Dumbest thing you've seen at the range?

[Hungry Seagull]

Messerst, Very good story about the Missile. A dragon TOW I take it? Someone at the local Gaurd gave me some face time with such a unit jeep mounted (Just gave away my ancient age didnt I... before the humvee was invented)

There was a shoot range near Winchester VA that featured Artillery. They fired live ammunition at targets in a deep part of a valley all the day. After the metallic rain of cansiter ceased pounding on that backstop the size of a mountain, children kept trying to run up to hunt for the balls while the gunners were swinging through thier reload sequence.

The range was shut down a few times and the squealing kids yanked off out of there and dragged out far away fast. After the third kid or so, most all parents in the area started to hang onto everyone under 10 it seemed and the artillery was able to complete the shoot.

Besides these things were ranked two batteries of 6 deep in a staggered line, god knows how much the effective area of that canister is at several hundred yards.

 

[Guy de Loimbard]

45ACPUSER, your #4 reminds me of a guy I see at the Mich. Tech range every week. Comes in right at 8:00PM when the range opens, and is done 20-25 minutes after. Shoots 200 rounds every week, never hits anything. Well maybe not anything, he always shoots at a life sized Osama target and while he seems to be going for headshots he has a major flinch and his hits tend to land everywhere but the head, mainly in/around the torso.

I have no problems with the guy doing what he does, he's not a safety risk, has never acted in a threatening manner, but I just don't see the point? He must just get a really big kick out of coming in and running through 200 rounds as fast as possible. To each their own eh.

 

[wasr10owner]

Somehow people have managed to shoot the ceiling in shooting ranges.

 

[Hungry Seagull]

Some of the youtube ranges indoors are totally shot up on the ceilings.

Maybe I should not be one to talk, my range boss recently growled about some light shot out some time ago.

 

[RSABear]

Last RO I did, shooter starts well, completes the stage and when finished, I wait 2 seconds and give the command - "If finished unload and show clear", he pulls the trigger. Bang! Shot goes into the backstop. I tell him remove the mag, he let it drop. I tell him "Now Unload Please" so he pulls the trigger again. Bang! Grid, dirt and dust everywhere, shot went 3m into the range floor. He the inserts a loaded magazine from his belt and holsters the pistol and turns around and tells me in no uncertain terms that he is now done shooting. Slightly bigger build than him, I turn him around facing him down range by the shoulders and put the timer in his back - and tell him to hands surrender. Gave him a short talking to, then made him take the mag out, present the Pistol with the Slide back. After this I escorted him to his car, off the range. Waiting for the chairman of the club to call me in...

 

[ChCx2744]

At least 3 people have flagged me with thier shotguns (whether or not it was accidental or as a stupid "joke"). The twist? The aforementioned knuckle heads are all cops I work with too.

jad0110 said:

3. Spray 'N Pray: seen plenty of times, the most riduculous was a guy who dumped an entire 33 round magazine from a Glock 19 at 7 yds ... and hit the paper maybe 3 to 5 times (probably a 2' x 3' target).

That is pretty freaking sad. I did the same thing with my Glock 26 at 7 yards and they all went into the center mass box. To each his/her own.

 

[servantofinari]

A man tried to shoot a .50 AE Desert Eagle like in the movies, broke his front teeth. I saw a guy with a .50 M82 shooting at a target 150 meters away, let off about fifteen rounds. What a waist. New guy with a big gun, he didn’t even have a proper trigger pull.

 

[spittle8]

field firing on dartmoor uk army training area big boggy hilly wet.
jungle run type cqb exercsie running down stream bed engaging pop up targets at short range bayonet fixed bags of adrenalin come round corner to be confronted by party of ramblers complete with walking sticks and bobble hats so hyped up go running through them screaming and continue with practice directing staff impresssed .
huge row follows ramblers vs sncos did'nt think old people could use such language

That's hilarious. Haha, screaming! Brilliant.

Dumbest thing I ever did on the range was to tell my Gramps his age was affecting his eyesight after I outscored him at fifty meters. He put a fresh clip in the M1 and put seven rounds into the 9 and 10 ring with rapid fire. I put down my rifle and shut my mouth, which is the smartest thing I ever did on the range.

The moral is: never tease a WWII vet about marksmanship when he is teaching you riflecraft.

That is epic.

Haven't been to a range yet, hope to rectify that soon. There is no limit to man's stupidity however.

 

[Afy]

I have been guilty of shooting wildy trying to bump fire... but all the bullets went down range. Didnt quit eht the target though.

