Post your funniest range story...

[WestDesertPRS]

Shooting IPSC back in the 90's there was a guy that regularly shot with our group. He had a fully tricked-out custom 1911 race gun. It seemed like every time we saw him he had some new doodad...definitely the kind of shooter that will spend more money trying to "improve" the gun vs improving the shooter (practice). He shows up to our monthly local match and this time he has a new extended mag release (really extended). Every time he pulls the trigger his hand hits the mag release during recoil and drops the full mag. On the first stage he goes through all his spare mags on the first couple targets.

Needless to say he ditched the new mag release before our next practice night....

Just to give a fuller picture of this guy, his nickname was "Mean Gene and His Brass Making Machine". He made a lot more empty brass than holes in targets.

 

[mike1000]

These are some funny stories... Really surprised that so many folks survived without getting shot!

 

[WestDesertPRS]

These are some funny stories... Really surprised that so many folks survived without getting shot!

Speaking of almost getting shot....

A friend of mine talked me into going shooting at a spot he found. It was sort of an old quarry or similar. We were standing near the edge shooting stuff down in the pit (just plinking...not precision at all). About 50m behind us was a stand of scrubby trees. All the sudden there's bullets snapping past us. We hit the deck and crawled off to the side and got out of the line of fire. Turns out some yahoos pulled up on the other side of the trees and started shooting without any clue what was on the other side. We let them know how we felt and got out of there....never went back.

I heard a few years later somebody got killed there by a stray round and the state shut down public access

 

[mike1000]

Whoa!!!!

Not cool at all.

 

[HeavyAssault]

Back in the day while TDY we had a little arial gunnery setup for a few days. Listening to the ROs (blah, blah, blah)..."Don't shoot the wildlife."....Yea...we know. Cool... can we go fly now?? Awesome day time runs for getting some guys qualified. We do a couple fly-bys for some range familiarization. "Hey...looks like they have some SeaLand vans setup with vehicles in a motor pool target.". Vehicles were ALL quite shot up already....... We do our qual runs getting the training done saving at least one can (3k rounds) on each weapon for the end run. So last pass we all get down, high rate, low rate...Pilots throwing the aircraft around a bit for good measure. We all lit up the "motor pool" quite well.

A month later the pilots come into our office.....Seems as we had blasted the shit out of the "Range Office" not a mocked motor pool.....It was actually the office setup used by the Range personnel to work out of when setting up the vehicles for other targeting areas on the range complex.....LMAO....

Good thing the pilots had the whole range brief on paper....NO mention of that area as Off Limits.....some paper saved our ass again......

 

[Howland]

A month later the pilots come into our office.....Seems as we had blasted the shit out of the "Range Office" not a mocked motor pool.....It was actually the office setup used by the Range personnel to work out of when setting up the vehicles for other targeting areas on the range complex.....LMAO....

Good thing the pilots had the whole range brief on paper....NO mention of that area as Off Limits.....some paper saved our ass again......

So let me summarize to make sure I understand this correctly.

The range safety officers went out onto a hot range that they knew was actively being targeted by combat aircraft with lethal munitions.

Does that capture all the pertinent facts or did I miss anything?

I guess Darwin missed his chance but nobody scores 100.

 

[HeavyAssault]

No...they just briefed us back at the main RO office. The SeaLand containers were being used by the Range Control personnel as a make shift office to coordinate placement of the "vehicles". The "office" was within the mapped weapons range boundaries.

 

[Strykervet]

