LGS/Range Stories

[Dubz337]

This past weekend, I was in Cabela's picking up some 5.56 for my Raven (pretty much the only quality AR-style rifle available in Canada beside dropping $3K on a Bren or Tavor) and overheard a convo at the gun counter between a young dude and the gun counter guy. Kid was purchasing his first rifle, was interested in getting into hunting, and was looking at a 6.5CM. Good gun to start with, can't knock him for that. The Cabela's employee, however, confidently stated, 'you can also shoot 6.5 Grendel AND 6.5PRC outta this, so you'll never be out of ammo!' He then pressured the kid on spending his whole budget on a mid-range Browning 'on sale' and just getting a cheap Tasco scope with what was left, cause 'the gun is what matters'. Left shaking my head.

At the range I go to, most guys are pretty good, but its always funny watching guys show up with magnums and not be able to hit paper at 50 yards. Some of them flinch before even pulling the trigger. Funniest thing I ever saw was a guy show up with his bow and think he could use the long gun range to practice, even brought a 3D deer target he wanted to set up down range.

So what are some of your guys' funny/horrifying local gun store and range stories?

 

[Jamen]

Local gun range was out checking rifles. Group of several people younger than me early 20s were there. Mix of men and women and a couple kids. Kids didn't have any hearing protection on, they were crying. I'd say 2-5 years old. They were all shooting pistols and AR's. I waited til they were down walked out to put my target up, they could clearly see me and i waved at them with targets in my hand before i walked out. They started blasting down range. I hit the deck and got back to my truck, rather than getting into a confrontation with a bunch of kids that clearly didn't give a s$%t especially with guns. I left and called the sheriff. Unsure whatever happened but now i just go to my friend's farm to check guns.

 

[brockel]

Seen a guy struggling to get his new weatherby vanguard sighted in. Seen the cases he was ejecting looked a little off. Picked one up and it said 300 Winchester on it. Asked him what he was shooting and he said 300 weatherby. Told him he had the wrong ammo. Said he wasn’t spending the money on the expensive weatherby stuff.

 

[Wind Gypsy]

Heard a scheels guy telling a customer Mils we’re for military (artillery) and less accurate than MOA last year..

 

[Gellar]

I was teaching a hunters Ed class inside the building and a group of Hispanics set up on the range that was supposed to be closed for the class. They were shooting down range while members of their group were putting up/taking down targets.

 

[CRJR45]

Michigan , a guy down the line was shooting a muzzleloader and shoot his ram rod out of the barrel . He came to ask if he could borrow one of mine , but mine was six inches shorter than his barrel . Thats ok , he said , it shouldn't matter , and proceeded to shoot without seating his bullets .

 

[Salmonchaser]

Guided two guys, two years apart. Both were from So. Cal. Bought their first rifles from the same Cabelas down there. Both showed up day before the season opened with scopes mounted back wards. One said it hadn’t been shot that the clerk mounted the scope, looked down the barrel and dialed the scope in. Other guy said he didn’t know what the big deal with scopes was. Thought it made the target harder to hit. One guy had enough ammunition to get zeroed the other had about 6 rounds. I brought him a rifle from home in the morning.

 

[Hammsolo]

I’ve had two situations; one lame as F, and the other scary.

I was out at Trout Lake West of Spokane dodging trash when two 20 somethings showed up. They set up their targets about 50 yards away, and parallel to mine. They were getting set up while I signaled them, they waved and then I walked to my target. Suddenly I was down range and being shot at. I yelled, “What the fruck!” One guy stopped his buddy and they looked at me strange. I proceeded to chew their ass, teach them the basics, and leave. Of course they were shooting AR’s like badasses…

I’ve never went back. I now pay a couple of bucks to go to the Spokane Valley Rifle and Pistol Club. They have range masters and it’s nice and clean.

However, I was there once and watched a young man blast through rounds going full sideways gangster kill shot stance while pumping 15 rounds through a Glock… The worst part? He was recording it live on social media and saying stupid shiz. WTF?

He was being relatively safe and I didn’t say anything… I probably should have. Lesson learned.

