Stuff seen at the gun range

[Lost River]

This reminds me of this thread:


https://pistol-forum.com/showthread....I-avoid-people



We could probably merge these two. The world is full of Jackwagons..

The old guy from my original thread literally walked in front of me, where I was set up shooting pistol (as shown in the pics), and proceeds to start shooting his .22 rifle with grandson.

[mtnbkr]

That sounds like a Stephen Wright Joke.

Thanks. Now I'm reading that in his voice.

Chris

[Cypher]

I normally go to the Pikes Peak Gun Club and my schedule is such that I'm normally there on weekday mornings. I won't say I'm the only one there but I can usually get a bay to myself.

There used to be a range called Rampart Range up in the mountains west of Garden of the Gods. To my knowledge in the 50 years it was open there was only one fatality and when that happened they closed the range permanently.

Most of the issue with that range is that it was completely unsupervised and it looked like a garbage dump.

The last time I went there I was on the firing line with my wife when a group of guys that I think were Eastern Europeans arrived. They walked down to the firing line and without calling for a ceasefire or setting up any targets at all pointed their weapons down range and began blasting.

One of them swept my legs with his pistol. The first time I asked him very politely not to do that. The second time we packed up and left.

Again, this place had a reputation of being a horrendously unsafe range but in all the time that it was open I only ever heard of the one fatality and that was reported to be a genuine malfunction thst occurred with a black powder rifle.

[RJ]

A year or two ago, before I got back to work, I was casting around for a part or full time job...I thought "Bingo! I'll work at a Gun Range/Store! You know, so I can get paid for being in an environment I enjoy!"

Pffft.

I have slowly been disabused of that notion. Threads like this tend to help I made the right decision. I am amazed of the breadth and depth of derpitude quoted as been seen here.

Well, not really.

Lately at the occasional forays into the lobby / store area at my local range, I stop by the Ruger Revolver display case and contemplate one of their shiny offerings. In doing so, I have happened across a few conversations in passing, that made my eyebrows raise, but nothing like what ya'll have related here. Wow.


On topic, the only oddity that happened to me about a month ago: I was trying out my new LCR in .38, plinking away, when several stalls over, at the end of the lane, I noticed what (oddly, I thought) looked like the mist from a sprinkler system.

It was, in fact, the mist from a sprinkler system.

Apparently some bright spark with a fairly loud .223 rifle had managed to peg one of the fire suppression system supply pipes. Of course within about 15 seconds, the very loud FIRE ALARM went off, and we all had to leave our stuff and pile out into the parking lot until the FD came and gave the all clear. To their credit, the range made all our equipment safe, and gave each of us a credit for a future visit.

[LSP552]

This thread reminds me of how much I miss having access to a .gov pistol and rifle ranges, ammo, and shoothouses before I moved to RI. The public range I use now is generally safe but only because of the range nazis.

The public range I sometimes used in BR got pretty scary on occasion. Most people are truly clueless.

[Seven_Sicks_Two]

I spent 9 years working at a busy indoor range/gun shop...

Off the top of my head:
- NDs into the wall/ceiling/floor/benches - these happened often enough that we had a fee schedule for damaged equipment.
- A suicide... and an unrelated attempted suicide 6 weeks later.
- Constantly getting flagged.
- In the days following a gun show, constantly having to help customers clear stoppages/squibs caused by their shitty gun show reloads. These also caused the occasional kB!
- A guy blew up his Glock 30 with his own reloads. During a conversation afterwards, "I'm never buying a Glock again... when I do this to my 1911s it just blows the magazine out of the gun."
- Another guy put a .32 S&W through his index finger after trying to open a cocked J-frame. He asked for a band-aid.
- This one happened on my day off - A Navy guy tried to get out of going on a WESTPAC by intentionally shooting himself in the calf. Apparently he didn't realize that there were witnesses... and security cameras.
- We had enough people coming on "date night" that we kept a supply of oversized T-shirts behind the counter to give to female customers in low-cut tops.
- Our backstop was recycled rubber... some genius put a .38 caliber flare round into it. Trying to put out that fire was "fun".

On the gun shop side of things:
- the usual "people getting pissed off that their background check was denied".
- A guy stumbled in hammered drunk and asked for "all of our Mini-14 clips and enough ammunition to fill them."
- Cops showing up with a mugshot, "Do you recognize this guy?" Me: "Yeah" (he had some pretty distinctive tattoos) it turned out that he had killed a couple of people with a shotgun. My business card was in his wallet.
- Our city had a large homeless population and one of our shops was close to both a Social Security office and immediately adjacent to some train tracks. We had a crazy homeless guy in our parking lot wearing a werewolf Halloween mask and howling at the moon, at passing cars, at customers.
- Again, on my day off: A couple was attempting to hop a train and one of them fell. The train ran her legs over. Her companion came running into the shop looking for help. Our guys administered first aid and got help on the way. She survived.

