Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Ever get pissed at the gunrange goofs ?

There are 3 rifle ranges within 65 miles of here and i've realised i can't do load development and find an accurate load at any of them due too gunrange goofs .
All three ranges have the shooting benches all one piece 2 have the seats connected to the benches , so everytime someone next to you shoots or moves it shakes your crosshair. I've given them the name ''ammo-wasters'' they come to the 100 yards range and fire a shot about every two seconds using one of the pieces of treated 4x4 wood as a rest or shooting off their elbows . Never shooting a group inside of 7-10-20'' just bang bang bang . When they leave another one takes their place with his ak-sks-ar handfull of russian ammo . They need to let them shoot at the Dump for free so the rest of us can sight in a gun .
I've been trying to work up loads on some [should be] accurate rifles and have made no progress in a few years thanks to the goofs .

Myself and two other guys spoke with the Bay County shooting range about it - they're discussing how to go about the problem - we were not the first to mention this by a long shot according to them . So maybe after many wasted rounds by me because of the goofs i can get a 6.5x47 L shooting inside of 1.5'' --LAF .
Was looking over my group data this evening and got riled up when realising how long this has been going on .
I've had to leave to range many times when the goofs surround me , you can't talk nice to them and get them to show a small amount of consideration . 130 mile round trip drive and $10 range fee down the drain .

You folks living out west or people with a quiet [goofless] range have it made - here in craphole florida it sucks .

That's crazy that you don't have a bench to yourself.

Google U-Haul

My condolences man. I cant imagine living in a place where i couldnt run out to the national forest or blm land with my portable bench and shoot as long as my heart is content. Shooting without interruption is really needed for shooting precise groups and working up loads. I feel for you. I can relate though. I went to my range the other day and it was chit poor weather. I thought no one would be there, but I was wrong. There were 5 guys under the covered rifle range and they were all standing up shooting their AR's. They littered the concrete slab with brass and left a mess. I was at the pistol range:

Shooting some of the steel targets that I made. Waited until about 45 minutes before dark and then the bozo's left the rifle range. Then I got my chit thrown in the back of my Tacoma and headed over to the rifle range to shoot my new 22lr target rifle:




In some of these pics, you can see the brass laying on the cement slab under the benches. Usually we keep that chit swept up, but these morons don't give a chit... They were the types that pull the trigger about every half second but rarely hit what they were aiming at......

I feel your pain.

IMO, too many ranges are designed by boards or well intended folks who may like guns, support the Second, etc., but don't know much about shooting.

Most of us are a combination of gun nut and shooter, but there is a difference and too many lean disproportionately to the gun nut side, more gun nut than shooter.

JMO

Paul

Last time I went to the range a guy got a saboted bullet stuck half way down in his front stuffer and was throwing a fit. Other than that it was peaceful enough.

My club range is pretty good but it goes get pretty crowded on Saturday’s. Each shooter has his own bench, but with the prevalence of fas guns, plenty of times empty brass is being flung all over the place.

My solution was to rearrange my work schedule so that once a moth I swap one of our off Fridays for a Wednesday. The range is deserted on Wednesday afternoons

Obviously this nay not be an option for everyone, but if possible tryi. To give yourself an occasional weekday at the range can be extremely helpful. I have no problem setting up the chrono, going cold when o want to swap targets, etc.

Fortunately, our range is on the farm. One bench. 100, 200 and 300 yards. No goofs.

Same here, I had a girl with me at the range.
Not being cute but she was well endowed,
The twins were substantial, and as you can imagine,
She was out to impress, and me being me, I had no qualms.
Til one of the semi auto Phux landed some hot brass down
Her shirt. Damn brass branded her. I was pissed,
It’s not a new problem for me, if you go to the range, you need to be responsible for where and in what direction your brass gets spent, I am occupied shooting groups so when your hot brass comes at me, it shouldn’t be a surprise when I come have words with you.

So this guy proceeds to tell me, “it’s a gun range, your gonna get hit with hot brass!! Get over it,”

So yeah, that didn’t go to well..
I won’t post what I said, but to be sure I made it clear I didn’t see things that way.

Your own bench - how nice that would be . .

scottbrad google steelheads a dork - don't get mad though -laf.

