Holy cow, I have to go write this down on the calendar. JohnKSa and I are apparently in at least a general agreement!
Slinger, I don't know what to tell you because I don't really see that the guys were doing anything wrong. Granted, they did not go out of their way to be polite, but apparently you and your wife didn't go out of your way to ask them to stop, at least not from anything you described so far.
So your wife said, "Ouch" every time she was hit. Since the guy was apparently shooting rapid fire, he certainly may not have heard her.
There are several things I don't understand here.
First, once your wife started getting pelted, why did she not move away?
Second, saying "Ouch" is fine, but y'all apparently did NOTHING to educate the good ole boys and instead just left mad. So not only were you and your wife unhappy, you didn't do anything to make it better in the future. Coming online and complaining to us certainly isn't going to make things better. Chances are, none of us were those guys at your range.
Third, given that the shooter is supposed to be looking down range, did you ever consider he may not have known his brass was going to hit your wife and since he probably could not hear her saying ouch, he was oblivious. You didn't want him to turn and face the direction his brass was flying in order to see where it was landing while shooting in another direction, did you?
Fouth, you know you were at a range where people could setup where they wanted. You were there early. You and your wife did not set up on the far left side of the range where few folks get pelted with brass because most guns eject to the right. Have you not ever been to a range before? Getting hit by brass is one of those things that happens at a gun range. If you don't like it, then you need to go to a range that has shooting lanes that are physically separated from one another by barriers or you need to be smart in where you set up.
Fifth, tell your wife to wear a hat. Even a baseball cap fluffed a little above the scalp will mitigate most of the blow of flying brass, even from a heavier AK47 shell.
Yes, it was a sucky situation that probably could have been rescued quite easily. Sometimes something like flying brass can turn into a convenient way of meeting other shooters. After they finished, your wife could have said something in a nice way, or your could have, and the guy probably would have apologized. Heck, before the session was over, he might have been letting y'all shoot his AK as part of being a chagrinned shooter who intended no harm and wanted to make amends.