Scary Range Stories

[Skans]

Someone was shooting .357 2 lanes down from me - hit the steel hanger and a sizable piece fragmented and hit me in the chest. Felt like an angry steroid guy reared back and hit me as hard as he could in my chest. Left a real nice welt too. Makes you wonder what it would feel like with a full-on body hit.

[Sequins]

I once had a piece of hot brass hit me from another lane, I was mid break but jerked slightly and put a crater in the ceiling. The concrete dust led to a cease fire and everyone was very concerned.

[Ozzieman]

Stupid twit loaded pistol powder in a 5.56 case. Blew up the gun on the next position at an out door range. T handle broke my nose and glasses.
Shooting with my nephew several weeks ago when what appeared to be a family outing showed up. Took up position about 10 down from us. Several AR’s came out of the cases and I don’t think I have ever heard as many magazine emptied as fast as they were. I started watching what they were doing and in 5 min I was swept multiple times by several people with magazines in guns.
Since they and I were the only ones at the range I went up and pulled up the no fire sign which is a large metal sign and called out The range is cold stop firing.
I told them what they were doing and none of them seemed to understand that sweeping a rifle that’s not loaded is a problem. We left for the day. I did file a report with the range master.

[Merad]

Worst incident for me was visiting a college friend's house with a few other people to go shooting. Myself and a 3rd friend were sitting on the sofa chatting with the guy's dad about concealed carry, and he was telling us how he carried a .44 Mag snub nose because it was hefty enough to smack 'em with if need be (he was in a wheelchair). Then he proceeded to pull it out and wave it around to demonstrate his pistol-whipping technique. Swept both of us multiple times, finger was probably on the trigger as well, but thankfully my memory isn't that clear. I'm not sure how high your blood pressure can spike before your arteries start exploding like water balloons, but I feel sure that mine was right on the borderline.

[zach_]

Is it my imagination that I feel like I am getting a revolver like splatter from a local range that has steel targets at 7 yards? Is 7 yards too close for steel targets?

I am familiar with the splatter feeling from shooting next to revolver shooters at the same local range that does not have dividers between the lanes. I avoid shooting next to revolver shooters if possible at ranges without solid lane dividers.

[Huffmanite]

My story about a shooting range experience was when in army basic training at Ft. Polk, La in 1968. We'd been shooting our M14 rifles enough for us to use a full magazine. Our M14 rifles were semi-auto only.

So, I'm on the firing line with 15 or so other guys, readying to fire in the standing position with a full magazine of 7.62 Nato rounds. To my left is a young guy from some city in the northeast, who'd never shot anything before being drafted by the army. He is one of the smaller guys in our company and had no physical attributes for playing any sports. Guy shouldn't have passed the induction physical due to his eyes.....he was legally blind in both eyes.

So, as I am just about to fire my first round, guy to my left fires first and his rifle goes on full auto. I turn immediately, drop my rifle with intention of running to his aid with the rifle. He'd managed to drop the rifle to his hip in an attempt to control it. While he could keep the barrel level, recoil was swinging him to the left and there were about 4 other guys on the firing line on that side. I hadn't taken two steps in his direction when his muzzle had spun him around enough to be inline with the guys to his left. They didn't seem to be aware of his problem. Thank the Lord, he'd emptied his magazine just as his barrel lined up with them. Needless to say, all heck broke loose with this event.

Basically, what had happened was something had broken in the rifle, some sear as I recall. The M14 had been designed to have a selector switch, allowing semi or full auto.

[skizzums]

I go to a very cheap and shoddy outdoor range, about 30min west of Atlanta of I-20(for those of you who know about it). there's always children, newbies, lots of people and little supervision(sometimes none at all) from RO. maybe because it's in the boonies and little known about, but I haven't ever had an issue at a shooting range. I see people need to be reminded not to be fiddling with their guns when range is cold, but that's all I can think of.

[STEINER]

The range I go to is really well run.
They have a public address system that works really good.
Sometimes when the range is cold and we are checking targets, one of the range marshals will get on it and scold someone.

I got no complaints. They watch everyone all the time and I like it.
Most of the yelling from them is directed towards the handgun area.
I feel safe at this range because they stay on top of every rule on their books.

Sac. Valley Shooting Center. Wide open and clean. Love it.