 

[Hungry Seagull]

Whistling in the wind happily loading shotgun, shells click click click etc.

Someone asks me if they can use part of the table behind me, Sure I turn around leaving the gun sitting on the firing line alone.

Tsk tsk tsk tsk. Next time I let the wife take care of it.

 

[HB]

Rednecks walking downrange, with shooting going on, holding two pistols, firing at the berm. Very interesting. These were the same people sharing cigarettes... not weird, but it was a mother sharing a cigarette with her 12 year old son! Very interesting day...

HB

 

[Samgotit]

^Yikes.

Had an RO plant himself next to me, plucking up my Lake City brass as fast as it was ejected. I put a little time into preparing that stuff. I kindly asked him to stop. The guy is really quite nice, and a good RO overall, though.

 

[Airman193SOS]

I was at my local public range when two guys pulled up, unloaded their gear, and got set up.

After a few rounds the handgun, later determined to be a Glock 20, locked up. I was somewhat surprised by this, so I kept going and paid more attention to them. They cleared the jam and kept firing.

A few rounds later it jammed again. I looked over again and the slide was unlocked but the round would not eject. Apparently the extractor could not get a grip on the rim to pull it out.

I asked them what they were shooting because frequent jamming with Glocks were unusual, and they said they were shooting handloads. I later come to find out that they had not resized the brass, so the cases were ballooned and were sticking.

Oh, but it gets stupider.

One of them gets a screwdriver and the other one locks the slide back. I figure they are going to try to pry the round out, but nooooooo, they got the bright idea that one of them was going to hold the gun with the chamber open and the other one was going to strike the primer with the screwdriver and blow it out of the chamber.



...and now for the bombshell: they told me that they knew what they were doing because they were cops!

I packed up, went to my car, told them that I would call 911 when the gun blew up on them, and sat in the driver's seat waiting for the fireworks. And wouldn't you know it, they tried it anyway!

Well, after 3 tries (thank God they were just as inaccurate doing that as they were on the line), they gave up and packed the gun away.

Does it get stupider than that? I suppose so, but I can't see how. They would both have ended up in the hospital if it had worked. How could they not have known that, being "cops" and all? 10 mm handloads out of an open chamber? Yeah, boom. Imbeciles.

 

[eventer289]

How about this one--last weekend I was at the range shooting my 30-06 handloads. The gal next to me has a beretta handgun of some kind (my friend saw this incident and told me after it happened). I was on the ground sweeping up some of my .22 cases I had shot. While I'm crouched on the ground sweeping up, the gal next to me drops her pistol with the hammer cocked, and the gun hits the ground pointed right at me. Needless to say, when my buddy recounted me the story, I was thankful I walked out of there without a bullet in me.

 

[Maverick223]

The gal next to me has a beretta handgun of some kind (my friend saw this incident and told me after it happened). I was on the ground sweeping up some of my .22 cases I had shot. While I'm crouched on the ground sweeping up, the gal next to me drops her pistol with the hammer cocked, and the gun hits the ground pointed right at me.

Ah, it was probably jammed anyways... (read below by: RSABear from: http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=424502&page=9 )

During the 80s I was shopping for a hi-capacity 9mm Pistol, the dealer told me that shooting two consecutive 15 round magazines causes this particular make of pistol to overheat and jam.

It was a Beretta 92

 

[gimlet1/21]

pakaloa TGN area, HI

I was the RTO ( radio transmitter operator) for the platoon, on a live fire with a "butter bar" LT in charge of the fire support (M60s) during a movement to contact. We were totally out of position, yet he wanted to hear those 60s right now, when they opened up my radio came to life! ceasefire! ceasefire! First squad had to dive into the lava rocks for survival, cut them up pretty good. Ten minutes later the Lt knocked me out cold, he tookup a firing position directly behind me with his muzzle 5 inches from my ear. When I came too the Battalion CSM, along with the 1st squad leader were chewing his a** feircely and the CO was about 50 ft away afraid to interfer.

 

[AKElroy]

OK, I will confess to a stupid act at the range. Three weeks ago, I took my 7 year old with me. He asked if he could take his VERY realistic p99 toy pistol, and I said sure. This particular range makes you take a verbal quiz after reading a safety card. The RO had my son read the card, and made him pass the test just like dad. I thought this was really cool, and it was a good idea for him to bring his toy. Wrong. We took our place on the line, and I have my son sitting behind me, I am standing, firing my XDm. Through my gunmufflers, I hear another RO screaming, Muzzle!! Muzzle!! while folks are hitting the deck. Yep--My son sweaping the crowd with his unloaded toy. The RO apologized for overreacting & scaring my son, I apologized to him for being a bonehead in not teaching my son to practice the rules with his toy.

