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Hot Topic (More than 10 Replies) Amazing things we have seen at public ranges (Read 1291 times)
gnoahhh
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Re: Amazing things we have seen at public ranges
Reply #15 - Mar 5th, 2026 at 4:47pm
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Then there was the time we called the range cold so targets could be examined/changed. All well and good, rifles all secured, off we all go. Then "Bang!", a shot rang out. Everybody hit the dirt, and started yelling (and looking for bullet holes and blood). Turns out a newbie club member had failed to rack his M1 Carbine and everybody failed to notice (small club with no range officer - mutual honor/policing rules in effect). He left it laying on his bench, with a round up the spout, and his idiot 12-year old kid attending to it. Said kid monkeyed around with it while we (including his dad) were downrange. Nobody hurt, and father&son were run off and told to never come back, membership closed.

I tend to gripe when at shooting ranges staffed by overzealous range officers who think they're the Second Coming of Christ, but I do realize that idiots walk (shoot) among us and maybe they're needed. I do prefer smaller non-formal ranges though.
  
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Oakdale
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Re: Amazing things we have seen at public ranges
Reply #16 - Mar 6th, 2026 at 5:12pm
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Our club requires each member to do 18-hours a year   of service time. One way to satisfy that requirement is to  serve as a RSO (Range Safety Officer. I joined in 1978.

In the early ‘80’s the club was open to the public and I was an RSO. There were (3) guys attempting to sight in a Remington 700 (.30-06) @ 100 yards. They didn’t look like they were having much luck hitting their target. 

After a brief time I happened to look behind the firing line. There the (3) of them were, standing by a tree. They had the barrel of the rifle in the notch of the fork of the tree, looking like the brainstorm was to “bend” the barrel to improve its accuracy. 

Before they were at it long enough to break the stock I stopped them. Don’t know if they were strong enough to influence the position of the barrel but I didn’t want to know.   

I told them to pack-up, gave them their range fee back and asked them to leave and not come back to our range. I told them that what they were trying do would not solve any accuracy issues and what they were doing was a huge safety concern. No way was I going try to sight-in their rifle for them. Besides that not being something the RSO should do, there was also a personal safety thing, at least for me.

These (3) guys appeared to have a common foreign country lineage. That part of the world will remain nameless.

The lesson for me was whenever out @ the range ALWAYS look around, because you never know….

Tom
  
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oneatatime
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Re: Amazing things we have seen at public ranges
Reply #17 - Mar 6th, 2026 at 6:26pm
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You said it. The range had been called safe and everyone had just stepped out and there was a shot. Really gets your attention. There was a guy on the ground between two benches with all his stuff piled up around him. He had headphones on listening to loud music. Boy, did he get to hear the music.
Of course, when the range opens to the public for sight in before hunting season everyone is on high alert and you hope that you will be hunting in a location far from where some of those yahoos are going to be.
  
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marlinguy
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Re: Amazing things we have seen at public ranges
Reply #18 - Mar 7th, 2026 at 11:00am
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We open up our range every fall for three weekends before hunting season, and charge the public to sight in their hunting rifles. We try to have one member for each shooter to maintain safety and guide shooters through the process. 
Some shooters are well prepared and don't take long to get their rifles sighted in. Others have brand new guns and scopes, and have not even bore sighted them, so it takes forever to get them on paper. And some are such poor shots that even when they have an accurate setup I wonder how they'll ever bring home any game?
We've had numerous cases of a shooter showing up with the wrong ammo, so we have to do everything we can to try and make sure the cartridge is correct for the rifle they brought to shoot. Had one guy bring a .30-06 rifle and .308 ammo once. He couldn't figure out why his gun wouldn't shoot well, and why brass had blown out the first shot he fired! He was adamant that he'd fired the same ammo in it before.
  

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Schuetzendave
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Re: Amazing things we have seen at public ranges
Reply #19 - Mar 7th, 2026 at 7:49pm
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We had a fellow shooting both a 7 mm Magnum and a .303 British off a bench at the same time. He put the .303 British in the smaller bore 7mm rifle and fired it.

The bullet actually made it down the tube, but a piece of the action broke off and punched a hole through our sheet metal roof.
It took a hammer to open the bolt on his rifle.
His range membership was cancelled after this incident.
« Last Edit: Mar 7th, 2026 at 7:55pm by Schuetzendave »  
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Old Soldier
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Re: Amazing things we have seen at public ranges
Reply #20 - Today at 3:47pm
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Burntwater, Sorry to hear your rifles were stolen. That's some thing that always concerned me. If there is some one on the line I know and trust, I'll leave my rifle on the bench when I go down range. If I'm alone especially I'll carry the hardware with me. Ain't it a shame.
  

"White man have very strong Medicine. Shoot today maybeso kill you tomorrow." Esa-Tai Commanche warrior
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Re: Amazing things we have seen at public ranges
Reply #21 - Today at 4:34pm
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We get a lot of visiting locals at our fish and game club range. These two just wandered out from behind the 50 yard target backstop while the range was hot and active. Happens all the time.
  
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