Been here 5 minutes....

Vapor trails are called "dust trails"...

"Why am I three feet high at 200 yards? The guy at the shop told it would be dead on!!!".....

"What's that computer in front of you that you are shooting at"? (Chronograph)

I told him it gave me a velocity and he looked at my like I was crazy.....

These are real time by the way.....

Now you know why Im such a grumpy old ass. 22 years behind the gun counter dealing with these hydrocephalic morons will make you cynical....

I've got a really nice range next to me that it easy and convenient. Didn't expect them this early. Maybe just an unlucky day for me...

They are shooting savages and tascos! Perfect....

"All bullets rise before they drop."

That one will inevitably follow.....

" Groups you can cover with a dime!" is next.


Of course those will be the kind of groups the rifle they left at home shoots.....

Had one guy tell me his .280 shot absolutely flat to 200 yards, then it began to rise.....

Then there will be the "xxx Remchester" isn't good for deer because the bullet is moving so fast it doesn't have time to expand.

When he finally hit the target at 100 yardsand his dot at 500 yards didn't even hit the berm he said " this bullet must be way flatter than I thought!"...

If he's sending them over the berm you need to put a stop to that pronto.

Heard that one several times. One was a referring to a 18.5" 7mm-08 with 140gr factory loads, but the shot was "at really close range".

Yep. It just 'pencils on through'....and its even worse at close range....

I've met folks at the range that if I could have recorded what they said and play it back for them 10 years later they would swear they didn't make those comments.

Oh wait ... nevermind

It's always amazing to me all of these types of targets that show up here on the 'fire. 'Fire members must own the most accurate rifles on the planet.

Its just that we don't post pics of targets with groups bigger than a dime...

I thought we had the most idiotic range members, but I guess not. I always love it when some lardass shows up, sits down at the bench to my left, and commences firing rounds as fast as he can squeeze the trigger, slowing down only to change clips, through his new AR he just bought at Academy. I love that hot brass flying all over the freaking place, including myself and my bench.

My 4 year old daughter at the range




(Man asks, is is clear to go downrange?

4 year old daughters reply......its not clear because you have a bullet ready to shoot and your bolt is not open.)

Man ejects live round and leaves bolt open

Daughter......OK, its clear now!

This was 4 years ago as my daughter is now approaching 9 years of age in September.

Shod

Yep, and never show targets shot at when the wind blows.

We have the power of self-editing!

Any updates?

GregW,



My son-in-law used to take his Savage 7Mag with a Tasco to the range. He would plop down beside someone with much more expensive stuff and fire at and hit the empty two pound propane bottle at 596 yards. He would then dial the Tasco back to 100 yards and out one right in the "X". Then he would ask if anyone wanted to have a shooting contest.

I had a friend who had a Remington heavy varmint rifle. The best he could do was five shots in 3/4". I started with a different load and couldn't do any better. He ask what I would do. I told him to sell it and get a Savage. He did. My first three shots, using my loads, were 3/8" at 100 yards. He fired five and they measured 4/10".

My son-in-laws brother purchased a Savage 7Mag. Using factory ammo he was getting 5/8" three shot groups from the get go. With the factory Simmons.

Dollars to donuts says that the knuckleheads at the range spouting the nonsense mentioned above are also the same knuckleheads at the boat launch who can't back a trailer, install a transom plug or set a parking brake.

bruin,

But seeing someone fail to install the transom plug and/or fail to set the parking brake really makes my day.

Steve

During "Sight In Days", noticed a guy was struggling at a shooting bench so went to see what was wrong.
He was shooting a bolt in 280 Rem. He had 270, 280 and '06 ammo on the bench. When asked what the .... he was trying to do, he said--" I wanted to try some different loads, but this 30-06 case is stuck." When I questioned why he had three different calibers of ammo, he said "You know all three are made from 30-06 brass and he wanted to try some different weight bullets."
Gave him his money back and sent him home.

AZZHATS did this to 2 different tables at a range I shoot at when my range is just too windy to learn anything.




I'd sure like to see these kind of people caught.

The range I belong to used to have shooting 24/7.
Then idiots started shooting at the lights.
Now it's daylight only.

Updates are I left. I couldn't take it.

5 shot groups to test for seating depth. Groups got worse the further they were from lands. Ended with 8" 5 shot groups at 400 meters.

