Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Play by play with idiots at the range

I consider myself fortunate that my schedule allows me the opportunity to go to our range on member only days. Our membership fees are $175 a year and it's closed to the public on Monday and Tuesday, the days I generally go. It costs the general public $20 a day to shoot so as much as I shoot it's worth the membership fee to me.

When I lived down in Washington our annual dues were $35 a year and you got a combination to the gate. It was a little club and there was a lot of abuse with guys giving out the combination to their buddies. I got to see lots of the aforementioned antics at that range. Still see a little of it at the range I use now. I suppose if I went more often on the GP days I'd see more of it.

Not quite the same but similar, at elk camp in Colorado:
At dinner the first night
"My 338 is still rising at 600 yds"

I'll bite "Really?"
"Yup, that's why I use it" My BIL "Wow must make it hard to hit one at 50"

Two years later, pre-season scouting.

Arkansas " Last year there was a herd running over there (pointing to a clearcut minimum 1.5 miles away)and I laid in to 'em with my Buddies .338"

Me "Man, that's well over a mile from here"

Ark "Ah hell no, it's like 600 yds, I missed 'em though, kept shootin over top of 'em"

I thought maybe the altitude change was hard on one of us or the other.

KC

One of my favorites from elk hunting was the fellow I ran into who killed his elk at 800 yards with his 30-06. Just held 10 inches high. That's one flat shootin' 30-06. Must have been using some of his brother in law's special reloads.

I ran into a guy sipping coffee at his truck who said he was waiting for snow so he could spot deer on the mountainside. He assured me that if it would just snow, he'd get his deer. When I said "is that so," he replied, "yep, I got one right here last year when it snowed, 350-yard shot." With his un-scoped lever action .35 Remington, no less.

A fellow shooter noticed my box of Accubond reloads. He comes walking up and says, "I see you are shooting those brand new Nosher Partional (sic) bullets."

I had not a single response.

Hey, my gun won't fire. Did you put a round in the chamber and take the safety off? OH! powdr

Around here, there's a lot of magnums that if you line them up dead on at 100 yards, you can hold on hair out to 500 yards and still hit a deer.

I always invite them to my uncles farm, just a couple miles from the clubs range. Have had a couple who go their eyes opened. Most decline though...

Did have one guy, that was hitting about 12 feet below my steel targets at 500, swear that he was close enough to hit a deer.

What cha shooting? 300 H&H mag! Never heard of that. What's it good for? Me!

My thoughts as well.

This morning a guy was shooting a weatherby sub-MOA model and was pronouncing it sub-MOA like rhyming with boa. I chuckled....

Hehehehehehe......morons with weapons! Scary thought.

There's nothing funny about that, my Weatherby shoots sub-moah too.

I suspect a lot of 'fire members spend a LOT more time with their rifles than Average Joe. And that a lot of them have spent the time and energy to learn good technique and acquire or make their rifles more accurate than the off-the-shelf rifles that Average Joe shoots.

I've met more than one Average Joe that went elk hunting with a rifle bore-sighted by the seller and that they had never fired. Another guy from California shot up close to a box of ammo and never did get his elk. Max range was about 300 yards, often less. (It did appear he wounded one, but it got away.)

Here's one shot in very gusty 40+ mph crosswinds. I say "+" because the radio said 60+ for a few miles west, closer to the mountains.

I tried to shoot between gusts but didn't always succeed.

One of the best tips I ever got on the 'fire was from Sam Olson, who said to go out and practice when the wind was blowing....cause it blows when you are hunting.
And to check your loads and develop them at 200 and 300 yards. Pretty much everything these days shoots good at 100 yards.

Could be he was telling the truth...Moas were 6-9 feet tall

There's a lot to be said for a private, makeshift range out in a farmers field.

A local range started out with some very good planning--the max range of a 100 yards actually measures 90. Each station or bench shoots through a concrete tile about 12' long with a diameter of about 3.5-4'; these are all enclosed in a big berm. Even with ear protection larger rifles sound like an artillery burst and the Chrony/Oehler type of chrono's are almost impossible to use because one must go out in front of the different stations from one end or the other. There is no range officer and very few with range manners.

A comment heard there one windy day as a gentleman was instructing a younger shooter: "you have to shoot "quicker" (as in a faster trigger pull) on a day like today because of the wind." ??!

I must belong to some pretty good ranges because I don't have many stories like these. Although, I do avoid public ranges like the plague. The only one that comes to mind was some know-everything-kid trying to sight in a savage of some type at 200 yards...he was putting divots in the ground at about 75 yards. He packed up and went home after about 20 shots. Of course, with reasonable magnification and good technique, he should have been able to see the grass flying.

Wow, is that a chronograph? "yes". Can I try it? "No". Why not? "You'll shoot it". No I won't. "Do you have $100 on you"? No,why? "The last guy that I let use it shot it and he said he wouldn't shoot it". - High Brass