I used to do modeling for a friend that was a photographer. When he found out I was a Vet and loved to shoot he came up with the idea for doing a double shoot day.. shoot some pictures and some guns.. We had not done a shoot in a few years as I had gained weight (bad knees and back from service injuries.) so I agree'd for old times sake.. plus who can turn down an opportunity
to go to the range and shoot a few hours??
I dolled up, put on 6" high heeled knee high snake boots, gathered up my custom pink AR I had built along with my purple reptile skin Glock holster and met him at the range.
We had shot there many times before so the range officers knew me and we told them the plan. They informed us that it seemed no one was on the 100yrd pistol/rifle range at the moment we could take pics there, but if anyone decides to shoot the range goes hot again. We thanked him and headed over to that range. Sure enough not a soul present so we start taking some pics. About 15 minutes later a guy comes over and asks if the range is closed since we were just taking pics. We told him he could shoot and that we would be shooting guns as well.. He looked me up and down.. saw my purple range bag, pink rifle case, etc and sneered laughing to himself..
He proceeds to start unloading his car.. This guy had like 10 rifle bags and 20 range bags.. all of them "Tacticool".. about half way through unloading I gave up waiting for him and we called the range hot and started shooting. half way from the car to his bench spot he stops to watch me put 3 in the chest and 2 in the head with rounds almost touching in just under a second..
This guy proceeds to put all his stuff back in his car and drives down to the next range to shoot with all the guys down there. =D

View attachment 7069027

Wow. Nice boots.

I'll shoot you under the table any day of the week though and you'll cry home to daddy...

Then again, I'll say anything to get a date at the range with a beautiful red head (and I may even let you win!). Seriously, nice.

 

[SCRAM2013]

Ranges can be unsettling at times


I get to range. Slow. One guy far right. Man and his son far left. Get to the line and that's a friend of mine with his son shooting 6mm rem bolt action (damn tack driver too).

Anyway, we are just shooting the shit and old boy on the right walks over and says..... (Wait for it)...

"You care if I drink a beer?"

My buddy and I look at each other (he kinda smirked). I look at the guy and say "knock yourself out".

He walks over to the trash can and starts digging down to the bottom and pulls out a beer and opens her up.

My buddy and I are all kinds of "WTF?"

This guy has a weatherby mag light weight and a Ruger SBH on his bench with two boxes of ammo. Nothing else. He guzzles the beer and sits at the table to shoot is big bad magnum.

He uses the cylinder of the Black hawk as his rifle rest and touches off that rifle. I was in awe... This rifle kicked that poor guy like a F'n mule!

I am recoil sensitive so, this looked brutal to me. I'm thinking there'll be snow balls in hell before I would shoot that again.

So, with the liquid courage old boy shoots round two. When I say kick, I mean Olympic style ass kicking. He stands up and turns toward the trash to get another beer and his eye is damn near swollen shut. Scope...

I'm thinking three things (1) beer ain't gonna help that (2) he staggered to the trash can. Is he concussed or drunk or both (3) how many beers are left. I'm getting thirsty and this is entertainment.

He drinks another beer. Decides it's pistol time. He fires one round down range and one through the roof.

He puts the revolver down and stares down range. My buddy says "are you staying? We're gonna haul ass."

I said "you know I ain't gonna stay. If I did one of us is going to need an ambulance.... shortly."

I never unpacked my gear.

 

[joelinux]

Wow. Nice boots.

I'll shoot you under the table any day of the week though and you'll cry home to daddy...

Then again, I'll say anything to get a date at the range with a beautiful red head (and I may even let you win!). Seriously, nice.

Don't forget to mention your pewter dragon collection.

 

[joelinux]

Bump for anyone who hasn't seen this, and has something to contribute...

 

[Bigfatcock]

Touching off 38 gr of 2fg in a 45 Colt under the covered range. The man next to me said “What the fuck was that?”

It was a still day so the smoke lingered throughout my shooting session. It’s pretty hilarious to hear the boom of black powder amongst the pop, pop, pop of 9mm and 45 acp.

Then there was the time an over powder wad lit a hay bale on fire...

 

[eca7891]

Back in the early 1990s I had a friend who was the proprietor of range next to Mount airy lodge in the Poconos, PA.

Every now and then we get some dumb ideas and would try them out.

It just so happened that they had a working 37 mm cannon at this range. One of the gunsmiths gone so far as to even make a fully operational breach for the cannon, and every now and then they will fire off a blank charge to make a nice boom.

We were very friendly with the state police and one time they brought a bunch of expired CS gas projectiles for us to dispose of. (Aka tear gas grenades).

Now the range wasn’t that big… It was about 130 yards deep and about 200 yards wide with lots of stalls. There was an instructor‘s position separated by a berm and followed by shooting positions.

Looking at the grenades I realized that that look like they would fit perfectly in the bore of this cannon.

