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funniest/scariest thing you have seen at the range

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  • rubberdown

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    Feb 13, 2009
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    I was at Shiloh the other day on my lunch break and there was a mother and daughter there at the range. I was paying to go shoot and the mother walked out and said somethings wrong, the clip wont go in the gun. Freakin bullets were somehow in the clip facing backwards! It took the lady working there like 5 minutes to clear the rounds out and then explain the direction they are supposed to face. I laughed/cried/was greatful she didnt shoot herself or her kid.
    Guns International
     

    cajuntec

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    Mar 13, 2009
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    San Antonio TX
    Funniest -
    1) Seeing three guys with a 9mm pistol all taking turns shooting at a target. They all shot the same - turned the gun sideways so that the sights were facing left. Then they would "throw" the bullets to the target. Every time they pulled the trigger, they would go from bent elbow to straight arm, and then back to the bent elbow. Kind of like the extra "thrust" of them moving their arm was getting the bullets to exit the gun. I laughed my butt off. After about 3 or 4 magazines, they had managed to hit the target about a half dozen times - none of the "hits" were anywhere near the center though. I was next to them popping off rounds with my .22 single six revolver, which they were making all kinds of comments about (making fun of it - "old school gun", "ancient gun", "toy gun", "little bitty bullets", etc...) But my target had a nice big hole dead center that was punched out by plenty of rounds. I made sure I held it up for them when I brought it in.

    Not so funny at first - funny afterwards -
    I'm at a public range during the middle of the week (Chickahominy gun range in VA). There is no supervisor there. It's the shooters responsibility to coordinate setting up targets with the other shooters, going cold / hot range, etc... Well, since it was Wednesday, I had the range to myself. I'm out there sighting in a new black powder rifle, but I had my .270 and a couple of .22's with me, as I was planning a "range day" and planned to just shoot everything I had for practice. An older gentleman pulls up in a truck and gets out. He walks up to me as I am cleaning my black powder rifle and asks if I mind if he sets up a target. He then begins to explain to me how he had picked up a good deal on a cancelled Cabelas hunt. He said that since someone else cancelled, he slid into the spot at a very reduced rate. Problem was - he had not shot his gun in years. I watch him walk out and set up his target. It took him FOREVER to get there and back. I'm thinking "poor guy... I should just go set up his target for him". Then I started thinking "Well, he is going on a big game hunt... maybe it's best if he does it himself". Anyway, he gets back and pulls out a very nice looking .30-06. He gets set up right as I'm about ready to start shooting again, so I figured I'd be courteous and let him get his first shot off before I start shooting again. He pulls the trigger and it dang near knocks him off the bench! After he rubs his shoulder for a couple of seconds, he exclaims "I probably shouldn't be shooting so soon after my open heart surgury" :eek: What????!!! So I ask how long ago he had surgury and he tells me "Two weeks ago". After two more excruciatingly painful shots from his .30-06, he is scanning the target with the scope to see where he is hitting. I look through my spotting scope at his target and see no holes at all, and tell him so. After a few more rounds, he asks to go cold range so that he can retrieve his target and see how he has done. I know how he has done because I have been looking through my spotting scope. He retrieves his target (again - took forever to get there and back), and when he returns with what looks like a brand new target in hand, he finally admits defeat and starts to rethink (out loud) whether he should have bought that Cabelas hunt. He leaves. I'm thinking "Thank God. I didn't want to see him split his chest open with that rifle recoil". I start shooting again, only to have him drive up in a panic again. "THEY LOCKED US IN!!" he is yelling. Huh? Nobody came down to tell us the range was closing, and I didn't see anyone else. So I start packing up my stuff to go look. He is nervously rambling about his heart and not being able to stay locked up in this range, etc.... Now I'm concerned that this old guy is going to have a heart attack out here and it will be up to me to save him. I subconciously started going over my CPR stuff in my head - compressions to breath ratio's, etc.... I have to ask him politely a few times not to touch my stuff, as he is trying to help me load everything up, and he is borderline banging my weapons up trying to help me get everything back in the cases and into the truck. I drive to the gate access and am greeted by a bar across the road. I get out to investigate and discover it's an automatic gate bar - It closes automatically at a pre-determined time. Upon further investigation, I find a button to press to open the gate from the backside (inside the range area). I press it and see the nervousness from the old mans face disappear as the gate opens. I wasn't really ready to leave, but I had had enough for the day, and since I was packed, I went home.

