Reminds me of the time I got at the range later than usual and instead of my preferred far left bench away from ejecting .223 brass. There was a guy to my left sighting in a hunting rifle and a guy to his left with a fancy bolt gun and one piece rest. He was yacking to the hunter about his new ‘sniper’ rifle in 338 Lapua which he had custom made be ‘the local smith that makes them for the cops’. He was explaining all about ladder loading and how he would find an accurate load quickly. Shooting at 200 yds he put his second shot about 4” from the first exclaiming that he must have pulled that one. #3 wasn’t any closer. “Bad load” he said and proceeded to shoot some more. He quickly stopped talking and when I looked at his target there were several 4+” groups. Soon he shut up completely and packed up and left. I remember shooting a 5 shot group close to 1” that day with my 32-40 high wall. I wonder if he looked at my target.

I've gotta see that!

Jack your story reminds me of a day at our range. We often let the local police use the range to keep up good will with the authorities. I checked the schedule and it said the sheriff's dept. had the range until 3:00p.m. So I got there at 3:00 p.m. and began unloading my gear. A deputy came up to me to tell me the range was theirs that day, and I told him the schedule stated they were done at 3:00. Another deputy came over and I told him I would be setting up at the far left end, and wait for a cease fire to hang my target. He was fine with it and even called for a cease fire.
I was shooting one of my Ballard rifles and getting some nice groups. I noticed several cops walk down to see what gun I was shooting, then walk away. One swung his scope over to look at my target, and the next time we stopped he came down and told me my old rifle was outshooting their group of M16 or AR15 whichever they had. I told him I wasn't surprised since my old gun was certainly more accurate, and I didn't need 2800 fps to reach 100 yds. and 1350 fps was plenty.
A few others came down to ask questions about the Ballard, but the first guy who tried to tell me I couldn't shoot never bothered.

Like Vall's story, some of our local constabulary will use one of our ranges once a month or so. I was setting up on the other range and their range officer came down to tell me that he would call a cease as soon as I was ready. They are always friendly. I was tweaking some loads at 100 from my Stevens 44/45 in 25-20 SS with iron sights. He asked about my rifle and I told him and how old it was. He ceased and I set up. This was their SWAT team and they were all shooting their black plastic brass scatterers from the bench. When they finished up I pulled my target and walked down to thank the range officer. I saw the targets they were bringing in and he looked at mine and sighed. Seems the brass was not the only thing they scattered.

Let’s just that there is always a certain amount of fun setting up next to the guy on a bench with a muzzle brake or semi auto, with a left handed flintlock and a stiff charge when shooting in low light.

I'm always amazed at how many guys don't have a clue how to bore sight various types of actions. I ran into the same thing as Jack at the range with two guys both owning new AR's and constantly wanting to cease fire to look at targets!
I finally asked if I might give them some help getting on target quicker and they'd probably gone through two boxes of ammo each by then, so they were happy to get help. I pushed the pins out of the AR's and drew the bolt out the back. Set the upper on their sand bags and pointed the bore to see the target centered. Then dialed in the scope until it was also centered and reassembled his AR. He fired it and was almost dead on the first few shots. Never saw two guys so happy, and they quickly got the 2nd one on target and kept coming over to thank me. I wanted to tell them I had to help or I'd never get any shooting done, but held my tongue.

My pet peeve is when the shooter on my left is shooting an autoloader and does not take the two minutes to clamp on a shell catcher on the edge of the bench provided by the range.  After having 223 cases bounce off your head a few times I have been known to stop shooting my Hepburn and go to my vehicle and break out my "Equalizer."  It is a Custom XP100 in 243 Ackley with a 15" Bull Barrel and a mean muzzle break.  It has been known to blast loose items of benches two away from mine!  That XP is a real tack driver but I very seldom shoot it as it is so annoying to anybody near me.  I think that I am the only guy in the county that does not have an AR or AK!  Tom