So one of my buddies and I bore sighted this 37 mm canon to the center of the 130 yard line down range.

Now we were feeling pretty good about ourselves from having figured all of this out… So my buddy put the grenade in, I pull the lanyard, and that’s when physics took over…

It turns out the velocity of teargas grenade is not quite like normal 40mm grenade (wrong assumption #1).

Instead of lobbing over the (empty) instructors range / berm, it was a litttle low at hit the tippy top of a 12ft picket fense that separted the instructors range from a skeet field.

—-
You ever have a moment when when something happens in a split second, but it feels, perceptively, like a minute and a half?

That was this...
—-

I see the grenade hit the top of one of the pieces of picket fense.

The fense simply snaps at that part and the top of the picket begins to fall.

The tear gas grenade explodes.

Huh. I didn’t know they made pink/red tear gas?

Wow. Thats a good sized cloud.

Wait a minute the wind is blowing directly toward those guys on the skeet field!

Ugh oh. There’s five if them, and they all got shotguns.

Man, that dude on position three is definitely gonna miss.

I am soooo dead.

?

Fortunately, our story ends with them all being REALLY good sports... and me buying them all dinner and alot of beer.

For the record: the guy actually hit his target as the pink cloud wafted over them. (Every single one of them had been in the military... so it wasnt as bad as it could have been, since theyd all had chemical warfare training.)

I’ll tell you what.
I can not remember laugh so hard that I cried. It took me forever to read that as I could not see the text through my tears and laughter.

 

[ACK]

Bulletproof deer. Not really. Lot of shouting, Cease fire. Cold Range. RO ended up having to chase them off.

 

[Va_Gentleman]

View attachment 7217118

Bulletproof deer. Not really. Lot of shouting, Cease fire. Cold Range. RO ended up having to chase them off.

I have to look in my pictures, but I may have something similar at Woody's DMM in 2013 when Wild Turkeys walked in front of the Corner LaRue Target during Stage 1....

 

[Reverie Ranges]

Pulling this older thread out as I know there are more stories out there that have merit.

At the range about to test a new .50 cal suppressor for a Barrett M107. One "bigwig" shows up and wants to watch. So in expedited fashion, one guy throws everything together with the rifle on the firing line but doesn't make sure it is fully operational. Another guy is asked to shoot said rifle for said bigwig to watch. Unbeknownst to that shooter that everything wasn't Fully Mission Capable on the rifle, he sends a round down range. Suppressor wasn't screwed on but just slid on the barrel. Round keyholes on the 3rd, 4th and 5th baffle and flies downrange 15 meters. Everyone is in awe while quietly snickering, but certainly feel for the shooter's shoulder. He was hurting for days...

Long story short, always check your equipment before sending first round.

Not quite as funny as watching an unlocked 25mm barrel fly downrange though!

 

[Flatwater77]

In my part of the world, the month before rifle deer season is a fascinating and horrifying time. Was shooting at the 100 yd range and a guy and his college-age son showed up to sight in his new deer rifle. It was one of those $300 throw aways chambered in 300 win mag and topped with a $50 Walmart special scope. It was painful to watch... they couldn’t keep shots on a paper plate at 50 yards. I tried to nicely suggest that it might help to use my tool kit to at least check all of the action and scope screws. Not interested. When I left they were two boxes in and plugging away with terrible purpose.

 

[chevy_man]

In my part of the world, the month before rifle deer season is a fascinating and horrifying time. Was shooting at the 100 yd range and a guy and his college-age son showed up to sight in his new deer rifle. It was one of those $300 throw aways chambered in 300 win mag and topped with a $50 Walmart special scope. It was painful to watch... they couldn’t keep shots on a paper plate at 50 yards. I tried to nicely suggest that it might help to use my tool kit to at least check all of the action and scope screws. Not interested. When I left they were two boxes in and plugging away with terrible purpose.

Here it's usually a $100 scope on a Savage. Then 4-5 partial boxes of various ammo they've gathered over 10 years. Then the score is broken so they can't figure out why it doesn't stay on paper.

My all time favorite was a guy teaching his wife to shoot. With a 25" Harris bipod on the bench, standing behind the rifle. She was struggling to hit a 24" square paper with her 300 wsm at 100 yards.

