Ever have someone make fun of your guns at the range?

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I have been shooting for something like 24 years and I never disparage anyone's firearms. I have opinions about whether this or that type of gun is best for a certain role, but I try to keep an open mind. People who disparage other people's guns are often showing their own insecurities and quirks. I limit my remarks to polite statements like, "Well, the RG .22 revolver has never exactly been my cup of tea," rather than "Golly, that RG .22 revolver you have there is a piece of doo-doo."

I am always very polite at the range, its never smart to be nasty to people who are armed and who don't know you! People with a few grey cells realize that "an armed society is a polite society."
 
You might want to go so far as print out this thread, or at least part of it and sneak it onto the bulletin board at that club.:evil:
 
The guys at that range sound like they would be critical if you drank the wrong scotch or bourbon. You have nothing to be embarassed about they do.
 
I shoot some budget guns at the range. Today, the most expensive long gun we had was the wife's 10/22, with the Daisy red dot on it. No ribbing for a $14 red dot, but the range guys thought it was kinda clever. It also works quite well.
No ribbing about my $80 86 year old Mosin rifle with handloads, either. Granted,, my groups today weren't anything I would jump up and down about, but the largest was 3 inches, and the smallest about 1. Fluke, I am sure.
No one made wisecracks about our CZs, or the fact I was wearing my CZ-USA t-shirt, (still t-shirt weather down here.), even when my wife had the range officer give her some tips. She shot better, my son had a blast watching, and I found out where I need to improve on the handloads.
No griping ever on that range.
The closest I came to that was years ago, when a guy came to me, (when I worked at an indoor range.), and asked me if I could fix the pot metal frame of his Tec-9, which had snapped in two. I ALMOST told him to superglue it.I smiled, and told him it was trash, and unless he wanted to order a new frame, it was a high cost fishing weight.
 
Sure have:
Some "kewl dudes" were giving me crap about my "cowboy" gun and telling me to shoot something "modern" like their autos. When I explained it was modern they laughed until I fired it down range (if you don't know,the noise from a Freedom Arms .454 is pretty bad). After that they all wanted to fire it. I refused because of their rudeness and none had a deposit to replace the gun if they couldn't hold on to it from recoil.

I got crap about shooting a Mini 14 (series 183) and not the "AR15" like the person with the mouth. The problem with this was the person with the big mouth couldn't shoot their AR15 as good as I was shooting my Mini 14.
 
"Acually there is a cetain satisfaction to having a "second tier" gun that works well and outshooting someone with a better gun. I actually find Makarovs to be the accuracy equals of Sig Sauer P230's and my dad said he was quite proud of me at the range once seeing me shoot better groups with a beat up Taurus 38spl Model 82 than the shooter next to me with a new Glock!"

Very similar to the experience stated above...I know what you mean and how you feel;

even after a short session yesterday:

19 rounds of Hornady .38 spl 125 grain XTPs & 14 rounds of Speer .357 mag 158 grain Gold Dots with the revolver;

50 rounds of Magtech 9mm 115 grain fmj, 100 rounds of Winchester 9mm 147 grain jhp (WWB personal defense), 50 rounds of Federal 9mm+p 124 grain HSTs & 20 rounds of Federal 9mm 147 grain jhp (hi-shok);

I felt better and hit more consistently with the revolver than the semiautomatic; after nearly 1200 rounds through the Beretta 9000s I bought, I see it more and more as a 'fun' gun and less like a viable defensive piece :(
 
I'd like to point out a blunt little iotia of info here.

Anyone making fun of someone carrying a bloody loaded Tarus Big-Bore doesn't have much in line for brains as it is; Personal Taste aside.
 
Anyone making fun of someone carrying a bloody loaded Tarus Big-Bore doesn't have much in line for brains as it is; Personal Taste aside.
Click to expand...

Yep, just imagine somebody ridiculing somebody else who was shooting a .454 Raging Bull. :D New candidates for the Darwin award anybody?
 
Yep, just imagine somebody ridiculing somebody else who was shooting a .454 Raging Bull. New candidates for the Darwin award anybody?
Click to expand...

Forget the Darwin award; try 'Mortican's Best Friend.'

Afterall, it would be a closed-casket funeral. Need's a pretty coffin to distract from the mess.
 
Proper Etiquette

I would say that 99.9% of the folks here are mature enough to let snide remarks about their personal choice in firearms, roll right of their backs. We can teach them a valued lesson, just by outshooting them, on the little paper targets downrange. For those here, that keep saying that we should be civil, to people that are armed, whom we are not acquainted with, I say just be polite, because it is the right thing to do. :)

There is nothing wrong with a good ribbing, every now and then, but it should be done with tact and taste, and the person being ribbed should know that they are being put on.:D
 
A couple of the B-resters at SGVGC (RIP) have made disparaging remarks when my dad took his Saiga to the doghouse, but they shut up when they saw our groups. (We're no Hathcocks, it's just a decent rifle.)

