Incidents at the range.

[czc3513]

vehicle starting fluid?
how much does it cost?
can i get it at walmart?
I am afraid of shooting a propane tank.
Couldnt it rocket into the air and fly off somewhere else?
I dont want to be responsible for a forest fire or property damage.
But then again, i would have an incident at the range to report.

[rapier144]

about 3 bucks a can at walmart

[Dead]

Nearly every trip to the range, I get to shoot someone else's firearm.. Of course I return the favor... That is the worse I have experienced, god has it cost me $$$$.

[Apple a Day]

There were three ladies in the lane next to me. One was teaching the other two the basics but all they had was a tiny .32 which was so small and light it probably wasn't comfortable to shoot. I loaded up my Ruger MkII and offered it to them for practice. They went through a few magazines, murmured much appreciation, and finally left. On the way out I passed them as they were buying their own .22 (a Neos, IIRC) which comes with a free year's membership at the range. We exchanged pleasantries and I walked out of there knowing the ladies had a positive experience and would be back again.

[nagilfarswake]

if you plan on shooting something like starter fluid, hairspray etc. remember that you need to have a flame near the target, as the bullet will not ignite the substance.

[C Philip]

Unless you're shooting incendiary rounds that is. Tracers will also ignite flammible fluids, or so I have been told.

[czc3513]

Put a lit candle behind it.

[Ozzieman]

Was my first time to this range and was by invite only, large range with 100 200 and 300 yard with pits.
I was there to shoot a 100 yard match with a HK SLR-8. The friend that was sponsering me was also spotting for me was behind my position with a scope.
"Comence firing"
Brought my gun up and got my breathing down and relaxed and brought the gun to my sholder, switched off the safety.
And a hammer hit me in the face.
Glasses gone, blood gushing out my nose.
I cant see, my gun is loaded, safety off and I cant drop it, I fumble for the safety and yell out "Some one take this gun!"
The friend behind me says, "Ozz go ahead and shoot!"
SOME ONE TAKE THIS GUN!!!!
He finaly sees that somthing is wrong and walkes up beside me and says
"What happend your gun blow up?"
Well the language that I used at this point I will not shair with you but finaly I got my point across to take the gun and clear it.
Next problem no one knew any thing about an SLR-8 so I had to describe how to clear it!
About this time the range safety officer sees that there is somthing wrong, not from the blood coming from my face but from the guy standing next to me with the barrel in one hand and the pistol grip of an AR 15 in the other and nothing inbetween.
He was shooting right handed and I was left of him. Some how the T handle of the AR got past him and hit me in the face.
After the club senior member investagated the accident they found out that this NUM nuts had loaded pistol powder in a 223.
OH by the way that was his second round that blew up the gun, had two holes in the target.
He did say that the gun did feel a little bit different when it went off. His only problem was that his hands were num for several minutes.
Yes they let me become a menber, and there have been jokes about naming the club after me, had I started a law suit, I probably would have owned it, but then again I couldnt stand being that close to lawyers I let it go.

[czc3513]

I guess you were both lucky that you didnt get hurt too bad.
Any scars to show?
More stories please.

[model 25]

In my club events I have been RO more than I have ever wanted to be. The first thing about a club and shooting is it must be safe then it MUSTbe fun. The ROs have got to get this figured out to increase club memberships an thus we are allowed to keep our guns.

Some of the things I have seen, runaway full auto guns, holes in the ceiling of the covered range, droped guns, thrown guns on the draw, people who had no business with a gun.

Guy was teaching this old family member to shoot a 22 auto. He showed her to pull back on the slide to get it loaded, point it then pull the trigger to shoot. Well as I walked by I saw loaded rounds on the ground and she was doing just what he said.

She racked the slide,pointed the gun and shot her semi over and over till the gun was empty. Don't leave your guest alone.

As I was walking up I saw a woman nearly shoot her husband in the butt. He was Mr. cocked and locked and she was MS dumber than a stump. He handed her a loaded gun then turned to grab a wooden block to throw and she touched the gun off while it was pointed at the ground sending gravel against his buttocks. Sent em home of course.

It goes on.

25

[C Philip]

For me the most common problem at my local outdoor range is people touching their guns or adjusting their sights after a cease fire has been called and people walk down to check their targets. They always say something like, "it's not loaded", or they "took the bolt out", or sometimes the gun is loaded, with a round in the chamber, and they just put the safey on ! How hard it is? When people are down range checking targets your gun is unloaded, safety on, and you don't even touch it!