The bench designs suck at all of the ranges .
crestview shoal river - falling apart - run down bad .
argyle bullets and bones seat height horrible since they poured a slab .
bay county range [right by my hunting lease] stupid design on benches connected as mentioned , small narrow part where your rear elbow goes is very narrow - then portion where front rest would go is way too short . Sit in the ''corner'' of bench - your rest has to be under bottom metal of rifle - then rear bag xx anyway you have to turn sideways to sit at bench you cannot sit straight squared up with target .My plan is to take a wide board to the range and clamp it to their crap to add about 2' of length .
We can now shoot from the ground at the 300yd. range [no goofs rocking the boat] but it's dead flat and you'll be shooting through weeds which might not be the best way for load development - laf.
For years it was out of the question to walk down and place a target at the STEEL SHOOTING RANGE - not allowed to paint a spot or anything you just hit the huge life size buffalo at 200 yards , 300yds. big pig/turkey/coyote/deer steel so close they were all one target and pat yourself on the back - laf . To ''qualify'' to shoot at the 300 yard range you had to be able to hit a sheet of notebook paper five times at 100yds. - you could try as many times as you wanted - true! . Many have failed time and again i'm told .
Paul39 ,
I spoke with the top guy in tallahassee a few years ago and got the 17mach 2 legal on public land - he'd never even heard of it .
Emailed him about the silliness of this range - it's much better than it was a few years ago .

I went monday before Christmas hadn't been in 3 years still sucks but not as bad as it use to . I sneek and shoot at my lease at night 3 bright led lights shined on a target .
Closed tues/wed. no midweek slow times .

Ive seen guys trying to sight in rifles shooting off hand.

My uncle - then bumps sights with a hammer , he's a coon hunter - he can go through a box of ammo getting a coon shot out of a tree .

I have also seen scopes mounted backwards on a rifle

Thought about prone?

That's what i'll be doing if i ever get load development finished to my satisfaction .
In the summer -which is 9 months long here- they don't mow enough - seen weeds/grass nearly high enough to mess with bench shooting . Maybe they'd let me shoot from the side berm ?

I've got to move back to Idaho ! might very well do that .....

Jericho -- no way . . . .

Wow...

What’s even better you can be set up clear in the other side and here they come saddle up next to you.. the range I belong too after 1600 members only so that’s a plus, Monday and Tuesday members only.. we have a public range here in the valley public use, but you need to be packing up by high noon.. that’s when the AR boys show up.. I usually end up being that guy telling everyone to read the rules of the range. Because never ph ucking fails idiots handling firearms while folks are downrange checking targets..

At the range in Colorado, fella with his ol lady he was trying to
Sight his rifle in, so he has this pillow for a rest. He gets the chair and kneels in it not sitting, but kneeling on his knees in it. He’s using the pillow to pad his elbows. So he shoots, and that’s when the blood started pouring from his head., He scoped himself real good..

For a while, I used to use a public state owned range. It was free....conveiniant a few miles from the house...benches were nice enough.


It was often a war zone. Despite a 5 round loading limit, no rapid fire etc...guys would burn through a box of 20 high power rifle rounds in a couple minutes.


My favorite thing to do was glass other guys targets while I waited for a barrel to cool. Made me feel not so safe sharing the woods with them....and made me feel like the deer were likely safe. I couldn't believe how poorly the "average" guy shoots. I never thought holding a group with a scoped rifle at 100yds off a bench was that big of a deal....but 00 buck patterns better than many of those guys.


The whole cease fire going down range crap got ridiculous. They'd either do it every 3 minutes or go forever. I learned to put up a number of targets and plan to sit there till I was done.



Now I'm pretty fortunate. I have 2 clubs within 2 miles of the house. I can step outside and take a listen and see if the ranges are occupied lol. I'm a member of one. I am going to join the other this year as well...buddy said they have a really nice setup and a lot of steel and longer ranges than my current club. And will give me another option if one is busy or closed...ran into that last year...someone booked it for a wedding or something and I was working on a flintlock turkey gun.

The volume shooters are kind of annoying but I don't normally mind them too bad, because they leave a ton of brass for me to snag. Until they start doing mag dumps with a braked rifle anyway.

I don't rag on them much, they have as much right to be there as I do. Like it or not, those young mag dumper AR and AK guys are the future guardians of the 2nd Amendment. I'm glad to have them on my side. The more of them the better.

What i spoke to the range officers about is keeping the ammo wasters together and away from the precision shooters who might be fine tuning a rifle .
My own comments written in my Lyman reloading log show that - goofs ruin any chance of precision shooting .

Here on the Coast the wind starts picking up around 9:30-10am and calm days are very rare , getting one of those calm day then getting surrounded by ammo wasters sucks .

