My range bag has it's own, dedicated, blow out kit. If I'm taking a class I bring my big aid bag, since in almost every class I take I end up as the designated responder or alternate. Gosh I wonder why?
I took a class once where they had, unironically, tampons in their kits. Once. (Late 2010s, so absolutely no excuse)
But nothing, absolutely NOTHING, that I've seen in 20+ years of gun owner/shooter, and about 5 of training junkie, matches what I heard a PD sergeant describe on their most recent range day. And he's laughing about it and I'm getting more and more horrified. I had to stop listening, it was that bad.
I think we all get complacent about the really dangerous shit deal with all the time, because we just get used to it. I've seen it with gas company guys out on leaks, and I can tell you I feel the same way about burning buildings. And I saw a similar attitude in the cold war era USAR where we were treating our always unloaded M16s as inert objects.
'Nobody ever called the fire department because they did something intelligent'
I'm getting better and better at the below in general in life. Not perfect, but better.
It's been my rule at the range for a long time.
I recently shot at a nice public range after maybe 8+ years of not having visited one. The rule is as apt as ever.
Does the above offend? If you have paid to be here, you can click here to put it in context.
Not stupid stuff. When I shot at Bandera Gun Club - Tim Reedy of TDR Training gave a great intro before the matches to emergency procedure as to injures and how to call it in. For example, not saying there's been a shooting at ... This leads to a nasty law turnout.
Anyway, the club I shoot at now, didn't do such and I brought it up at a meeting. Now they do. A positive note.
Cloud Yeller of the Boomer Age
Not my story but was told to me by an instructor (IT certification not firearms). Said he took a lady our on a date to a range. Started with a 6 shot DA revolver teaching her how to hold it, fire it, etc. Loaded 6 rounds, handed to her and she fired off all six saying "suffer, suffer, suffer, suffer, suffer, die" as she put the first 5 in the silhouette's crotch and the last in the head and then told him her older brothers taught her to shoot when she was younger.
Since this thread has shifted to calling it in.
My buddy and I rode up to the Chabot shooting range one time on motorcycles. It's a windy, hilly road through the park and they had just chip sealed it. My buddy hit a patch of loose gravel and dumped his bike, slid down the blacktop a ways and his bike was trashed. He was OK except for a bunch of quarter-size holes in his jeans with a little skin off under each one, and a postcard-sized patch of road rash on his upper arm, just a few layers of skin gone, no big deal.
I get him on the back of my bike and we carefully ride up to the range and ask the guy in the booth if they have any saline, sterile water or some clean bandages as my friend had a minor motorcycle accident and needed to clean up a bit (he was standing right there, fully conscious, just a bunch of holes in his pants)
Next thing we know, there's a medevac helicopter circling the range and they're gotten everyone off the firing line.
"Is that for us???"
We told the guy in the booth to call off the helicopter and it flew away without landing.
Then the local volunteer firefighters showed up and proceeded to try taking his blood pressure by putting the cuff over the road rash on his arm!
"Hey fellas, maybe you want to use the other arm instead?"
The final insult was they refused to give my buddy a ride back to the main road so I wouldn't have to navigate the loose gravel with a passenger on my bike. Insurance, don't ya know.
And we didn't get to do any shooting that day
A few PD’s use my local range for qualifying. I went there about 5 years ago, and a 6’4” Bucks County Park ranger was standing next to a moderately sized woman, and she looked seasoned enough. We were the only people at the range, and they set up a target at 25 yards. The guy yelled “Fire!”, but nothing happened. Rinse, lather, and repeat a few times, and still no bang. He gave her a bit of a lecture, and the next time he yelled, she actually cranked one off. The guy stood there was his eyes bulging like Coach Buzzcut, and yelled, “You DO know this is timed!” I almost fell over, so I left.
A year later, there were about 8 male officers huddled around one guy. It was a police sergeant trying to qualify, and they were all ready to pull their hair out. I asked one of the guys closest to me if the sergeant’s pistol was jammed, and he explained this was the routine every year with him.
Most Offensive:
Two Hispanic males walk into the aforementioned range 25 years ago. We had just bought a Marlin .22 for my son, and he wanted to shoot it. Out of nowhere, we heard one of the two males scream, “Freeze N-Word!” They were right next to the exit, and we were at the other end. I thought it was an attack of some sort, but they started laughing. After I determined our chances were pretty good, we tried to slip through the exit. One of them introduced himself, and asked me if there was any place nearby that they would be allowed to hunt deer with their 9mm whatever pistol. I was a bit more of a wise guy back then, and told them any of the county parks would be fine. They asked about a hunting license, and I told them they were only needed in state parks. I’d like to know what happened to those morons.
Scary Shit I’ve Seen at a Range: Same range as above, and the weekend crazies were everywhere. I walked in just to take a pic, and then ran!
At a recent Green-Ops class I took this was the exact wording they discussed during the thorough medical briefing. I was impressed by the detail and time they took going through it. Made me feel good getting onto the line with 11 other shooters I’d never met before.