 

[Hungry Seagull]

Oh my word.

A little short on attention span are they? The wee ones I mean LOL.

 

[pmeisel]

Good on the RO and you, AK, it will help your son for a long time. And maybe his offspring.

I remember being about 6 when a young man about 10 or 12, son of one of my dad's squadron colleagues, mishandled his wooden "toy" springfield and his dad knocked him down with it pretty quick. Harsh? maybe. But he never forgot I don't think, and I know I haven't.

Sad, the young man forgot another safety rule a few years later and died from CO poisoning working on a car in an improperly ventilated garage...... That has been a long time ago and I think of that often as well.

 

[DiTzMaN]

Last Saturday at a local range. Shooting with one other well mannered shooter (an armorer for a local police department). While waiting for the barrel to cool down (range was still hot) 2 people walk into the line of fire at 100 yards. Must have ignored all of the very large, very visible signage down range.

 

[Maverick223]

Welcome to THR Ditz...

 

[essayons21]

I'll resurrect this thread with something that happened over the weekend.

I shoot at a fairly exclusive private club, and most of the members are very responsible and safety conscious. Generally an older sort.

I was doing a ladder test on the 100 yd range with my 30-06, shooting next to a guy who was fire-lapping his Model 70. Shared alot of common interests and taste in guns, so it was a nice relaxed shoot and conversation.

Then, a group of 5 guys, probably mid-20s show up in 2 cars, but only pull out one gun case between them. That kinda raised my eyebrow. They pull out an M4gery with lots of doodads hanging off it, and proceed to load a magazine and each pose for pictures in heroic poses. They were at the extreme other end of the range, so I didn't really keep a close eye on them at this point.

They then, one by one, fire off a magazine at a 50yd target as fast as they can. A few of them kept it pretty controlled, but 2 or 3 were spraying all over the place and not coming close to the target. Our club prohibits "un-aimed assault fire" on that range, and has a separate range that allows full auto. But, I like to have fun as much as the next guy, so I wasn't too worried about it, as long as they kept it in the berms.

Then, I go to my truck to pick up some targets, and turn around to see one of the guys turned around with the M4, magazine in, finger on the trigger, pointed directly at me, at about a 45 degree angle, up-range! The worst part was, four other guys were staring right at him, talking and laughing and taking pictures. I ducked behind my truck and started yelling at them, and he turns and points the AR straight up the firing line, flagging the other 2 shooters on the line. More yelling and gesturing and it finally went in a safe direction.

They quickly packed up and left before they were kicked off.

 

[NMGonzo]

Public area in Santa Fe.

Some young clueless guys shooting 5 meters from the berm with a .223 something or another.

They could not hit a small pop bottle.

I could hear the ricochets.

 

[Nate1778]

May not have scene it but heard.

Guy walks in to our range whom have a no magnum policy. On the wall there is a sign that says "No Mags Allowed, Period". Gentleman walks up to the clerk and asks how he is supposed to shoot his gun with no mags, what else is he going to put the bullets in.

 

[7.5-Swiss]

I've got a pretty good (scary) one.

A few weeks ago at the range I had just gotten back to my shooting table from setting up some targets and a man who had been shooting with his son come up behind me - holding back the slide on his loaded pistol and asks if i can help him clear his jam. I immediately notice his pistol is pointed down range - at my father, who is still setting up his targets - and I firmly but slowly guide his hand to point the muzzle in a safe direction. I wait for everyone to come back from setting targets, remove the magazine, and look into the chamber - and see a round completely backwards jammed in there.

After a little bit of shaking it came loose (presumably it was the wrong caliber, I was still a little tense after the guy came bumbling up with a loaded gun pointing at my father and don't precisely remember)

The scary thing is, that guy walked across the parking lot from another set of lanes facing the opposite direction holding back the slide on his pistol the entire way, presumably pointing straight ahead, at me - then my father. While the nature of his jam upon would have prevented it from firing, it could have jammed in any other number of ways and he would likely have done the same thing, his knowledge of firearms safety was dangerously lacking.

I didn't want to lecture the guy, being probably 30 years my senior and in front of his ~12 year old son - but it was pretty scary.