What is the oddest thing you have seen happen at the range?

[MountainPeak]

Three of the bikini clad Swedish lady shooting team told their manager, we can do this picture shoot later. We just met MountainPeak! Time to party! And I so much wanted to fire off a few rounds.

 

[PATH]

Wake up son! You're dreaming! Wake up!

 

[PlayTheAces]

How many of you have been at the range, and up drives Mr. Yuppie. He parks 20 feet away from the line. Unloads all his gear. And then activates the car's alarm!

 

[Kobun]

GinSlinger, reminds me of one incident I had a at a national IPSC rifle match in 2001.
Match was held at a military range, and there was free roaming sheep in the area.
As I got one of the squads through the brefing ( I was the RO), I saw that there was 3-4 sheeps in the bushes about 300m down range, a little to the side of the targets.
I couldn't let the shooters start, cause I couldn't burden them with having to consentrate on the sheeps as well as the shooting.
Well, it was to far to walk. Long hike in real bad terrain.
Soo... I figured the shooting wouldn't scare them (as this being a military range and all...) but a sonic boom should do the trick!

I loaded my AUG and sent a doubletap about 1 meter in front of one of the sheep.
He did notice! Just about jumped straight into the air!
They took off, and out from some other bushes came a bunch more.
I sent 7-8 shots after them in rapid order (a little to the side) to chase them off.
It worked and I got the squad through.

K.

 

[HadEmAll]

Start of deer season, 1987. My father-in-law had bought a new Remington 700 in 30-06, complete with scope. I'd bought him a set of loading dies, but he was lazy and didn't load any up. We end up at the range and he has no ammo. He sends my brother-in-law up to the gun shop to get a box of cartridges. We take the bolt out and get the rifle sandbagged so the 100 yard target is smack in the middle of the bore, and adjust the crosshairs to intersect the target. I explain to him this ought to put the first shot somewhere on the paper. He touches off the first round, and kicks up dirt about 50 yards downrange. I'm surprised, because he's a decent shot, but don't say anything. He fires again and this time no dirt, no hole in the paper. I pull the bolt out and re-check the crosshairs. Should be on the paper. I fire one, and father-in-law says "Kicked up dirt about 50 yards downrange". About this time I'm thinking the scope must have a crosshair problem. I idly extract the cartridge case I'd fired and am rolling it around in my hand while thinking about the problem. Look down at the headstamp and see .......25-06. Well, that explains things and I realized how lucky we were the cases were so similar. Felt quite stupid, because I was really the "experienced" one of us three. Very humbling experience.

 

[Kahr carrier]

At the range I shoot at an 8 year old kid was shooting a 22 Marlin rifle ,he set it down on a range table with a round in the chamber and it fell off and discharged and he got shot in the leg luckily it was a flesh wound,nothing fatal.

 

[suvdrvr]

A few months back I saw a picture in a magazine, an NRA publication I think, of a Chinese Shooting range. Down range about 25 yards was commrade holding a stick between his crossed legs with a target attached to it about 5 feet above his head and another chicom taking aim with his pistol.

 

[Okiecruffler]

I was shooting at an outdoor range just before the start of deer season. PLace was crowded with folks sighting in for the season, so a guy asked if he could share my bench. I was just plinking with a .22 and wasn't using much room so I had no problem with it. The guy sets up his target next to mine at 25yrds and proceeds to fire 3 shots from his .270 into a perfect 9inch group. He looks over to me and says, "That oughta do it." and leaves. At least I know the deer were safe in site of his stand.

 

[Cosmoline]

Once at Leipsic, Ohio the RO called a cease fire during a match. He said "gents, we have a problem groundhog on the range." Sure enough, at about 150 yards, there it was, grazing and oblivious. It takes a moment to get a benchrest rifle lined up on a whistlepig as the FOV of the scope is only about 4½' at that range. Now, target bullets aren't designed for killing, but then again, groundhogs aren't designed to live through the dozen hits it received when "commence fire" was called...

Poor little fellow! I hope you at least offered him a blindfold and a smoke before the end

 

[sturmruger]

I own a Steyr M9 and a Steyr M40. This weekend I got my magazines mixed up. I shot two rounds of 9mm off in my M40 before I realized why it was acting so funny. The first round actualy fired, but it didn't feel quite right. The second round did nothing. Just went "Click" That scared the crap out of me. I decided that in the future I would always double check a clip before I put it in the gun.

 

[cuchulainn]

Private "home" range had a locked box on the line where extra hearing/eye protection, targets, clays, spray paint etc. were stored. A guest didn't have ear protection so the owner handed him a pair from the box.