Began with 5 shot 3.5" group at 400 meters. 22" .280 Ackley 62.0 gr. -19, 140 accubonds. @ 3.36". 3,160 at muzzle.

Tikka have spoiled me as I'm not that happy...

The real problem seems to be that we don't have some way of preventing newbies from getting involved in either shooting or boating.

Newbies aren't required to be idiots, and a lot of idiots aren't newbies.

A knucklehead ask me "What is that rifle?"
Me "Ruger 7mm Remington Magnum"
Knucklehead" You said its a Ruger"
Me "It is"
Knucklehead " How could it be a Ruger when its a 7mm Remington Magnum. You have a 7mm Ruger Magnum."
Me "Ok, whatever."

That was the last conversation I've had with a guy like that.

Just wait for the morons to show up that claim their super-extra-high see-thru rings magically flatten the trajectory of their bullets...

Now you've done it. The hook is in the water.

Had a guy show up 2 days in a row, for two weekends, trying to sight in twin 300 win. magnums for an elk hunt the following week.

He had some sort of a lead sled. We have concrete benches at our range. He would set the front legs of the lead sled , hooked in front of the bench so it wouldn't move back. He then would "sight" down the scope while standing beside it, raise up, then reach down and pull the trigger (standing beside the gun). Never did get behind the gun. Those magnums were really jumping up.

Not sure if he ever got them on. He was shooting factory premium stuff and I'm sure he shot up $200 plus worth of ammo.

I considered helping him but he didn't hardly acknowledge me, so I left him alone. Damndest thing I've ever seen.

You think they don't? That's why I use one!

I've been around more idiot 'experts' than 'newbies'.


Hell, you can see it on the 'Fire.

Me: Shooting a .30-30 from kneeling position and whacking the steel gong pretty regularly at 200 yards.

Expert: "Yeah, I've watched guy's shoot .30-30's at the Cowboy silhouette shoots." (We have a lever action silhouette meet once per month at the range).

He proceeded to opine quite seriously that the .30-30 wasn't any good on deer past 100 yards based on the anemic way it sounded when hitting the heavy silhouette targets. Judging from his pudgy figure (fat lardass to be exact) and spindly legs I could see he had much experience climbing the local hills and mountains hunting deer.

Me: "Izzat so!? Wow, that's good to know..."



I gladly contribute 20 hours per year of range work to keep my gate key to access the range at hours closed to the public.

Congrats to your daughter, Must of had a good teacher!

I've taken to using one of Finn Aagard's questions when encountering the "expert's. "And you know this to be true because...........?"

One of the many reasons I don't do public ranges. Too many idiots. But they can't hold a candle to the idiots you see at local gun shows.

My favorite

Those are all over the place around here. The bullets just zip right on through.........

Gosh I miss so much by not shooting at a public range.

The public range is horrific yetat the same time is amazing entertainment.

CEASEFIRE, I have a few more rounds to shoot....Bang!


Guy pulls the trigger.....click. He proceeds to pull the rifle off the bench and put the butt on the ground while looking down the barrel, asking his buddy what's wrong with it? I was waiting for "Cherry Pie"? Guess he was lucky since he lived.

I post my target pics in the comedy forum

I have seen guys trying to sight in their rifle in the off hand position, scopes mounted backwards, etc.

I've been shooting since I was 12. Did some hunting as a kid with my uncles but never actually did it on my own until after college and career got started (I hate that fact about my life). I'm still learning something new about shooting, hunting, and reloading all the time. I've learned from folks like Mathman, Ingwe, BullDog, and many many many others here on the fire.

Till this day, the only bird hunting I've done is turkey and I've only ever hunted within these 50 states. There still so much I want to learn and do before ... well you know ...

Have a great day!!!

Worst thing with idiots is how frequently the conversations tend to devolve into self congratulatory circle jerks.

Sounds like a peach of a guy. I'm surprised he had no takers. I know when I go to the range, I'm always looking for some stranger to have a shootin' contest with.

The part that interests me is " dial the Tasco back to 100 yds...."


and " hit the empty two pound propane bottle at 596 yards...."


This kind of statement is usually what comes out of "the idiots" and without knowing more I'd dearly love to get in a shooting contest with Wrongman's SIL....

