Range Snobs

[andy]

We've discussed range idiots but haven't talked about what I call range snobs. They are the guys at the range who give you that disapproving look or walk up and give you a hard time because they do not like the type of gun(s) you are using. You know, the bad evil guns that are not used for duck hunting, the black guns, the milsurps, the handgun that is for concealed carry. They feel that these guns are immoral and that there must be something wrong with you (crazy, potential criminal etc.) for owning one. Have any of you had any experiences with these type of guys? If so what did you do.

 

[nsf003]

I think the most common are the Over-under shotgun shooters. The ones that think that the only guns that shouldn't be banned are $2000 skeet and duck guns.

Handguns and Evil Black Rifles are out of the question.

nsf

 

[10-Ring]

I guess I've been lucky. I've not met a goober like that yet (thankfully). It might be as a result of living in CA and gun owners here tend to be glad they've bumped into more gun owners.

 

[Stephen Ewing]

Favorite words from these guys: "Background check?!?!?! On a SHOTGUN!?!?!?!!?"

No matter how many times I hear it, it gets sweeter every time.

I've started to respond with, "What else would it be legal for?"

Steve

 

[cratz2]

Yeah, the trap/skeet guys are typically the worst.

There's also the folks that hate it when you can shoot your nearly stock $680 Springfield Armory 1911A1 (or even Glock) as well as they shoot their multi thousand dollar Baer, Wilson etc...

And the guys that are there shooting 22s that give a long hard look at the first guy shooting a 357 Magnum or 44 Special. Too big a boom, I suppose. Then again, I've been on both sides of this one.

 

[Ryder]

I thought I was going to have a run in with one once. I was testing out some very heavy magnum loads in my Super Redhawk on the general range while the pistol team was setting up for practice over on the restricted range.

Between strings I noticed they appeared to be observing and discussing me. Then the team captain started heading my way. Figured I was in for a lip lashing because I was shooting too fast or too loud. Felt kind of guilty, I would not purposely try to bother others, but I was there first and only had a few more loads to test.

I couldn't have been more mistaken however. Seems they had some appreciation for my style and we had a nice discussion about the team requirements and schedule. He even invited me to sign up for the team. Nice people, not snobby at all but I rejected the offer because the rules for participation were snobby. It's restricted to specific calibers and styles of firearms none of which I happened to own at the time.

 

[Ninj500]

My current club is full of these bozos. It's in a wealthy suburb of Columbus, OH and if you aren't shooting an $1800 Wilson, they won't give you the time of day. I like walking in with a stock Glock, or God forbid, a Ruger P89 and out shoot them. Thing is, I'm not that great of a shot! Luckily, there are "normal" friendly shooters that frequent the range and they are a pleasure to shoot with. Thursday is a free night for members and the snobs usually stay away, it offends their delicate sensibility to rub elbows with the rabble. Just for fun I'll sometimes try to stike up conversation with one of the "better people" to see how they react. Most often, I get a roll of the eyes and a snide smile. Even better is the reaction I get when I ask if they want to shoot my $200 Argentine HP.

 

[BigG]

There are some that try to buy skill. I get a laugh out of watching some of the guys with expensive O/Us get outshot by birdhunters with their pumps at our skeet/trap range. Every once in a while somebody knows how to work one of those fancy smokepoles so it don't pay to tar everybody with the same brush.

 

[Spackler]

I took a buddy's FN-FNC to the range. I was shooting the hanging steel plate at 200 yards. Guy says to me "What're you gonna do with that? You can't hunt with that."

I said "depends on what you're hunting."

 

[tomkatz]

I don't know why they can't just think of us all as shooters. I particularly enjoyed one time when I was shooting my 308 bolt action, a couple guys show up with ar15 guns, they are looking at me like they think I will be a range snob, so I pull out my bushmaster and cut loose, we all become friends. I still get together with those two guys.....tom

 

[Braz]

Went to the outdoor range on Fri,

There were many folks shooting M1As, ARs and AKs. Next to us was an older fellow shooting black powder long rifles. We were shaking out the new SKS and he gruffly suggested a screen so our ejects didn't go down his neck. None were handy, but we searched until we found one before shooting. This seemed to warm him up a bit, and when we politely refrained from shooting while he took long careful aim, he warmed up even more.

