Stuff overheard at the range or local gun shop

[svivian]

With the left become more radical, I am starting to size up some of the visitors at my local. At what point do we as a community run off the antifa-John Brown gun club types?

lets keep this thread open.

If you feel that compelled about the topic, try starting another thread

 

[Dave Thomas]

I wonder why someone with the username "General RE LEE" would specifically hate John Brown and want to deny certain people their constitutional rights...

Weirdly enough I've heard this said about the 6.5 Creedmoor 2-3 times in the past couple months while at a gun counter.

I've heard the same thing about the creedmoor at a gun store. A couple of customers were telling the clerk how it's no good for hunting. I just kept my mouth shut and went about my business not wanting any part of that conversation.

 

[EastHumboldt]

Yes please don’t get this thread closed…. It’s all I have….

 

[fwafwow]

Went to a 100 yard range for the first time in a while. Guy next to me pulls out some big braked magnum and a lead sled. "Shoots 1/4" at 500"

Then my hat just about got blown off every time he shot. Super annoying.

What?

 

[SteveAndTheCrigBoys]

What?

 

[casey36]

I worked part time in a gun shop right after I got off active duty. We had people come in the night before deer season ,they would buy a gun, scope ammo , and ask me to bore sight it. That would be close enough for anything under 400 yards. Hate to say it, but I heard that more than once. Had a younger guy come in once for ammo. I asked him what he needed and he said. 7mm. I ask him which 7mm. He got jacked and said to get someone over to help him that knew something about guns. I said I could name about 10 different 7mm cartridges off the top of my head and we carried about 6 or seven of them. He said "f you" im not buying from liars and dumba##/$! and he stormed out. Hope he had the day he deserved at another shop!

 

[casey36]

I may or may not have cracked a shot off at something out the passenger window, from the drivers seat with my AR...with no ear pro. Although, I dont know how much difference it would have truly made if I was wearing it.

I know of a fellow Game Warden who took a call for an injured deer along I-80 in our home county. He found the deer along the roadway and it was struggling to get up. It was absolutely pouring down rain so he didn't want to get out of the truck. Put on his emergency lights, hit the button for the passenger window, and touched off a round to put the deer down, from the driver's seat. Our duty weapon at that time was a 4" Smith 686 .357 magnum with 145gr. Silvertips. The blast and shock wave scrambled him so badly he could barely get off the road. He couldn't hear anything, couldn't focus, and was not feeling well when a state trooper stopped to see what was going on. Needless to say, there were memos a flying from the Regional Office!

 

[Sinistram]

I worked part time in a gun shop right after I got off active duty. We had people come in the night before deer season ,they would buy a gun, scope ammo , and ask me to bore sight it. That would be close enough for anything under 400 yards. Hate to say it, but I heard that more than once.

This is along the same lines as the public range comment I made earlier. I choose to bury my head in the sand when thinking about sharing the woods with these people. The only positive about it is they're usually terrible shots anyway, so hopefully no deer pay the price.

 

[Chris in TN]

I know of a fellow Game Warden who took a call for an injured deer along I-80 in our home county. He found the deer along the roadway and it was struggling to get up. It was absolutely pouring down rain so he didn't want to get out of the truck. Put on his emergency lights, hit the button for the passenger window, and touched off a round to put the deer down, from the driver's seat. Our duty weapon at that time was a 4" Smith 686 .357 magnum with 145gr. Silvertips. The blast and shock wave scrambled him so badly he could barely get off the road. He couldn't hear anything, couldn't focus, and was not feeling well when a state trooper stopped to see what was going on. Needless to say, there were memos a flying from the Regional Office!

I was hunting out of the right-hand seat of a 2-person box blind, maybe 3.5x7'x6', and saw a deer out the left-hand side window. I shot it.....with the muzzle inside the blind.

25" .280ai. It was loud. Really loud. Do not recommend. I am genuinely surprised I didn't have immediate lasting damage. It was like my entire head was inside a giant muzzle break.

 

[TNKnoxville]

Was shooting at the range last weekend. One guy to my left was going elk hunting in CO in a week. Gun was shooting a couple of inches high and left. They didn't know how to lower the zero stop. They kept saying the turret won't go any lower. Neither of them knew anything about the Leopold VX 6 scope he just put on the gun. I tried to help but they said its good to go, I hunted with gun before (not with this scope) and it shot great!!!!!!!

The guy on the other side of me couldn't get his gun on paper at 50 yards and said its good to go, for what I'm not sure!!!!!! Had a nice Vortex scope...lol.

