funniest/scariest thing you have seen at the range

[shilohshooters]

I'll never forget the guy who came in to the range, and engaged Pop's and I in pleasant conversation. We talked guns and ammo for ten minutes or so, he sounded like he knew a little more than the average walk in customer. Then, he proceeds to show us where his index finger used to be on his support hand. He then tells us that he had a tragic beginning to his tactical career and blew his finger off in the bathroom of his home while practicing his draw in the mirror. Seems he did not realize that he loaded his gun with "real ammo". Now, he tells us, is his time to "Get back on the Horse". His next question, "You guys don't mind if I practice my draw from the holster, right?" Haha, not after that story pal.

 

[TSU45]

Funniest: Watching a guy new to shooting unload a snubbie .38 w/out hearing protection. When his buddy offered him ear-pro, he yelled "na man, I like the way it sounds!"

Scariest: A .45 Glock blowing up with Remington UMC. Or I guess you would say out, through the magwell.

 

[megafatcat]

My 10 year old son calling a cease fire at Alpine gun range, Fort Worth. Then telling the 30+ tear old idiot why he was unsafe. He had just completed Boy Scout bb-gun training.

 

[SIG_Fiend]

My 10 year old son calling a cease fire at Alpine gun range, Fort Worth. Then telling the 30+ tear old idiot why he was unsafe. He had just completed Boy Scout bb-gun training.

Haha, nice! Sounds like you've gotten him off to a good start early.

 

[Big country]

My 10 year old son calling a cease fire at Alpine gun range, Fort Worth. Then telling the 30+ tear old idiot why he was unsafe. He had just completed Boy Scout bb-gun training.

Hahahahahaha! Now that is funny! Sig_Fiend is right it sounds like he has a good start.

 

[robocop10mm]

Lets see... So many to tell. As a Police Rangemaster I have seen some pretty stupid things. The ammo loaded backwards, the unintentional discharges, the eyelids attached to the trigger finger so they close everytime the trigger is squeezed, etc. Body armor mandatory for RO's and now for all shooters. I have been hit by no less than 13 ricochets, body armor stopped 12 and #13 just barely broke the skin on my left arm.

I saw an officer hand her Glock over to another RO to be checked in. In spite of the prominent signs warning all to have mags out and slides locked to the rear, she handed a slide closed, mag inserted gun muzzle first to the RO. He snatched it away from her, dropped the loaded mag, ejected the live Gold Dot, locked the slide to the rear, unloaded the magazine into the trash can and handed her back a safe weapon. He loudly told her to get the F#$% off the range. She protested that it was the last day of the quarter to qualify. He just looked to the next person in line and said "next".

In a revolver class (many years ago) an officer was shooting his personal S&W 681 at 25 yards. The target looked like it was shot with 00 buckshot. I continually reminded him "front sight, squeeze". After close to 50 rounds, I asked him for the weapon, inserted one round and calmly put it in the 10 ring of a B-27 target D/A. I unloaded the cylinder and asked him if he wanted to sell it, it seemed to be a good, accurate weapon. He said "no" and I told him to listen to the instruction, focus on the front sight and squeeze the trigger. He promplty started shooting all rounds in the 9 ring.

I had one female that was obviously afraid of the gun snatch the trigger and close her eyes every shot. Nothing even came close to the target at 15 yards. I had her load one round and carefully shoot at the target. As soon as it want off, I immediately feigned panick. I took the gun from her and asked her if she was alright. Did her ears hurt? "No, I have these ear muffs." was her reply. "WOW, that looked painful, did it hurt your hands?". "No, I'm fine." "So it was not too loud, did not hurt your ears or hands?" She looked at me like I was crazy and said no. I said "the damn thing did not hurt you so quit being afraid of it." She turned out to be one of the best shooters in that group.

One last one, not Police related...at 16 my best friend and I built .45 caliber Kentucky pistol muzzle loaders from CVA kits because we could not yet own handguns. At the Carter Country range (Treschwig?) we were shooting at the far left side of the pistol area when a nice big doe stepped up onto the top of the berm about 50 yards away. The RO announced a cease fire and repeatedly warned all to "not shoot the deer". She just stood there looking around for about 3-4 minutes and walked off down the back of the berm. I'm thinking she was suicidal and gave up trying there. Probably walked out in front of a truck a few minutes later.

 

[thorkyl]

Scariest that happened to me.
I am 6'4" and as a point of reference with my strong hand I can hit the Ctrl key on the left and backspace on the right of a standard keyboard.

A friend and I where at the range and he asked if I wanted to try his Makarov.
Never seen one before but I figured I would.