After he put them on, the guy started jerking his head around, throws off the muffs and starts swating at the sides of his head.

Upon further inspection the interior of the box had teeny-tiny little ants nesting there (between two stacked clays) and a bunch were on the muffs.

 

[Drjones]

What is the oddest thing you have seen happen at the range?






That one day when I actually hit the target.

 

[Rusty]

One day a guy had a Romanian AK and was shooting it. He was a pretty good shot. I talked to him and he said he had been down in Florida on a job and bought the gun from an individual there. He shot "Bap", then "Bap", and "Bap". Then it goes Bap,Bap,Bap, Bap". He looks at the gun looks around and shoots again. It's going FA. He looks around again with the Uh oh look and takes out the mag and leaves.

 

[LeadPumper]

Maybe not so odd...

Local range counter guys look out for us regulars. Especially when the Armoured Car Company from next door is there doing annual re-certification.

Last spring sometime, I had decided to blow some steam off after work and stopped by the range. The counter guy greeted me with a pained look, and from the amount of firing I could hear from the range, most of the lanes were in use.

He told me I probably didn't want to go out there, then he told me why.

One look through the bullet proof glass behind the counter told me all I needed to know. The ricochets off the floor and walls left spectacular little orange sparks. Lots of them. I watched one rather large fellow empty a hi-cap 9mm into a silouette at ten feet. Of course he didn't hit anything; but that was because the second round hit the overhead carrier and dropped the target. Didn't stop him from emptying his mag though.

I tossed a salute to the counter guy as I ran for the door.

-LeadPumper

 

[sw442642]

I did this. I was shooting off hand with a 9mm in an indoor range. The targets were held to the cable by a big metal like wedge that touched the top of the target and came down about two inches on the target. I tried a head shot (remember the wedge is close to the head of the B27). I shot a touch high and the round richoted some way straight down the target and cut the B-27 in to a one third vs. two thirds piece. The sparks also set it on fire.

Folks wanted to know what kind of ammo I was shooting. That's stopping power - or so it seemed.

The range changed the holders as too mahy folks were hitting them.

 

[Larry Ashcraft]

This just happened last Friday. My son took his friend to the range to try out his friend's brand new 300 Ultra Mag. They were shooting at the 450 yard gong and hitting it when they finished their first box of ammo. Opened the second box and the first shot was about 6-7 feet low. Same with the second shot. The friend says "How come this brass is split?" My son looks at the box and says "Uh-oh, 300 Weatherby Mag".

No, you can't fire-form 300 Weatherby into 300 Ultra Mag, there ain't enough brass there.

 

[Spoonman]

We went to the range as a family (wife, 17-yr old son, 22-yr old son, 25-yr old son and his wife), as we so often do. My son's wife is from Buffalo, NY and came from a non-shooting family (no hunters, nobody ever owned a firearm). She's a good one, though, and has adapted well to the South as home (still can't eat grits, but we have her in therapy). She asked to go to the range and did her homework, learning (from me, of course) about firearm safety and how these things work. When we got there, there were 3 dillweeds on the handgun section playing with a suppressed Ingram submachine gun (running back and forth, engaging targets, firing long strings on full auto, etc). We intended to start with .22 rifles on the rifle range anyway (a huge berm separates the two sections) but I paused in the parking lot to note, "This is the kind of thing we must never do. Firearms are like any other power tool, always show common sense and don't play with them". No sooner were the words out of my mouth, than one of the dillweeds screamed and began jumping around. I ran over to find that the suppressor had come off during full auto and shattered. The poor fool that was firing had traumatically removed his left index finger and had several pieces of shrapnel in his hand. I helped control the bleeding, had the other dillweeds put the remains of the finger in their ice chest (with their beer), and sent them packing to the hospital (quicker than an ambulance in this rural setting). As this was a Georgia DNR range, I also notified the Game Wardens and the Stewart County Sheriffs office. In spite of the incident, we had a good session. My daughter-in-law fired .22s, the SKS, Beretta .25s, and my wife's J-frame S&W .38. She balked at the 1911, but all things in their own time.

 

[pwolfman]

Ok, I am the Officer in charge of an AT-4 (anti-tank weapon) sub-cal range that uses a 9mm tracer round of less than full strength. This is to get familiar with sighting the weapon onto a target without using an actual anti tank weapon. It is getting late and we are just burning off ammo we do not want to turn in, and in flies this prairie chicken and lands on the range about 100 yards away. Now, imagine four single shot sub-cal 9mm tracers firing as fast as they can reload at this poor little bird. Let's just say you can aim those things pretty good.





