"Crazy" stuff you've seen on the range... [Archive]

beltjones

02-28-2011, 04:20 PM

For all the time we shooters spend on the practice range, in classes, and in competition I'm sure we all have loads of stories of wild, scary, funny, or otherwise unusual things we've seen. Let's hear them!

Here's a start:

I shoot USPSA with a police officer who is a pretty good shooter and a nice guy. A few weeks back he decided on a whim to shoot his duty rig, including his duty pistol. He could barely finish each stage due to constant malfunctions. He said it had been a few weeks since he shot the pistol, and clearly in that time his magazine springs (I think he had four mags) all went kaput. It seemed like he was both embarrassed and freaked out that he had been carrying his duty gun for weeks not knowing it didn't work! I would have been freaked out as well.

Another: This was in a class I took. At the end of the first day we were going to be doing dry fire drills in a class room, and the instructor was extremely clear that there was to be no ammunition, at all, in the room. He told us outside the classroom to go put any ammo in our cars and lock it up. Then, one by one we stopped at the door and showed him an empty gun and empty magazines. The rule was, if you leave the room, you go through the whole "check in" process again. So we all got checked in, and the instructor told us that just to be even safer, he was going to frisk us to make sure there were no loose rounds or loaded magazines in anyone's pockets. Everyone consented. Well, about the third guy he frisked turned out to be wearing a bullet proof vest, and he had a .38 snub nose revolver on his ankle - loaded. The instructor "confiscated" the revolver, we finished the lesson for the day, and the idiot who owned the revolver wasn't invited to come back the next day.

ToddG

02-28-2011, 04:32 PM

SLG

02-28-2011, 05:03 PM

Todd,

At least you only did that once. I've noticed that you now "empty your gun" without shooting every round in it:)

Kyle Reese

02-28-2011, 06:19 PM

If you visit any public range and hang out for a while you run into all kinds of folks.

Some real gems from over the years:

-Shooter loading 5.45x39mm rounds into an AR mag, and it was NOT a 5.45mm mag, or upper. His rationale? He was told he could shoot 5.45x39mm ammo in a 5.56mm weapon by his drill sergeant. :rolleyes:

-Shooter sees me shooting a Glock 17 in a class about 5 years ago with Rijndael, and tells me that I need to carry a "real mans gun" . His version of such a weapon was a steel S&W 9mm autoloader. I guess I wasn't feeling particularly manly that day when I selected a Glock 17 for the class. :cool:

Joe in PNG

02-28-2011, 06:30 PM

For the most part, my range experience has been pretty unexciting in a good way. However...

1) At an indoor range I retrieved my target ( from 7 yards) and saw a .22 cal hole in it.
Problem was, I was shooting a 9mm, and the nearest shooter was at least 4 lanes away.

2) During my first stage at my first bowling pin match. I shot all the pins, removed my mag, cleared the chamber, and dry fired downrange to show empty. At that point the Safety Officer said "mumble muffle mumble". So, I took off my ear muffs and asked him to repeat himself. He said "you need to clear the table". I looked, and yep, still one lonely pin sitting on its side... you can imagine that having to re-muff and reload from condition 4 doesn't exactly do a lot to improve one's score.

MattInFla

02-28-2011, 07:25 PM

A few years ago I was on a public outdoor range, shooting my pistol. A few lanes to my left, there were a couple guys shooting a revolver. At one point, they were changing the grips on the gun, so I thought nothing of hearing sporadic thumping from their position. I figured they were trying to encourage a recalcitrant grip to go onto or com off of the frame.

Wrong.

They were shooting a .38 special. They brought .357 mag ammo. They were pounding the bullets deeper into the cases so it would fit into the cylinder.

I tried to explain to them how unsafe that was, but they were not interested. I packed up and left before they managed to blow the poor revolver up.....

Matt

Rverdi

02-28-2011, 07:29 PM

One of the first classes I ever taught: Before breaking for lunch, the students were told to go up to the berm and empty their guns. Most took their guns out of their holsters, ejected the mag, racked the slide, verified a clear gun, and reholstered.

One guy drew his gun and fired every round in the magazine into the berm, oblivious to the people around him, most of whom weren't wearing hearing protection.

