YOUR biggest range goof

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Some russian guy at the range with his brand new M1A springfield with a camo stock was going ape**** on me.

Me and another guy are shooting our rifles, he's got an ar15 and I just have my 22target, I'm going at it zeroing my target and just trying to get some good groupings, as was he. The russian guy called a ceasfire, but its so damn loud he didn't shout it loud enough, so me and the guy on opposite sides of him are still plinking away.
He called it like 3 times, and on the third time he finally shouted it in my face practically and it was only then did I realize that he was calling a ceasfire. I was just about to put the gun on safe, eject the magazine and cycle the chamber when he decided to do it for me! lol. He grabbed my gun thinking that I wasn't going to clear it and put it on safe, I grabbed it back and looked at him funny and cycled it out. The other guy hadn't noticed that he called a ceasfire either but finally did like me, and cleared his rifle.

The ****ing russian walks all the way down the 50 yard range to adjust something on his target... I was kinda pissed.

First off, don't touch my gun.
Second, be considerate, if you don't have to call a ceasfire and waste everyones ****ing time, don't call it. He could have easily brought the target in for adjustment but when you bring it back, it swings from side to side for a little bit. I guess he thought it was quicker to walk there...

I let him grab my rifle because I realized that I ****ed up, I mean I should have been aware the first time he shouted it and I felt like a ****** for not realizing what was happening.
 
i once fired a bunch of plus p rounds through a lighte framed revolver bent it outa time carried a bit of lead in my thumb for a few years as a result of splash
 
I have shown up at the range:

Without ammo for 2 of the 3 guns I brought

Without Magazines(AND no ammo) for one of the guns I brought

WITH the "wrong" guns....grabbed the wrong cases, I was in a hurry

Now I have a "procedure I folllow before headin off to the range, to make SURE I've got what I want/need!
 
First time I shot my SKS, I had misread the surplusrifles.com article on the use of the sights. Instead of setting them for 20yds (it's graduated in 10's, right?) I set them for 200.

First round knocks the target down, but the RO is cool about it and gives me the benefit of the doubt (they have to tape the targets to some of the carriers due to previous abuses). We reassemble everything and send the target down range.

Next shot knocks the target down. While it is rumbling back, he asks to see the rifle and politely informs me I have my sights set way too high, shows me where they should be.

Rest of the shoot I turn in some pie-plate groups (it's too dark in there for black sights, not to mention I'm rusty as anything) with my cheeks burning hotter than the gas system.
 
My dad and I had been deer hunting on this awsome 25 acre lease with a game ranch o=behind it. There was a huge 14-point buck, we had been seing for years, but hadn't been able to get a shot at. One day, my dad was in his stand with our Remington 700 .223, and he saw the buck walk out. He carefully took aim and fired. All he heard was "Click!" He said the deer looked right at him and moved it's head like he was laughing, then took off. My dad checked his gun. He had loaded the magazine, but had forgotten to chamber a round.:D
 
I got a hot brass down the shirt story, not necessarily at the range.

I just graduated USMC boot camp at the age of 18 (a mere child). A few weeks later, I was doing my Marine Combat Training (MCT), which was basically going out in the field, learn how to patrol, shoot machine guns, etc (I was in a non-combat MOS).

Anyway, we're getting close to the end of our training, and I had a POS not well cared for M16 to lug around that liked to jam on every other shot (of course the fact that I wasn't attentive to cleaning it didn't help). Anyway, near the end of our training, we were doing a two day field excercise in which we'd take turns either sitting in a foxhole all day, waiting for an enemy attack, or we were doing the attacking ourselves. We're firing blanks with a BFE (I think that was the acronym) attached to the end of the barrel.

Anyway, I'm in my foxhole (bored out of my mind), when we get attacked. I'm shooting blanks at attackers, when my rifle jams (again), and I turn around while sitting with my back downrange and clear the jam. I know cease fire is about to be called, but I want to get another round off. So instead of turning around and getting a sight picture, like the dumb 18 year old who hadn't slept in about 2 days I am, I just decide to point the rifle behind me over my shoulder while I'm still facing the opposite direction (ruh roh). Anyone who has fired these rifles should know that pointing it in such a direction makes the ejector port face right at your neck.

