when at the range why not let a few others shoot your stuff

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paintballdude902

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one day when i was 16 i had 3 guns a 12 guage my dad got me for my 16th birthday(first gun) my enfield (first rifle) and the ruger single sixxe in .22lr/mag (i present from my dad becasue he was proud of me for doing good in school, getting a job and just generally realizing that my time for screwing around in school was coming to an end and buckling down). there was a man there while i was shooting my enfield that just had this bewildered look on his face trying to find out what kind of gun i was shooting that looked like an smle but was in .308 i told him and let him shoot a few times and he thanked me and went back to his .30-30 , then when i was shooting my single six a man that i had never met before walked up and handed me a .357 and said "have fun ive got some round left over and i love watching kids get into shooting" that was the first centerfire pistol i ever fired and loved it i shot only 6 shots, but it was the most fun i ever had. the next range trip i met a marine named pete and he was showing me tips with my enfield gave me 2 strippers of austrailian .308 and said "i bet you'll cut your groups in half with this" and i did he said the problem was i was using pakistani crap he went through and showed em all these tips and gave me his name and email address if i had any questions and that we should meet up again and hed coach me some more weve been friends for going on two years now, still shoot together every few months and head to the local gun shows every time they are in town

ive made great friends at the range shooting and every now and then when im there and i see a kid shooting a .22 ill go ask if he wants to shoot a few shots from my .30-30 or if they are a bit bigger my enfield or .30-06. its my kind of way to repay the people that have helped me along the way. now i try to get my non shooting friends to come to the range or my fram with me for a day of fun, i pay for ammo in hopes that i can add a few more people to the list of gun supporters. i just feel like its my duty to the people that helped me and now that i can to do the same for others so what if it costs me some money im at the range to blow it away anyways, and believe me when you see a 12 year old shooting his first .22 and you let him fire a lever action or some gun that he grew up seeing in the movies they have a great look on there face and it makes it all worth it :)

some of these kids families cant afford bigger gun or or the price of ammo for them to shoot much, i can afford to take a punch in the wallet for a kid now and then and im sure alot of you can too. take a kid shooting, or let a new shooter of any age fire a gun they havent yet and you will have just made a great memory for them


infact im waitign for my 13 year old nephew to come out so i can teach him to shoot his first real gun :cool:
 
haha good work treo

my opinion is we can use all the help we can get in this day and age. any support for the second ammendment is good support

most people that have had good experiences with guns will be less likely to be antis
 
It's a dangerous and costly practice.

A few years ago, a fellow allowed me to shoot his benchrest rifle with high dollar glass. It was like magic, but it hooked me into getting my own setup.
 
I had an old geezer offer to let me shoot his highly-modified Colt Commander .45.

It shot like a dream - except for the fact that it would eject the spent shell casings right back at my forehead!

I shot it 3 times, and ended up having smudge marks on my forehead where the spent brass smacked me.

I'm pretty sure he set me up...

Kinda makes the evil part of me want to get a gun just like it...
 
paintballdude902, I completely agree with you. Theres nothing like introducing a new shooter to the sport or helping to further someones shooting passion. The way I look at it is that in our time we need as much help as we can get in regards to our beloved second amendment and I never pass up a chance to take someone shooting. I've introduce probably 10 or so people to the shooting world and out of those 3 have become serious gunnies. I look at the cash spent to introduce them as an investment for the future and will hopefully give them a rational view of the firearms world.
 
I've let some people shoot my 500 Magnum at the range.

I cautioned them to hold on tight, as I didn't want to see it embedded in their forehead, or have them drop it.

Every person loved it. I even turned on some friends who had friends over from England (where no one has guns), and I started with my small guns and carefully worked them up to shooting the 500. They liked my Ruger 22 Mark II target pistol best. They were all awe-struck!
 
out here in cali AK's with detachable mags are a rarity on the line. the last time i was out there was a father and his 2 sons shooting a lever action carbine and they were watching me pop off rounds by the 100's. i let each of the boys run through a 30 round mag - oh the joy
 
Absolutely agree! I find that when I am shooting cap & ball revolvers at the range at least a third of the shots fired in any session are shot by interested spectators.
This is also how I got into black powder shooting a guy who has now become a friend, let me fire his Colt .44 replica. I now have 3 and a BP rifle also.
 
Totally agree. I've shared a lot of my guns at the range and also gotten to shoot quite a few others this way.
 
Inspector wrote: Every person loved it. I even turned on some friends who had friends over from England (where no one has guns),
Click to expand...

Sorry but this statement is quite wrong. You would be surprised at how many of us have firearms and shoot them regularly. For the record and simplistically speaking all handguns are banned except Long Barrelled Revolvers (LBR in .357 and .44 mag and .22) and muzzle-loading pistols.

Semi-auto centrefire guns are banned except .22 rimfire. You can still own traditional semi-autos like AK47, AR15 etc but they must have the semi auto-function disabled and reconfigured to a straight-pull arrangement whereby you have to manually pull back the bolt to eject and reload a shell from the mag.

Everything else is okay from .17 to .50 cal so long as you can show good reason and have secure storage (gunsafe). Typically good reason would be target shooting, hunting and pest control. There are no restrictions on mag size. All guns except air guns have to be held on a Firearms Licence (FAC), which are issued by the local Police Force.

You can own as many shotguns as you like including pump and semi but there is a mag restriction placed on these. Shotguns require a Shotgun Licence, which again, are issued by the local Police Force.

I have 3 muzzle-loading pistols, 3 rifles and a shotgun and will be purchasing a .303, .308 and another .22LR next year.