We introduced ourselves and enjoyed learning some basics about the beautiful percussion rifles he was shooting. To our left a few lanes was a young guy with a M1A he had wrapped in sniper camo net. But what caught my eye was his combat boots had spurs attached. Maybe he rode nearby before shooting, but I'd never seen that before, and we commented on it after he walked by. You know, kind of a shaken head and a knowing smile between my buddy and myself.

But the older shooter saw us and spouted "A sniper wanna-be. These kids wouldn't have lasted 10 minutes in Nam." He went on to say he'd shot enough military weapons, and never wanted to touch them again. It was obvious he held most of the mil-rifle shooters in contempt. If your not going to war, why have a war weapon? I felt for the old fellow, and didn't have the heart to argue with him. But it struck me how we interpret life's info to meet our image of how things should be.

If only we could set our differences aside and focus on collective gun rights, imagine how powerful we could be? He was gracious, and I hope a little less inclined to demonize military weapon shooters. But I'm still wondering about those spurs on combat boots! Did I miss a fad?

 

[hansolo]

Full Racegun Snobs

I don't hate the rich 'cause I want to be one; that said, there are a couple of guys at my outdoor gunclub who have very sweet STI fully tricked-out .38 Super IPSC pistols. The two fellows break out their homemade loads, all carefully labeled in clean plastic containers. Then, as I'm loading up my plain jane CZ 75B, they start to spray & pray at the steel plates: thing is, none of the 5" plates are dropping The two guys start LOUDLY complaining that the gunsmith who set up their red-dot sights screwed up. I ask if I can try one. The one guy eyes my black CZ, nervously. "O.K., but be really careful...this is a $5,000.00 gun." I had never shot a pistol with electronic sights. "Just put the red dot where you want to hit." says the fellow. I am not bragging, as we were only about 20 feet from the steel plates. BANG-ding, BANG-ding, etc. Six shots fired, six plates down. "Wow!", I say, "Cool gun!. Thanks" I guess I didn't know any better. The two guys mutter something as I walk over to the next lane. NICE pistols!...but, $5,000.00?

 

[Wildalaska]

Class warfare among gun owners..love it!

WildkrieghoffAlaska

 

[Uncle Ethan]

One of my better friends [ now deceased] was a regular guy except for trap shooting. He shot with a group at Miramar and didn't want me coming and shooting with them with just my std 870- said it would embarress him. He drove a 911 Targa and shot O/U Brownings. Other than that one Snobish area he was a regular guy.

 

[BerettaNut92]

I used to shoot skeet with a Super Black Eagle with a 4-rd extension.

Never got any funny looks. As 10-ring said, maybe CA folks are just happy to see other shooters?

Sometimes get remarks about my HKs being overpriced Glocks or people warning me that my Beretta locking block is going to break after 2500 rounds.

 

[coonan357]

oh mine has to deal with a range just outside crooked county (cook county ) Il , its near a well to do neightborhood and all the little punks come in with there glocks ( I actually have nothing against them just prefer steel firearms that look nice ) thinking they are the S**t , then they make a comment about my wheel guns and my old pokey 1911 (ahem gentleman thats a coonan ) they cant hit the targets at 25 feet and I am popping them at full lane length 75' then I pull out the coonan and let it go ! 1 shot and the range gets real quiet. Hmmm I wonder why ?? its only a .45 ...... NOT !

 

[jsalcedo]

I took my brother in law and his sons out shooting one time
and we were doing steel plate with my Taurus 66 .357.

These two tactical types with buzz cuts and black gear show up behind us and ask if we can take turns with them.

I'm a easy going guy so I agree.

One guy breaks out the timer beeper and as one holds it over the other guys ear and screams "HIGH READY" LOW READY"
The shooter had a S&W 40 and when the beep went off all I heard was a click. The dude looks incredulously at his gun
and jacks a round into the chamber. He then sprays all his rounds
and misses all the plates. Then he reloads and forgets to click off the safety then sprays the plates again and gets 1 out of 6.

All the while they are screaming like Drill instructors and wallowing in their tactical juices.


When their debaucle is over my 12 year old nephew (first time shooter) calmly drops six plates in 3.5 seconds with the Taurus.

The Dudes in black start tuning shades of red and purple and start to scream drill nonsense at each other even louder and the
other guy has a hicap glock 9mm and drops zero plates with 17 rounds.

I look down at their gear bags and jackets and realize these guys are SWAT.

My turn came up and I had to make a statement. So I whipped out my DAVIS .380 nickel plated POS and proceed to knock down
5 out of 6 plates rapid fire. the 6th plate failed to go down because I hit it a little low and the last round didn't have enough power to push the plate all the way back.