 

[Milo 2.5]

I don't have any really funny or dangerous stories, but I have been retired for going on 7 yrs, so I get my range time in. I gave up on public ranges long ago, with late August and September being brutal around here with hunters and their new x bolts, howa's, kimbers, etc... The guys who load 3 rds of five different combos to pick the best, shooting all 13 rds in under 5 minutes with pencil thin barrels in 80 deg weather.
Nothing surprises me today, I've seen can covers launched, baffle strikes, scope failures of all kinds, bolt handles beaten off from over charged loads, and the accompanying stories. So I shoot a semi private range primarily, but still get the Gordon's showing up paying a daily fee. The guys that can't hit a 60 sq foot berm area, never less the plate @ 500 yards, yet then feel it is ok to try hit a bigger size plate off to the side nestled in heavy vegetation.
So one day here a guy comes, new AR 15(223), with a 4 moa dot Aimpoint, wants a 100 yard zero. Well, of coarse he can not get on paper at 100. So I have him run a paint can down to 95 yards and set it up on the ground, we are on the crest of a hill at 100, so putting it on the edge would be futile. We finally hit the paint can, on to paper, I ask him now, what will your point of aim be, you are covering 4" at 100 with your dot, he says center of target which is all but impossible. I had my portable sight in target in my PU, tell him we can set it at 50 yards, slap a 2" dot on it, now your dot is mated up for a clear sight picture, NO, 100 yards is the goal. Then the shit show began, these are 1/2 moa clicks, I had brought out my spotting scope to help, I help a lot, not because I need to, more to make their stay shorter, lol. 40 shots in, he finally gets one 1/4" left of center. I tell him I'd button it up after a verification shot. I get a no again, need perfect, I tell him his adjustments are not fine enough, 1 click either up or down, left or right, the bullet moving a half inch. Need perfection. I went about banging steel, let him and his dipshit son use the spotting scope because I had offered it up.
3 target changes and 4 more boxes of ammo later they were still striving for perfection when I called it quits. I passively face palmed myself a half dozen times on the drive back to town. To this day I still cannot figure out what he expected from a 4 moa dot.

 

[Bigfatcock]

I have a braked 375 H&H magnum single shot pistol that is great for fucking up people’s concentration on the pistol line, lol.

 

[Casey_H]

Not sure if this is a "funny" story, more of a "who would've thought."

So I shoot a local square range for fun that's mostly inhabited by 1,000 year old men doing load development on their 2,000 year old rifles. Nam hogs and such, you know the type. One guy I see there all the time just recently got with the times and re-barreled a 700 to 6.5 Creedmoor.

Now this angry old man believes all his handloads are God's gift to the world. So if he's printing 2"+ groups at 100yrds it must be the caliber, weather, his barrel, the goddamn aliens, etc.

After chatting with him about his woes I offer 3 rounds of my Prime 130gr boxed ammo... 1 hole at 100 barely larger than the bullet diameter. He couldn't speak. ??

 

[Reverie Ranges]

I was clearing vegetation from in front of targets for the next day's student qualifications. At 750m downrange, on a Sunday at 5:30 PM the next range opens up with the sound of a Ma Duce; Dooog, dooog, dooog, dooog, dooog. Guys on the firing line looking on glass spotting target exposure say they saw me mid golf swing look to the next range over, calmly walk to the truck and haul A back to the line. Who the frick opens up a range at 5:30 on Sunday was all I could think... Luckly, they never knew I was there.

 

[Schroedernd]

I’m at a local range sighting in a few rifles on a nice weekend late morning. I was taking a break when a black Mercury Grand Marquis with blacked out windows rolls up. White dude in a sloppy looking suite gets out of the drivers side and a middle eastern looking man also dressed similarly gets out of the passenger side. They go to the trunk and grab an AR and AK and some mags. They walk up to the shooting line, load the mags, and just start emptying the mags into the ground at about 50 yards (no targets). When they shot a few mags each, they loaded the rifles back up in the trunk and took off. To this day I have no idea what i had just seen.......