I'm thinking I was there for that one and if it's the class I'm thinking of, there was there was also the student who, after asking if he could show his M-4 to a fellow student proceeded to fire it into the side berm while we spoke to yet another student.

I believe our response was something along the lines of "Uh, please don't do that anymore."

beltjones

02-28-2011, 09:16 PM

You guys reminded me of a story, one that I'm suddenly not very proud of.

I was at an outdoor range nearby, and a lane or two over there was a European guy with an auto of some kind. We were both shooting, he with his auto and me with a 1911 that day, when they called the line cold so people could go downrange and reset targets. I didn't have anything to do, so I stood behind the "safety" line and waited for them to call the range hot again. Just then a friend of the Euro dude showed up. If you can picture a sleazy fashion photographer, that's what this guy looked like. Around his neck hung a massive digital SLR camera, and he started snapping pictures of the European dude. They called the line hot again, and the few of us on the line were busying ourselves with loading mags, putting our hearing protection back in, and so on.

At this point the Euro dude says to the photographer, "You need to go to the office and buy some ear plugs." "Ok, just a second." Says the photographer. A few more seconds go by and the guy is still snapping pictures. I finished loading my magazines when the Euro guy said again, "Seriously, they will start shooting soon, and it will be very loud." "I'll be ok. Just one second..." Was the reply.

Well, I waited about another 5 seconds to see if the photographer was going to make any pretense of leaving to buy some hearing protection (he wasn't), and I took aim and popped off a couple of rounds of .45 ACP.

"Oh my God." I heard the photographer say. "I told you!" Said the European guy. "Oh my God, my ears are ringing." Said the photographer. "Go!" Said the European guy, and he pointed to the range office. The photographer jogged briskly away from the shooting line, and came back a few minutes later with a set of rented ear muffs.

I feel pretty bad about it now. I really wasn't trying to be a jerk. At the time I just felt like the photographer had received plenty of warnings, and he just chose not to heed them (and I wanted to get back to shooting). :p:p:p

YVK

02-28-2011, 10:20 PM

I spent two days in a class next to a fellow whose pistol draw consisted of pulling his Nighthawk out of holster, then holding that 1911 by the dustcover/slide with his weak hand so he could adjust his strong hand grip.
It was a pretty interesting mind game for me: he never violated any safety rules yet something in my brain didn't let me take off my plates for the entire class length.

Frank D.

03-01-2011, 04:19 AM

Oh boy.

I live in Thailand (I'm half-Thai), finishing up school. The crazy shit you see here is unbelievable.

IPSC and IDPA are actually fairly popular around here, but its a very small number of people who compete regularly, and the vast majority have never shot a gun (this is related to laws regarding who can buy a gun, and the relative cost of guns and ammo themselves).

4-Rules? HA. No eyepro, check. Shells for earpro, check. Guys who'll go forward of the line while other shooters are not just hot, but still shooting, you bet. There are even cops who will unholster and hand you (a stranger) a live gun when you ask them what they're carrying.

Quick story about what passes for an experienced shooter (shoots every weekend, but not comps).

I went to a range with a new buddy of mine. He owns a gun store here, one of his sales people saw me ogling an Ed Brown in the window and, since over here I pass for white, called the boss over. Turns out he lived in the states forever, we get to talking yada-yada, next thing I'm going to the range with him the next weekend to go shoot his Brown.

We start off indoors and everything is normal. Guy looks like he knows what he's doing, is safe and whatnot. No alarm bells.

Then we head outside (no drawing inside). To my amazement, he begins to load facing up-range, flagging the spectators 30 or so yards away in the rest area with a freshly loaded gun. If you ever saw the movie 'Yes Man' then you can picture the reaction. I hit the deck so fast, my earpro smacked me in the face (literally, it came off my head and I watched it fall onto my face).

Apparently, having a table behind where we were shooting to throw our gear on made him think he should load facing that direction as well.

There are good ranges out here, and good (safe) shooters and ROs, but damned if I'm not watching everyone on the line, just in case.

da6dspanburg

03-01-2011, 07:38 AM

Todd,

At least you only did that once. I've noticed that you now "empty your gun" without shooting every round in it:)

LOL!!!! I just spit out my breakfast!!!

da6d

SMJayman

03-01-2011, 10:49 PM

Guy shot himself in the leg while re-holstering, I think that is probably # 1.

