One of my subsidiary companies had the contract, back in the day, for a major metropolitan department's indoor range..for target carrier repair. They had to replace at least one carrier every few days, and run new cable at least once every two weeks. Oh, yeah, when folks talk about how "expert" and "well trained" all cops are...we laugh and laugh... And the worse part...many civilians are even worse. The mind, it boggles.
But that was back in the day of cast lead bullets. The department had two guys scraping lead off the backstop of this basement range, and them melting down the bullets to...make more bullets. Safety? Oh no, this was back in the day and "safety"...much less "OSHA" had not been invented. They used to prop the stairwell open to the offices above to "ventilate" the casting room up to the rest of the building. It is a wonder everyone in the PD didn't die of "black lung" ("lead lung?") in the intervening...oh...four decades.
Different times.
One more cop shooting story...at a European police/military bullseye championship up in Belgium more than a few decades ago, my team of AMMO shooters and the team of Security Forces (who were foisted off on us because, hey, TDY to Belgium) were on the line for the rapid fire portion of the event. Second shot, one of the SF "expert" pistoleros put a round through a bank of florescent tubes while trying to prep the Beretta trigger as if it were a real gun. Damn. Just like in the movies...crash, bang, sparks, flying glass...had to do some fast talking to keep BOTH teams from getting the boot for unsafe gun handling. Turns out my AMMO guys were selected by actual testing, and then practiced and trained...the SF boys were selected based on Airman of the Quarter and (in the case of the Light Shooter) on who had volunteered to wash the NCOIC's POV the week before. Oh, my...
But that was back in the day of cast lead bullets. The department had two guys scraping lead off the backstop of this basement range, and them melting down the bullets to...make more bullets. Safety? Oh no, this was back in the day and "safety"...much less "OSHA" had not been invented. They used to prop the stairwell open to the offices above to "ventilate" the casting room up to the rest of the building. It is a wonder everyone in the PD didn't die of "black lung" ("lead lung?") in the intervening...oh...four decades.
Different times.
One more cop shooting story...at a European police/military bullseye championship up in Belgium more than a few decades ago, my team of AMMO shooters and the team of Security Forces (who were foisted off on us because, hey, TDY to Belgium) were on the line for the rapid fire portion of the event. Second shot, one of the SF "expert" pistoleros put a round through a bank of florescent tubes while trying to prep the Beretta trigger as if it were a real gun. Damn. Just like in the movies...crash, bang, sparks, flying glass...had to do some fast talking to keep BOTH teams from getting the boot for unsafe gun handling. Turns out my AMMO guys were selected by actual testing, and then practiced and trained...the SF boys were selected based on Airman of the Quarter and (in the case of the Light Shooter) on who had volunteered to wash the NCOIC's POV the week before. Oh, my...
.png)
