Stuff overheard at the range or local gun shop

[Rotnguns]

I can honestly say that I had a malfunction that scared the crap out of me. Was shooting my Dad's 1960's Walther ppk 380 and it dumped the mag with one press of the trigger. I have not shot it since, now it is just a curio. I have other 380's to shoot. I will say at 7 yards at full auto had a nice group .

Yikes! I've seen the very same thing happen to a 1911 that had been "tuned" (overtuned, actually). Kudos to you for holding it steady!

 

[RockAndSage]

Try to have a little sympathy for the ignorant idiots. If you’re ignorant, meaning that you lack knowledge well, you’re likely to be an idiot due to not having any knowledge. If you’re an idiot, meaning that you’re stupid, well, it’s hard to acquire knowledge, what with all the reading and paying attention and everything. It’s a self-defeating spiral, almost impossible to escape due to the ignorance and idiocy. Also, your parents may have been ignorant idiots, compounding the problem.

It's not so much that they're idiots, as it is, to paraphrase Mark Twain, that they just know so much that isn't true.

 

[flyboy214]

The day before deer opener I swing by the range before heading home. Two air force guys are sighting in a slug gun. (Savage 220 and vortex scope)

They are on paper at 100, but shooting a 2 foot wide pattern.
I ask "when you mounted the scope did you torque it down properly?"

Answer "I used an Allen key."

Luckily they were not too proud to accepted help. I stripped that gun and scope down, degreased everything and torqued it down. The next three shots went in a 2 inch group. They didn't shoot more because that was their last box.

Next day, this guy goes out and shoots a ten point then deploys a week later.

 

[Rotnguns]

The day before deer opener I swing by the range before heading home. Two air force guys are sighting in a slug gun. (Savage 220 and vortex scope)

They are on paper at 100, but shooting a 2 foot wide pattern.
I ask "when you mounted the scope did you torque it down properly?"

Answer "I used an Allen key."

Luckily they were not too proud to accepted help. I stripped that gun and scope down, degreased everything and torqued it down. The next three shots went in a 2 inch group. They didn't shoot more because that was their last box.

Next day, this guy goes out and shoots a ten point then deploys a week later.

Good job helping those airmen! A great way to represent our firearms community.

 

[317millhand]

Overhead a salesman trying to sell a really cheapo 9mm carbine type thing. Caliber was engraved as 9mm Para, so he told the kid it was made by Para Ordnance

 

[elkliver]

Try to have a little sympathy for the ignorant idiots. If you’re ignorant, meaning that you lack knowledge well, you’re likely to be an idiot due to not having any knowledge. If you’re an idiot, meaning that you’re stupid, well, it’s hard to acquire knowledge, what with all the reading and paying attention and everything. It’s a self-defeating spiral, almost impossible to escape due to the ignorance and idiocy. Also, your parents may have been ignorant idiots, compounding the problem.

A lack of knowledge but willing to learn is much different than t

It's not so much that they're idiots, as it is, to paraphrase Mark Twain, that they just know so much that isn't true.

A lack of knowledge is perfectly understandable. We all(mostly all) learn and grow. Where idiocy comes in, is the perception you know everything and must pass on erroneous knowledge to all.

 

[limpet]

Doing some preseason shooting with my dad at the local range we set up next to a couple guys that had some typical bolt actions and a few lever guns they were getting ready for deer season. As I was unhappily shooting 1.5” groups I turned my attention to look over and see this guys 18” scatter gun group as he declares the rifle ready for season. I’m also a member of the former sportsman’s employee group. Did that through junior college before getting a big boy job. Growing up all my parents friends were fairly intelligent so I figured those idiots I went to highschool with grew out of it and became decent reasonable adults, boy did I learn quick. Once an idiot almost always an idiot. One of my favorites was a guy boasting about how he killed bucks without hitting them by shooting his 338 RUM between the antlers of bucks and having it pop their eyeballs out and scramble their brains. We also had our tacticool guy that would talk about all sorts of maneuvers and shit. Always wore a shooting vest under his vest. He also called spiffs spliffs much our amusement. I worked there when the 6.5 creed was really picking up steam and it soured me towards the cartridge just because of how many people would come in buy a savage axis with a Nikon and a box of core lokt bullets and ask me which bdc cross hair was their 1000 yard mark. There’s so many more I can’t remember. The theme of guys coming in a couple days before opener to pick up rifles and asking me eight them in and what shells work best was way to common. Also the guys that knew they had a 300 or a 7 but didn’t know what kind was scary too. Needless to say there are both ignorant people in this word and idiotic and I think it’s usually a combination of both.

 

[Harvey_NW]

The other day I got my gun shop lesson on the 7 Backcountry and how it's a revolutionary 7mm that makes every other 7mm offering essentially obsolete. Also was informed that mono's do more damage because they "bore a hole" and cut like a drill bit. And Federal Ascent bullets only shoot the first 2 shots into a cluster, the 3rd will always be low left or high right, so if you're gonna shoot them at least you know your first 2 shots are dead on.

 

[Billogna]

Basically I've learned never to take advice from ANYONE in a gun shop who is wearing a drop-leg holster...

 

[RCST1111]

Had a guy at the counter buying a Savage Elite Precision 110 in .300 win. mag with the shop mounting a 6-24x50 Diamondback on it to hunt deer at 80 yards in Mississippi.

