Erie feeling!!

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chrt396

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At the local range/club where I shoot, I took a class to beocome an R.O. With this position, you get the benefit of coming to the range after hours to shoot. It was saturday evening..around 8:45PM. I'm bored... It's dark...a little windy...and again..it's dark!!! I get to the range...try out my electronic key for the first time..it works (OH Joy!)...go to the gate of the public range. Not a soul is there...again..it's reeeaaalll dark and wind is really kicking! I unlock the gate..and get the lights on for the 25 yard line..and proceed to get the guns out of the truck. I put the electronic muffs on...and now I start getting a little spooked. All the stories I hear of the homeless sneaking on to the property and finding places to sleep and congregate after closing and the critters that pop out at night, kind of got to me a little.

Now...I've got the gun in my hand. Shouldn't be that nervous...right? GEEZZ!! With these E-muffs...amplifying EVERYTHING...I'm hearing creaking gates, swinging signs, howling animals, owls hooting and noises I never heard in my life! I'm there...alone...first time...starting to feel like a wuss! While I'm shooting....I have my back to any potential dangers that could crop up. That's a little nerve racking to begin with. I shoot off about 150 rounds..starting to feel a little more comfortable..then I hear a crash! I jumped 6 feet in the air! It was a sheet of 3/4" plywood falling on to some trash cans about 40 yards away!

Why this is funny to me is..I go to the range twice a week in the daytime..and the place is usually rocking! Groups of people are shooting at different areas and the place is generally noisey. People are all around! I'll tell you this! That place sure does get quiet at night! Just the sounds of night time, with some extra odd sound effects mixed in! Have you ever been somewhere, where you just have this uneasy feeling about your surroundings? I had this feeling as if something "Bad" was going to happen..and it made me on edge for two hours!

Needless to say...I'm typing this..so other than the raccoon waddling out on to the line, the boogie man didn't come out to get me. I sure was bored saturday..but this field trip sure livened things up!

No...I didn't shoot the Raccoon.
 
You're missing an "e" in eerie ;) - the lakeshore of Erie is quite a nice place for a lot of recreational activities.

Seriously, I was alone for the better part of a day up at the range at Indian Lake. Definitely a weird feeling to be by oneself but this was during the day!

I listen to a couple of paranormal-themed podcasts and over the years I've heard no fewer than three anecdotes of someone drawing a firearm on a ghostly/demonic apparition! :)
 
Manatee, HSC, DCR&G or WAC?
WAC I'd think Urban Outdoorsmen would run off the 'coons.
Some camp at Manatee from time to time.
 
Ya'll need to get outside at night more often instead of watching TV, or playing those video games. You wouldn't be so spooked if you did that regularly.
ll
 
You know that coon was just a distraction while the boogey man got in your truck right? He is in your house now, probably in the closest closet or under the nearest bed.
 
Use the old school $15 home depot ear mufflers like I do. And yes, you can turn off the light at night when you go to bed. thee is nobody there! lol!
 
I'm alone in the big house right now, and I'm getting scared just reading
about it.:eek:
Click to expand...
Holy monoly KWi43, this had me laughing so hard that tears started rolling down my face.
 
Once when I had to get something from my truck in my driveway, I started to feel a bit spooked one time despite me having to go outside a few times. Each time I had my XD-40 on my hip but that one time...
 
I was laughing too !!!
now listen to this one. One night I lost my dogs in the back woods behind the shotgun club (skeet and trap) and I was desperate looking for them until 2AM and I was thinking the worse as I feared they got tangled with the coyotes out there.
I saw lots of deer, no coyotes and ended up finding my dogs in a good Samaritan home next day that had taken them in for the night after a nice dinner they gave them.
And here I am all sweaty, screaming for names, with a side arm and a tactical light in the middle of the forest at 2AM looking like Tony Soprano trying to find somebody to wack. LOL!
 
I used to get a little weirded out at night coming back from the tree stand as a kid. Then I remembered I was carrying enough gun to drop anything on the continent.
 
My former shooting group and I were at a range one night doing low-light training. This range was located up in the hills beyond the reach of the city's ambient glow. There were no external lights there. The only facilities at that range consisted of a collection of port-a-potties scattered about the property. The nearest toilet was a good 50 yards from the firing line and well outside the circle of flashlights and friends.

I remember walking toward the port-a-potty KNOWING that the only thing out there in the shadows was wind and maybe the odd animal. But I could not help FEELING a little uneasy, despite the pistol on my hip. Notwithstanding spooky shadows and wind, the scariest part of the night: using a port-a-potty in the dark.
 
Once when coonhunting I loaned my light to my buddy since we were splitting up. I knew the woods well enough that I could find my way back ok. The moon was mostly full so I could see a little, but I was in thick brush and trees, a loooong way from anywhere. I had a loaded 30-30, and it was a great comfort, but it was still a spooky walk back. Right then and there I decided that a weapon mounted light might be a good thing. If its too dark to see, the gun only works so well... Not to mention safety.
 
Reminds me of a time a couple of years back when I was looking for my daughter's dog at our place and I had to hike about half a mile out from the house.....at night.....with just a flashlight. I found the dog and we started back, and the dog alerted several times to SOMETHING in the woods but I never saw anything.

Of course MY fear was that it might be a bear or mountain lion, both are sighted there fairly regularly, possibly a yote. I still wish I'd carried a handgun that time, but I do regularly now. Better safe than sorry!
 
Dogs can take loud shots very well. most time we do in the open and with space. Dogs are not in IDPA indoor ranges and even in the service were used to take the shells shots close by quite well. Mine are conditioned very well. I take them to the skeet range all the time and they fall asleep on the ground.
Now is there a specific situation other than average shooting you are thinking of? Don't do not live long so I don't thin that we can protect their hearing any longer than we can make them live..??
Cotton balls?
 
A long time ago, in another country, under triple cannopy rain forrest. Lets just say trust the gut!
 
Your range has LIGHTS? Mine has none but there are enough around the PRISON that now sits next door that you really don't need any except one to light up your target.

I grew up out in the country. I still live in the country. I enjoy solitude.
 
I only get nervous during the Blue Moon, but I'll bring along silver bullets for the werewolves.

I do keep an eye out for the zombies, but I think they'll all busy working as extras on AMC's Walking Dead series right now.


The only time I've ever felt odd is coming into the office very late/very early. With all the lights out, and a place normally full of activity still and quiet, it's just disorienting.
 
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