I pull the trigger, it fires, and very hot brass shoots right down my shirt. I start doing dancing a little jig while still sitting down to get the brass out, but as I was fishing it out, it goes from inside my shirt...to down my pants! Now my whole body is doing a sitting jig as I frantically fish it out.

Fortunately, no one who matters saw this whole episode, except for my foxhole buddy, who was laughing his butt off at me the entire time :p
 
Getting DQ'd on my first IPSC match for breaking the 180-degree rule - and I had been in line for at least 3rd place at the time, I was told *sigh*
 
I bought an 870 as my 3rd firearm, the first two being pistols, and when I got to the firing line with it I sat there for a minute not sure which end to stick in the tube magazine first. The Marine that got me into firearms was there and snatched it out of my hands, a bit perturbed if I remember correctly. He said something along the lines of, "Don't worry, you'll still be the first one to shoot it."

Worse: It was a rifled bore shotgun. I knew that meant it was really only good for slugs, so being smart feller I made sure I got #1 shot. That means there's one shot in the shell, right? :rolleyes:
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At a local indoor range I got into the practice of loading two targets onto the carrier. I liked to mix things up a bit and alternate between them occasionally. Most folks there put their target on the carrier like this:
[---X---]

When I doubled up I'd do this:
---+---
| | |
X | X
| | |
---+---

The RO informed me that this wasn't acceptable. I was on an end lane, and if I stood in the middle of the lane my shots would impact the side-wall and not the backstop. Felt pretty stupid that day.
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I, and a buddy, ran down the 100 yard rifle range one afternoon while the adjacent 200 yard range Charter Members Only range was still hot. They're 30-40 yards apart with a 10-15 yard high berm between them. Upon arrival back at the firing line a senior member informed us that that range was closed and Associate members were to use the Charter Member Only range in the interim.

A sign would have been helpful. :scrutiny:

Lesson learned: If there's even a REMOTE chance that you shouldn't be walking somewhere on the range then ask the guys that are shooting. In this case it's better to ask permission than beg forgiveness!

Oddly enough there is a rule about keeping both the 15 yard and 25 yard ranges clear at the same time here. Between them there is a berm that stands taller than a man. I've been informed that the rule is no longer in effect. I've also been informed that the rule is still in effect. Applying the lesson from above I just chat up anybody on the other side of the berm and we agree to do whatever the more restrictive of the two wants.
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Not a "noob" mistake, but one that I made, probably the most serious of them all:

At a buddy's house that's got an informal shooting range in his front yard with a bullet trap about 10' wide and 4' high I was using my CZ-52 at 20-ish yards. I must have flinched a couple of times because the guy came over and informed me that I was shooting low and the bullets were bouncing off into the wilderness. Felt pretty stupid.

Now I know why some guys won't shoot FMJ even for target practice.
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While shooting out in Montana (at KT Ordnance) last year an informal RO got a bit irked that I was shooting, I kid you not, 30 yards from my steel target, a 6"x6" plate at 150 yards. After successfully (well, managed to hit them eventually) engaging 6"x6" white targets at 125 I discovered that I couldn't find the pink ones in the local fauna. Still, I carried on, and got the first two by shooting in their vicinity, picking them out in the dust cloud by their shadow, and engaging them. However, I took a few shots at what I -thought- was a pink steel target that wasn't.

I've since learned that I have a slight green/red color blindness.
 
I just remembered one of mine. But I don't really think it should be a goof I think the rules should be changed.

I was at my first GSSF match. Walk up to the line with gun empty and slide locked back. RO says to me I could DQ you and kick you out right now. I say what did I do. My gun isn't loaded and its pointed in a safe direction. He says the rules are all guns must be in a case.

So that was my goof. But the rule doesn't make any sense to me. They would rather have people walk around with possibly loaded guns rattling around in bags with stuff rather than have a gun in plain view with slide locked back.
 
Drove 45 minutes to the range with three guns two of them have trigger locks and the keys are at home. So four people share one pistol. Not nearly as much fun.
Click to expand...


Drove 4 states away, then realized that all of my guns were locked and I had left my keys with my wife back home... Used an angle grinder to cut the locks off.

Biggest mistake I've made was not teaching someone safety before shooting. It was my old general physics professor, and I figured he was smart enough to know the basics. That won't ever happen again, now everyone gets a safety lecture, whether I've shot with them before or not.