 

[Billogna]

Had a guy at the counter buying a Savage Elite Precision 110 in .300 win. mag with the shop mounting a 6-24x50 Diamondback on it to hunt deer at 80 yards in Mississippi.

Over-scoped and under-gunned if you ask me...

 

[Sinistram]

Had a guy at the counter buying a Savage Elite Precision 110 in .300 win. mag with the shop mounting a 6-24x50 Diamondback on it to hunt deer at 80 yards in Mississippi.

I can't tell you the number of guys I've seen so-equipped in the PA deer woods. It's nice to see people taking an interest in gear, but my God, you can only see 100 yards at any place in the woods.

 

[huntsman22]

my god, the 300 on 6x won't work in the woods?......

 

[112Savage]

I had a different “strange public range experience” a friend and I went to a public range close to our college in December 2008. It was early and very cold with some snow on the ground. The only other car was a white van with no windows (think creeper van). We get up to the range and set up and the guy already has some AR’s up on the bench and he comes walking up. He was wearing normal clothes and seemed normal to us so we thought nothing. He starts shooting his AR’s obviously testing the different ones. During a quick cease fire he talks to us. He had an English accent and was super nice and let us shoot his VLTOR uppers that he was testing. He said his name was Bill and he was testing 6.5 Grendel. It turns out it was THE Bill Alexander from Alexander Arms. Super cool chance meeting

 

[deltadukman]

Had a guy at the counter buying a Savage Elite Precision 110 in .300 win. mag with the shop mounting a 6-24x50 Diamondback on it to hunt deer at 80 yards in Mississippi.

I live in Mississippi and this drives me up the wall. Guys buying tacticool ffp 6-30x56 mil dot scopes with Christmas tree reticles to sit in a pine thicket. Most hunting around here is done in low light where you can’t see a thing at 100-200 yards on anything higher than 4x and ffp doesn’t work turned up. But hey, it sure looks cool.

 

[johnsd16]

I hadn’t spent much time at a gun counter for a while as I don’t buy a lot of guns or if I do I get in and get out. Well, I bought a used shotgun off gunbroker and had it shipped to a shop right between home and work. I went in to pick it up yesterday.

Never been in the shop, it’s small and from what I knew was geared toward pistols, ARs and more that line of stuff. I was surprised when I walked in that they had a fair number of bolt rifle and what not.

Told a guy behind the counter while I was there and pretty quickly I could tell this was a talker, probably in his late 20s. He made some small talk and whatnot while we were starting on the paperwork or should I say tablet work.

He asked what I was going to do with the gun and I said mostly duck hunting. He replied he needed a new shotgun for grouse hunting and then volunteered that he was thinking of getting a “coach gun”. I mentioned that then he would only have two rounds to which he replied “well you can only have 3 rounds in your gun to hunt grouse in Idaho”. I said “really, that seems odd” to which he replied, “yeah not a lot of people know about it”, and then went on to say how he ran into a warden who informed him of this.

Seriously, where do people come up with this stuff? I hadn’t interacted with someone in this capacity for years and literally the first guy lives up to the stereotypes from this thread. Just overconfident and loves to tell you all the stuff they know. It’s ok to not know and not be an expert in everything. To be fair it put a bad taste in my mouth even though they had more stuff than I thought I would be interested in.

 

[KenLee]

my god, the 300 on 6x won't work in the woods?......

Sometimes 3x seems a bit much.

 

[5811]

my god, the 300 on 6x won't work in the woods?......

Absolutely not. But a swfa 10x works as good as anything, anywhere.

 

[Rotnguns]

I hadn’t spent much time at a gun counter for a while as I don’t buy a lot of guns or if I do I get in and get out. Well, I bought a used shotgun off gunbroker and had it shipped to a shop right between home and work. I went in to pick it up yesterday.

Never been in the shop, it’s small and from what I knew was geared toward pistols, ARs and more that line of stuff. I was surprised when I walked in that they had a fair number of bolt rifle and what not.

Told a guy behind the counter while I was there and pretty quickly I could tell this was a talker, probably in his late 20s. He made some small talk and whatnot while we were starting on the paperwork or should I say tablet work.

He asked what I was going to do with the gun and I said mostly duck hunting. He replied he needed a new shotgun for grouse hunting and then volunteered that he was thinking of getting a “coach gun”. I mentioned that then he would only have two rounds to which he replied “well you can only have 3 rounds in your gun to hunt grouse in Idaho”. I said “really, that seems odd” to which he replied, “yeah not a lot of people know about it”, and then went on to say how he ran into a warden who informed him of this.

Seriously, where do people come up with this stuff? I hadn’t interacted with someone in this capacity for years and literally the first guy lives up to the stereotypes from this thread. Just overconfident and loves to tell you all the stuff they know. It’s ok to not know and not be an expert in everything. To be fair it put a bad taste in my mouth even though they had more stuff than I thought I would be interested in.

Interesting. Maybe the counter guy was thinking "Geese" instead of "Grouse."
Ironic he didn't know that he could have used one of the AR 15's at his store on forest grouse in Idaho.

 

[striped1]

I won one of the Geisselle Super Duty rifles a few years back. Had it shipped to a new local gun shop. The counter guy brings it out and reads the box and says, "Geisselle, never heard of them, must be bottom of the barrel..." I laughed and said, yeah, doesn't stack up against these Anderson's you have here...Some people.