Stuff overheard at the range or local gun shop

[SC HUNTER]

Same baby brother as mentioned above and I like to occasionally take a day and just screw off. We'll ride around to different shops and just look. We stopped at a pawn/gun shop and we were browsing a used gun rack. Baby brother said "hey come here and hold out your hands." He proceeds to shuck 3 3 inch buckshot out of an 835, 1 in the chamber 2 in the tube. The owner was close by and heard the conversation and came over with an awesome attitude of dont dare load guns in my shop on and on. We explained to him check your cameras, he picked it up checked it and found it loaded resulting in where we are now. The owner absolutely showed his ass and said that wouldn't prove anything, they don't allow loaded guns in the shop except on his hip. We just looked at each other and walked out.

I haven't been back to that shop since.

 

[SC HUNTER]

Oof. Safety stories reminded me of this one.

Buddy brings his GF to a shooting range session. He lets her shoot his 22 rifle for a little bit but I'm not exactly paying attention to them.

ihad a small semi auto pistol suitable for her. Beretta 3032 'Tomcat'

So I load it up, help her get a proper grip and shoot.

1, 2, 3, 4 ...7 shots. Since I loaded the gun, I KNEW there were 8 rounds in the gun. Finger still on the trigger, she pivots towards me and aims the gun at my forehead.

So then I hit my buddys girlfriend..

 

[Jpsmith1]

Another one that, in retrospect was pretty safe but the guy was a bit off...

Checking out handguns in the mid 90s. Just when I came of age to buy a handgun.

We're in this hole in the wall shop talking to the pretty old owner.

He's telling us about how he loads his mag with tracers (which were commercially available) and standard defensive rounds so that "if he had to shoot some 'spooks' they'd know what was coming"

He then proceeds to load a magazine with these tracers, slap it into the gun and rack the slide. He had our immediate attention.

Then the hammer drops. He was demonstrating the 'decocking' feature that was kind of novel at the time.

Last time I ever went there

 

[Jpsmith1]

So then I hit my buddys girlfriend..

I wrapped her hands up with mine, twisting myself out of the way, aimed the gun downrange and fired the last round.

Then I CLEARLY and LOUDLY announced that she doesn't TOUCH another firearm.

 

[Jpsmith1]

Gonna put a bit of a warning on this one. Injury occurs here.

Younger and 'dumber' we were having a shooting day which, as a grown adult, I look back on and cringe and would call "fking around with guns" today. This was not at a proper range but a piece of rural property owned at the time by my father.

Anyway, brothers are using a 32Spl lever. Top eject with the weird side mount scope system.

Older brother picks up an empty 38 Special casing, holds said casing between the thumb and forefinger of his right hand and is holding it in front of the muzzle of the rifle.

Younger brother "I'm going to shoot"

Older "WhooHoo" waving/holding the casing in front of the muzzle.

YB "I'll shoot"

OB: "WhooHoo"

*BLAM*

I watched the forefinger disappear in a pink mist because the escalating voices had caught everyone's attention.

OB "You F@@@@@G shot me!"

Piled everyone in the truck and hauled A$$ To the hospital for treatment. Lied our tails off to the cops because OF COURSE we did.

Apparently, he thought that the bullet would come out of the muzzle, travel INTO the empty casing and kind of 'blow' it out of his hand and that it would be cool.

Uh huh.

 

[Slickhill]

At the range and this character shows up. White guy probably in his early twenties, 5’8” at least 300. Complete with black stocking cap, it was summer, drop holster thigh rig with extra mags, surplus combat boots with black cargo pants bloused into boot tops the full 1990’s tactical look aside from his physique. And the topper, his “safety glasses” are a set of Oakley snowboard goggles. He has an entourage of a bunch of middle aged Asian tourist guys, probably 5 of them and it appears that only one speaks English and he’s acting as translator.

He dumps his drag bag gun case on the bench and heads to set up a target at the 100 yard line.

When the range goes hot he tells the interpreter he’s going to fire a few rounds to “get her warmed up” and then he’ll let them take a few shots apiece. He opens the case and produces a Mosin with an Osprey or other gunshow special Chinesium scope mounted on a base that is a 4” cantilevered rail screwed to the front ring and said scope is secured to this base arrangement with not 2 but 1 super high airsoft ring. The whole works had been rattlecanned black and written on the side of the butt in white paint pen was “So others may live”.

He produced an ammo can and shot somewhere around 30 rounds of surplus ammo out of it. Never put a hole in the target.

All the onlookers were chattering excitedly in whatever Asian language they spoke and the operator looked like he was about to cry when he declared the range session over and began packing his gear. The next week said rifle showed up on the used rack in my buddy’s gun shop.

I always wondered what kind of stories the non English speakers told about their range trip when they got back home and if that was the only perception of shooting that they would ever have.

 

[tim tarras]

I was at Cableas yesterday to meet a guy to sell a pack. As I was waiting I strolled around the store. In the used guns there was one I was not familiar with as asked about it. The guy behind that counter told me it was a 6.5x55 Swede "which was the bases for the design of the 6.5 Creedmoor."