[10-96]

South/southeast of Camp Victory Kuwait, and out past the old "Highway of Death" boneyard and Ali Al Salem was a big stretch of nowhere-edness. After we'd done our year in Iraq we'd been moved back to Kuwait and was waiting to go home when we caught word we'd been extended and would have to go back to Iraq. This was in April or May of '04. Anyways, somebody thought that stretch of desert was a good place for us to re-qualify before going north again. When we got to the area, everybody un-trucked and was milling about the area when we started noting several 40mm grenades laying on the ground. These were just the projectiles- no cases attached. We chewed on the map reader who got us to such a wonderful spot. I caught sight of 5 or 6 of the little golden eggs as I was rounding up my squad to get them back to the trucks. We found another area to shoot just before the wind picked up again, and luckily nobody kicked, stepped on, or ran over one of those things.

[Crankylove]

When I was younger, I was swept by more loaded weapons, witnessed more negligent discharges, and saw more rounds sent down range while under a "cease fire" than I can count.

I've witnessed rounds sent into the parking lot, into the benches, the target stands, the roof, and even watched one guy put a round through his ammo can.

I've seen a few guns go ka-boom from wrong ammo, overloaded handloads, and bore obstructions. I've also seen a dozen or so cleaning rods and ram rods go downrange.

Once I got older, and shooting on my own, I avoid public ranges like the plague. All my shooting is done on forest service, BLM, family owned private land, or private land accessible by the public.

[dean1818]

At an indoor range in Fort Worth, I was shooting with some clients

I was hit by a ricochet on the forehead

It made a small dent and started to bleed, but it was small.

My clients were still having fun, so I thought.... whats the odds of that happening again????

In 5 mins, I am lining up for a shot and ANOTHER ricochet hits me on the end of a knuckle. (Think ball peen hammer.......)

Hurt like a mo mo........

We all left immediately after a word with the owner


The back stop hadnt been cleaned for awhile was my guess...... but I will never go back.

[gglass]

At my local shooting club (outdoors), I had just setup my targets and realized that the target in the next lane was a steel dueling tree setup only about 7-yards out for what looked like a couple newbies. I was just about to go tell them that the dueling tree was a little too close to the firing line when BAM!!!, I was struck in the forehead by a large bullet shard. It had plenty of energy and weight to break the skin and leave a bit of a scar.

Needless to say, I was pretty ticked and just packed my gear and left with a bloody brow.

Ouch!

[745SW]

Many years ago when a friend and I went to a indoor range in Maywood that looked like a converted warehouse, a guy appeared to be using hot loads with a Ruger Security 6. I felt spatter on my face with a corresponding hole in the wall behind me.

[leadcounsel]

When I was an Army JAG, I reviewed a lot of investigations. Range accidents are quite common, and sadly some people just do really, really criminally stupid things.

I'm aware of a handful of incidents 2nd and 3rd hand where "trust" games were played. A trust game is where two guys are messing around with a weapon and one points it at the other and pulls the trigger, and the shootee trusts the weapon is unloaded. Sadly, many times it's loaded resulting in death and court martial. You would think people would know better... but they just don't think the rules apply.

A more traditional range accident, one of our SF operators was using a short barreled M4 and got his support arm and hand too far forward, and the muzzle blast injured his finger or thumb - can't recall which now. Nasty burn injury though.

Lots of soft steel targets generating spall - make sure your targets are not soft steel and/or you're not too close to them.

Then there's the famous .50 BMG ricochet that's almost too hard to believe is true. Nothing unsafe, just a reminder that bullets can and do behave very unpredictably. Probably the only man in history to be hit with his own .50 bmg ricochet!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QokV7HzJhG4


And lastly, this 22 minute Forensic Files is a good watch with excellent range safety lessons. Short version, a poorly designed range where the pistol and rifle ranges actually FACED each other, resulted in the tragic and foreseeable death (albeit at really random occurrence) of a Dallas teenager in the 1990s.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=czfF-Bn6ZkI

[g.willikers]

I clearly recall that tragedy in Texas that took the life of that young man.
Our local club range underwent a thorough investigation due to the incident to make sure nothing like that could happen.
Our backstops were increased in height and reinforced with railroad ties.
Many possible short comings in range design are often overlooked, until something like that happens.

