What is your best "That guy" story from the range?

[Rick4070]

Back quite a few years ago, I had a friend, who along with my cousin and I would do some clay pigeon shooting on our property, we all had MEC 600 JR. machines, I would stop by the old Herters store south of Olympia, and pick up boxes of clay pigeon "seconds," and bags of reclaimed shot, and we three would spend a weekend day shooting pigeons.
We would all load at our own homes during the week, and meet up at my house.
My cousins friends loads sounded strange the first time we all shot together, so I asked him what load he was using, he had just bought his loader, and these were the first he had turned out. Before this, he would shoot my loads. He said that he thought he was using the wrong wad or something because he had to pour out about half of the shot before he was able to crimp it. I cut one of his reloads apart, same Win. AA hull, same wad, but a whole lot of powder. He said that he was using 700X, (so was I, around 18 grains...) I weighed his powder charge, and it weighed 45 grains!!! The old charge bars didn't have the holes in the sides like the newer ones had, and he hadn't put in any powder bushing... Probably lucky that he had to pour out half the bb's.....

 

[Dungannon]

 

[Andy54Hawken]

Funny Video ... Thanks for posting.
Andy

 

[mjbskwim]

I was at the indoor range up in mt lake terrace.
That 'girl' and guy was next to my lane.
I get done shooting and look down to see the girl with a 1911 in her left hand loaded,finger on trigger,pointed at my foot.
I stepped back and over to grab her elbow and lift her hand with my other hand. Her BF gave me a look until her realized what I was doing. Then he reiterated what I told her...keep the gun pointed in a safe direction
One time up at North Bend at the old Werehouser? tree farm,me and some guy were shooting and a car drives up. Guy gets out,walks past us with his little girl...mind you we are both in the middle of shooting...takes her and his targets out to the top of the berm to set them up.
I say,maybe set them below the berm? He yells he knows what he's doing
I look at the other guy ,wave and said have a nice day! As we both pack up and leave
Sequim could be a joke sometimes. A bunch of ex military that were as unsafe as could be. Then some very safe.
Walt and I went up to shoot one day and a VN vet was up there with a ...(the newer version of the AK?).
Anyway he's trying to get a round to chamber,swinging the rifle all over.
I looked at Walt and said we're leaving NOW

 

[jordanka16]

Yea-Gawds..... I would imagine that it not only got your heart pumping, but might have inspired a change of underwear as well

No big deal though, right? I mean, no one else is shooting your lane, so just walk back to the bench in a VERY straight line from your target

Well it sure took a while before I settled back down and was able to concentrate on shooting again.

 

[Rick4070]

One time, a friend brought his friend out to my range, and we were doing some shooting, I had (still have,) a Ruger Super Blackhawk that I shortened the barrel to 5-1/2" on. I had some handloads, 250 Gr. cast, with 22 grains of 2400.
The friends friend wanted to shoot it, I told him to hang on to it, "yes, use both hands, look, like this." Handed the .44 back to him, and he did the old "cup and saucer" hold, again, I showed him how to hold the .44, he took it back, and before I could really stop him, eared back the hammer and touched it off. The muzzle came up, back, and hit the brim of his baseball cap, knocking his cap off. Luckily it didn't smack him in head, and lucky for him that he didn't drop it.. He only wanted to shoot it the one time....

Another cousin had a friend, both owned Super Blackhawks, my cousin loaded his own, the friend had never handloaded, but had watched my cousin quite a bit. My cousin was going off to visit an uncle, and the friend asked if he could load a few while he was gone.
My cousin asked if he were sure that he could do it, and was assured that, yes, he knew the steps. My cousin said "be sure that you check the powder level in each and every case, every time before seating a bullet, I'm using Bullseye powder, and it doesn't take up much room."
My cousin told me that about an hour later, the friend called him at his uncles, and said "I'm lucky to be talking to you."
Evidently, some way, somehow, he had double charged a case, (heck, maybe triple,) not noticed, and when he fired the cartridge, it took off the top three chambers and the top strap....
He contacted Ruger, and they said that they would give him a really good deal on a new one, but only IF he sent the old one back to them..
I'm really not sure what ever happened to that topless Ruger...