Pwolfman

 

[Keith]

I was at our local range shooting .22 with my young son one fine summer day. This is a fairly informal range with no RO, or anything like that and we were the only ones there. Anyway, the boy (about 7 or 8 then) is shooting at lines of shotgun shells that I've stood up in the dirt about 25 yards out. Kids like "reactive targets", and me too!

Along comes some horses behind with his own son who takes it upon himself to come over and announce that "I can't let you do that."
"Do what?", I ask...
"You can't shoot at the ground like that because it's unsafe and a ricochet may come back and hit somebody!"

I don't know who this guy is - he may be an officer of the range or something - so, rather than argue the point, I just roll my eyes and tell him "Fine, we'll shoot at paper targets."

We both set up paper targets, me at 25 yards and he out at the 100 yard mark, resume our seats and indicate the range is now hot again. He's breaking out a rifle and a box of .300 mag and I start concentrating on my son again.

Shortly thereafter, he unleashes his first shot followed by a wail of pain from his son. The kid had been sitting about 3 feet to the right of the father with his ear protection dangling around his neck when the guy fired! He gathers up his stuff and leaves with the kid clutching his ear, screaming and crying.

I didn't say a word.

Then we started shooting at the shotgun shells again.

Keith

 

[geekWithA.45]

Analysis of This Thread

*Guns do funny things with the wrong ammo in them.
*Guns do nothing when you leave the ammo @ home.
*Suicidal Wildlife...nuff said.
*Stupidity is Painful.

 

[standingbear]

several...

at an indoor range,some idiot apparantly decocked his auto with his cocking thumb and trigger.it looked like it hurt bigtime.was hunting groundhogs and just as i fired,a bunch of cows came running out of the ravine from behind me,almost ran over me. many years ago,a friend and I were shooting bb guns back in the woods when he decided to take a shot at a large bunch of buzzards up in the tree with their wings outstretched.to prove he was a better shot and not afraid of them(they looked almost as big as we were),he walked over to the base of the tree and shot up at them.it sounded like something falling and i saw him running back.as he got closer,there was something in his hair and all over his shirt.the bb gun thrown down somewhere.it smelled awful.it was later we both learned that buzzards do this as a defence tool,they throw-up.we still have a laugh at it to this day,some 30 years ago.

 

[bogie]

The guy sounds like an idjit regarding the hearing protection, but do keep in mind that if you're shooting at targets on the ground, the bullets _can_ bounce off the ground, go over the backstop (if it's not high enough, of course...) and keep going... and going...

At one local range, there's a driving range on the other side of the berm.

 

[BamBam-31]

I saw some of the same things.

Once, an elderly gent walked out to about 10 yards to set up his target before anyone noticed. People were firing, bullets flying everywhere, guy next to me starts hollering like mad. Sure glad he did, cuz I was too focused to notice the gent, and he was only about three lanes down. Rangemaster comes by and tells the gent, "You don't really want to go down there right now. One of these guys might actually get lucky."

Same day, a squirrel with uncanny danger sense raced up and down the side of the lanes. What was funny was the unofficial cease fire the squirrel caused. The look of anticipation on everyone's faces was priceless. Squirrel never did run across. Everyone sighed in unison and began plinking a paper again.

Once, I took my sister to the range to show her how to shoot. Taught her proper gun handling and range procedures the night before, so all's well and good, right? She walks up to the line, picks up my Glock, fires her first (and only) shot ever, and hits the bullseye. She's so excited she turns around and sweeps everyone with my gun.

Don't ask me how, but I went into Matrix bullet-time. First, I dodged the muzzle with a Neo-like twist and back-bend, then I gently but quickly disarmed my sister. We laugh about it now, but boy, that was dangerous. Note to self: Next time, only one round for first-timers.

 

[spacemanspiff]

one thing unusual i experienced at the range is odd trajectory. i'm on one side of the lanes, with 2 other people down about ten lanes away on the left, and i take a shot with the M40, see the hole appear on the paper, as well as see a puff of dirt about five feet to the left, and ten feet behind the target, and another puff of dirt in the berm 75 yards away.
usually the puffs of dirt appear right behind the target.

something i dont understand is the guys who show up and shoot at the same target, simultaneously. they stand shoulder to shoulder and fire away.

 

[bogie]

You know, that's a DARN GOOD IDEA...

Next time I take a newbie out, they start with one bullet. Then after they get used to the concept, they get a magazine/cylinder full...

Oh, and you'd be surprised at the twists and turns a round can make after hitting a target. Even paper. Shoot some tracers sometime...