$100 a shot would give it some flavor.

At my range, it wouldn't be "the" propane bottle, it would be "a" propane bottle. It wouldn't last long enough to be "the" bottle.

How about them apples?

The ol' adjustable objective turret system?

Im curious about a couple things:

A) Ive never heard of a two pound propane bottle and

B) Why 596 yards....Why not 600?

I suspect so...


But I've had other idiots tell me its not an adjustable objective, its a 'rangefinder'....

Good on you my friend and well done by your daughter!

The 596 is metric .

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

What I wouldn't give to have that privilege.

15 minutes and 30 minutes from my house.....each place is lonely

Dave_in_WV,

I had a friend who wanted to chronograph his loads. I set up a target, put the chronograph below the target a few feet out in front of him. Then I told him, "Ignore the chronograph and aim at the target. You won't have a problem." I turned back to my pickup for something while he fired. He said, "Whoops." I turned around to see the skyscreen wire on the second hanging with no skyscreen.

How does that happen? He had to hit about two feet low on the target to get the "eye".

I thought only a 270 could do that...

Yes. That's a Godsend.

Had some folks walk into our covered bench area. All were holding rifles, no cases. As they were fooling around getting set up, one of them sent a round through the ceiling. Had the damn thing hot when they walked in. They left, or I was going to. mtmuley

There was a guy beside me one day trying to sight in his rifle at 100 meters, he was inexperienced and hanging on every word of the two experienced guys looking over his shoulder. He fired shot after shot, cranking the scope in between shots because the two guys kept telling him he was way over the target. I started paying attention once they ran out of scope adjustment and started talking about the scope must be messed up. They tried a couple more shots and I could see the bullet hitting the ground part way down and hitting high on the berm behind. I stopped them and told them what was happening and offered to let them use my bench because there was a 20m target they could get boresighted on. They looked at me like I was a complete moron and kept shooting. I think they ran out of ammo then left. Had to be 40-50 rnds into it.

Another time the situation was similar only the inexperienced shooter was shooting factory and reloaded ammo but was getting a lot of misfires with the reloaded ammo. The experienced guy helping him looked the cases over and told him he had "a bad batch of primers, it happens sometimes". I politely got involved and found out it was new unfired brass and the pin strike was almost non existent. I told him it was more likely that his new cases were a little short for his chamber and a couple things he could do about it. Again I was looked at like I was a moron and the experienced guy turned back to the shooter and said "no, you got bad primers".

I know I'm not the most knowledgable guy around, but I am smart enough to know there are a lot of things to learn and keep learning. Some people don't seem to want help or mabye they don't trust others.

It's always fun to take my brother in law to the range. One time he hands me an almost straight walled case and asks "why does my brass look like this?" I check the head stamp and it reads 35 REM then I look at his H&R Handi rifle and it reads 35 Whelen! I tell him the problem and his response is "They aren't the same thing?"

Later that year we go to the range again. I figure everyone makes mistakes and he learned his lesson. He now owns a Ruger #1 in in 270 Weatherby. After 2 misfires his rifle finally goes bang but doesn't sound right. It won't extract the case and he asks for a little help over here. I have a little flat blade screw driver handy and dig the case out. It's a .270 Winchester! How it fired in the rifle I'll never know. The primer was gone before I started digging it out. After telling him what he's done AGAIN he stated he thought a .270 was a .270 and this brand was a lot more affordable than that Weatherby stuff!

He asks me recently about getting into reloading. I told him maybe we should hold off for awhile

I watched a fat tubolard kind of guy roll into the parking lot in a cloud of dust, pop the trunk of the Caddy, wrestle out a big piece of cardboard like off of a refrigerator box- and a Winchester 94, uncased. He scribbled a 2" bullseye onto the cardboard, set it up at 25 yards, and levered three quick shots at it (the gun was obviously in a loaded state when he fished it out of the trunk). Those bullet holes were all over the cardboard with the closest one being about a foot away from the "bullseye". "That's good enough for me" he announced. He tossed the gun directly into the trunk, left the "target" behind, and peeled that Caddy out of the parking lot in another cloud of dust. Total elapsed time: not much more than it took you to read this. I was gobsmacked. I wish he had hung around long enough for me to find out exactly where he planned on hunting...