    Dangerous - went into Bullethole Range in San Antonio to check it out for the first time. While I was there, this fellow walks in and says he is there for the concealed carry class. She takes his money and has him fill out paperwork, and then asks if he has a weapon and enough ammo to qualify. He asks how many rounds he needs and she replies "50". When he says he doesn't have enough, she tells him that she has range ammo available, and asks him what caliber pistol he has. His reply was "I dont' know... I'll go get it". So then he comes back in with the pistol in hand. It's a Glock .40 subbie. He has a magazine in the pistol, and his finger is resting inside the trigger guard as he walks in. I'm at the corner of the counter, unarmed, and cornered. :1zhelp: . I tell him that you are supposed to have the magazine out with the slide locked back when you come in - or cased. He gives me a "F off" look, drops the magazine (loaded), and puts the pistol on the counter with the slide still forward - pointing towards the woman as she walks out. When she comes back out, she immediatly turns the pistol so it's not facing her and tells him the slide has to be locked back. His reply? "It's not loaded" :banghead: So she grabs the gun, locks the slide back and puts it back on the counter for him. I spoke to her a few weeks later about that incident. She just shrugged it off and said it happens all the time. My big things on this one - he's at a concealed carry class and he has no idea what kind of gun he even owns, or what the caliber is. Even if he borrowed the gun, he should have asked about those types of things, or been familiar with them. Then there is the carrying a gun with a fully loaded magazine inserted, into a gun range with his finger in the trigger guard. I wish people like that didn't even get their permit. I'm scared he is going to hurt an innocent bystander one day.

    OK... I'm done.

    All the best,
    Glenn
     

    DirtyD

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    Sep 20, 2008
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    I was at Shiloh the other day on my lunch break and there was a mother and daughter there at the range. I was paying to go shoot and the mother walked out and said somethings wrong, the clip wont go in the gun. Freakin bullets were somehow in the clip facing backwards! It took the lady working there like 5 minutes to clear the rounds out and then explain the direction they are supposed to face. I laughed/cried/was greatful she didnt shoot herself or her kid.
    I had a female Marine do that on a KD Qual range, she somehow got 10 rounds loaded backwards.... had another trying to speed load from a stripper clip without the speedloader... had one load fired brass...had one slam a magazine in backwards, still trying to figure out how she had enough strength to do that....( not all these involved female shooters, but the majority did)
     

    mortdooley

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    Jul 25, 2008
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    Texas Gulf Coast
    I once saw two men at a local range trying to load a S&W .357, the problem was their .38 S&W rounds were a little tight going into the chambers. They knew better then me what round to use, so after I tried to tell them and was informed that .357s shoot .38 and this was a S&W so it shoots .38S&W I just watched two fools with a gun they didn't understand. They mostly just used the loosest chambers and a lot of thumb pressure.
    Another time I saw a open cartridge box break apart when a hot spent casing landed on top of the primer of a live round in the Styrofoam tray. Without a chamber to contain the pressure the case just splits and doesn't do much harm.
     

    iratollah

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    May 25, 2008
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    I posted this story in a similar thread about a month ago:

    Was spotting for my daughter while she was practicing some offhand rifle at a range we normally avoid. Some goof walks up behind her and stands between her and the guy on the lane next to her and raises some bigass revolver up taking aim at we're not sure which target. Problem is he's holding the pistol less than 3 feet behind her head while standing between shooters on two adjacent lanes. (It was pointed downrange and not at her.)

    Daughter didn't see him as he was behind her while she's in position ready to fire. I look at him, over her shoulder, and yell, "Stop! What the hell do you think you're doing?" Daughter thought I was yelling at her and she had her mag dropped, rifle cleared and safed and on the bench with an empty chamber indicator inserted in about two seconds flat. It was really beautiful to watch how quickly she went from ready to fire to hands off a cleared weapon.

    The goof looks at me and in his very best Forrest Gump imitation slowly says, "Well I wuz just shootin at mah target." I told him that indeed he wasn't shooting at anything. The RO was nearby and threw the guy off the range.

    I joined a private shooting range shortly after.
     

    idleprocess

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    Feb 29, 2008
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    DFW.com
    Seen dozens of morons that seem to think that finger-to-trigger contact at all times is an essential key to handling a gun. These folks tend to have a lot of downrange ND's and unwitting double-taps. I've yet to have one shoot in a totally unsafe direction.

    I've had yokels sweep me with their loaded rifles with finger on trigger and ready to go seconds before they started shooting.

    I remember one jack-off that kept pseudo slam-firing his rented AR-15 because he kept his finger on the trigger when he pulled the charging handle. Claimed to have been in the IDF when he lived in Israel. I thought it was funny how he kept sneering down at me because I was firing my AK while making an ass of himself.

