Absurd sh!t you hear at a public range

[Duelist]

I'm not an expert driver or shooter, but I do know a few things about sheep.

They grow wool?

[AMC]

Chabot was awesome.

Did my first private sector classes there in the early 90s. Great spot.

[Joe in PNG]

If you are not attractive and female, your chances of being offered unsolicited advice are pretty low.

I'm neither, and had a range safety officer try to talk me into using the old Chapman stance.

[Half Moon]

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.

Seen hitting the next lane's target thing a few times. Usually by rifle 'shooters'. Most notably, lane next us at an indoor range unpacks an AR with a huge scope, sets their target at 3(!) Yards, and proceeds to make a shotgun gun pattern on our target at 7 yards. They did apologize - 'Just getting it zeroed in'... my thoughts - how many clicks to adjust POI four feet left? 😜

[Rex G]

I saw a video of my then-wife-to-be braining a feral hog, with her S&W Model 66. While it was shot over bait, and was more like pest eradication than hunting, that was some shootin’! Flash-boom-flop-legs-trembling-in-the-air. While her shot-to-shot recovery could be faster, she does not really need much advice, on the matter of shooting revolvers.

[Dov]

At gunshops not the range, so not sure it counts for this thread.

Have had several experts tell me you can't shoot 44 specials in 44 mag.

IME those experts don't know who Elmer Keith is, nor anything factual about development of the cartridge ether.

[Glenn E. Meyer]

Had a guy try to sell me a 22 mag revolver as you could shoot 22 LR in it (without problems).

[Cheap Shot]

Steve Anderson used to joke on his podcast that female shooters will get lots of unwanted, and genrally bad, advice, and the more attractive they are the more advice they'll get.

I was at the range a couple months ago, and while I was getting ready to shoot, a girl I recognized from some local matches showed up. I have never spoken with her, but remembered her, because the month before she made A class, and lots of her friends were congratulating her during cleanup. She's mid to late 20s, and pretty.

At the time it I got to the range, it was only a couple tactical timmys sharing a lane, that girl, and me. Before she could even fire a single round, the two tactical timmys started offering her shooting tips. I was highly entertained when she told them, "I'm pretty sure I can shoot way better than either of you guys. So would you mind just leaving me alone?" They walked away, clearly butt hurt, and soon after she began shooting they packed up and left, as she was correct in her assessment of their relative skills.

I normally try to ignore other shooters, but I was glad I got to see that.

About ten years ago I was a regular at local USPSA matches. One match I'll never forget, I was squaded up with a group that included a father and high school age daughter team. On the first stage after running three or four shooters its daughters turn. At the beep she drops prone and shoots the COF from that position clean and a couple seconds faster than everyone else. No one else had shot that particular stage without moving between two positions. She excelled on every stage after that. Father was a good shot, daughter was a very,very good shot.

By the end of the match I don't think I was the only one who was temped to ask HER for tips on how to improve my shooting.

Never saw father/daughter again.

[Chefdog]

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...

This reminded me of what I saw at my VA CHP class back in January. During the classroom portion the instructor was asking about everyone’s experience level and asked us to grade ourselves on our experience/proficiency level from 1-10. There was a young guy probably in his early/mid twenties who brought an expensive 1911 (can’t remember exactly what make) who said he was probably an 8 and was pretty confident. Having seen some good shooters, I gave myself a 6, knowing that it had been 10yrs since I’d taken a class or done anything close to real training.
When it came time for the live fire, we lined up at 3 yards and were told to lock the slides back and show clear before being given the course of fire. The 1911 guy proceeded to wrestle with his pistol, attempting to use the safety to lock open the slide while pointing it at his own stomach…The instructor almost shit himself and yelled STOP at the top of his lungs. I stepped back and second guessed my decision to leave the IFAK in my car… When I wasn’t shooting I watched everyone else shoot from well behind the line for the rest of the class.

[Glenn E. Meyer]

At a CHL test, three old folks brought a 1903 ish Colt 380 to share. They proceeded to load the rounds backwards in the mag. Also saw one shooter put his close range rounds into the next target to his. Last, in the Oregon NRA handgun class I took for my permit there, it was in an indoor range. The instructor gave us Gen 2 SW semis for the class and test. One guy shot down the wires for the target pulleys. He said the barrel must have been curved, so the round went up in a curved trajectory to do that.