[Bart Noir]

I was at a open-to-the-public, you-pay-and-you-play type indoor range. An old gent had an equally old box of military surplus ammo. I didn't even know that there were .45 ACP tracer rounds. Neither did the old gent

Yup, he set the backstop on fire. Some sort of loose rubbery stuff covered the hard part of the backstop, and that stuff can burn.

There was a whole lot of "cease fire" yelling and a scramble for the fire extinguishers. I'm rather glad the sprinkler system stayed asleep

Bart Noir

[Mike Weber]

Is it my imagination that I feel like I am getting a revolver like splatter from a local range that has steel targets at 7 yards? Is 7 yards too close for steel targets?

I am familiar with the splatter feeling from shooting next to revolver shooters at the same local range that does not have dividers between the lanes. I avoid shooting next to revolver shooters if possible at ranges without solid lane dividers.

Back splash can be common at CAS matches. Most targets are steel plates getting peppered by spatter was a regular occurrence. A few years ago I was shooting in a SASS Club match up in the northwest. We had enough shooters that day that we broke the group into two posse's with one posse shooting on the next lane to the right of our group. I was at the loading table and next up to shoot when I caught a nearly intact .44 or .45 slug in the side of the neck. The impact was enough to leave a nasty bruise but didn't break the skin. This was from a near side ways ricochet that came from one of the 10 yard rifle plate targets on the next lane. The bullet traveled over an 8 foot berm before hitting me. I was very lucky that most of the bullets energy was spent before it got to me.

[Bart Noir]

I was very lucky that most of the bullets energy was spent before it got to me.

But think of all the "well, I got shot last weekend" stories you could have told.

Heck, you probably did.

Bart Noir

[Mike Weber]

But think of all the "well, I got shot last weekend" stories you could have told.

Heck, you probably did.

One of the other shooters on my posse found the bullet that hit me on the ground. I still have the bullet.

[Aguila Blanca]

Originally Posted by Zach

Is 7 yards too close for steel targets?

Yes.

MUCH too close.

[Husqvarna]

scary in another

we have to requalify every year to hunt moose

the test is 3 approved series on a running track

first shot target is stationary, the targets moves and you shot once more
and the same going back. so for shots in the heart/lung area is an approved series

it took the dude over 70 series to become approved, and that dude is allowed to hunt he missed the target sometimes when it was standing still!

[g.willikers]

He's probably a closet animal rights guy.

[joshobrien77]

I was at the range Monday zeroing my new MVP at 100yds. Our rifle range at the private club has an access road that comes up in front of the firing line for loading and maint. The policy is you have to walk to the firing line get a declared cold range before bringing your car up to unload. I was on my scope as the only person at the range thus the range officer. No sooner had I squeezed the trigger on my third grouping round and a car pulled right up in front of me and I was staring a an older gentleman through my scope. I swung my barrel away from him safed my gun then proceeded to inform he I had just about shot him because he failed to follow the safety policy. He was a 90+ vet of WW2 and was apologetic but not all that concerned. Later when I walked down to him to secure a cold range to move my targets he informed me that because our fields were split by a small berm that both could be hot. I asked him to turn around and read the large red sigh he was in front of that clearly states all riffle ranges must agree to cold range before crossing the firing line. He was nice enough but it really bothered me. Two real issues in under an hour at a private club where we are required annual safety training to re up.

[Marty8613]

Originally Posted by zach_

Is it my imagination that I feel like I am getting a revolver like splatter from a local range that has steel targets at 7 yards? Is 7 yards too close for steel targets?



I am familiar with the splatter feeling from shooting next to revolver shooters at the same local range that does not have dividers between the lanes. I avoid shooting next to revolver shooters if possible at ranges without solid lane dividers.

Elm Fork? I've had several come back at me at the 1st bat right of the cowboy action bays. Kept the bullets.

[45_auto]

Originally Posted by joshobrien77

Our rifle range at the private club has an access road that comes up in front of the firing line for loading and maint. The policy is you have to walk to the firing line get a declared cold range before bringing your car up to unload.

Your access/unloading road is in FRONT of the firing line? Nobody at the club sees this as a problem? Sounds like a disaster waiting to happen.