Anyways, my old prof. is emptying a 30 round mag from my AR-15 and shoots off 29. He then decides to turn around and say something to me, finger on the trigger. I very calmly took two step to my right, and then pointed at the gun and told him to fire it downrange.

Looking down the barrel of your own loaded AR with an inexperienced finger on the trigger: NOT FUN. Make sure your range buddy knows proper gun safety.
 
I blasted a hanger with my .45 once. I was practicing shooting weak (one) handed. Mozambique drills to boot. One to the head a bit too quick and I blew my hanger across the range in a nice twisted mess.

I also spent about 15 minutes trying to figure out why my new SKS wouldn't cycle. Had the gas block set for the grenade launcher and it vented the gases needed to chamber another round. Of course, earlier I had read all about this common problem and told myself not to fall for this newb error.
 
"Welded" a .45 case to my forehead one day. With another one down my shirt. Managed to keep the muzzle pointed downrange the whole time, but they told me I came close to starting a new dance craze.

This is nowhere being anything new, but it would be interesting to see movie clips of this stuff. Awhile back, some guy posted about his girlfriend "collecting" some brass in an interesting place, and how she dealt with it. :what:
 
Mine is that I placed a live .223 round in my Ruger #1 single shot. Just then they call cease fire, and I was momentarily distracted about targets, staples, or something. I had not closed the action, so when I got back to the bench I could see the live round. Still scary, thinking I was walking around in front of it, even though the action was open the hole time.
A favorite hunting story, I duck hunt with a bunch of retired guys. I'm 21, but my hunting partners are 75-92. They all shoot Browning A-5 shotguns, and the owner of the club grabbed the wrong A-5 when we went on our pheasant walk. He grabbed a 2-3/4 inch gun, and his was a 3 inch chamber. So every time we flushed a pheasant, he shot one shell and started swearing. good times
 
I have 2, both involving my wife!

For our 5th anniversary she wanted to go to the range. So I packed up an assortment of rifles and handguns and off we went. We plink for awhile with a 10/22, then a Blackhawk shooting cowboy 38 loads, then I break out the AR. I fire off 20 rounds, all in the bullseye. She sits down at the bench, slaps a fresh mag in and releases the bolt...and proceeds to put 20 rounds into one hole the size of a $0.50 cent piece! I am then told that the AR (which I had just finished building mere weeks before) would be a perfect anniversary present:what:

2nd one - another range outing with the wife. She had just bought a Heritage revolver - the one with 2 cylinders (22 and 17). While packing stuff from the safe into various cases and the range bag I somehow forget the 22 cylinder...and the 17 ammo! Needless to say I paid the range $17 for a box of 17 rimfire so she could shoot her new gun!
 
For me? Forgetting magazines. It was embarrassing having to bum mags off of others at the range.

In the army? One of the tank crews in my unit shot a moose (or was it an Elk? I have no idea.) at Ft. Hunter-Ligget in California. Other than shooting one out of season, for which they paid a hefty fine, what's the big deal?

They shot it with the tank's main gun.

The unit was doing tank gunnery and shooting targets a few thousand meters away. Well, this moose (again, not 100% on it's moosiness, but they said it was a moose, and I'll call it that) walks up on the berm at 1000 yards and starts happily chewing on grass. The tower calls a cease-fire for that lane so they don't shoot the moose.

After about 15-20 minutes of waiting for the masticating moose to get out of the way, the tank commander had enough. The commands went like so:
TC: Gunner, sabot, moose!
Gunner: Identified!
Loader: Up! (Main gun's loaded with selected round, armed, and ready to fire.)
TC: Fire!
G: ON THE WAY! (Warning to get away from various parts of the main gun that recoil during firing.)
[BOOM]

According to the video, the moose was reduced to a flying cloud of hamburger and goo.

Fish & Game was not happy, and the crew all received various fines and punishments. A different crew went on to use the coaxial machinegun to machinegun a cow that had somehow gotten on base (in their defense, they were using thermal optics and just saw a hot blob and didn't know that it was one more hot blob than what the specific engagement was supposed to have).

