I thought it would be fun to tell of wondrous things we have seen at public ranges.

One of my experiences: I was walking down the trail to the range, while a young man, with his father trailing him walked straight at me repeatedly levering his 30-30 and pulling the trigger while the rifle was pointing directly at my middle. He never looked up or saw me. He was looking at his rifle the whole time. After the 6th or 8th snap we both assumed the rifle was clear. This all of course happened in seconds.

Some years ago I was at a gun shop that had a range behind the store. If you bought ammo from them you could shoot it there. It was a week before deer season and a father, and his teen age son set up, and the father took the first shot from the bench with his scoped rifle. No sooner than the first shot rang out the father let out a great big ouch. He looked at his son and asked him where did it get me? Without a moment delay the son said It's the same place it got ya last year.

A. J. Palik

No public range for me either. Not because of some scary event but just because of where I live there is no need for a public range.  Dell Montana.

Many years ago, maybe 5 BSS (before single shots), I went to a store with an indoor range to try out a couple of 9mm pistols.  Handloads were prohibited except for the ones they sold.  The S&W 669 I rented would not cycle with their ammo.  When I took it back to the counter, the guy very sheepishly took back the ammo and said "Here, try this 9mm.  The 380 we sold you was a screw up"

Another time maybe 40 years ago now, at the same range as above, another weird incident happened.

I was shooting solo at the rifle benches and a friendly stranger was shooting down on the 25 yard pistol range. Said fella walked down to me to chat during a lull, then promptly packed up his gear and left with a friendly wave. Later while I was packing up to leave I noticed an object laying at the firing point he had been using. Sure enough he drove away and left his pistol behind, a dandy S&W M39 9mm.

I had no idea as to who he was, and after waiting for an hour for his frantic return which didn't happen, I scooped it up and departed. My only clue as to his identity was his mentioning a local sporting goods store in which he did business. A visit to said store paid off when I proffered his description to a clerk who said "Ah, that's so-and-so". The gun was left securely in their possession, the rightful owner was contacted, and all ended well - followed by a nice phone call from the absent-minded gun owner who thanked me profusely.

Fast forward a couple months and I read a sensational story in the local paper about a guy who got in a terrible argument with his wife who proceeded to Swiss cheese him with his own 9mm pistol and then administered a coup de gras with an empty champagne bottle. You guessed it, it was my guy and it turned out that the murder weapon was the self-same S&W M39. I often wondered if I had been a schmuck and kept quiet about that pistol after finding it at the range if the poor guy would be alive today, but then I wake up and realize that empty champagne bottles in the hands of irate wives are evidently equally dangerous and it wouldn't have mattered.

I have a public range just a few minutes from my house but I stopped using it. It had gotten too dangerous. I will now drive 55 miles to my club to shoot. Don't have to worry about stupid people doing stupid things endangering your life.


JMH