I think the precision shooters could work together - no way the ammo wasters are going to wait for someone to shoot a group they wouldn't even understand what you're talking about .

A guy here -ammo waster type- - i told him how thick the praire dogs were in Kaycee , WY. - told him i fired 800 rounds in three days and barely made a dent in them . He explained to me how he'd love to take two AK-47's and 10,000 rounds of ammo - how he would mag dump the ammo in one day . I told him there wouldn't be any PD's left if he went there and shot them like that . He asked why the hell i fired one shot at a time - said that sounds boring as hell .

That sucks. The range I belong to is mostly quiet this time of year.

Luckily, last time my son and I went to the range with our bolt guns (a few Saturday's ago), we were shooting from the benches on the left end of the line. Everybody else had AR's of some form and were shooting at 25 to 50 yards and the brass was flying. We were ringing the gongs at our own pace with precision!! LOL.

One-piece benches? That's a terrible ideal. Got a circular saw and a coupla' 2x4s?

I've noticed an increase in the number of "mag dumpers" at my range. Even when they slow down their hit percentage on an 18" gong at 50 yards isn't too good. I should bring my snub nosed 38 and beat their results to see if they get the point.

My range is the same way. One piece concrete benches and the mag dumpers seem to come out of the woodwork. My old range had individual benches and it was much better. One day this arsehole shows up with his kids. He leaves the kids in his car while he bangs away his Remington 742. No rest, no nothing. Can't figure out why he can't hit schitt. Keeps turning around and yelling at his kids. They wanted to get out and shoot too. The other guys on the range were obviously getting as annoyed as i was, not so much at the kids as the dad yelling at them constantly. I finally had enough and told him that if he'd brought a .22 for his kids to shoot or something he might not have to yell at them all the time. He just looked at me, packed his crap and left.

I recently went to a public range for the first time in 30 years. Reminded me why I built my own on my last place. AR and AK clip dumpers are obnoxious. When I needed to set up the chronograph, it was out to the Natl Forest.

I remember one time developing a load for my silhouette revolver, I began to set up at the 100 yard line. The range officer came over and rather unpleasantly told me I couldn't shoot a revolver at 100 yards. I asked why not and he told me I couldn't hit the target at 100 yards. Asked him if I shot at 25 yards and showed him the target would he agree to let me shoot at 100.He agreed and I brought him a target with 5 holes you could cover with a quarter.
He let me shoot at 100 after that.

I went to the Bay County Range the second week it was open this is the Range a couple of miles from my hunting lease so very convenient for me . There were holes in the roofs of the 50 & 100 yard ranges , i asked a Range Officer WTH ?? he said it happens everyday . Pistol and 300 yards same same .

I was setting up steel silhouette targets at a pistol match. I was in plain sight of the shooting line. A guy starts shooting targets that were between him and me.

Based on what I see frequently at the Fraternal Order of Police public range near Birmingham, there is a lot of missing going on in the deer woods. Even with the range provided rifle rests and fairly nice individual tables, most do well to keep 4" groups at 100 yds. Many do far, far worse. Watched a guy with a Rem 7400 jamo-matic 308 the other day chase the zero around through a full box of ammo. He was working on an 8" 50 yard group, but kept adjusting the scope after every shot. He had no idea where he was hitting after a few shots. I asked if he could use some help getting his rifle sighted in. He gladly accepted. After I tightened the screws on his see-thru scope mounts, I started on a new target and got a decent 1.5" 50 yd three shot group that was very near the bullseye. I asked if he wanted to see where it was hitting at 100. He said "nope" and indicated that he was good to go for hunting now. At least he did thank me. This is pretty typical at this range.

Ah, the pie plate brigade. Those are the guys who you ask what they shot when they get back to camp. "Heard a shot from your area, what'd you get?" "Me? I didn't shoot. Must've been the neighbors."

Saw a scope mounted 90degrees off......... he had a hell of a time getting on paper.........

I helped him get it sighted in...

Should I have told him that the lefty/righty knob was now the uppy/downy knob?????

And another one FIRE-turn a knob, FIRE-turn a knob, FIRE-turn a knob............

Or the one that couldn't get on paper at 25 yards.................

And then the one that said my chrony was broken............. 'cause the box said velocity was 2450 and the chrony had all different numbers..................

Try having someone shoot a .50 cal rifle with a huge brake on the table that is way to close to you with no warning while you have your eye to the scope testing loads. Drew blood on my forehead. He was to the left of me and I could have lost my an eye had it not been for glasses.

