Absurd sh!t you hear at a public range

[Chefdog]

I thought I’d seen a similar thread in the past, but couldn’t seem to find it. Mods, please move this if it’s redundant.

I was at the range this morning zeroing two new dots and a gentleman and two 20-ish young men took the lane next to me. It was clear that the older man was attempting to teach them how to shoot, first instructing them how to grip the pistol straight out of a 1985 episode of Miami Vice, cup and saucer style. I quickly went back to the task at hand until I hear him telling the kids that they’re on the 15 yd line and the lanes to the left are 7 yards. He asks “do you know why 7 yds is important?” I assume he’s gonna start in about the Tueller drill, but then he follows up with: “Cause 7 yards is the distance you’re allowed to shoot someone. If you shoot them past 7 yards it’s murder.” He was dead serious. I then turned my ear pro off so I didn’t have to hear the rest. When they were leaving I noticed that one of the young men put his pistol in his belt before leaving…I should mention that they were happy with being able to just hit paper at 15 yds.

This is by far the worst piece of “advice” I’ve ever heard.
What kind of dumb shit have you seen or heard at your local range range beyond inane discussions of “man stopping ammo” and other such nonsense?

[Clusterfrack]

Links to previous threads, so we can have all the good stories in one place:

https://pistol-forum.com/showthread....-the-gun-range
https://pistol-forum.com/showthread....shooting-range
https://pistol-forum.com/showthread....n-at-the-range

[Glenn E. Meyer]

Mentioned this before, I was taking my Texas CHL test. It was quite easy and all my shots were in the center bottle zone. A guy comes up to me and says you should have missed some. That was because if you shoot so well, when you go to court they will ask why you didn't shoot the opponent in the leg just to stop him. The guy said he knows this because he was a 'sniper'. When I posted this, a few folks here said they have heard the same thing.

I've seen the cup and saucer grip and also the hold the wrist grip. The latter because Daddy or PawPaw was a MARINE and that's how you do it.

Florida guy recently said that if someone is prowling your car, you can shoot him because it is part of the stand your ground in your castle doctrine in Florida. I said that isn't part of NYS law.

Oops, posted before CF links.

[Clusterfrack]

Recycled range horror stories...

This thread makes me so glad I'm fortunate enough have local ranges where I can practice in my own outdoor bay. Unfortunately even that isn't always enough... Here are four examples of "curious things seen at the range".

1. Brass rat

I was practicing at my home range, in one of the outdoor bays. The bay is ~50’ long and 30’ wide. I had set up 3 USPSA metric targets and was working on shooting into and out of position at 15 yds. I guess I was really in the zone, because my situational awareness was disturbingly low. I didn’t realize anyone was in the bay with me until I heard something behind me. I looked back--there was a guy crouching down right behind me! I backed up and yelled “What the FUCK are you doing???” It was a truly ancient dude picking up my brass and putting it into a sack. He said, “Oh, do you want your brass?” Before I sent him on his way, I made him pour out the contents of the bag, which he argued about because he claimed the brass hadn’t all come from my gun. Note to self: check your 6 more often.

2. Gangbanger’s girlfriend

When I visit a buddy in California, there isn’t a lot of options for shooting. A convenient, but sketchy location is an indoor facility called Targetmasters West. In the evening, especially on weekends, the clientele is typically wannabe gangbangers and their chicks. One time, in the lane next to me and my buddy, a guy was there with a girl in 4” heels and super-tight jeans. He had given her a big .40 Beretta, and was standing behind looking at her ass. The girl had obviously never shot a gun before, and was very nervous. Just as I was about to intervene, she closed her eyes and fired. Then she danced and squealed “I shot it! I shot it!”, and turned--sweeping me and my buddy--and stopped with her finger on the trigger and the gun pointed straight at her guy. I couldn’t help thinking, “please… pull the trigger.”

3. Is it loaded?

This next incident was the last time I’ve been to Targetmasters because it’s just too scary. In two lanes to my left was a large group of older Chinese guys. One guy went to the back of the bays and took a Glock 26 out of a bag (obviously violating safety rules). Since he was pointing the gun in our direction (with finger in the trigger guard), I walked over and calmly put my hand on top of the slide and pointed it downrange. I asked him if the gun was loaded, but his English wasn’t very good. He didn’t like me grabbing his gun, and for some reason, he kept trying to point the gun at me. We ended up having a little grappling match while he was yelling at me in Chinese and his friends were trying to get in on the action. We ended with his gun pinned to the bench. After he finally let go, I discovered that gun was loaded and chambered. We left and informed the ROs (who never seem to pay attention to what’s going on in the bays).

4. I shot the roof

Another story from a different indoor range: Cletus and Billybob were in a lane to my left. They had one of those monster S&W revolvers for killing bears or Godzilla. It was so loud that I gave up trying to shoot and just watched them. After a couple of shots, Cletus was so twitchy that he was visibly shaking. He touched one off prematurely, and a ton of ceiling tile and dust rained down.
Cletus: “FUCK! I shot the roof…”
Billybob: “You idjut. They charge you like $20 every time you do that”
Cletus, looking up at the hundreds of holes in the ceiling: “Huh. They sure must make a lot of money that way.”

[Glenn E. Meyer]

Told this before:

1. Outdoor rifle range. Cease fire called to redo targets. Grandpa kept shooting. Said he was in the military and knew how to shoot. His son lectured him as did the RO. Next cease fire, kept on. His son had to wrestle the rifle away and stuff him in the truck.

2. Same range, a guy walks up to the four of us with a Glock something, jammed out of battery with a round stuck partially in the chamber. Pointed right us and asking for help as it doesn't 'work' - eek!

3. New indoor range, the RO shows me how the fancy target controls work. I notice the holes in the ceiling - he says - look at this. Down the line (which are separated by thick transparent something) there is one partition with a big bullet hit and fracture pattern. Had to be holding right at it. OMG!

4. Saw a SKS go full auto, guy was able to hold it down range.

[Chefdog]

Links to previous threads, so we can have all the good stories in one place:

https://pistol-forum.com/showthread....-the-gun-range
https://pistol-forum.com/showthread....shooting-range
https://pistol-forum.com/showthread....n-at-the-range

Nice! Thanks, I knew I’d seen some good ones in the past.

[GJM]

Jeff Cooper said that all males, by virtue of being born that way, think they are expert at firearms, driving and ....

[rd62]

Fighting right?? 🤣

[Stephanie B]

What kind of dumb shit have you seen or heard at your local range range beyond inane discussions of “man stopping ammo” and other such nonsense?

Some clown who closed the cylinder on his revolver each time by snapping his wrist.

[Tapatio]

OK, not absurd sh!t I heard, but a public range story nonetheless.

At a now-closed outdoor public range in Northern California.

Guy sits down at the bench next to me with a scoped rifle. Soon as he uncases the rifle he starts pointing the muzzle all over the place- RO spots it and scolds him over the PA. That must've rattled him because as soon as he started shooting, holes began appearing in MY target rather than the one he'd placed downrange. I waited for a break in the action and said "excuse me sir, I believe you are shooting at my target. Yours is the one to the left of the one you've been shooting at."

Guy gets all huffy, immediately cases up his rifle and stalks off, no doubt to go tell his friends what a bunch of @ssholes they are down at that range.

I wasn't sad to see him go.

For the record, it was one of the cleanest, nicest, best-managed ranges I've ever been to, with overall great and friendly folks.

And there were just a few bullet holes in the roof over the benches.