    One day at an outdoor pistol range, some genius walked to his target while everyone else was still firing. Amazingly, the RO didn't throw him out.
     

    idleprocess

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    Feb 29, 2008
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    DFW.com
    I was at Shiloh the other day on my lunch break and there was a mother and daughter there at the range. I was paying to go shoot and the mother walked out and said somethings wrong, the clip wont go in the gun. Freakin bullets were somehow in the clip facing backwards! It took the lady working there like 5 minutes to clear the rounds out and then explain the direction they are supposed to face. I laughed/cried/was greatful she didnt shoot herself or her kid.

    She must have seen the H&K Brochure...

    hk.jpg


     

    ray22

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    Mar 21, 2009
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    Jewett
    I guest I have been pretty luck at the range. The only thing I saw was a f-2 tornado. My best friend and I were at USA shooting range in west Houston 12 years ago sighting in our rifles for the up coming opening weekend of deer season when a Strom blew in. We decided to try and wait it out but it just kept getting worst. We stood there and watched as a tornado passed the other side of Addicks Reservoir from us and walk it's way through a subdivision. It was kind of cool at first we thought, but after the realization of what just happen we decided to head home.

    Ray
     

    txpolecat

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    Feb 16, 2009
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    No way!!! Please tell me that H&K Brochure was photoshopped or something! That's funny as hell!


    Nope it's a HK thing. They always have the top round backwards. Who the hell knows why.

    Funniest thing at the range. I had just walked into Memorial Oaks shooting club (indoor range on Witte road) with my gun box. I went to the counter to read their rules and sign the waiver. In front of the door, on all sides of the door, are signs informing that all pistols must be in a case or holstered before entering. Right as I hit the counter some goof comes struttin' in with a glock in his hand.
    The employees had a field day with him, immediately calling him out, and pointing out that they were all armed and carrying. They had their hands resting on their sidearms and just tore this guy up and down. They made him exit the building and come back in, just so he could get the feel for how to do it right. The guy was incredibly sheepish but stayed there, apologized, and paid for range fees. This guy... somehow he managed to limp wrist a Glock 19 on the range! I had to clear his jam too.

    My freakiest thing I've seen at the range, a severe hang fire with a black powder pistol. It was a clear dry (dry enough for houston, which means probably 60% humidity) day at the Westheimer range inside the dam. Some guy next to me was firing a black powder revolver, looked like a navy model. One of his chambers went 'click' instead of boom and he held it downrange for a little (I was busy reloading some magazines) probably about 10 seconds. After that I suppose he thought it was a bum primer or something, so he set the pistol down and that's when it went off, it spun around and threw itself off the bench about 5 feet away. Good thing it was pointed downrange.
     

    shilohshooters

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    Mar 29, 2008
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    north houston
    Just in the past 2 weeks, in 3 different lessons, 3 Taurus 24/7's have failed miserably in terms of reliability. Lesson 1 was a friendly, older gentleman and his wife. They were talked in to a Taurus earlier in the week at a chain sporting goods store, because, as the uninformed salesman said " It's just like a Glock, only cheaper! " Well, 22 rounds into the lesson, the trigger stopped having any sort of resistance and the old man was perplexed. I quickly had him maintain his grip on the gun, pointing down range, 7 or 8 seconds pass and just as the man turns his head to ask me a question, BANG! That was the first of THREE of the same exact hang-fires in lessons in just two weeks! That begs the question, how "safe" is this gun for those who are not experienced, less informed and are more inclined to purchase this firearm due to price? What are they going to do when the trigger fails to operate correctly? Turn and point their gun at the nearest person ( as almost all newbies that don't know shit do! ) to ask what's wrong, then BANG! This firearm is inviting disaster! When I say a gun is crap, please listen to me, I live in a shooting range and observe shooters and guns every waking minute of the day!
     

    shilohshooters

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    Mar 29, 2008
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    north houston
    BTW, I am not trying to offend anyone who may own this gun. If you do, and yours operates flawlessly, great, go buy a lottery ticket, because we have polar-opposite experiences with the same gun.
     

    Big country

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    Mar 6, 2009
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    Cedar Park,TX
    :banghead: The story I'm about to tell you is not funny to me cuz it's my gun. It is more an embarrassing story. I was in my leval lll secuity officer training class and me and some of the other "gun guy's" that were in the class were talking pistols, you know what ya guna shoot to qual with etc.. well my cz 75 B came up (.40 cal) and I was asked if it was any good I said it was right on target and as relieable as death and tax's. and then after some of my "talking up" of my pistol I had for the first time ever 2 yes 2 fail to feed's. and then I felt like a dumb ass for braging about my "relieable pistol." buy the way I'm geting a new for my Duty weapon.
     