I get what everyone is saying about mag-dumpers and other annoying people on the range, but here is the deal:

As long as they aren’t endangering others they are 2nd amendment allies. They are free to shoot how they please. It is more important to welcome others into the community than to drill one hole groups off of a bench. As they spend more time around guns, do their own research and maybe even get training, they will become more proficient, less annoying to others, and finally, they will end up on boards like this complaining about the mag-dumpers, such is the circle of life.

Range rules ostracize shooters. Fudd-only clubs take up valuable space and provide very little useful opportunity to learn the practical application of firearms.

I say live and let live. A kind word solves most problems, and a shaky bench can be solved with a shooting mat and a bipod. Repeated legitimate safety concerns are a different story.

In any case, we can all agree on one thing: the worst people are the ones with muzzle brakes.

Yeah, thats a good one to bring up. I know you love your ar's, as I do too, but some guys that bring them to the club are extremely unsafe. We had one guy pop in a mag, load one in and then proceed to sweep all of us sitting at the benches. My buddy jumped up and yelled at the dumb fu ck, "hey, don't ever do that again!!!!" He then said, "I know you are a new club member, but if you ever do something like that again, you'll get kicked out of the club!!!". Its everyone's responsibility to make sure people are safe. During one of our centerfire competitions, we had a couple new guys setting up for the competiton and they asked if they could get zeroed in. We have some pretty understanding club members and our competitions aren't too serious, but when we walked downrange I had extra holes in my target:

You can imagine I got pissed when I found this on my comp target... After the same numb nuts had a negligent discharge at the line, we had to have a little talk with him. Him and his buddies also decided they didn't want to shoot comp with us..... Fuggers.. I would have loved to take their fu cking money!!!!

Amen.. What worries me is some of you (not you mathman, but some previous posters) guys think these people are 2A supporters, wehn they probably aren't. Around here they support the hell out of meth production and use. They are starting to give us real "2A supporters" a bad name and that's not good for gun owners as a whole... These pukes are the ones dragging out old tvs and couches to shoot at and hang targets on. They litter the hell out of our forests and shooting spots. In the end, they are bad news for us. Trust me....They aren't helping matters..

I’m not ammo dumping with my AR, I’m their grouping 10shot groups. I single feed all the time, since that’s what we have to do during mid range prone shoots.. the one club i belong too has rso’s they do a pretty good job keeping everyone honest..

One day I spent 30 minutes picking trash up on the 25yd range at public use range. The chit I was picking up was mind boggling, bras, socks I’m like wtf.. I’m out their picking trash up two guys show up look at me. I said it’s chit like this that will get this place shutdown. They look at me and go up to the rifle range, thanks ass holes for helping out. The best one was when, these guys asked can we shoot tannerite pointed out on the rules they have screwed to the wood beams. That no you can’t, well next cease fire they setup the tannerite and shoot it. Me and buddy look at them go wtf, two of them left. One stick around to help clean up the ph ucking mess..

My club also had (still have) RSO's. At one time, they were required to be there anytime there were people there shooting. Now it's not a requirement, so you get dip chidts coming out doing what ever the hell they want... Now, when we are doing a shoot, they either have to join in, or leave...

Hell I feel bad when I shoot my muzzleloader at public ranges. I tell guys sorry man..

Damn man, that sounds like here too. That's what I am saying in my previous post about some of these people aren't our friends. "2A supporters" or not... They don't do us any good..

I try to get to the range when they open, still it isn't long before the EBR crowd shows up. Overhead concrete baffles seem to amplify the noise those things make, can't do any precision shooting with that commotion so I leave when there get to be so many that it's a real distraction. My other peeve is when groups of them share a bench and cannot keep their mouths shut, always has to be a running commentary going on amoungst them.

We don't have those problems.

http://redwoodgunclub.org/

I'm lucky. I shoot at a private range and often have the range to myself. Rarely more than 2-3 others there and I've never had a truly bad experience. But I won't go on Saturday or any time during the 2 weeks prior to deer season. If I go on Sunday I'm putting up targets in the dark and shooting at 1st light. We have an electronic gate with a code to get in so I don't have to wait for them to open. They don't mind setting up before daylight, just no shooting before sunrise, or after sunset. No one else shows up until about 10AM when I'm about finished. If I get there and there are already more than 2-3 I turn around and go home. I tend to see the same people, we seem to have the same schedules.