 

[jordanka16]

One time, a friend brought his friend out to my range, and we were doing some shooting, I had (still have,) a Ruger Super Blackhawk that I shortened the barrel to 5-1/2" on. I had some handloads, 250 Gr. cast, with 22 grains of 2400.
The friends friend wanted to shoot it, I told him to hang on to it, "yes, use both hands, look, like this." Handed the .44 back to him, and he did the old "cup and saucer" hold, again, I showed him how to hold the .44, he took it back, and before I could really stop him, eared back the hammer and touched it off. The muzzle came up, back, and hit the brim of his baseball cap, knocking his cap off. Luckily it didn't smack him in head, and lucky for him that he didn't drop it.. He only wanted to shoot it the one time....

Another cousin had a friend, both owned Super Blackhawks, my cousin loaded his own, the friend had never handloaded, but had watched my cousin quite a bit. My cousin was going off to visit an uncle, and the friend asked if he could load a few while he was gone.
My cousin asked if he were sure that he could do it, and was assured that, yes, he knew the steps. My cousin said "be sure that you check the powder level in each and every case, every time before seating a bullet, I'm using Bullseye powder, and it doesn't take up much room."
My cousin told me that about an hour later, the friend called him at his uncles, and said "I'm lucky to be talking to you."
Evidently, some way, somehow, he had double charged a case, (heck, maybe triple,) not noticed, and when he fired the cartridge, it took off the top three chambers and the top strap....
He contacted Ruger, and they said that they would give him a really good deal on a new one, but only IF he sent the old one back to them..
I'm really not sure what ever happened to that topless Ruger...

A good reason to get help from an experienced reloader if you're just starting out, especially with low volume fast powder in high volume cases.

 

[Rick4070]

A good reason to get help from an experienced reloader if you're just starting out, especially with low volume fast powder in high volume cases.

Yes, absolutely.
Talking to my cousin, he was kicking himself for not setting up the friend with a bulkier powder, that would be harder to double charge a case with. But, he said that the friend had spent hours watching him, and also watching him check all the cases for proper powder levels, and listening to him explain things....
Probably should have had the friend load several boxes while my cousin closely watched him....

 

[Goosebrown]

Poor, poor woman.

And nobody thought to offer her a helping paw?

Shamish.

That's all I have to say.

tac

Left that out. The range people spent an entire period with her after the first incident. I think she just didn't get the feel for the tightening of the nut or whatever (never fired a shotgun...) and got flustered. They were nice to her the first time.

 

[mjbskwim]

Talking about reloading
My neighbor,oh boy
Well if you tell him something he will tell you the opposite is true
I was having difficulty grouping with my 7mm mag. Finally a guy tells me it seems to be the ammo.
Well just before this I showed Don the target. About a 3" group,two shots almost touching in two different locations. 'That's all you can expect from a new factory gun'
Then I rolled my own. Three in the bulls eye not quite touching
Don,' Well if you use the powder I have we'll have all those in one hole..' Huh?
OK so the summer before this,there was a gun show over the hill in Montana. Wisdom , Montana
Don says let's go to the range I have some reloads to try out.
I'm down two tables. (This is a huge range with not too many using it that day).BALAMMM!!
I looked at Don and the sand bags he was resting the 1911 on and you could see the outline of the mag and specks on his face
Good thing he wore glasses.
Don is 83-84 and had his FFL as a gunsmith 1 year short of 50 years!
Oh he was gunna sell reloads at the show
Sir back away from the press

 

[jordanka16]

And that's why you never shoot gun show reloads.

 

[ThemGunsThough]

2 years ago my coworker had invited me over to his place to shoot. I'm an introvert so I hoped not many people would show up. My wife actually wanted to join me this time around to go shooting. My coworker has 17 acres of land and made a really cool tactical shooting course in his back yard. One of my coworkers buddies brought a bunch of douche bags with him that were all stuck up and bragging about their thousand dollars guns. We had a little fun competition going on and my wife and I were just killing it. When it came to the finale, the challenge was to hit a tanneite filled pumpkin at about 250 yards. Everyone struggled to hit it. My wife and I went last each got the boom on our first shot attempts. Yeah... I was that guy and my better half was that girl.