    M. Sage

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    Jan 21, 2009
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    Funniest thing I've seen at a range? At an indoor range in CA, one of the employees dressed up for Halloween. He dressed in a traditional Arab fashion, and was wearing a vest full of road flares. Hilarious!

    Scariest thing? I was resetting a stage for a carbine match, and some dumbass decided he'd do a dry pre-run with his Garand. Nothing like hearing people yelling and turning around to stare .30-06 in the face! "It was unloaded!" Yeah, as if I could tell while I was downrange. It's the only time I've ever said something rude to someone (on purpose) at a gun range.

    There was also a guy who showed up to carbine matches with a really tricked-out Mini-14 that might as well have been a bolt action. The guy's weapon-handling skills were inverse to how much money he'd wasted on his Jam-o-Matic. He had to look at the safety to turn it off!!! I may not be a Mini-14 fan, but the safety is about as easy to operate as it gets. I was always watching that guy very close when he'd show up to a match. I think the match director finally asked him to stop coming, because he was one of the very few people I've seen whose basic rifle-handling skills weren't up to those laid-back, friendly carbine matches. When you have an autoloader you've dumped a grand or so into, and the guy with his Soviet Mosin is spanking you at a run and gun match, you know there's a big problem.
     

    cuate

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    Jan 27, 2009
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    Comanche Co., Texas
    A Dallas range way back in the 60s when rioting was rampant every time whatzisname appeared and rabble roused before JER killed him. People were buying guns like crazy.

    This Dallas city dude shows up with wife and teenager boy in tow with a S&W .38SPL like a Detective Special, 2 inch barrel. He shoots a couple of cylinders of ammo, . Reloads and the kid fires all but one round the same way, hands the pistol back to Daddy, who notes the hammer back, grabs the pistol about the cylinder with left hand, points downrange and pulls trigger. One hell of a powder burned hand. I got the hell away from that bunch in a hurry.
     

    Reacher

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    Nov 14, 2008
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    Grand Prairie, TX
    I hadn't really thought of anything bad that had happened at the range until my brother reminded me of this indecent. So I thought I'd post.

    Enjoy...

    I went to DFW shooting range in March of 2006 on the second day of torrential rain in Dallas. I got there and was assigned lane 7. I went in and put down my shooting bag and a bag of ammo. I clipped the target on and just as I touched the switch to send the target down range, I heard a sound like thunder. As I looked down range, I noticed that the ceiling was collapsing in. It started at the far side of the range and moved rapidly to the firing line. It stopped just in front of the shooting line. As shooters started deciding what to do, I bent over and picked up my bags and walked out the door. I noticed that some of the cinder blocks in the outer wall wer missing but didn't really think much of it. We all got into the retail area but after about 20-30 seconds, water started pouring through the door from the range. Thinking that the electricity in the building and the deluge of water pouring in weren't a good combination, we all got out of the building to go stand under an awning there. As I came out the door, I noticed that the 20' high outter wall had fallen away and landed on the cars that were parked next to the building. I saw that about 8 cars were crushed including my Durango. :( I was able to get some of my stuff out of my vehicle and then since it was still raining and there was nothing else to do, the friend who was meeting me drove us over to Targetmaster and we shot as we had originally planned.

    Here are some pics:

    Outside shot taken with my phone camera while it was still raining.

    crash4.jpg


    Another in the rain.
    crash2.jpg


    The next day was sunny and beautiful.
    crash11.jpg


    crash5.jpg


    The lane I was assigned to.
    crash15.jpg


    The substructure at the firing line that probably saved our lives. Note the A/C unit resting on top.
    crash14.jpg


    A pic of my truck after they dug it out of the rubble.
    crash16.jpg


    Yes, there is a decal on the back of my truck that says "Roofing". The Dallas Morning News must have thought it ironic because that was the pic that was on the front of the paper the next day.
     

    dee

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    Nov 22, 2008
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    Red River Way
    When I was in high school I worked at The Feild & Stream Gun range in my area I worked at the trap/skeet range there was also a rifle and pistol range also. I used to love when mostly airmen would come down to the club house with lovly scope bite rings above their eyes, from thier first rifle that was a .300 win mag, wanting the first aid kit. Sorry not to offend any millitary personal just most of these were young and not familliar with firearms.
     

    drj3828

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    Mar 4, 2008
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    Grimes County, TX
    I was out in the Sam Houston forest years ago when you could shoot at the public range when these two fools decided to shoot the rail road tie in front of the car they came in. When they did the FMJ bullet bounced of the tie and hit the windshield of the car. They both looked at each other and went back to shooting. That is when I left!

    DRJ
     
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