The range is closed on Monday's and if I go early on Tuesday I always have to spend a few minutes pulling down old targets from the weekend crowd. That is about the worst thing I have to deal with. I do see a few things that leave me shaking my head. Some guys can't hit the broad side of a barn from the inside. I see some targets that are pretty bad. And I don't understand the concept of firing 20-30 rounds at the same target. The guys on the handgun range are the worst offenders for this. After the 1st few how do you know where you're hitting. I'll put up multiple targets and fire no more than 3-5 rounds at each. When there is a break I tape over my holes and do it over.

I'm lucky to have a nice range that has about 1800 members.Sometimes on Tues. and Wed. mornings I may be the only one there.

http://corpuschristigunclub.com/


Requirements

Applicants must be able to legally own a firearm in the State of Texas
Applicants must be 18 years old or older
Applicants must have no felony record
Applicants must have two existing club members, in good standing, as sponsors
Applicants must attend an orientation class
Applicants must submit a properly completed membership application
Applicants must pay a $50 initiation fee
Dues for 2020 are $174.00 (due by 12/31/2019) (gate cards are turned off on 1/5/2020 until renewal dues received).

It ain't stuck until your ramrod breaks.

According to the facebook posts I see and post cards from snowbirds, I always thought it was nothing but rainbows and unicorns delivering free candy every day in Florida?

Sounds like [bleep] ranges.

Surely you meant to say “when you go to the range, make sure you don’t set up where other people’s brass is going.”

If you could have moved, and did not, it’s all on you.

i got very tired of poorly trained people shooting guns ,so i put up my own 100 yard range on my property with a indoor heated shooting house and lights too,even got it state and county approved as a gun range now.some of my closet friends use my range too, now thats how i solved my problem at the rifle ranges.

Our local gun club has a 100 members and the local police force can use. Only has a 100 yard rifle range but has 4 concrete benches and is covered. Only bitch I have is a member donated some very nice silhouette targets intended for rim fire and within a month someone had shot all of them with hipower to the point they were completely destroyed.

I also have my own backyard range that I can shoot 100 yards for group and have steel at 25, 50 and 100.

Neighbors have a 600 yard range with a single concrete bench, That I occasionally use. A good friend has a pasture that we can reach 1200 yards but his schedule and mine don’t match up very well and I seldom shoot there.

Same goes when it come to muzzle brakes. If you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen.

Never been mad a anyone at the range, actually find it comical sometimes, especially when the 300 magnum kids showed up

Haha.
Must suck to have to go to a public range.
I can shoot up to around 650 at my property.
Don’t have to ask permission either and don’t have to worry about other people unless I invite them.

What part of Florida are you? I'm in Marion County and I dont have that kind of problem here.

No, because I shoot at the deer lease. I grew tired of gun ranges long ago.

I have lost track of how many guys I have met at the range in the last few years that were "snipers" in USMC Recon, SF, Navy SEALS, etc. take your pick.

66. Know lots of .300 magnum kids that would give YOU a lesson in shooting..

Bay Country - panama city beach bay county shooting range on steelfield rd . .

Other ranges mentioned walton = bullets and bones

okalooosa = shoal river sporting clays.

You don't have ak-47 SKS and AR shooters shooting 20 rounds in a minute or two -- lucky you ..

Know what you mean. This was my 100 yard range on my last place. Also had one on a ridge top where I could shoot out to 350 yards. Didn't know how good I had it until moving to suburbia.

I generally wait for rainy or cold days to go to the range. Then I usually have the place to myself.

When I first moved to this area (DFW) in '96 I was not shooting much because I just didn't know where to go. After a while I discovered the public ranges and began shooting more as I'd done in the past, but it didn't take long to reach the conclusion that trying to shoot groups at such lousy facilities just wasn't going to cut it. I discovered North Texas Shooters Association on-line and applied for membership. There was a waiting list and it took about a year to get in.

After shooting at NTSA a few years, I had an opportunity to get on a hunting lease that was ours to use as we pleased for the most part with year around access. It beat the hell outa punching holes in paper and I figured I just didn't need the club membership anymore and I sold it---at a profit. When I needed to do any range work, I shot at a new public range that very few even knew existed and it was not bad at all. After about five years on the lease, the property was sold and I found myself having nothing but that public range, and the volume of shooters out there increased quickly as the word spread. Before long, it was like all the other public ranges. Guys would go downrange and post their target over mine even though it was obvious the position was occupied. They'd shoot my targets. There was one, long common wooden bench (which was fairly sturdy, but not sturdy enough), and guys would be pounding on sandbags while others were trying to shoot. I would get there early on Saturday or Sunday mornings and usually could fire a few groups undisturbed before the crowd started arriving. I'd be there set up on the position I liked the best with no one around, and the next guy in would set up to my immediate left to shoot an AR15 without a brass catcher. Some of these a$$holes would want a ceasefire every ten minutes so they could go look at their targets. That's the sort of crap I put up with as long as I could. I wanted back on at NTSA, but the waiting list was now four years long.