 

[tac]

One of my friends is "THAT GUY" on and off the range. So recently he finished his AR, with me standing over him instructing him how to do it, and now continually goes "I'm gonna out shoot you." Meanwhile most of his range time is at a 25 yard indoor range, while most of mine varies from 100-600 yards. I even shoot my Mauser out to 400 with iron sights (I refuse to put a scope on it) and surplus ammo. And if I try to be nice to at least teach him how to use a mil reticle for holdovers, he interrupts and its the same "I'll outshoot you" crap again. If there was a facepalm emoticon on this site, you'd see an entire line of it at the end of this paragraph.

A 'friend', you say?

Oy.

tac

 

[Cookemountain]

Saw this question asked somewhere else and thought I would ask it here. So have at it guys and gals

 

[osprey]

A few weeks back I was minding my own business working on shooting 223, and 44 mag loads I was developing when a guy takes the bench next to me with a M1A. Much to my chagrin he sends round after round down range with very few interuptions to reload. The noise and blast from his brake made it hard for me to concentrate on my endeavors. I finally look over at him to maybe get a read on when the war might be over and he has a very frustrated look on his face. So I ask, How's she shootin? To which he responds, Not sure cause I aint seen any holes in the target yet . I almost started laughing but I gathered myself as I looked at the 50-60 spent .308 casings littering the ground. I offered to help, thinking I might get him squared away and get some work done myself without this fire breathing barking dragon next to me. I ask if he boresighted it, to which he looked puzzled and said Naw I just put the scope on it and thought I would get her dialed in today. I thought about getting the range master who usually has a bore sighter but he was occupied as the range was quite busy. So I tell him I will stand behind him and see if I can spot the hits. He starts banging away again and I yell for him to stop. I tell him he is 4' low and 2' left. After a major scope adjustment we have it on paper and he bangs away making a couple more adjustments and finally looking over at me seemingly satisfied and asks If I would like to shoot it. I am reluctant but he is so proud of his new acquisition, so I say sure. I get comfortable behind it and try to make out the target but it is very distorted. I come off the rifle for a few seconds and settle back to try and aquire the target when I realize it is heat mirage coming off his barrel causing the distortion. I tell him we should let the poor girl cool a bit. He says it is fine go ahead. So I focus as best I can and work through a trigger the military would be ashamed of and send a round down range followed by another. I am surprised they are both within 3 or 4 inches of each other between the horrific trigger and a barrel near yield temp. I give the poor rifle back and he says she's a shooter aint she, to which I graciously agree. He then volunteers he traded his AR15 and $900 bucks to get it. He says the AR just quit shooting right one day. I breifly tried to tell him about the ills of getting barrels too hot, but he was more interested in laying down a garbage can lid size group at 50yds with the last box of ammo he had. On a positive note I got over 100 rounds of once fired .308 brass that day!

 

[Cookemountain]

OK... the 'other guy was, and still is, a friend but this was too much fun not to repeat.

Several of us went to the range at lunchtime ( I live in a civilized County) and found another friend there, one who had recently been hired as a City officer. Said officer had just finished firing his new SIG and, when asked how it worked for him replied" The ****ing gun is ****ing ****ed up, it won't hit a ****ing thing!" We check his unmolested 15 yard target and were inclined to agree.

I asked if I could give it a go. He agreed and tossed a plastic bottle out about 10 yards. I lined up and took a shot, then another and another until the bottle went behind the railroad tie at 50 yards. I told him it seemed fine to me. Naturally a lot of the guys got a good laugh, but the newly-minted officer asked how that was possible, so we spent some time working out grip, sight picture and trigger control.

At the end of 40 minutes he had gotten on the paper. He continued to practice daily while carrying his previous duty weapon until he developed some proficiency with the new one.