Another younger guy came up and asked me what I was shooting. It was my 50 cal black powder gun. The guy had no idea what that was. Was surprised at the noise and smoke. He said he only shoots an AR.

 

[wind gypsy]

Last night when at a bench near a 300 Wby shooter trying to help another magnum shooter get sighted in.

"You dont want to give up the hair (hold off hair) inside 500 yards". "See how this one has a belt, thats what gives it the better ballistics".

Proceeded to chase bullets all around the paper and sprayed all over the place.

 

[Miflatlander91]

At the local range yesterday 2 guys were “checking zero” on their hunting rifles I asked what they were shooting one was a 300 win and the other a 28 Nosler. They proceeded to tell of how where they hunt a 500-700 yard shot isn’t uncommon…. I then watched both struggle to hit an 8” plate at 300. Then one guy says to the other yeah I think we’re good to 600 it’s not like we’re shooting 1000 yards


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[intunegp]

A good family friend of mine bought a brand new Remington 700 CDL in 7mm mag a several years back, it was right around the time Facebook boomers were being inundated with the too-good-to-miss deals of Wish.com.

He promptly ordered a "Zeiss" 4-16 from Wish and when I broke the news to him that it was counterfeit he was adamant that maybe it wasn't, maybe it was overstock or a discontinued model, maybe it was made in the same factory, maybe the quality was just as good...even when I showed him the logo was not correct and Zeiss had a memo out about counterfeit scopes he would not back down because to his eye, the glass looked great. I think he paid $40-$50 for what would have been a $1000 scope from Zeiss, I want to say it was a Conquest copy.

This whole new rig was inspired by his career tool and die maker brother-in-law who had recently purchased a fancy FFP Vortex, drilled and tapped his receiver for oversize mounting screws, added dowels to the receiver and rail for location and alignment, bedded the rail to the receiver, then surface ground a custom lap to lap his rings for the new scope. I believe they ran the new CDL through the same setup protocols only to mount a $50 knock-off Zeiss on it.

As far as I know that Wish.com Zeiss is still on that rifle to this day. Not sure if he's killed anything or even attempted to but I wonder about it sometimes.

 

[RockAndSage]

Man, some of these are just glorious in their absurdity...

 

[ehayes]

While I was picking up my tikka a guy warned me about the light triggers. Proceeded to tell me a story about how he was driving around on a side by side with a family member. A coyote appeared and he grabbed the family members Tikka to shoot it, instead he fire a round straight up in the air. His strategy is to grab the gun with his finger on the trigger and then wheel it around to shoot. With his rifle at 4lbs trigger weight, his gun would not have fired because it’s a safer trigger weight. It would have been a dead coyote.

 

[DuckDawg22]

Most times I see open carry, the dude strikes me as Billy Bob Thornton from tombstone.

Jesus Christ I've seen Tombstone 100 times and never occurred to me that Jonny Tyler was Billy Bob

 

[Jpsmith1]

So one of my favorite "range tales"

Set up at a sight in day. I was shooting a 10" TC Contender in 30-30 with a Burris 3x9 scope.

At 100 yards, I proceeded to put 3 consecutive rounds into a nickel about 1" right of the dot and, with a stiff cross wind, I was very happy with the group.

Guy one lane down had likewise shot 3 rounds at a similar target and, you'd have had a hard time covering them with an outstretched hand and fingers.

Guy looks at his target, looks at mine, gets all kinds of huffy and mutters "Damn things don't stand still anyway" and stomped back to the line.

I've seen the "5 on a paper plate at 50" more than once.

Another really funny one, IMO. I was shooting at 50 yards with my .357. 4" barrel open sights. Ding the hanging frying pan at the range. 'Tactical Ted' who was also shooting sees and hears the ding

"Did you just hit that?"
Uhh, yeah.
"Did you AIM at it?
My sense of sarcasm didn't kick in fast enough so I just said that I had.
Ol Tacticool Teddy swings his wondernine around and mag dumps on the target, missing it by feet. His GF tells him something to make him feel better or maybe that she still loves him even though the mean old man shoots better and they pack up to leave.

 

[Amos Keeto]

George was kind of a dork anyway.
The public gun range had a drive right up to the shooting bench.
George pulls up just in front of the shooting bench, sets a target taped to a box about 40 yards down range.
Drags out his iron sight 94 "Wing"chester thutty-thutty, rests across his truck, takes aim and blows a hole in the hood of his F100 Ford!