I found a guy selling his membership and snagged it at more than double the official club price, but that's money in the bank. There are a lot of guys seeking memberships and there is no doubt I could get my money back within 48 hours. My membership is NOT for sale, though.

No, I meant what I said, and if you set up throwing hot brass on me, I guarantee we will settle that!!

Not to mention the super secret snipers on contract with the CIA or whatever, ready to fly where needed on a moments notice.

Paul

I hate having brass raining all over me while I am trying to sight in a rifle. When I go to the nearest public range to me, I try to get as far away from the semi auto dudes as I can. Or I try to get to the left of them. I have been burned several times by the zombie slayers than I care to think about. Been 1 or 3 almost altercations over it as well.

My range has a rule of 1 second between trigger pulls. I was talking to the range master last time I was out, and he told me that they are discussing making it 5 seconds if not 10 seconds.

There is no way you are sighting in a rifle with a shot every second. You are just shooting to burn ammo.

We have idiots at our range as well. Not going during the weekend, or anytime in the months of September or
October cuts way back on the interaction with them.

Heavy snow with minimal wind.... usually a good time.

Agree about poorly designed and linked benches....

Thinking about paying for one of those hog hunt ranches, and just setting up a couple of long targets...

Back in the summer I was at the range shooting a new S&W AR15 at the fifty yard berm. Truck pulls up with two bearded muscled gentlemen who got out with an AR15. They asked if they could shoot too. I said "sure thing" and took my spotting scope over for them to use while I began packing up to leave. These guys knew what they were doing and did not take them long to be shooting a single ragged hole at the 50 yard target. The AR they were shooting they had just purchased from a local gunsmith. From their conversation I could tell they had a military affiliation. I did not ask if they were associated with the local fort but I was assuming that they might be since it is a live fire fort and hosts many types of soldiers. Light was fading fast and I was swatting mosquitos when they finished up and returned my spotting scope along with two PMAGS fully loaded with a "thank You". I was shocked and said, " I can't take these from you"....they chuckled and said, "Why not? You bought them." and left.

I am the only goof at my range, and I repeatedly piss myself off

Had a guy at our range who brought his dufus 10 year old son with him. Range went cold, cleared weapons, etc, and the guy merely laid his M1 Carbine on his bench. Everybody downrange changing targets when "blam!"- we all hit the dirt. Turned out the idiot hadn't cleared the M1- left it with a round up the spout- and his dufus kid took to messing with it. Needless to say he was run off the property and told never to come back, unused portion of dues to be refunded. Maybe.

The guy was a familiar face, never a mishap before. Perhaps also the rest of us should've been more cognizant of our surroundings. Bottom line: lessons learned all around. At least no one got hit.

Couple of theives ....

Some of the smartest guys in the room! If you don't shoot like I do you're an idiot!

I must be one of the bad guys?
Since I'm not one of those looking down on how
others enjoy their shooting.


Local range, or out own, never had any problem.

Was this near Chaffee?

I'm jealous. I need to learn how to weld.

I can manage the odd piece of brass out of a semi-auto that doesn't go where the owner expects it to. Things happen. What I can't abide is a complete lack of acknowledgment that your empty brass's trajectory and landing spot is your responsibility. Twice I've had people bounce a full magazine worth of brass onto me. In both cases I picked up the empties, waited for them to look over, then threw the empty cases back at them.

One of them never said a word, just packed up and left with his Desert Eagle. He was doing mag-dumps with a .50AE Desert Eagle. The other was an AR owner letting his friend shoot, he apologized and put up a small cardboard box to block the empties.