I loaded one round in the mag and chambered it (I never shoot a strange gun with full mag).
Aimed and fired, that little POS (as I now call it) jumped from my hand, hit the ceiling, and landed on the RSO's head then the floor.

My first reaction, along with my buddies was the bench. We where both on the bench in the lane in the fetal position screaming cease fire waiting for that thing to start dumping the rest of the empty mag to who knows where.

The RSO was P.O.'d big time as we came off the bench. He thought I had shot him, I thought I had also.

After everybody calmed down and I told my friend to never let me shoot that thing again I went back to my 1911.

 

[Bigs Wife]

I am 6'4" and as a point of reference with my strong hand I can hit the Ctrl key on the left and backspace on the right of a standard keyboard.

you have REALLY big hands.. I just tried to do that and no luck, no matter how hard I tried

 

[mclarenross]

No joke!! I have pretty big hands I though but Im only able to touch the Alt key and Backspace.

 

[Aenimated1]

Funniest incident:
I was at a pistol class last year and all of the 20 students were on the line facing our targets at 4 feet or so to do some retention drills. We commence with firing. As instructed we were to take a step back between shots to gain distance from our target. This idiot about 10 people to my right has a brass from the guy to his left go down his shirt. He attempts to free the round from his shirt with his GUN STILL IN HIS HAND. Of course he fires a round into the ground that disintegrates but not after putting a large gash in the forehead of the guy to his left from the flying shrapnel. And they let him continue the class. I don't mind telling you that it was a Tiger Valley class.

Scariest incident:
Myself and three friends are at the Bullet Trap; scary enough, when this large ethnic man and his tiny anglo girlfriend walks in and takes the lane to our right. I am immediately on guard. He steps up and loads his 1911 and peels off four or five shots. He sets the gun down and basically pushes the reluctant girlfriend to the line to shoot with no instruction. She takes aim, does not fire, and proceeds to sweep myself and my friends as she turns around to ask why the gun is not firing. We left post haste.

 

[deadday]

I spent a couple years during college working as an RSO at a fairly large range...We were on the pistol line, during a cease fire, doing some range maintenance (replacing boards and what not)...there were 3 of us down range, wearing BRIGHT orange t-shirts...many shooters were there, behind the firing line, all pistols on the bench unloaded and locked as it was a ceasefire...a guy walks onto the range form the pro-shop, didn't notice that nobody else was firing, or even on the line, didn't notice the range officers telling him it was a cease fire...didn't notice the range officer running towards him as he uncased his fire arm, and didn't hear about 100 people screaming at him as he proceeded to empty 5 shot j-frame downrange...

The head RSO was out there with us, and had a chainsaw, as we were cutting away some old boards...started stalking towards with murder on his face, screaming..he had forgotten all about the chainsaw in his hand....the look on the guys face was sheer terror...I'd be suprised if he didn't piss himself...

As much of a shitty/stupid/scarey situation as it was, I laugh about it now...

 

[M. Sage]

Lets see... So many to tell. As a Police Rangemaster...

At this point I knew your post was going to be gold. You didn't disappoint.

One last one, not Police related...at 16 my best friend and I built .45 caliber Kentucky pistol muzzle loaders from CVA kits because we could not yet own handguns. At the Carter Country range (Treschwig?) we were shooting at the far left side of the pistol area when a nice big doe stepped up onto the top of the berm about 50 yards away. The RO announced a cease fire and repeatedly warned all to "not shoot the deer". She just stood there looking around for about 3-4 minutes and walked off down the back of the berm. I'm thinking she was suicidal and gave up trying there. Probably walked out in front of a truck a few minutes later.

I used to shoot a lot at a range in CA where this happened almost all the time. It wasn't only deer, but turkeys, too. You've probably seen the range on TV, Mythbusters has done a lot of shooting at Chabot Gun Club in Castro Valley. They used the ranges where we would have the tactical shoots.

 

[Stangfan93]

I was walking to the lanes at Marksmen one evening. Its kind of full but lanes were open so I just stood around observing. I notice an officer giving instruction to a girl and a guy around my age. I am watching and just taking in what he has to say. I figure free advice is good so i paid attention. As the girl starts to shoot her gun i notice one piece of brass coming my way. Thinking to myself "this ain't good". It hits me perfectly between my eyebrows (had safety glasses on) and hit with enough oommpphh I decided just to go to a lane and start shooting.

Again at Marksmen I went for an afternoon shoot by myself. It was mid afternoon and no one but 3 other people there. An intructor and 2 students. I went to the far end opposite to where they were so as to not interrupt. I am ready to shoot and as I aim I hear 2 loud booms. The people on the other end were shoot shotguns. Scarred the ish out of me so bad at that instance I actually fired downrange.