[tintcutter]

I am interested in the human need to toy with the machines of war. I have noticed my sporting arms occasionally giving me the poison breath of burnt propellant gas or a love tap with a scope. Maybe it was my pistol caressing me with shards of unburnt powder from cheap ammo that got me started thinking that way...

... but easily the best range story (best- it means memorable, right) is this kid who lives about two blocks from me and whose daddy was a civil war renactor. The kid was ramming charge down a cannon and it had a spark evidently because the discharge removed his lower arm and I believe the elbow joint as well. He has had a prosthetic for a lot of years and does well, but man o man what a bad day at the range.

[gdeal]

Yeah, this can be scary stuff. I shoot at a range where a lot of U.S. Marines and Law Enforcement types go. That is pretty good but this one Marine who should have known better barrel swept me with his AR-15. I thought he should know better than that. I am pretty sure it was unloaded at the time But I still did not like it.

Yeah you guys are right. If U see something messed up at the range, Just Fricken leave right then and there.

When I was in the Ready on the Left-Ready on the Right-Ready on the Firing Line U.S. Navy, there seemed to be a staff person in the range with us at all times. The range I go to now only has a staff person when he is in there sweeping up brass. Otherwise they are on the other side of the glass. I would feel better if some staff person was right there. Oh well.

[czc3513]

No ROs at my range. It is more of a club and it is usually empty in the afternoon. They have a few rules, like no more than 10 rounds per minute, but no one to enforce them. I could probably blow stuff up there.

[cmreinke]

Another time I was there I decided to shoot my CZ52 through a rifle muffler.

czc3513: I did something like that as a teenager. Actually, I'd decided to make my own rifle silencer out of a 2-liter pop bottle. It actually looked pretty stupid, and was impractical since it completely obscured the sight line. Oh, and it didn't work either (in fact, it had the opposite effect). Anyway, I only had a .22LR and a .30-06 Mauser at the time, so I decided to test it out on the .30-06 (since the .22 isn't very loud anyway). Without hearing protection, of course. Let's just say the shockwave was so strong I think I felt it as much as I heard it.

As for range incidents, one time (again, as a teenager) I was shooting .22 rifles with a friend on his parent's property. I had just finished loading his rifle for him and handed it to him. He immediately shouldered it, pulled the trigger, and...nothing. "Is it loaded?!" "Yeah," I said, "but I think the safety is on." He fiddled with his rifle for a minute and then says, "I don't think that's the problem." "Yes it is," I replied, "I remember putting the safety on." "No it's NOT!"--and then he clicks the safety off and starts jiggling the trigger from the hip to show me that the safety wasn't what had prevented the rifle from firing. Jiggle, Jiggle, Jiggle, BANG! Fortunately, he was trained well enough that he knew to keep the rifle pointed down range the whole time, and when it did "accidentally" go off the round went harmlessly towards the target. Moral of the story? Good safety training can overcome a lot of stupidity from distraction or immaturity.

Besides that, there was one incident recently on my own parent's land where a hunter and his daughter were on our property without our knowledge and inadvertantly found themselves ducking a barrage of .40 cal. and 7.62mm rounds (no one was injured, thank God!). The idiot actually had permission to hunt on our property, provided that he let us know he was out there (usually by parking his truck in our driveway). However, this day (and probably other days when we didn't catch him) he decided to "sneak" in onto our land from the side, probably so that he could hunt after dusk without anyone knowing. Funny thing was that he fired two shots as a distress signal (hunter education course teaches that three shots is a distress signal), and then had the nerve to yell and cuss at us later for continuing to fire. I sure hope that potential moonlight poaching was worth putting his life and that of his daughter at risk.

-Charles

[0utlier]

About 15 years ago I was at an outdoor range. It was kind of a come as you are, use good sense type of place, but legit. We had shot and cleared the range, or so we thought. This young girl, who was with her Grandfather, began shooting downrange while WE WERE DOWNRANGE TOO.

I looked at her shooting the clay plates that were a few yards to the right of us. No sooner, I felt an incredible pain in my calf. It felt like a several wasps had stung me at the same time. I grabbed my calf in pain. I looked down and blood was pouring from my calf. I was simply in shock. Had I been shot at the pistol range? How ironic would that be?

We get uprange and best I can tell is it was either a ricochet, or part of the clay target hit my calf. It was a graze, but deep enough to bleed pretty good. I wrapped my calf and we leave.

To this day, I think how unbelievably dangerous that incident was. I never went back to that place. Had I been the litigious type I could have made life very difficult for several people.

