took aim, thumb-cocked the hammer back, and then shifted my hand around to see if I could possibly get a more-secure grip on it, and,,,, inadvertently squeezed it off, blowing a 17-cal hole neatly through one of the black binder clips (destroying it) and through the crossbar of the hanger. The guy at the counter glanced at me for a moment when I went to leave. I was super-cool, I just said "Uhhh,,, I don't know nuthin' about that...", waving at the ruined clip and looking around the room. I was very probably the only one out there with a 17-cal pistol though, and he just smirked a bit.

-I had not had a problem with pulling off any of my other guns, I though it was something wrong with that one. It seemed awful light in SA, so I took it by the shop that sold it to me, and they tested it with a digital gauge and both the trigger stages broke exactly where they were supposed to.... -so I'm pretty sure that their trigger-pull gauge is defective.
~

 

[boofus]

I was shooting my M10/9 SMG for the first time and after a few mags with the stock extended I decided the recoil wasn't too bad and tried it offhand.

I ended up putting about 3 shots into the ceiling and I shot out one of the light fixtures and it fell from the ceiling. It was hanging from a wire and swinging back and forth in front of the target so I had to go and ask the range guys if I could have a new lane.

I don't plan on shooting that little gun without the stock again unless it's outdoors.

 

[TonyB]

I dropped my Glock at IDPA once...I had a magazine overloaded and it wouldn't feed and I a round was stuck ,when I dropped the mag the slide slammed foward and I didn't have a good grip and the gun went end over end onto the floor(I'm just glad I didn't try to catch it)...to this day the guy who was RO that night calls it"the night you almost killed me".....

 

[c_yeager]

The indoor range i usually shoot out has some MAJOR ventilation. The air positively swirls through the place. This is probably a good thing in the long run but, the downside is that the targets tend to move around when your trying to line up your shot. The standard method of fixing this is by attaching those big black clamp-like paper clips to the bottom of your target to weight it down. Well, on my third or fourth trip to that range i was sighting in my brand spanking new buckmark. On the FIRST SHOT i managed to hit that damn paper clip. It was an impressive display of the power of even the lowly 22LR. It hit the clip with a THWACK that was louder than any pistol on the line. And it blew that aluminum clip into several large pieces that went skittering all over the floor. This was of course witnessed by every single person on the range because i just happened to do it during the precise moment when EVERONE ELSE was reloading and i was the only one firing.

I just quietly shook my head in shame and started adjusting the hell out of the site while pretending that i didnt look like an idiot.

 

[spartacus2002]

Bringing an AR-15

 

[carp killer]

Bringing an AR-15

Sad, but true. That's why I avoid going to the range. To many snobs and ignorant pr*cks.

 

[Dbl0Kevin]

I was wondering what he meant by that. Wow even in New Jersey I've NEVER had anyone give me any problems cause of bringing my AR-15.

 

[MLC]

I was shooting my Ak74 at 200 yards.
My buddy and I were trading back and forth trying to put a hurting on tiny steel gong.
We had been consistently ringing it with the L1A1 and my '06.
I decided to try it with the 5.45.
I kept missing and my friend, who was spotting my shots, said I was missing by 15 feet to one side and that I kept hitting the same sspot on the backstop.
He was laughing his tail off making fun of my poor shooting.
I realized that I was using the protective ear to the right of my front sight post instead of the sight post.

 

[Group9]

Managing to get a 12 gauge shell into the magazine of an 870 backwards and jamming it up.

 

[5ptdeerhunter]

My friend did this one not me but it was hilarious.

He had had his Yugo SKS for a while but always had trouble with it cycling. He went out and got a new stock and gas piston and everything to make it look and function better. Then on our next trip shooting he was standing there while I was sitting down watching him. He would shoot and the gun would fire just fine but it was cycling at all. He was having to pull back the bolt manually. After 5 rounds or so. He unloaded the gun and was taking it apart to see what was wrong. As he lifted up part where the gas piston is he held it just right where I could see right through it and could see the light at the other end. I knew right away but I had to hear him say it. He turned around smiling at us all and says "I forgot the gas piston." It turns out he was cleaning it just before we left for our trip and forgot to put the piston back in. I laughed for like 20 minutes straight. But after he got home and put it back in everything has worked just fine.