 

[joelinux]

I’m at a local range sighting in a few rifles on a nice weekend late morning. I was taking a break when a black Mercury Grand Marquis with blacked out windows rolls up. White dude in a sloppy looking suite gets out of the drivers side and a middle eastern looking man also dressed similarly gets out of the passenger side. They go to the trunk and grab an AR and AK and some mags. They walk up to the shooting line, load the mags, and just start emptying the mags into the ground at about 50 yards (no targets). When they shot a few mags each, they loaded the rifles back up in the trunk and took off. To this day I have no idea what i had just seen.......

They were punishing the earth. It knew what it did.

 

[hlee]

View attachment 7217118

Bulletproof deer. Not really. Lot of shouting, Cease fire. Cold Range. RO ended up having to chase them off.

I have to look in my pictures, but I may have something similar at Woody's DMM in 2013 when Wild Turkeys walked in front of the Corner LaRue Target during Stage 1....

No Pictures, but my son attended the Wilderness Adventure Camp at the NRA Whittington center in Raton NM this past summer. He said that they had to chase pronghorns off the Skeet fields every day...

2 white tail bucks and a doe spent most of Saturday behind the 1100 yard target on Stage 3, of the PRS Finale this past year.

 

[WestDesertPRS]

I’m at a local range sighting in a few rifles on a nice weekend late morning. I was taking a break when a black Mercury Grand Marquis with blacked out windows rolls up. White dude in a sloppy looking suite gets out of the drivers side and a middle eastern looking man also dressed similarly gets out of the passenger side. They go to the trunk and grab an AR and AK and some mags. They walk up to the shooting line, load the mags, and just start emptying the mags into the ground at about 50 yards (no targets). When they shot a few mags each, they loaded the rifles back up in the trunk and took off. To this day I have no idea what i had just seen.......

Had a pretty similar experience at a spot near me. I hadn't been there before and one of my friends dragged me out to shoot there. Pretty crappy spot overall, shooting uphill a bit and a bunch of scrubby brush. It was pretty obvious that most people who shoot there are setting up targets 50yds away blasting at it.

So we're there a little while and its starting to fill up with the yahoo crowd and this rat-trap Escalade pulls up. A bunch of guys get out and blast away at a dirt berm with mostly pistols. They keep this up for 30 minutes or so and just get back in their truck and leave. They never did bother to try setting up any targets or anything. Really weird.

 

[Milo 2.5]

Had a pretty similar experience at a spot near me. I hadn't been there before and one of my friends dragged me out to shoot there. Pretty crappy spot overall, shooting uphill a bit and a bunch of scrubby brush. It was pretty obvious that most people who shoot there are setting up targets 50yds away blasting at it.

So we're there a little while and its starting to fill up with the yahoo crowd and this rat-trap Escalade pulls up. A bunch of guys get out and blast away at a dirt berm with mostly pistols. They keep this up for 30 minutes or so and just get back in their truck and leave. They never did bother to try setting up any targets or anything. Really weird.

I had to think about this, not everyone is into accuracy of any kind, let alone LR precision. It is becoming more prevalent IMO. At the range I use, we have a bullet trap at 100 for development and zero, there are days if you walk down, you'll encounter piles of brass, usually 223 and 7.62 x39, I think it is the only way they can get a visible and audible reaction. They'll even drive down the range and setup 25 feet from a bigger pc of steel, 3/4 Ipsc or so and go to town.
In your case, there were probably too many people around for them to dump a washing machine out of the back end of their escalade for something to shoot at, so they beat some dirt up, lol

 

[WestDesertPRS]

Another day I was out at one of my regular spots. This is pretty decent place to shoot out to about 800m. You are shooting across an open wash with a small mountain / big hill as a backstop. There is a dirt road (sort of) that goes down the foot of the hill where targets are setup.

So we've just taken a little break to let barrels cool and shoot the shit and this old dude in a pickup drives in right past us and down the road. Parks his truck right in front of our targets and let's his dogs out to run around. He's leaning against his truck and chain smoking cigs. Totally oblivious to the fact that he was in the target area of 5 precision rifles.

After a while he just rounds up his dogs and drives out. I don't know if he was clueless or just didn't care.