[mrs_goodwrench]

I was the Tower NCOIC at an M203 range(grenade launcher mounted to an M16). Firing TP rounds, thank god... The lane safety is staring off into space, and as I call "Grenadiers, 300 meters front", I notice that this joe has the BARREL of the 203 butted up to the railroad ties, and the muzzle of his M16 resting on top of the tie. He was about to pull the trigger when I SCREAMED cease fire over the loudspeaker. Dude had no idea that he was about to fire a grenade round into that damn railroad tie... and I smoked the living dog crap out of that lane safety.

[mrs_goodwrench]

Just figured out the signature thing!

[Ozzieman]

I just purchased a little toy when this twit comes in.
In one hand what every nitwit needs a cell phone stuck against the side of his head. In the other a Glock somthing or other and a box of rounds. The glock is hanging up side down by his pinky through the trigger guard.
You have the picture so far?
He walked up to the counter and swept the room with the barrel numerious times, I truly counted the barrel pointed at myself, 3 times.
I nudged the guy behind the counter who is buisy doing the paperwork and said "Would you say somthing to that kid, the magazine is in the gun and I have looked down the barrel several times"
Personaly I wanted to take out my little 45 and show him what its like to have a gun pointed at you but I decided that letting them take care of it would be a better idea.
The kid then swept him and the look that went over the face of the guy behind the counter said I wasnt the only one dursterbed.
He left me and walked over to the kid and asked him to set the gun on the counter "Please" There is a sign on the door "No uncassed or open guns allowed."
The kid couldnt understand why he was upset for bringing in a gun to a gun store (they have a range and he had planed on shooting) but did set it down.
The guy behind the counter said, "You have swept the room several times and pointed it at me twice and your finger is on the trigger, your not being responsible and I am about to ask you to leave".
The next thing out of the kids mouth showed just how stupid he was.
"F--- YOU its unloaded!"
And this is where it got scary, the counter guy picked up the Glock and dropped the mag and it was full! He then racked the slide and thank god nothing in the chamber.
And then the statement of the day came out of the twits mouth,
"I told you it wasnt loaded!"
The guy behind the counter I think did the best thing he could. Picked up the second mag that was on the box of ammow and in seconds pulled the floor plate and dumped all the rounds and handed him the gun the two mags with out the springs and told him to leave and never come back and the look he gave the kid made him turn a little white.
Personaly I think shooting the twit would have been a better idea but cooler heads took care of it.

[meeks]

ricochet hit a man that was shooting next to my friend. lucky it just grazed him..

[rex]

I was at a local indoor range when some meat head came in with a Tommy Gun. He had brought along a woman (I assume his wife), and seemed like he wanted everyone to know he had a Tommy. The next thing I know he is rapid firing (not allowed) so fast that for a second I thought he had an automatic. He obviously didn't have much experience with guns because I don't think he hit the target with half of his shots. Fortunately the guys running the range came in and gave him an earful about the rapid fire. After that the guy only shot a few more rounds and left. Guys like that make other gun enthusiasts look bad.

[GLP Standard]

Why is rapid fire not allowed? My range has no rules against it. Do you mean just emptying the gun as fast as you can? I can see that being against the rules, but not necessarily firing 2 rounds a second.

[Mokumbear]

In the past month, there was a range suicide at a local range here in
South Florida.

There is a five day waiting period in my county, but the gun shops will let you come in and try out your new gun before then, you just can't take it home with you.

Woman buys a .32, comes back to the range another day and commited suicide.

I have heard of one other range suicide, back in Philly, a long time ago.

On a lighter note, my local range has a rule against rapid fire shooting.
I have personally noticed one of the employees (possibly the owner) getting rather pissed about it. I also wonder what the concern is (especially since they rent machine guns!)

Is their a greater chance of a jam, KB or other type of malfunction when one is shooting "rapid fire"?

For a semi-auto pistol, just how fast is "rapid fire"?

[ethernectar]

I saw video of a fire at an indoor range. Lots of powder gets downrange. These folks hit the target tree, sparked and ignited the wall, then the floor. Pretty interesting video. Fortunately it never got to the backstop (that ballistic foam rubber stuff.)

When I was a newbie, I walked into an unfamiliar gun store and was asking the clerk a question. I reached into my pocket to show him the part, but couldn't get it out of my pocket. Younger guy at the register gave me a odd look, tensed up, then relaxed as I handed him the part. Wasn't until I was on the way home that it dawned on me what had happened. Fumbling in your pockets is not the best thing to do in an unfamiliar gun shop.

[GLP Standard]

^yeah, both the owner and his son, and another employee at my local range carry on the job. You probably made him a little nervous.

Does anyone know why they carry at ranges? Is it just because they enjoy open carry, and theyre excercising their right, or is it more of a protection thing, because of the nature of the business?