 

[Dionysusigma]

Once, I was at the range for a loooong day of shooting (went through something like 625rds of .22, 500rds of 7.62x39, and 440rds of 7.62x54R). Targets were ~100 yards away, and each sheet had a good 30 dots for aiming (great, since I didn't have to go down there and change targets quite as often).

Towards the end, I notice the target stand leaning forward and a little to the left. Disregarding this, I fired another shot from my "smoothbore" M44 and crrraaaaack... the stand breaks into pieces and falls over. The shot had to be at least two feet to 5 o'clock from POA. Fortunately, I was the only person out there aside from the R. O., who was siting comfortably in his office. I walk in there, apologize to a great extent, and ask to borrow his cordless drill and a couple of 2x4s. Fixed the stand to his liking, and the M44 got traded the next week.

I still miss that M44...

 

[Fronka]

Enlighten me. What is the supposed problem with the AR-15?

 

[OF]

Enlighten me. What is the supposed problem with the AR-15?

I beseech you. Start another thread on this or this one is as good as hijacked.

- Gabe

 

[Fronka]

Beseech. Good word, and you are right. In that vein, loaded a .40 into the mag of a friend's BHP 9mm . No damage done except to my ego.

 

[spartacus2002]

Never mind and turn off the flames. If it's that big a deal, I won't tell the story why.

 

[Sisco]

Fortunately for me when I did my dumbest range stunt no one was around to see it.
I was trying out new loads in my 25.06, forgot to bring extra targets and only had one. I figured I'd just mark the holes with a pen so I'd know where the new ones are but I forgot to bring a pen too.
Get this great idea, I'll just burn the edges of the holes with a lit cigarette. Seemed to work OK, then...

Walked 100 yards back to the bench, sat down and saw that the target board was smoking. A lot.
There was a water hydrant near the benches but no hoses. I filled a big gulp cup with water and trotted 100 yards back to the target trying not to spill any of the water. Got there and discovered it was worse than I thought; the plywood was smoldering too. Had to make two more trips.

 

[VaniB.]

My nephew and his wife kept wondering why his already sighted in rifle wouldn't put any shots on the target at all when it was my turn to fire it. Ooops, I was firing at one target at 50 yards, but checking for the results on someone elses target. Most embarassing to be perceived as a demented jackass by your own family! I'll never repeat that mistake again.

 

[Fed168]

Holding the trigger back on an M-14 and letting one go in the target frame, in front of the range master.

Those twenty rounds went everywhere, including the target.

 

[tcsd1236]

The only problems I have ever had at the range date back to when we still had wheelguns. Everyone else had Smiths, with one or two Colts thrown into the mix; I was a Ruger fan. My Ruger would shoot all year long with no problem, and as soon as I would go to qual, a pin would back out and lock the thing up, or some similar little problem. I never stopped hearing the end of that.

 

[gbran]

Lifesavers

Whilst shooting trap with a pumpgun, I missed a shot due to a misfire. When I jacked out the offending round, I saw that it was my wintergreen lifesavers that I'd accidently chambered.

 

[DMK]

At my range we have long target stands make up of two vertical logs about 4 feet high and a long log attached horizontally across the top with chicken wire stretched across. You clip your targets to the wire with clothespins.

I was just getting ready to sight my new to me M-44 when I took a break to let two guys get set up next to me. One asked about the Mosin-Nagant and we chatted a while with me specifically commenting that I expected it to shoot high as all my others did initially. Well wouldn't you know. My first shot broke that horizontal piece above the target right in two. An incredibly unlucky shot since I have hit the posts before and it should take a lot to break one. I apologized and we called cease fire to go down range and see if it was salvagable. It wasn't. All we had left to clip our targets to was a small triangle of chicken wire about 2 feet by two feet and real low. I set one target in the low corner, as far over as I could and got the carbine sighted in less than ten shots, then packed up and left with my tail between my legs.