Guy with multiple squibs during a match and a case head separation. I asked him what powder he was using, and later I cross-checked it vs. various load manuals. No comparable listing. Heck, no listing in any pistol caliber for that powder. More research led to the fact that the manufacturer says ABSOLUTELY don't use it in a pistol, it isn't compatible and may give you serious issues. I try to tell that guy about it, he ignores me. I think he later blew up that gun.

I have seen numerous other silly things, but nothing else that compares to those two. Most of the other stuff you've all probably seen at one point or another.

MTechnik

03-01-2011, 11:01 PM

While on an all-clear, and people were walking downrange to change targets. This guy was packing up, goes to chamber a round in his carry gun, and rides the slide and the trigger (don't ask me how, it was a taurus 92) and NDs one into the ground 15 feet in front of him. (and about 15 feet away from some other people walking downrange.)

Unfortunately, he was the person there teaching ME to shoot.

You can learn a lot in a day.

ToddG

03-01-2011, 11:09 PM

At the 2000 IDPA Low Light Challenge, we'd fallen very far behind schedule so while one squad was taping targets (in the dark on a single indoor bay), another squad was queued up waiting to go. Well, one of the ROs decided to start his shooter before the other squad gave the all clear, and a bunch of us found ourselves downrange while a guy 25' to our left started shooting the stage. They couldn't hear us shouting cease fire and no one wanted to flash a light and draw the shooter's focus, so we all just stood very still...

While MD'ing a local IDPA match at NRA HQ, I turned around to see a guy pointing a revolver right in my stomach. He was flabbergasted that I got so upset, especially because the gun wasn't even loaded! So I walked him over to the safe area to pack up his pistol after he'd been DQ'd, and guess what... six live rounds in the gun.

Guy shows up at another IDPA match at NRA HQ and goes over to the safe area. Moments later, we all hear a gunshot and see the guy speed walking off the range and into the night, never to be seen again. He'd AD'd his (loaded) Glock while taking it out of a gun rug, put a bullet through the table and into the wall, and run off. He never came back, not even to get the Glock he left behind.

Joe in PNG

03-01-2011, 11:37 PM

Guy shows up at another IDPA match at NRA HQ and goes over to the safe area. Moments later, we all hear a gunshot and see the guy speed walking off the range and into the night, never to be seen again. He'd AD'd his (loaded) Glock while taking it out of a gun rug, put a bullet through the table and into the wall, and run off. He never came back, not even to get the Glock he left behind.

So, what did you do with the Glock?

ToddG

03-01-2011, 11:40 PM

So, what did you do with the Glock?

What Glock? :cool:

Actually, the range management dealt with it. Presumably, they turned it over to the police.

David

03-02-2011, 04:02 AM

So, what did you do with the Glock?

http://i244.photobucket.com/albums/gg10/imdavid/3ac99f16.gif

fuse

03-02-2011, 07:45 AM

ToddG

03-02-2011, 08:18 AM

http://i244.photobucket.com/albums/gg10/imdavid/3ac99f16.gif

Dude, I greatly admire your choice in time-wasting activity. :cool:

Kyle Reese

03-02-2011, 03:24 PM

Last week I saw a gentleman on a certain range in NOVA try to impress a lady to his left. He was telling her about how he qualified Expert on the Rifle 20 years ago in Basic Training, and a few moments later he was handling said rifle behind the firing line.

Oh- and his XD was placed on the table so it flagged everyone to his left down the firing line. I guess he was taught that 20 years ago too.

It is unknown if his attempt to woo the fair lady was successful with his incredibly cool story.

LittleLebowski

03-02-2011, 03:30 PM

I remember one time German Synergy was amazed at someone wearing flipflops at the range. So I keep on doing that, hoping to see him there :cool:

Kyle Reese

03-02-2011, 03:36 PM

I've seen flip flops and a gentleman listening to his I-pod while blasting away with his Beretta PX4. I guess I've never felt the overwhelming need to listen to my podcasts while doing Dot Torture. :cool:

I remember one time German Synergy was amazed at someone wearing flipflops at the range. So I keep on doing that, hoping to see him there :cool:

MTechnik

03-02-2011, 03:37 PM

I've seen flip flops and a gentleman listening to his I-pod while blasting away with his Beretta PX4. I guess I've never felt the overwhelming need to listen to my podcasts while doing Dot Torture. :cool:

come on, if you can listen to lady gaga without wanting to keep firing until the slide is locked back, and you're still squeezing the trigger, then you're really doing a good job of handling external influeces.