The SWAT guys are truly seething at this point and my nephew innocently tells them:

"maybe you need more magazines for your guns so you can get all the plates next time"

That was my first encounter with range snobs

 

[Mike Irwin]

Oh yeah, I've met them before.

Had words with some of them, become friends with others.

Some of the worst I've ever encountered are the shotgunners. I've been "snobber" a couple of times for shooting a goose gun on a sporting clays range. I usually let my gun do my talking for me, but some of them just don't know when to ****...

I posted a loud, long harrang (sp?) about them over at TFL...

 

[Carbon_15]

Oh I just LOVE range snobs. Probly because I (outwardly) fit their profile of the young punk. I'm 25, but I look much younger, drive (drove, wifes divorce lawyer probly has it now) a red Mustang car, listen to classic rock (atleast in the car on the way to the range, at home its more Miles Davis and Ana Carrom), wear stuff from Old Navy (so my camo and flanel dosnt get messed up with gunpowder and CLP ) and shoot lots of evil black military looking hardware...preferably really fast. Never mind that I can break clays all day long with an 18in. cylinder bore shotgun, or make the plate rack SING with a el-cheapo Charles Daly 1911, and pop skeet of the 200yd berm with an evil black ironsighted M4 with suprising quickness.
Its only AFTER they are through snickering at me and my friends 'spray and pray' rapid fire shooting and silly IDPA running around quick-draw-tac.-reloading antics that we let 'em see the targets with the nice tight little gorups. Sometimes I'll even remind them to keep their head down and follow though or give them one of my business cards. Apearances can be deceptive, and assertions are often dangerous.

Yes, range snobs are fun..almost as fun as the super-tactical mall ninja wannabes (not the real ones though, they are just too cool for words )

 

[Carbon_15]

One guy breaks out the timer beeper and as one holds it over the other guys ear and screams "HIGH READY" LOW READY"The shooter had a S&W 40 and when the beep went off all I heard was a click. The dude looks incredulously at his gun
and jacks a round into the chamber. He then sprays all his rounds
and misses all the plates. Then he reloads and forgets to click off the safety then sprays the plates again and gets 1 out of 6.
All the while they are screaming like Drill instructors and wallowing in their tactical juices

LMAO


Too funny J

 

[Ikari]

Fortunately, I haven't had any run-ins with the snobs. Everyone I've met has fallen into two categories:
A) Moron, but they've never really irritated me before.
B) Friendly, no problems with swapping guns to 'try a piece of strange'.

Guess I've just been lucky till now.

 

[geekWithA.45]

I've not seen too much gun based snobbery in NJ....

The fact that we have guns at all make us different, strange, and beleaguered, and we know it.

Now as for testosterone/ humility imbalances, that's another issue entirely....


Slightly OT, but the trend I've noticed in the last few months is cool and noteworthy:

I shoot once or twice a week, and literally every time, there's a newbie in there getting their first pistol, and the "evil" black guns are flying off the shelves....


A year ago, someone uncased an XM-15, to general consternation, now there's generally a rackful of them out on the line.

 

[Zundfolge]

A friend of mine works for an armored car company in Canada. They don't allow him to carry his own gun, they require him to check out one of their extremely poorly maintained .38 S&W wheel guns.

He tells a funny story of when he and a bunch of other new hires had to qualify with these POS revolvers. Apparently while they where all struggling to hit their targets there was an IPSC shooter practicing at the same range with his high dollar custom race gun. He kept chuckling about how bad they where shooting, and made some rude comment about their abilities when their instructor said "If you think you can do better, come give it a try."

He picked up his race gun and started to head over when the instructor said "No, not with that gun ... with this." and hands him one of the crap revolvers.

At this point he was trapped and so he steps up to the firing line and empties the revolver in the general direction of the target.

He didn't shoot well enough to qualify.

 

[JeremyIA]

Braz--That gentleman with the spurs on his boots could be in the military or he could be ex-military. He may have been a Cavalry soldier. They are darn proud of their spurs even though their horses are just for ceremonial purposes for the most part.

 

[BerettaNut92]

The overwhelming majority of folks I run into at the public ranges are pretty friendly, even the (apparent) punks seem to be more curious than showing an attitude.

I agree about some guys having too much testosterone.

Only time I really run into characters are at the matches, IMO they take the game a little too seriously....