The reason I included this is that we often forget that we ourselves are the "guy at the range" and it might be nice if we offered something more constructive than giggles, when appropriate.
Back when my age didn't begin with a 6, I had been that guy and i was at various times taught, pestered, giggled at and trained by quite a few of my ballistic betters, eventually becoming a competent, if not expert, shooter.

Admit it, you were there too once, weren't you?

 

[edslhead]

My pal Bruce and I were up at the range sighting in the guns for elk season. Bruce was in the next lane cussing up a storm because he couldn't get on target. He tightens up his scope and checks everything out and tries a few more rounds. Then he pulls the bolt an bore sights again. Nothing. I look threw the spotting scope and he has it on my target out at 100 yards I sight it back to his 50 yard target and its plunged full of holes. Had a good laugh over that one.

 

[CarlMc]

My wife and I were at Sam's in Everett (back when they existed, and before we'd had enough of the jerk RO, and moved to Norpoint) getting ready to go to our lane, and there was crowd of about 10 or so Asians (Canadian, perhaps?) at the table behind me. They were yakking and carrying on loudly, and I didn't pay much attention. As I'm putting my ears on, my wife's eyes get as big as saucers and she's fixated on the folks behind me. Turning around, I find them with an AR, magazine in, and a pistol, waving them around, pointing them at each other (booger hooks where they shouldn't be, too) and joking. I about crapped my pants. My wife ran over to notify the RO. He got hopping mad in milliseconds and told them to GTFO.

I now pay more attention to those around me who even slightly appear to have a low skill set. I consider that a relatively painless lesson.

My wife finds it annoying that even I sometimes kindly butt in and offer to help newbies (young couples are always interesting) on the range, but I figure I'm doing both of us a favor. The ladies really tend to like it when I ask them if they want to shoot my wife's beautiful S&W's magnums.

 

[CarlMc]

OK... the 'other guy was, and still is, a friend but this was too much fun not to repeat.
>>SNIP<<
Admit it, you were there too once, weren't you?

And more afeared than willing to admit at the time, too!

 

[I594 Sucks]

Two stories...

1. A co-worker is inspecting a private logging job, near a local quarry. As he passes the quarry...he sees some adult males and a young boy, about 10 years old, or so. The "men" state that they're visiting from the Seattle area (often, a red flag for us East siders) and decided to do a little shooting with the boy.
After some innocent .22 shooting, one of these Einsteins decides that the boy needs to try a "man's" gun on for size and hands the kid a fully loaded .50 caliber Desert Eagle (snickers and chuckles abound).
The kid's barely able to lift this thing and when he touches off the first shot, it nearly knocks him over. The kid is so scared, he swings the gun around, begging someone to take it (my co-worker has, by now, dived down behind his pickup). The "adults" now proceed to severely chastise the poor kid for being so "careless". While I may have gotten some of the facts wrong (the story is several years old), the gist remains the same.

2. I, personally, taught my wife and kids how to handle firearms and shoot (I figured that the Marine Corps was a good enough instructor for me, that I could pass it on). Over the years, however, I was concerned that I might have been teaching her some bad habits, so I suggested she take a "Women on Target" class. She did this and came away thoroughly bored, because she said I already taught her most of this stuff. Well...okay.
Next, a local group puts on a shoot called the "Annie Oakley", so I suggest she sign up for that one, as it sounded like a lot of fun.
Before going, being as it's a handgun shoot, she asks if my .22 caliber Ruger Charger would be acceptable and is told that it will be fine. My wife really loves shooting that Charger...even more than her own gun.
The wife shows up at the home of a local shooter, who, I believe, is an NRA certified coach. Unfortunately, this fellow has some kind of superiority complex and proceeds to treat the group of women like children who have never seen a gun in their lives. Even his own wife had to tone him down, from time to time.
Anyway, out on the range, he takes one look at my Ruger and asks "What the hell is that thing?", to which my wife explains the firearm to him. He takes one more look at it and says "It's too G.D. big...put it away!".
Needless to say, my wife was so turned off by this attitude that she quietly put the gun away and spent the rest of the time, sitting by herself, without firing a single shot.

Yes...there are ALL kinds, out there.