At Clear Creek one day on the pistol range. The infamous Al Trug calls cease fire. There is a guy with gun in his hand finger off the trigger standing there. I try to tell him to put it down but we are already off the concrete and not allowed back on. Al notices him and starts screaming at him to put it down. For anyone whos been to that gun range knows about all the shells in the "grass" area and I would not put my gun down there. The guy doesn't comply and Al just keeps screaming and losing his mind. "PUT IT DOWN PUT IT DOWN!!!!" Finally the guy puts it down. I felt bad for the guy but I tried to help.

I think my favorite thing is when you see people try to fire off as many rounds as fast as they can pull the triger. Same thing with pumps. Hey guy you know what happens when the target is to close and you fire really fast with at "shotty" the target flys up and all you are firing at is nothing.

 

[deadday]

At this point I knew your post was going to be gold. You didn't disappoint.



I used to shoot a lot at a range in CA where this happened almost all the time. It wasn't only deer, but turkeys, too. You've probably seen the range on TV, Mythbusters has done a lot of shooting at Chabot Gun Club in Castro Valley. They used the ranges where we would have the tactical shoots.

We had some wildlife wander across one of the ranges at Ft Knox where we were shooting M2s...it was messy...

 

[DirtyD]

After I came back from Iraq I did a stint at Range Control on Camp Pendleton as an Inspector. Great job, there were 6 of us to cover every training area and range on the base. We divided up into three rotating shifts, you showed up fro your shift, grabbed a SABRE, training schedule and truck and hit the road for 8 hours. I could post for days about the things that happened during my shifts. Wildlife being mentioned brings one specific to mind. If you were working the late shift, we would call in about an hour after dark and let Range Control know you were hitting the rack and to get you on the phone if there were any incidents. About 0300 my phone rang to head out to one of the ranges that was doing a night shoot to handle a "wildlife" issue. The impact area for this particular range happened to also be the impact area for artty and air. I rolled out and when I got there you could see about three buffalo wandering the impact area. The CO of the unit wanted me to go down and clear them out. We have game wardens for that, and I will be damned if I am going tooling around there at night to find a few dud 105 or 81 shells.... This nice young, and VERY intelligent Captain insisted I had to, I calmly pulled out the Camp Pendleton Special (map) and showed him the particular area and how it was marked. Next I told him he could feel free to chase them off on his own, but to please wait till the next shift came on so I didnt have to do an incident report about a young 03 that blew himself up in an impact area. Then there were the illegal aliens sleeping in the shipping containers we used as targets.....

 

[SapperMapper]

When I was a kid, my sister and I were shooting my BB gun at pop cans we had wedged into the wood pile. I was standing about 5 yards to her right when she pulled the trigger. I still don't know what she hit, but I was just barely able to see the BB ricochet off the woodpile and zap her square in the middle of her forehead. She blinked, looked at me and said, "What the heck was that?" All I could think was, "Mom is going to beat the tar out of me!" She was fine, just a small red spot where the bb ricocheted off her head. Dangedest thing I ever saw. I still have that BB gun, too.

 

[DoubleActionCHL]

When I was a kid, my sister and I were shooting my BB gun at pop cans we had wedged into the wood pile. I was standing about 5 yards to her right when she pulled the trigger. I still don't know what she hit, but I was just barely able to see the BB ricochet off the woodpile and zap her square in the middle of her forehead. She blinked, looked at me and said, "What the heck was that?" All I could think was, "Mom is going to beat the tar out of me!" She was fine, just a small red spot where the bb ricocheted off her head. Dangedest thing I ever saw. I still have that BB gun, too.

Was your sister's name "Ralphie?"

 

[SapperMapper]

Was your sister's name "Ralphie?"

You'll shoot your eye out!!!

 

[robocop10mm]

Lets see how many old Armor guys remember a sit like this "gunner, co-ax, 3 targets 11:00, 800 meters, fire!" as the cattle loose on the tank range get cut down. Happens at Ft. Hood pretty regularly.

 

[ROGER4314]

We were shooting a high power 200 yard rifle match at Pearland, Texas. There were about 20 shooters on the line and the match had just started.

These are big rifles that make a lot of noise! The noise apparently didn't bother the lady with a car full of kids as she drove down the rifle range target access road looking for the pistol range! When I saw her turn down the road, I jumped up and yelled "cease fire, cease fire!" We got her turned around and the poor lady never had a clue about what she actually drove into.

Flash