ToddG

03-02-2011, 03:41 PM

LittleLebowski

03-02-2011, 03:45 PM

MTechnik

03-02-2011, 03:50 PM

Actually, I had my earpro set up to play music from a Shuffle for a while. It was great. Drowned out a lot of the general BS going on all around, but wasn't nearly loud enough to block a cease fire call, etc.

I'm not the most social guy when practicing...

Also, if you use your phone as the audio source for the MSA Sordins, (or other connectable ear pro) it should cancel the music when the call comes in. (yes, not the same an all clear range call)

And using my sordins, while listening to music, doing some long distance shooting, I was able to hear the chain on the gate being slid before the gate was opened. Good to not "feel disconnnected" or isolated because of the ear pro.

dookie1481

03-02-2011, 03:51 PM

Can you repost your podcast on how to pick up Hungarian porn stars? Thanks.

Considering that I live in Las Vegas, that could be incredibly useful information. Thanks!

beltjones

03-02-2011, 03:57 PM

Speaking of music on the range...

At a place near my house, there used to be this range officer who would randomly walk up and down the line (no biggie, that was his job), and he would stop and "observe" people while singing in a high falsetto voice. Well, it wasn't really singing. It sounded more like Eddie Murphy doing his impression of James Brown. I think people would have told him to knock it off, but he was a massive, massive guy - about 6'6" and probably 240 lbs of solid muscle.

One time there was a beautiful Cold Gold Cup that wouldn't feed reliably (shocking, I know), and I kept resisting the urge to run over and offer my "expert" 1911 diagnostic services. Anyone who likes to tinker with 1911's knows what a powerful urge that can be. Anyway, they guys shooting the Gold Cup asked the RO if he knew what was wrong with the gun, and he offered to shoot it for them. He assumed an almost Seagal-esque weaver stance and fired a few rounds before proclaiming the problem to be that the grip thing was sticking up (the safety), and that it needed to be taped down. At that moment I'd had it, and I walked over and said that the RO was smoking crack, and I offered to take a look at the gun. You could tell immediately that the recoil spring was either shot, or had been replaced with something really light for purpose-built rounds (like a 9lb spring for steel matches). And they were using that spring to try to feed defensive hollow point ammo to the gun. There's yer problem, as they say.

LittleLebowski

03-02-2011, 04:41 PM

Monday I watched 2 firefighters argue with the RSO about the rule at the NRA range forbidding human shaped targets. They actually told him it shouldn't apply to them as they are "law enforcement."

Couldn't shoot for shit either.

GLOCKMASTER

03-02-2011, 06:47 PM

One guy drew his gun and fired every round in the magazine into the berm, oblivious to the people around him, most of whom weren't wearing hearing protection.

Lesson: terminology matters.

I've had that happen before and it wasn't pretty.

I've also seen a USMC major about lose his right foot during a carbine class because some buffet assassin was careless and fired a round into the ground inches in front of the major's right foot.

I'm sure I will think of other crazy things later.

David

03-02-2011, 08:50 PM

Dude, I greatly admire your choice in time-wasting activity. :cool:

It's a gift, I was born to waste time!

mlk18

03-02-2011, 09:06 PM

I am in a firing line at a state police qualification (mind you this was almost two decades back). We have a municipal LEO in attendance who thought more of his skill than he could actually deliver. We had moving/turning target stands that were made of wrought iron and held cardboard backers in place. So during every course of fire you would hear bam, bam, ting, bam, ting from this guy. The tings are of course ricochets from his hitting the wrought iron. The range officer stops the course and walks up to him and they have a little chat. A few minutes later they call out the next round "5 rounds! 5 rounds! Shooters Ready...." then the target would turn. Bam, ting, bam, ting, bam, bam, bam. "3 rounds! 3 rounds! Shooters ready.....HOLD ON THE LINE!" Bam, bam, ting, bam, ting. No one shot but super cop. Conversation number two with the range safety officer. That time the conversation was much more enthusiastic. Back on the line. "4 rounds! 4 rounds! Shooters ready......". Bam, pachiiiing! And the the guy 2 places down from me goes down! Flat on his back. Blood all over his face. "HOLD THE LINE! HOLD THE LINE! OFFICER DOWN! OFFICER DOWN!". The ricochet came back and hit a shooter right below his nose. Cut him from his lip to his nostril along with several other small lacerations. He ended up with a nice scar to go with the story. Super cop was escorted to the remedial training range for a one on one with a Sergeant and the range officer. Never saw him shooting again. Never saw those wrought iron target stands again either.