These examples are exactly why I built this one....a long time ago...all the way back to 1500 yards! 500 yards from my bedroom!

Bench1 by Rick Mulhern, on Flickr

One of my all time favorite stories. Fellow Marine and I are at a public range doing some basic load testing and this guy sits down at the bench next to me. Being a gun guy I check out what he is shooting. Some kind of bullpup rifle but on top is one of those Simmons Aetec scopes and the crazy thing is the turrets are turned at 45 degrees (like a V). Before I could stop myself I asked him why he has his scope turned that way.

Well ya see the human eye when it sees that up and down line just tells the trigger finger to yank the trigger without paying attention to the sideways one. I knew then that I should have given my friend the same speech that God gave to Lot at Sodom - run away as fast as you can and don't look back! He continues, "but with the crosshairs turned like an X it forces your eye to really focus on where the middle of the sight is.

I say gotcha, roll my eyes and get ready. He begins sight in by doing double taps at the 100 yard target. His wife is watching through binos: "yer still low." Bang bang, pause, bang bang. "Nope still too low." He starts twisting the turrets and then I see him take the magazine out to reload. 9 mms. He was shooting a friggin 9 mm bullpup with a 2.5-10x44 scope turned 45 degrees from vertical doing double taps to sight in and killing the dirt at 60 yards or so!!!!! Needless to say I tested new loads elsewhere after that!!

He may have been clueless, but he didn't sound unsafe .... comedy is it's own stress reliever

I've offered to buy guns from some of these very knowledgeable gun guys. Best to wait until their buddy is giving jabs. Pride can be an interesting motivator.

Sharpsman -dam' that's nice. Do you use sheep or goats to keep the grass down? Jus kidding...Homesteader

OK WOW

This is how I feel. The day I quit learning and exploring is the day they put me in the ground. I know a little about archery and that is my only claim to fame. But even after shooting long guns and pistol for years (45) I cannot hold a candle to these guys. I think I have proven that with some of my posts.

So I say it again, thanks for all of the help and patience.

Heard that one in a Sportsman's Whorehouse seminar on reloading from the INSTRUCTOR. Couldn't help it I had to speak up and was supported by 3-4 others. Not sure we convinced him though.

Now, now ingwe, I'm sure there were a few microcephalic morons in there.

I used to shoot at public ranges quite a bit. One my favorites was a guy getting ready for deer season with a Model 70 375 H&H using factory DG ammo. Poor guy, his flinch was so bad he was just barely able to keep all the shots on the pie plate at 25 yrds! To top it off, he was scrubbing the pi$$ out of the bore with a brush after every shot "cause that's what the benchrest shooters do"

THAT is superb!

I guess they really do for a sighted in rifle. Have to go up to get to the sighted in place then they get to go down.

I remember seeing a photo here of a good-looking rifle on a wooden benchrest, I think Big Stick might have posted it. The point of the photo was the new rifle, but the camera also picked up an inkpen drawing on the side of the bench. It depicted a stick figure holding a scoped rifle and dashed lines coming out of both the barrel and scope, intersecting at two points out in front of the cartoon man. It was the kindergarten version, but it looked like somebody was getting a quick field lesson on how riflescopes actually worked.... (grin)

The Friday before Nov. firearm opener, a group of us go out and shoot jugs at 400-500 yards for the hell of it.

A couple of years ago, a buddy of a buddy was trying to pop a jug or 2 but not one shot would come within 2 or 3 feet of a jug. I happen to wander over to where he was standing and started looking at his fired brass...


I asked him what he was shooting..."Weatherby in 300 win mag". I told him he might wanna check the stamp on the side of the barrel...I bet it'll say 300 Weatherby Mag. It did. His excuse was he was shooting the ammo that was given to him when he bought the rifle.

Got a sovereign and a story u should have thanked him lol.

It's all a matter of perspective If your perspective is the line-of-sight of the barrel's axis and then all bullets fall from the time they leave the muzzle. If you reference is purely from an altitude POV and your rifle is sighted in for x00 yards .... the bullet does indeed increase in altitude (climbs) until its apex. It really isn't rocket science and I am still amused as to the number of shooters that get their panties in a bundle over this concept. Granted for those sighted in @ 200 an their bullet is still rising at 450 .... well that might be true if your sight height is 12" above bore axis.