In answer to the OP post (excellent post by the way!) that is exactly how I got into shooting buy using other shooters guns at the range and on private land. When I shot my first BP revolver it was an almost spiritual experience and I was hooked immediately! I regularly let fellow shooters fire my guns. I have converted two antis over the past year by challenging them to have ago to overcome their fear and perhaps more importantly, let them meet my fellow shooters to dispel the many preconceived ideas they have about us.
 
Some of the best fun I've had at a range was "trading stuff" with other people at the range. One mag from yours for one mag from mine, etc. That, and providing general guidance for newer shooters when appropriate.

You asked why not share? Well, general liability concerns. If someone gets hurt shooting your gun, who are they going to blame? I still share (with hawkish supervision), I'm just answering your "why not" question.
 
I'll let people I know or who I've seen there before shoot my stuff if I have
extra ammo, they don't own something similar and they look interested.

Didn't THR have a member who was murdered by someone who grabbed his
gun at the range when they were the only people there?
 
That is a great phenomenon that happens regularly where I shoot. Everybody wants to try my 10mm Colt. "Hell, this ain't bad, it's sweet!!" is generally the first remark.
There is one little drawback that happens occasionally. One fellow always brings a buddy along and he never brings a gun. He just shoots everybody elses. After a few instances, everybody kind of wises up and one guy even told him, "Bring some ammo next time and you can shoot mine."
But as far as kids and shooting, I'm all for it and have donated many a round for their enjoyment.
 
Calibre44 wrote: Sorry but this statement is quite wrong. You would be surprised at how many of us have firearms and shoot them regularly. For the record and simplistically speaking all handguns are banned except Long Barrelled Revolvers (LBR in .357 and .44 mag and .22) and muzzle-loading pistols.

Semi-auto centrefire guns are banned except .22 rimfire. You can still own traditional semi-autos like AK47, AR15 etc but they must have the semi auto-function disabled and reconfigured to a straight-pull arrangement whereby you have to manually pull back the bolt to eject and reload a shell from the mag.

Everything else is okay from .17 to .50 cal so long as you can show good reason and have secure storage (gunsafe). Typically good reason would be target shooting, hunting and pest control. There are no restrictions on mag size. All guns except air guns have to be held on a Firearms Licence (FAC), which are issued by the local Police Force.

You can own as many shotguns as you like including pump and semi but there is a mag restriction placed on these. Shotguns require a Shotgun Licence, which again, are issued by the local Police Force.

I have 3 muzzle-loading pistols, 3 rifles and a shotgun and will be purchasing a .303, .308 and another .22LR next year.

In answer to the OP post (excellent post by the way!) that is exactly how I got into shooting buy using other shooters guns at the range and on private land. When I shot my first BP revolver it was an almost spiritual experience and I was hooked immediately! I regularly let fellow shooters fire my guns. I have converted two antis over the past year by challenging them to have ago to overcome their fear and perhaps more importantly, let them meet my fellow shooters to dispel the many preconceived ideas they have about us.
Click to expand...

I'm only going by what the people who shot with me told me. Perhaps they don't know of anyone with guns and don't have guns themselves. When they asked me how I would buy such guns, I told them how I just go into a gun store, fill out a form, they call in a background check, I pay for the gun and walk out with it. They were totally amazed.

So, from what you are telling me, I stand corrected. That's OK, I've been wrong before and will most likely be wrong again (and again, and again, and again......). I'm sorry for the misinformation and any misunderstanding of British laws.
 
My gun group shares weapons with any of the the shooters . We were at our private range yesterday with at least 2 or 3 each of the following guns:
10ga, 12 ga shotguns. 22, 25, 32, 38, 357, 40, 44, 50 cal, 9MM, 10MM semi automatics/revolvers. AK47, SKS, 243, 30-30, 44-40, mini 14, AR15 , some dangerous looking, to the shooter, foreign weapons and a spud launcher. All weapons were fired by anyone that cared to. Everyone did take a turn at firing the spud launcher. A minimum of 100 rounds per handgun, lets just say a lot of rifle ammo and four 10 lb bags of spuds were fired. This is a monthly event that sadly will come to a halt when Obama takes office due to his planned 500% increase in ammo taxes.
 
A few years ago, a fellow allowed me to shoot his benchrest rifle with high dollar glass. It was like magic, but it hooked me into getting my own setup.
Click to expand...
I was "hooked" in much the same way. :D

I let folks shoot my stuff all the time, especially if ithere are kids involved. Their smiles (the kids) make me smile. :)
 
Hi Inspector

You don’t need to apologise! – we just have different firearms laws: yours are fantastic and ours are cr.p!

I too was amazed at the ease with which I saw guys buying ammo right off the shelf in a gunshop I visited in Orlando this year, before taking it in a shopping basket to the checkout girl.

That would never happen here (sadly) but it was very liberating to watch and admire.
 
Delightful! I've never had this experience at a range; somehow I'm almost the only person present. Still, I'd enjoy sharing like this, and wouldn't mind letting someone else enjoy a few rounds out of my gun.
 
I've got some cool stuff and I love to share it. What's the joy of having fun-guns if you can't share them with the world? Anyway, I love shooting other peoples' guns at a range, and I love letting other people shoot mine. I think it's one of the most enjoyable things a person can do at the range.

But my all-time favorite thing to do is to introduce new shooters. I love getting people out there shooting. It doesn't matter who you are, shooting a gun is fun, and it's great to see the expressions people have when they shoot for the first time. Always nervous at first, some kicking and screaming, but by the end of the day they are always disappointed that we're out of ammo. And I've never seen a first time shooter that wasn't grinning after the first mag. ;)
 
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What a great post

When you do something like this for a child, and the happiness it brings to them, only makes this world a better place.
 
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