Our public range is pretty quiet, with most (not all) shooters respectful and careful. No range officers, just a small town public range a couple miles out of town. If it looks too busy, I go home and try again later. The only really negative interaction I've had was with a fellow who hung out there to collect the brass others left. Mostly he did a service, I'd say. He wasn't shooting, just hanging out with a pair of earplugs in, drinking coffee. I asked if it was ok to shoot, wanted him to know the range was hot, and after ejecting an empty, it rolled off the concrete table. He made a beeline for it and grabbed it from the floor right next to my bench. I said hey, that's mine,, and he told me if brass hits the floor it is his. I took the bolt out of my rifle (didn't want any misunderstandings of how far I'd go for a piece of brass) and told him that till I left, my brass was mine. Must have looked serious as he handed me my brass and quit circling my bench like a vulture. It was first time reloaded Nosler brass....wasn't going to give it to a brass hound!

About 8 years ago, I took a trip to a covered outdoor range with a buddy. He was getting into reloading and wanted me to go with him to try some loads.

The guy next to us(yes, the range was full due to rain)was running a 700 300 RUM with a muzzle brake. I've got nothing against brakes, but listening to them under cover is not my favorite place to be.

We had a cease fire for changing targets. Most everyone took off their ears, then you guessed it, BOOM! The guy next to us "accidently" lit one off while fingering his rifle during the cease fire. Yes, there were about 8 people down range! He was quickly escorted away and told to never come back. My left ear is still ringing and I've never gone back to a public rifle range.

Man that sucks.

I guess I've been extremely lucky, because I've never had the kinds of problems the OP and others have stated. Course, I've only been to 1 public range in my life. In Gloster, Ms., there is a range on the National Forest Land. Open to public, honor paying system, and good cement benches. Usually no one was there, unless it was right before hunting season. For a couple of dollars, shoot all you wanted. I use to go the weekends before hunting season, just to watch the show. You'd see all kinds of shooting. Some knew what they were doing and some didn't have a clue.

I've been fortunate to shoot on several private ranges and that's always good. Where I live now, I can shoot 100 yds off the porch, or 300 yds up at the barn, but if I want to shoot further, I have to go about a mile to my friends place. He's got a 600 yd range there.

The range stories I've read, here on the fire, just amaze me.

I used to shoot at the public ranges since living out here but got fed up after having the same experiences already discussed here. Joined a private club. They have idiots too but not as many. Fortunately I am able to shoot during the week and I go early so I normally have the place to my self.

And of course I avoid the place during October and November when all the once a year shooters/hunters start showing up.

One time when I was in FT Hood, TX we were doing night fire with M16 rifles. More than once I would see a tracer go a good 40 or 50 feet over the targets. It wasnt ricochets either, it was just somebody being a wise azz and launching bullets into the sky.

There are two ranges that I use regularly. From March to November I use the local Wildlife Federation range - outdoor, and not controlled. However, you can shoot almost any weapons (no shotguns & no exploding targets, steel cored bullets, tracer rounds, or armor piercing ammunition), and it goes up to 300 yards. The shooting positions are very nice - individual, and separated from each other by a few feet.

[img]https://scontent-den4-1.xx.fbcdn.ne...f6149a57ddda60fa6b1d011a&oe=5E95BFF5[/img]

This was taken before the positions were rehabbed and the awning erected, but shows the cleared area for pistol targets, the 100 yard berm, and the 300 yard berm (up the hill a tad) - the 200 yard berm is barely visible just below the brush, and needs the grass removed.
[img]https://scontent-den4-1.xx.fbcdn.ne...3cea0e29a84df635159ce560&oe=5E9C1EB1[/img]


Then there is the County-owned Shooting Sports complex. Two buildings... one for pistols & rifles (50 yards), and the other for those who shot a "qualifying target" on the 50-yard range (to make sure you can actually shoot somewhat accurately, so as to protect the long-range building). Yes, that's right - a 100/200/300 yard mostly-indoor range (only 50 yards is not covered by a roof)!

The 50-yard range costs $5 per hour per person, no matter how many weapons you bring. The 300 yard range costs $8/hr. I haven't used the 300 yard one yet, but I will when I am ready to sight in my rifles (I qualified expert 5x in the USMC, and was on the 1980 western US high school ROTC champion .22lr rifle team in high school, so I damned well better pass their qualifying target to go to the long-range building)!

The shooting positions on the 50-yard range (high for pistols/standing and low for sitting using bench-rest) are divided from each other with walls, and the targets are on a powered transport run - you enter the range you wand on the control screen and it runs the target out. Just press recall to being it back to you.





Here is an article from when the range was refurbished from a Law Enforcement/Military training range to a public range: Weber County’s government-owned gun range

Living in Utah has advantages for a shooter.