I can understand the sideways glances, (Wut's that guy doin in our doghouse, izze a member?) when they see the banana magazine, since combloc weapons usually stayed on the "public" side of the range, but if you paid for membership, why stop using the half-empty doghouse, just to switch rifles?
 
revolverman357

Don't feel humiliated! Why should you!?!

What a bunch of loosers! Making fun of someone because of the gun he/she shoots. It's like I would invite someone to my home and then make fun of then because they're not wearing Armani (not that I can afford it anyways). I hate snobs like this, they think they're better because they can afford something, or because of prejudice against some brand. :banghead:

That right there tells you who you're dealing with!

Drop the loosers!

Plus, its the men who makes the gun shoot well, no the other way around.
 
I went to a group shoot once, and there were a couple people giving me a ragging over the use of my Taurus PT111 Pro (9mm); they all had "nice" guns, like Glocks, XDs, and 1911s. Not that I don't envy them. :p We were mainly shooting bowling pins as well.

Well, the ribbing stopped until I started shooting. I'm gifted to have had good training and a natural proclivity for the sport, and I wasn't doing too poorly - despite the huge sights, long and heavy DAO trigger, and the short barrel radius on the pt111. Actually got a compliment out of it. Granted, this was on fairly distant shooting (20+ yards), and not quick response shooting - which I don't doubt I'd have done significantly worse at.

But a Ruger? Those are ugly guns! :p
 
I love good, cheap guns - why pay more? Guns that cost twice as much as mine, certainly don't perform twice as well.

Yeah, I'd think twice about making comments about peoples hardware at the range. Not too smart.
 
I did have a new guy with a Glock laugh at the 2 1/2 Model 19 I showed up to qualify with about 15 years ago. It was a nickel plated gun with the nickel peeling in places (agency gun not mine). He referred to it as a POS. The new guy did okay but my 50 round group was 4" across at the widest (no X ring on our targets) and the required headshots centered in a 1/2" group (from 7 yds). He came over to look at my target, I pointed to it and said "that's why I carry this POS". He never was critical of my choice of handguns again.
 
Boy, this is an old thread, back from the dead. I'm a poet and I didn't even know it.

I've had people compliment the finish on my soon-to-be-sold Ruger SP-101 with the limited edition Target Gray finish. And I've had some people curious about the straight-pull bolt-action on my K-31. That's about it.

My other guns, Glock 23, Ruger Mk.II, Kahr MK40, are pretty "normal."
 
I've had it happen more times than I can count.
A few of the more memorable:

1. Was at a range shooting my Glock 19. Some other shooter decides to approach me to tell me how much he dislikes Glocks and says they are inaccurate garbage. I tell him to look at my target and say that. He looks at my target at the 7 yard line and sees a ragged one hole group about an inch across, the result of my first 2 15 round mags I just fired. He looked at me in disgust and walked away.

2. Another time at a different range, one I had never been to before, a couple of the RO's who work at the range were making fun of my Colt Commander. They were saying how outdated and unreliable the 1911 is and that I should get a "modern" gun like a Glock or SIG. I told them I don't like SIGs, I like Glocks just fine, but I love the 1911, which is my first love in handguns. I tell them that my Commander has never malfunctioned. I then prove it to them by firing 500 jam free rounds of various .45 loads through it. They are convinced I'm lieing to them when I say it is totally box stock. I've never done anything to it. I did initially buy it to customize, but after shooting it I figured if it ain't broke, don't fix it.

3. This wasn't really someone making fun of the gun I was shooting, but... anyway, I was shooting an AR15 and a guy who was shooting several lanes down from me approaches. He then lays into me about how those "assault rifles" all need to be banned, and I shouldn't have it because, as he put it, and I love this contradiction, "They are only good for killing and you can't hunt with them". I told him that the antis won't stop at those, they want them all, to which he replies, "NONSENSE!!" I then informed him that the scoped .300 Win Mag he was shooting is a "long range sniper rifle" to the antis, and they will come for those too eventually. He just shook his head at me and walked away. Nobody else contradicted him even though there were about 10 other shooters there who heard our conversation. I was the only one there with an "evil black rifle". I never went back there again.
 
Just remind them of the agreement made between S&W and Bill Clinton. They're on the list on VCDL's web site as gun un-friendly and should be boycotted.
 
Try being a long haired, tattooed guy with a Dan Wesson wheelgun at an idpa shoot in the midst of the ambervision sunglasses/ buzzcut/LEO crowd.
Talk about being a loner.

The gun crowd is full of fanboys who love their brands and love to be validated by others. The problem is that anyone who doesn't fit their mold seems to justify them being a bit too emphatic with their words sometimes.
It's all part of the experience for taking the road less traveled.

just roll with it. You go to the range to shoot, not to sing kumbaya. If you need more friends, leave your gun in a case and chat people up.
 
Keep going...keep practicing...keep improving...and show them what that Ruger can do.

If I stopped doing things everytime people laughed at me, I would have to stay in my closet and take the mirror off the door. They laugh at how I walk, how I talk, how I dress, how I... the point is ignore it. DO your job (or in this case, your hobby) to the best of your ability. Smile and walk away.

Take the high road.

Q
 
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