One of the bright spots was a woman coming in after a self-defense shooting to thank me. She was older, lived alone and had inherited a 1911 from her late husband. I had apparently gotten her set up with some ammo, magazines and range time with an instructor a couple of years before. She shot a guy at the top of her stairs in the middle of the night after he ignored multiple commands to not come any closer. She shot him, he stopped (but survived), and at least according to the woman, had a knife and rope in his possession when police showed up.

[GardoneVT]

- We had enough people coming on "date night" that we kept a supply of oversized T-shirts behind the counter to give to female customers in low-cut tops

On this topic. I realize guys get enthusiastic about their hobbies and want the better half to participate. Pro tip- don’t take her to the range unless it’s her idea. There are better date destinations , and there’s already enough range video of bored women rolling their eyes and browsing IG.

[wvincent]

One of the bright spots was a woman coming in after a self-defense shooting to thank me. She was older, lived alone and had inherited a 1911 from her late husband. I had apparently gotten her set up with some ammo, magazines and range time with an instructor a couple of years before. She shot a guy at the top of her stairs in the middle of the night after he ignored multiple commands to not come any closer. She shot him, he stopped (but survived), and at least according to the woman, had a knife and rope in his possession when police showed up.

Well done Lad!!!
Reading that made my day.

[Glenn E. Meyer]

I wonder if Rachel Maddow acts like the jackass guys I've seen taking a girlfriend or date to the range or match?

Range fun:

1. Old man won't stop shooting during a time out for target changes. He knows how to shoot so no threat. His son stops him. Then he does it again and the gun has to be wrestled away and they go home.
2. Kid climbs behind the targets to look for bullets.
3. Guy shoots down the guide wire of the target mechanism. Says the rental gun barrel cause his handloads to travel in an upward arc.
4. Holes in ceiling, star pattern in the bullet proof glass between lanes. My daughter always points them out when we shoot. At a new range, the staff told me it only took a month for that to happen.
5. Guy draws and throws his roscoe down range. That's what he said.
6. Load and make ready, holster and shoot a round a few inches from Glenn's foot (score keeper).
7. My gun is out of battery, can you help. The way to ask this is to hold the gun in one handed grip and point it at the group of folks you are asking for help.
8. Weird church group (nothing negative about church, just a weird group), polyester duds from Leave it to Beaver era. Uncle Mike's best. Lead by Pastor X who was going to show them how to shoot and run the squad, despite being new and full of crap. His guy has a semi with strobe and laser. He draws, the light falls off goes strobe and the laser comes on for a light show.
9. Dude tries to run through the stage so fast, he falls flat three times. Scared the crap out of all. I argued for a DQ but that SO was a wuss.

[JM Campbell]

I wonder if Rachel Maddow acts like the jackass guys I've seen taking a girlfriend or date to the range or match?

Range fun:

1. Old man won't stop shooting during a time out for target changes. He knows how to shoot so no threat. His son stops him. Then he does it again and the gun has to be wrestled away and they go home.
2. Kid climbs behind the targets to look for bullets.
3. Guy shoots down the guide wire of the target mechanism. Says the rental gun barrel cause his handloads to travel in an upward arc.
4. Holes in ceiling, star pattern in the bullet proof glass between lanes. My daughter always points them out when we shoot. At a new range, the staff told me it only took a month for that to happen.
5. Guy draws and throws his roscoe down range. That's what he said.
6. Load and make ready, holster and shoot a round a few inches from Glenn's foot (score keeper).
7. My gun is out of battery, can you help. The way to ask this is to hold the gun in one handed grip and point it at the group of folks you are asking for help.
8. Weird church group (nothing negative about church, just a weird group), polyester duds from Leave it to Beaver era. Uncle Mike's best. Lead by Pastor X who was going to show them how to shoot and run the squad, despite being new and full of crap. His guy has a semi with strobe and laser. He draws, the light falls off goes strobe and the laser comes on for a light show.
9. Dude tries to run through the stage so fast, he falls flat three times. Scared the crap out of all. I argued for a DQ but that SO was a wuss.

I’ll let @HCM tell a story.


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