 

[83cj-7]

Just read this whole thread. I also worked in a LGS for 5 years. I can relate to all of the stories and idiots mentioned and I’m sure I could come up with a few more. The ones not mentioned are the really scary stuff. I can remember a couple.

1. Guy buys a Glock 19 and some ammo. Says he talked to a bunch of people and did his reading and decided that this was probably one of the most reliable and sensible handguns he could buy(I happen to agree). He seems really level headed and talks about taking a couple classes before he feels comfortable carrying it or really shooting it. We agree and he walks out with the guns and ammo. Within a couple days he is back and obviously very distraught. He asks if we buy back guns a proceeds to tell us that he was “messing around” with the new pistol and had shot and killed his dog in his living room! I overheard this exchange just as he was jerking the pistol out of its case, finger on the trigger and flagging everyone in the store(10-15 customers in the store at the time). That’s maybe the fastest I’ve ever reacted. I reached over grasping the pistol by the slide and keeping it pointed at the thick log wall behind the counter. I looked at him and said “STOP!, slowly let go of the gun”. Luckily he did and I carefully checked the pistol. Yup, fully loaded and chambered with Federal 124 HST. As kindly as I could, I explained to him how he just endangered everyone in the store and the results could have been a dead person and not just his own dog. The dude literally cried. Maybe I was harsh, but I think more people need that kind of a wake up call when it comes to safe gun handling and competency.

2. Guy walks into the store and asks if we work on guns, he has rifle that is having issues. I said, yes I can take a look and if I can’t fix it, we have a part time gunsmith. He goes to retrieve the rifle and walks back in with the uncased rifle. As he’s walking towards me he says “the rifle just went off by itself”, just as he flops it on the counter. I immediately flicked on the safety, pointed it somewhere safe and opend the bolt. Out comes a live round! I just about broke the dudes nose with the rifle stock but when I looked at him, I knew he was absolutely horrified. He proceeded to apologize profusely and said how he knew better and didn’t know why he did something so stupid. Hopefully he remembers that, I know I will.

 

[83cj-7]

Continued…

3. Just scary for me: Lady walks in with a pistol case and asks if we could look a pistol that her husband says is “misfiring”. Pistol is checked and handed off to me with a full mag and I was asked to test fire it for issues(I was already in our indoor pistol range). It was an old 1911 of some reputable make. I briefly looked it over and it seemed in okay condition. I inserted the mag, chambered a round and took aim. One squeeze of the trigger resulted in a 10 yard, 7 shot group measuring about my open hand! Obviously shocked, I walked out of the range, upstairs to the lady employee who brought me the pistol. I asked her what she was told about it. She took me to an old lady on the floor who said that he husband told her to bring it in and have it looked at because the pistol would “empty itself” when he tried to fire it. I chuckled and said “that might have been a good thing to tell someone”. No harm was done, but boy did that give me quite a surprise.


4. Just about to close up one evening when a couple walks in. Immediately we all looked at each other humorously. Petite redhead with an overweight nerdy guy wearing a teddy bear backpack, camo fatigue shorts and a 12” long Bowie knife on his hip. Weird right? They point at things and talk some nonsense about random stuff for a bit. Then the dude walks right up to the owner and asks him about the “back room”. The owner asks him what he means. He hints around about the “good stuff”. At this point the store is empty but us employees and we all take notice to this exchange. The owner says that we don’t have a “back room”. The guy keeps hinting around and gets ignored. Then it gets really weird. He starts on about politics and the president and how things need to be done and how he and his friends are gonna “do something”. We all knew the difference between the people who were just talking and what this guy was talking about. He proceeds to start talking about barrels of ammonium nitrate and full auto AKs and stockpiles of ammo. He gets more and more vocal and agitated as we start checking the shotgun in the office. This goes on and he asks again about the “good stuff” we might have and what we might do about the current president. By this time the one of us has snuck out and taken pictures of their vehicle and plates and at some point the owner has called someone (I’m really not sure who). While all this was going on, we were shutting down the shop for the day and they were there well past closing. I guess they decided that we weren’t on their band wagon and left without incident. This is the crazy part: Before they could make it out of the parking lot, they were stopped by two black Tahoes with government plates. They were arrested and two secret service agents knocked on our door and wanted to know about what we heard. We told them and we even had recorded part of it on our phones. The next day more agents showed up and asked more questions. Turns out these two, along with their “friends” were wanted for similar incidents and did indeed have what they said they had. There were multiple interviews over the next couple weeks by secret service. I really doubt they are getting out of prison anytime soon but I think about it now and again and wonder the true extent of what went down.