You ever have "one of those days" at the range?

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jmace57

jmace57

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I went to the pistol range today to shoot 4 guns that I have acquired over the last few months, and had never shot before. Here's how it went.

1975 Ruger Mark I - Shot the first 10 rounds quite accurately. Only had 1 magazine - I've ordered more but they have vanished like all the others lately. Loaded my seond mag - get 3 rounds and...nothing. I eject the mag and it has sort of collapsed...spring broke. So I move on to...

1903 Colt .32 - Got it for a great price, but no magazine. I ordered aftermarket ones from 2 sources. No surprise, that they didn't work worth a darn, but I have heard sometimes you get lucky and they will work. Both mags, whether I loaded 2,3, 4, 5 or6 rounds...the first round fired after racking the slide..next round stovepiped unfired and jammed. Both mags exactly the same no matter what I tried. So, I shot it about 5 rounds. Okay, next...

1977 Walther P1 - I have 3 mags for it - I load them all up - shoot 3 or 4 rounds and I get a failure to eject. Clear that up - next round another FTE - one more time, same thing. I look and see that the extractor, spring and detent(?) are gone. (sigh)

Bersa Thunder .380 - at least this gun performed perfectly - shot 100 rounds with no issues at all. Thank goodness. I don't know if I could have taken another problem today.

Anyone else had that bad of a day?
 
I've had days like that, usually my stupidity. Gun? Check. Ammo? Check. Magazines? Aww crap.

And so it goes.
 
I've definitely had "cluster failures" kind of days so you have my complete sympathy. I had a day where something went wrong with every .22LR gun I had with me from dead red-dot batteries to jamming mag, to FTE on a .22 lever rifle. I wanted to tear my hair out on that one because it was a LONG drive to the range that day.

Fortunately those days are rare. The slightly more frequent issue I have are the "can't hit the side of a barn from the inside" kind of days and when I have those I usually pack it in and go home rather than re-enforce bad habits.
 
Does not surprise me about the Bersa.

The others are why a revolver accompanies me on all range outings.. used me Heritage Rough Rider to dispose of the bulk ammo that won't feed in my semi-autos, and also the rounds that were deformed by misfeeds in my newly-acquired FEG .22LR.
 
Brought my 1911 to the range the other day, 150rds of ammo for some load testing.

Left the mags on the shelf at home.

I could hear my extractor crying as I manually chambered each round and sent the slide home.
 
Made my bi-weekly trip to the range this morning with a neighbor friend who I go with to that range nearly every time. Had a good session with my M&P Pro Series 9mm 4.25" barrel. We go through drills and simulated scenarios, as best we can on a 15-lane range (NRA headquarter range). We don't use conventional targets; we prefer paper plates, index cards, and 8.5"x11" copy paper with shapes we draw. We have the target at 90 degrees (edge facing), then flip for a few seconds then flip back to edge. We that one with draw and fire exercises.

A good day.
 
had a day last spring when i took my marlin 336 30-30 out for a little trigger time. hadn't shot it much and was really looking forward to it. walked my target out to the 100 yard berm, came back to the bench and got all loaded up, chambered a round, got all comfy at the bench, made a real slow trigger squeeze......click. re-cocked the hammer.....click. tried a new round....click. turns out i had a broken firing pin somehow :banghead:. good thing i took a couple other guns along.
 
Yeah, I was in a lane against the left wall. I twisted my head just right, and my left muff became unsealed the instant I sent a round downrange. I now hear low rumblings along with about 3 different very high tones of ringing in that ear. Permanent damage. I usually wear earplugs with the muffs, but was in a hurry. At least the ringing in my right ear matches the high tones of my left. Going to cost 3 grand for a set of hearing aids, to augment 40 years of motorcycle riding, listening to loud music, and getting poisoned in a house fire that caused permanent cochlear damage to both ears.

Please take care of your ears. Once hearing is damaged, there is no going back, and the tinnitus and Meniere's-like rumbling, will drive you mad. You learn to live with it, but it is always there, as a reminder, how stupid I was for years around loud, damaging wind noise, music, and firearms. Our brains have a cruel way of trying to fill-in damage lost.

I hope some strides are made with the cochlear/brain auditory interface in the future, it would be a weight lifted, if I didn't have to listen (as many here do) to a cacophony of maddening, brain generated sound.

Left ear is much worse, as I received fractionated cyber-knife radiation to treat an acoustic neuroma (vestibular schwannoma). Bummer, but it is what it is.
 
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First pistol, first range trip, second round...got stuck in the barrel. (It was bad ammo when I bought it...worse later on). That's how I learned how to disassemble my gun. I also learned to clean before you shoot.

Bad range trips = good lessons.
 
Took the wife to the range Wednesday. Left all the magazines for our .22 pistols at home.:banghead:

Hed her new 10/22 Compact & my new SR1911 to play with though.
 
This is why I have limited my tool inventory. I know exactly how each trigger on my five rotating sidearms will feel, exactly where to place the inside of my knuckle fold on the trigger, and exactly how much recoil to expect. I know a lot of you guys like to have one of everything, but nothing beats knowing your weapon.

Lately the 1911 is my choice of carry and practice. Got an absolutely perfect IWB holster in a trade for it for about eight bucks. Of any of the other handguns in my arsenal, this one is good left or right handed, single or double grip, and now that it hugs my hip so neatly, is the best carry weapon I've ever had.
 
never ever... my guns work good at the range... now at shooting competitions... that's when mag springs fail... multiple ones... that worked fine a few days ago at the range...
 
Ordered 2 non-factory magazines for an older .380 I own. Carried one of them loaded with the 1 factory magazine in the handgun for a couple weeks BEFORE trying it out. Took it to the range, every round through the factory mag fired flawlessly. All 6 rounds in the non factory stove piped on feeding.

Took my best man/best friend to the range who is from NJ to fire some weapons. Brought out my compact little 9mm, forgot the ammo.

Same day at the range, friend was shooting his first ever revolver. He loaded it fine and I stepped to the side to load a magazine of the next weapon to fire. He sent a .327 round into the ground 3 feet in front of him because he wasn't used to a SA trigger pull on a DA/SA revolver. Scared the crap out of everyone.
 
How about your wife mixes up 3 calibers and puts them in the same box.
 
camar said:
How about taking the wrong ammo for the two revolvers you brought?
Click to expand...

How about the wrong revolver? :D

Buddy said I could play with his 629 at the range. He handed me a 5" stainless revolver, I quick checked the cylinder & tossed it in a gun rug.

Got to the range & discovered that .44 Magnum ammo into a 627 will not go!:banghead:
 
I feel your pain. I had a Kb, a squib in a shotgun, a take down pin snap in half and the pistol fly apart all in one range trip. Should've quit after the pin broke but noooo I like the abuse. Upside is I've had days where I was just "so money". Great groups, smooth mag changes and find tons of extra brass that someone forgot to pick up. Ya pays ya monies and takes ye chances...
 
I can't say I have ever had such a catastrophic failure day at the range like some here have experienced. There have been times when I wished I brought more ammo, that I had done a better job reloading some ammo, or that I should have brought another brand of ammo (think Remington Golden Bullet).
 
I shot 9mm out of a 40, and it shot the stuff. That was the day she mixed my 9 and 40 up. It just put a bulge in the case, the gun was fine.
 
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