I told him it was based off the 30TC and he gave me this "well I'm behind the counter and know more than you." look. I just shook my head and walked away.

 

[RME]

When I was a kid, probably 12 or 13, I was with my dad at a get together with his high school friends and a lady had a big scar on her calf. One of the guys asked what happened and she said she was at a gun shop with her husband and a guy cocked and pulled the trigger on a 44 mag he didn’t know was loaded and accidentally shot her in the leg!

 

[CaribooBC]

Was at a large public range, probably 50 stations. RO called an off-schedule ceasefire a then announced “Do not shoot the bunny rabbit. Line is hot.” That bunny safely finished his traverse of the range.

I called a ceasefire at our range when a Mulie doe walked out and laid down in the shade behind a target stand.

 

[Chris in TN]

I called a ceasefire at our range when a Mulie doe walked out and laid down in the shade behind a target stand.

During the rut and during the dead of winter when food is scarce, it's common to see whitetails on our local 0-1250 range. Nobody ever calls a cease fire and nobody would dare shoot them if they value their membership.

I have, a few times, had to personally hold fire and wait for the deer to move, or maybe shift and shoot a different target, because of them. But we don't cease-fire over it.

 

[TNKnoxville]

Chris in TN do you happen to shoot at Oak Ridge? Numerous times had deer walk out on the 200 yard range and eat grass like nothings happening! Everyone says the same thing, don't shoot one if you value your membership!

 

[Amos Keeto]

LBJ Nat'l Grasslands in Decatur, TX finally caved to public pressure and put in a public shooting range.
BUT......!
There was a heavy presence of horseback riders that constantly ran the trails.
In fact, one organized group of riders constantly groomed and maintained trails.
Within that group was a nonhunting, anti-gun sub group.
Some of those nitwits made it their goal to establish a trail across the shooting range backstop!
THEY won! In the name of "public safety", the NFS shut down the shooting range!

 

[CMF]

Younger and 'dumber' we were having a shooting day which, as a grown adult, I look back on and cringe and would call "fking around with guns" today.

I know what you mean.
~16yo me and a buddy out shooting at a dirt pit. He's shooting 22lr off the bedrail(and across the bed) of my 84 ranger, and I hear "dong". The scope was high enough that he was on target, but the barrel was pointed right at the other side of the bedrail. Luckily, it didn't go all the way through the body. What's worse is, a couple of years later, the same buddy shoots the bed of my 93 chevy. I hear the "dong" and I'm like, "Did you just shoot my truck again?"

 

[Chris in TN]

Chris in TN do you happen to shoot at Oak Ridge? Numerous times had deer walk out on the 200 yard range and eat grass like nothings happening! Everyone says the same thing, don't shoot one if you value your membership!

No, strategic edge in middle Tn.

But, yeah, those deer are pretty safe there.

 

[Amos Keeto]

"Hold my beer! Watch this!"

 

[haywoodhunter]

I was at the public range the other day and witnessed something that immediately made me think of this thread. Few guys set up on a bench and start pulling stuff out. One pulls out an ar with no sight. No irons, no red dot, no scope, no nothing. RSO walks over and asks him if he’s got something on a qd he’s gonna put on to sight in or something. Nope. Feller planned to just point and shoot this ar down the 100yd range lol. Told the RSO he’d bought it the day before at the gun show

 

[rookieforever33]

I was at the public range the other day and witnessed something that immediately made me think of this thread. Few guys set up on a bench and start pulling stuff out. One pulls out an ar with no sight. No irons, no red dot, no scope, no nothing. RSO walks over and asks him if he’s got something on a qd he’s gonna put on to sight in or something. Nope. Feller planned to just point and shoot this ar down the 100yd range lol. Told the RSO he’d bought it the day before at the gun show

There are definitely ARs out there that need to be function tested before bothering with optics or sights. Especially at gun shows. Way too many people bought the parts and assembled them at home without verifying that they would work together.

 

[2DSWAMP]

Count me in on paying more attention to the pretty college girl.

 

[haywoodhunter]

There are definitely ARs out there that need to be function tested before bothering with optics or sights. Especially at gun shows. Way too many people bought the parts and assembled them at home without verifying that they would work together.

That’s fair. This range allows function testing of rifles on the pistol range for this reason. And if that’d been his response I wouldn’t have thought anything of it. But in my mind it seemed silly because you wouldn’t go slap a target up at 100 yds and just look down the barrel.

But you right. Never hurts to shoot a gun show ar to make sure it works.

 

[Smithb9841]

Had 2 yesterday during my daughters hunter
Safety course

Fist was the game warden going over rules and regulations talking about FMJ and not to use, but then he started calling frangible bullets FMJ and that a frangible bullet doesn’t expand and will just poke through without expanding, after the 3rd time He repeated it I stopped him and corrected him about what a frangible bullet is and where it explained in the text book. You could tell this was the first time he ever heard of what a frangible bullet does. But at least he admitted to
Th students he was wrong and corrected himself

Second was the instructor going off about a 223 is unethical to hunt with and is no different than shooting a deer with a 22lr, I wasn’t in the mood to argue or get into how wrong she was but it was comical to hear her explanation.