Kyle Reese

03-03-2011, 01:37 AM

How did that happen? Classic case of rectal/cranial inversion on the part of said buffet commando?

I've had that happen before and it wasn't pretty.

I've also seen a USMC major about lose his right foot during a carbine class because some buffet assassin was careless and fired a round into the ground inches in front of the major's right foot.

I'm sure I will think of other crazy things later.

MTechnik

03-03-2011, 02:37 AM

A guy with his 15 year old nephew, shooting the first time. Gave him his 7mm magnum, and didn't warn about scope bite.

Yeah, I didn't touch a gun for a while after that.

fuse

03-03-2011, 02:48 AM

A guy with his 15 year old nephew, shooting the first time. Gave him his 7mm magnum, and didn't warn about scope bite.

Yeah, I didn't touch a gun for a while after that.

Happened to me at 13, but with a .30-06

Still have a tiny scar on my eyebrow.

Gordon

03-03-2011, 03:09 AM

Many years ago I saw a couple of guys pitch up to the range with a 12ga pump-action (can recall the make). Anyhow, said shotgun had a pistol grip only with no stock. Next thing the older of the two (early 20's) hands the younger one (early teens) the 12ga. Before anyone else notices (including the RO) the older guy instructs the younger to "aim" by bringing the shotgun up to eye level. BANG! and one teenie is sporting a massively swollen eye. He was lucky...

da6dspanburg

03-03-2011, 10:48 AM

Not sure if this counts........ I have not seen this on the range and I'm crtainly leaving the range ASAP if I ever do........

http://www.thefirearmblog.com/blog/2011/02/28/double-glock-full-auto-pistols/

da6d

Kyle Reese

03-03-2011, 11:44 AM

I've witnessed many couples on the range where the guy hands his S/O a 12 gauge with Uber Magnum Brand X Slugs, and the hapless S/O fires one or two rounds before putting the weapon down and making a mental note to never go to the range again.

All this to prove how "manly" he is, I suppose. I took a S/O to the range recently and let her have at it with a GSG 5 and a Glock 17.

I'm 6'4" and I hate shooting slugs. I can only imagine what it's like for a small statured female that weighs all of 120 pounds.

A guy with his 15 year old nephew, shooting the first time. Gave him his 7mm magnum, and didn't warn about scope bite.

Yeah, I didn't touch a gun for a while after that.

ToddG

03-03-2011, 12:14 PM

Didn't witness this first hand, but it was relayed by a trusted friend:

A local indoor range leased out a bay to your typical armed security guard training company. One of the girls in the class was struggling mightily to hit anything with her issued .38 revolver. The instructor kept yelling at her to look at the front sight, but she missed shot after shot. Finally, the instructor stopped the class and singled her out in front of everyone and told her she absolutely had to make the next six hits so she had better see that front sight! The young lady pointed the gun at the ceiling, stared at the front sight, and pulled the trigger six times. As plaster and ceiling material fell down around everyone's ears, she completely lost it and quit.

Frank B

03-03-2011, 02:28 PM

A local indoor range leased out a bay to your typical armed security guard training company. One of the girls in the class was struggling mightily to hit anything with her issued .38 revolver. The instructor kept yelling at her to look at the front sight, but she missed shot after shot. Finally, the instructor stopped the class and singled her out in front of everyone and told her she absolutely had to make the next six hits so she had better see that front sight! The young lady pointed the gun at the ceiling, stared at the front sight, and pulled the trigger six times. As plaster and ceiling material fell down around everyone's ears, she completely lost it and quit.

sounds like a german company.