When they got to Iraq, the unit one of Lt.'s was transferred to accidentally main-gunned a bad guy aiming an RPG. The gunner, in his haste and excitement, failed to switch the system from "MAIN GUN" to "COAX" and ended up reducing the bad guy to nothing. Fortunately, no innocents were injured downrange as the round went through some buildings. The army had to pay to repair those buildings, though.
 
Posted this on another forum some time ago. But still my biggest goof.

This happened some time ago. But what the hell, I can laugh at myself. Have a FA model 83 in 454 7 1/2 inch, iron sites. Also have a 353 with a pretty nice scope. With the 353 & the scope, I'm dead on. With the 454 & the open sites, I'm just terrible. 53 years old & the eyes are shot.
So I'm at the range, and determined I'm gonna put together a good group with the 454. I'm seated & the gun is on a rest. I'm concentrating REAL hard. Steady, exhale, smooth trigger pull. BOOM & YEEEOWWW.
Was concentrating so hard on the shot placement, I neglected to control recoil. Gun came back, hammer spur nailed me in the middle of the forehead, and broke my favorite shooting glasses. There were other shooters on the line, so I felt like a 1st class boob. Little trickle of blood runninng between my eyes. Had a perfect outline of the hammer on my forehead for almost a week. And I know better.

Anybody else care to come clean?

Tuckerdog1
 
tuckerdog1:

Not necessarily the worst, but.... A buddy of mine used to regularly bring a .44 Mag Ruger to the range. "Vaquero" or some such - "Colt SA Army" style. We'd put .44Spls in it and enjoy the rather long barrel.... (I get bored with punching dime sized holes, but once in a while....)

One night Joe brought some magnums. WTH, I own (and have fired a LOT with full loads) a nice .357 Magnum, so....

Forgot that this gun is designed ("Cowboy" grip) to flip the muzzle up during recoil, and the grip is intended to let the gun rotate that way, driving the base of the grip downwards.

Guess who put his palm UNDER the grip....

Guess who had a bruise that took at least a week to go away....

Then there was the night that I was shooting a .380 and switched to a 9mm. Put a whole mag full of .380's into the 9mm mag.... The first one fired, and refused to eject. That's when I noticed.... S&W M39. I think it's failed to do something about five times since I bought it in the 70's.... No harm done, but it split the .380 case.

Regards,
 
One of my guns is a JC Higgins 103 single shot .22. My first trip to the range with my wife, I flagged her twice while I was reloading. She'd never shot before and warned me both times. I felt like such a twerp since I was teaching HER how to shoot. It was only us at a range with no RO's and told her that if it had a real RO, I would've been kicked off the range. Oops.
 
I was messing with my .45-70 Sharp's rifle that has a set trigger. I forgot just how light of a pull the trigger is once the set trigger is used, I think it is under 1# I partially shouldered the rifle and before I had it all positioned right I pulled the set trigger. As I was finishing getting everything all position I lightly bumped the main trigger.

The rifle was aimed up 45 degrees and about 2 inches away from my shoulder. Nobody saw me do it but it was embarrasing as hell and it hurt like hell. I know the round completely left the range, much less my lane.
 
Not mine, but at an outdoor range here in CA there are not one, but two bullet holes in the tin roof over the benches. probably about 70 or 80 degrees up from horizontal from where you are shooting.
 
Holes is good....

Our indoor range swapped from metal hangers to 1x2 framed cardboard holders. Total garbage if damaged, but useful. Loved 'em.... After about six months, the guy in charge of the facility decided to re-hang the metal stuff. That's a vertical piece of 3/4" conduit with a short flat horizontal section at the bottom (they hang from the top) that has a couple nails welded to it that actually hold the paper. We have seven "positions". I was by myself one night just after the metal hangers went back up and put a .45 dead center into the pipe about 4" above the target on #4....

Not to be outdone, one of the other members punched one into the 1x8 that covers the spotlights above the target area. He also hit some conduit. This piece had wires in it.... Took out the wiring for half the lights....

(If the target numbers get a few more holes they won't be readable. I really don't want to know what's going on down there when I'm not....)

Regards,
 
heypete said:
When they got to Iraq, the unit one of Lt.'s was transferred to accidentally main-gunned a bad guy aiming an RPG. The gunner, in his haste and excitement, failed to switch the system from "MAIN GUN" to "COAX" and ended up reducing the bad guy to nothing.
Click to expand...
Someone finally used enough gun :D
 
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