I guess I never realized until now how fortunate I am to be able to step out my back door and shoot as much as my heart desires without worrying about being a bother to someone else or them being a bother to me

At a range I used to shoot at sometimes there were vultures hovering around too. Same thing, I don't care if they're there but sometimes they go too far. The worst was one day showing up and there was 4 very sketchy looking tweakers in a beat up truck that were out there with tools scouring the place for anything they could find. One was at the line with a hard tined rake scraping the dirt and grass around the benches and the other three were digging up the berm with large sieves scavenging bullets. They were prepared with several large drums in the back of their truck for their diggings so that wasn't their first time raiding a shooting range. It was on public land so I called a warden on the way out to report them, hopefully they got arrested.

Those shooting benches look like someone who never shot from a benchrest designed/built them . Completely stupid , just like the crap around here - although great for laying down ''cover fire'' by mag dumpers ..

MANY people shouldn't own firearms - i know we all wish everybody would be safe with them it's just a fact that far too many people are ignorant in use them .
Saw this last night on youtube - forward to the 18min. mark and watch for 2min.30sec. . I did learn early in the video by an 'expert' caliber is determined by bullet diameter 'and bullet weight . Laf .

I truly envy those of you who own your own property on which you can shoot.




It's amazing isn't it? Notwithstanding safety fouls, I pretty much tolerate any idiot at the range. As long as they are safe, they are good to go in my mind, irrespective of whether they are practicing mag dumps, shooting big boomers with brakes or socializing loudly. I can always leave.

Heck, we all regularly participate in discussions on this forum with people who mostly share our same interests. However, based on interaction between members we read everyday, there are a large number of "shared-interest" individuals with whom we would never even consider spending time with at the range. I include myself in that group also. I share these interests with a large number of members here who, after reading my posts, think to themselves, "jeez, I'd never want to spend a day at the range with that BigSky idiot".

If we could just be separated where boomboomboomboom didn't effect others type shooting i wouldn't care if they melted their barrels off with 500 round mag dumps . . I don't want them to leave - just let handloaders and people zeroing a rifle be able to do what they came and paid to do .
Real simple shoot from these bench positions if you're firing an autoloading somewhat fast - definition - firing a round faster than every 20 seconds .

As i said earlier the RO said they've had a lot of people saying the speed shooters are ruining their range day and it's being discussed on what can be done .

There is an old guy that frequents our range.....he's kinda borderline Alzheimers...he will clear a jam on one of his semi auto rifles
pointing his barrel to his right or left... at anyone sitting to his right or left...oblivious to it...

Range management tolerates him, and guys like me walk away when he's on the range..and leave it to him..

He's a guy in his late 80s, highly decorated Marine from the Korean War and also the early days of Vietnam...

Probably not the right thing to do....but I feel it won't be a long time before he's not going to be there one day...

Thats tuff!

Saturday I was shooting next to a nice couple who were having fun with a braked 338 Lapua magnum. It had a good boom to it but wasn't bad to be around. No bother at all.

Sunday it was a little tough at the range. Someone was shooting what I believe to be a Romanian semi auto chambered for the 7.62 rimmed Rooskie. It literally stank up the place. Whatever is loaded into those steel cases must contain a significant percentage of some kind of crap. On top of that it was obnoxiously loud. The only thing on par has been a 30-378 Weatherby with a Swiss cheese muzzle brake. The big Wby had the pimp slap shock wave to go along with the ear splitting boom. But the Romanian rifle had the rate of fire advantage.

Druganov in 7.62x54R?

Something like that. It could have been called a Stinkanuff.

And this is why suppressors should be removed from the NFA! If they were $150 like they should be, a lot more people would have them and then the only issue we would have with the mag dumpers is where all that hot brass was going!

Depending on the make and construction, doing mag dumps with a suppressor canl wreck it in a hurry, they can get real hot real fast.

Nothing is more depressing than to pull up to the range and see several guys with see-thru scope mounts and cheap scopes.. You know they will be cranking on those scopes trying to hit something for at least an hour or two. I saw a guy trying to hit a 100 yard target and waste a bunch of ammo, then he walked up to about 20 yards and still couldn't hit the target. I looked to see if he had managed to mount the scope sideways or something. I don't think the deer had much to worry about that year.


Another time I went to the range and had it by myself, but the person that had been there before me had blown up one of the newer cheap Remington bolt guns. I don't know what caliber it was, but I found pieces of the receiver and stock scattered around the benches. I never heard anything about an accident, but I don't see how the person could have escaped losing a finger or two. I didn't see any blood, so he might have got lucky. I'm just glad I wasn't their for the fireworks.