 

[forrestgump01]

So I have to share this , and I hope gun store stories count.
I just stopped at sportsman warehouse to grab some reloader 17, and as I'm looking over the powder on the shelf I couldn't help but overhear the conversation between a customer and the guy behind the gun counter.
I learned 3 new things before I couldn't take anymore , grabbed my powder and bolted to the check out.

1 - a 30-06 is only good to 500 yds, anything farther and you need a 338 lapua or a 50 cal
2 - a 16 power scope is only good to about 400 yds.
3 - a vortex scope comes in front focal plane and rear focal plane.

I was afraid if i stayed any longer ,some of there stupid germs might get on me.

 

[LeftyJason]

So I have to share this , and I hope gun store stories count.
I just stopped at sportsman warehouse to grab some reloader 17, and as I'm looking over the powder on the shelf I couldn't help but overhear the conversation between a customer and the guy behind the gun counter.
I learned 3 new things before I couldn't take anymore , grabbed my powder and bolted to the check out.

1 - a 30-06 is only good to 500 yds, anything farther and you need a 338 lapua or a 50 cal
2 - a 16 power scope is only good to about 400 yds.
3 - a vortex scope comes in front focal plane and rear focal plane.

I was afraid if i stayed any longer ,some of there stupid germs might get on me.

Works here but better in this thread. Btw it is a great read.

https://www.snipershide.com/shooting/threads/whats-the-most-stupid-thing-youve-been-told.208181/

 

[lash]

...
3 - a vortex scope comes in front focal plane and rear focal plane.
...

So if I put one of each on my rifle, it will be dual focal plane?

 

[forrestgump01]

So if I put one of each on my rifle, it will be dual focal plane?

GOD NO !, you can't put them toghether, that will fuck up the whole space time continuim thing and cause a black hole to open up. what the hell is wrong with you ?

 

[hlee]

Not really a funny story, more of a face palm story. I was shooting at the local range- every bench is numbered and that number corresponds with a spot on the target rack at 100 yards. The rack is composed of 2x4s nailed to posts, wide enough to staple targets at the top and bottom to the 2x4s. Kind of like the world's worst 2-rail fence, 6ft tall. Each side of a post is a different bench. For example, the left side of a post might be bench 13 and the right side bench 14. Anyway, at cease fire, i run down and look at my target, then run to the pisser. Back on the line a minute or 2 later, we're still not hot. WTF? What is that guy doing with my targets? I run down and ask this ancient guy to leave my targets where they are.

He says, "I'm on bench 13."

That's great, you're on the wrong side of the post. See the sign, on the post?

"Oh, ok."

Still trying to pull down my target. Look, I've got a stapler right here. Hang your targets next to the 13, not the 14.

I get him to hang his targets and I make my way back to the line. 3 eons later, The old man crosses the finish line and we can go hot.

He looks at the bench, turns and glares at me, "See? Bench 13."


The time before that, I thought I was going to witness a fist fight. A guy hung his targets across 2 benches, though he and his stuff were occupying only a single. A new shooter came up and pulled down the targets from the "empty bench." The tactical man-spreader was livid. Apparently, he's never known someone to leave their targets when they leave.

Public ranges are "fun."

 

[joelinux]

Not to be a necro-threadmancer, but, its been a year. Any good stories?

 

[HeavyAssault]

Went to the range just a few days ago with a new to me Hide PX rifle. Public range on WMA requires a "access permit" all of $4. Can be bought on-line or if you hold a valid hunting/fishing license you are good to go. I drive up seeing the local Ranger with a few people by his vehicle. No one was shooting at all, I ask the guy in the lane next to me " What's up with that situation? They don't have their access permit. Why isn't anyone shooting? Guess they all want to be respectful till the Ranger is done. Cool, I got time to hang my targets then." Walk down, hang the targets, walk back. Me and the guy talk a few minutes about whatever, Ranger starts going down the line. Everyone else is good to go. Bought my fishing license that morning so I had a good time. Rifle was SO nice to shoot. 100 yard zero DOPE now done. Now it's just a matter of more trigger time working on the fine tuning.

The lesson learned here is if you don't have your $4 permit, other people will reap the rewards. LOL