 

[np307]

I was at a wildlife commission range not too long before deer season. There were a fair number of people there so just about all the lanes were full. A spot on the end opens up and this guy and his buddy go down and get set up. He pulls a shotgun out. We go cold so he can go set a target up at 30 yards or so. Everybody is set and the range goes hot. It's important to note that, at this point, the range did not always have a safety officer on each firing line, so there was a decent amount of self-policing.

Well old Joe Shotgun goes back to his bay, racks a shell, and takes a shot. Then another, and maybe one more. Then, this joker, with shotgun to his cheek, begins closing distance on his target. He had covered 5 yards or so when I saw him and me and another guy instantly started calling cease fire. This genius didn't even understand why that was a stupid decision.

That range now has rope across the front of the firing line so nobody can repeat thar stunt.

 

[Bryerific]

One time when I was a teenager, I was shooting with my father and grandfather at a public range in the mountains of Colorado. There was one other group at the 100 yard rifle range with us. Both of our groups were shooting rifles and during one of the cease fires they decided to go put some clay pidgeons out. Since we walked down to the hundred yard papers to check out our groups, we only noticed them placing clays at that distance. But, in addition to placing them on the hill backstop at 100 yards, they also placed some in front of the 25 and 50 yard target stands, which were tires filled with concrete and PVC pipe post holes.

They were at the other end of a lot of benches so we weren’t playing too close of attention to what they had on their bench. When we went hot again, we watched them get back on the rifles and start shooting at the 100 yard clays. A few minute later I noticed one of them had picked up a pistol and was shooting at the closer target stands. I was standing back behind the line at the spotting scope and after watching them make a few splashes in the dirt in front of the clays propped up in front of the tire, I took a few steps towards my father to tell him I thought it was a dumb idea. Right then I got smacked in the thigh by one of the ricochets. Thankfully the combo of bouncing off the ground and then off the cement filled-tire slowed it down to the point it only left a welt. I actually looked down immediately and saw it still spinning on the ground so I picked it up and then immediately threw it on the table as it was quite hot. The commotion got my father’s attention and after relaying why I was in pain, he ran over and got them to stop shooting. They were apologetic but if memory serves me right, they left as quickly as they could. In the end, I was fine but it could have been bad and now I pay really close attention to what other benches are doing.

Somewhere I still have that bullet in one of those medical jars that I had because around the same time I needed an ER doc to dig a fishing hook out of the back of my skull. That one I had nobody to blame but me

 

[Wind Gypsy]

Back when most my rifles were magnum hunting rifles and I spent a lot of time letting barrels cool I'd occasionally set a foam archery target out and fling arrows while barrels were cooling if the range or BLM area was slow enough. On nearly every occasion where someone else showed up to shoot before i brought in the archery target, I'd notice them aiming at it with a rifle and have to tell them not to shoot it. Must have been 4 or 5 different times and happened in CA, MN, and SC. People are dumb everywhere.

 

[Dubz337]

Back when most my rifles were magnum hunting rifles and I spent a lot of time letting barrels cool I'd occasionally set a foam archery target out and fling arrows while barrels were cooling if the range or BLM area was slow enough. On nearly every occasion where someone else showed up to shoot before i brought in the archery target, I'd notice them aiming at it with a rifle and have to tell them not to shoot it. Must have been 4 or 5 different times and happened in CA, MN, and SC. People are dumb everywhere.

Maybe you're the guy! haha

In all honesty it wouldn't have been as big a problem if he wasn't decked out in Sitka lifestyle wear and wearing a bino harness. I mean you're at the range lol best I could come up with is maybe he wanted to see if his bino harness interfered with his draw? But I'm very novice in archery so I don't know if that would need to be considered.

 

[Wind Gypsy]

Maybe you're the guy! haha

In all honesty it wouldn't have been as big a problem if he wasn't decked out in Sitka lifestyle wear and wearing a bino harness. I mean you're at the range lol best I could come up with is maybe he wanted to see if his bino harness interfered with his draw? But I'm very novice in archery so I don't know if that would need to be considered.

Maybe! I've never went to the range to shoot my bow but rather shoot my bow to kill time between rifle groups when at the range.. Only if there's not a bunch of people and I have a lane on either edge where I can put a target to the side of the firing lane - Which made it that much worse when someone is aiming cross range at a foam block.

Dont bother now that I've got foam setup around the yard now and always have enough rifles to keep me shooting.