A day at the public gun range...

[BigBlueDodge]

It seems like everytime I go to a public gun range I always walk away in awe. I decided to make a trip out to a local gun range and here is what I saw in 4 1/2 hours off shooting shooting at the 15 yard pistol range

1. A father (60ish) and his son (late 30's) come to shoot their pistol. The father is shooting his Ruger .38 revolver. He has one of the lifesize man silhouette targets. He shoots a box and puts maybe 10 in the black. I counted 5 shots where actually shot the dirt in front of the target (remember, this is 15 yards). His results were just horrible (with respect to his target). He then asks his son if he want's to shoot the revolver, and he said (and I quote), "Do you want to shoot it? It shoot's REALLY NICE". I giggled to myself hearing that and hearing the dirt in front of the target saying "please....no more!!".

2. The son was shooting a M&P in .40cal I believe. Now what was odd to me was the way he was shooting it. Let me describe. He was shooting in a quasi-Weaver hold, but it looked like he was shooting a rifle rather than a handgun. He literally had the gun about 10 inches from his face. Everytime he took a shot, I was just waiting for the gun to pop up and hit him in the eye. Oh, he was also shooting at the man size silhouette targets and all of his shots where hitting around the groin/upper thigh area. I can't imagine that he was aimin that low. I willing to be his weird stance/hold was the culprit.

3. Several times the father was talking to the son, and both of them were holding guns. And while they were talking, they were not paying attented and I got swept multiple times (they were about 4 feet to my right). I politely just stepped back out of the line of fire until the gun was pointed downrange. I didn't say anyting to them, but my patience was wearing thin.

4. Next up was a gentleman who came out with .45 M&P. What caught my eye was is was close to 100 degrees and he was wearing his black tactical pants, and black tactical boots. I keep and eye on him, because his is shooting an .45 M&P and I am considering picking up the M&P or XD soon so I wanted to see how it performed for him. Well, he is shooting at a 10inch by 12inch target approximately 1 foot from the post that holds the plywood up. (The post is made of wood, and looks like a railroad tie and is vertical, buried in the ground. Plywood is nailed onto that for targets). In his first mag, I counted 6 shots where he hit the post. I knew because chunks of wood would just go flying everytime he hit it. And I'm not talking about him just hitting left of aim. He was hitting the wood post 4 feet low and to the left of where his target was at. Oh, and after two boxes of shells, his target only had 3 hits on it....period. I talked to the gentleman to ask about his M&P and turns out that his is in a Police Academy for a local Junior College for the area and he has to qualify with a pistol in a couple of months. I'm hoping that he doesn't ever have to draw his gun while on duty because I don't know that he could hit what he was aiming at.

5. Range officer calls clear so everyone can go check their targets. I don't go down, because it's only 15 yards, and I can see where I'm hitting. While I'm waiting another gentleman shooting to my left comes up and shows me a a case and exclaims (almost proudly)...."See this is what happens when you shoot a 9mm round in a .40 caliber. I did it TWICE". I'm literally shocked that he is showing that off. This is a basic firearm saftety rule, to make sure your ammunition is correct for the gun you are shooting. I mean, I'm sure it will happen from time to time, but this guy did it twice and felt the need to show someone what he did. After range goes hot, I move a little farther away from him :)

6. The pistol range is is right next to a 50 yard range. A younger shooter goes to the 50 yard range and pulls out a heavy barrled AR-15 (looked like a DPMS). Now what was unusual was the size of the scope he had on it. I am not exagerating when I say that his scope on the rifle was bigger than his spotting scope. It looked like his front objective had to be 60mm. This thing was gigantic and completely dwarfed the rifle. It looked like a rifle hanging off of a scope, rather than the other way around. Well, I'm looking at that combo and thinking to myself why is he on the 50yard range. You have a caliber that shoots to 300 yards easily, a telescope hangning on top, so why waste your time on a 50yard range, when the 100 yard range is 20 feet to your left, and it is half full? He wasn't sighting in the scope/rifle because I didn't see him make any adjustments. 50 yards is nothing for a .223.

7. Towards the end of the day, people start leaving. The only shooters left were me an another guy. A new shooter walks up carrying his pistol and targets. The range is hot, but neither of us are shooting because the other guys is messing with his gear, and I'm loading my magazines (4 of them. I like to load them all at once before shooting). Well, I get them loaded, pop one in my Kimber, and raise gun getting ready to shoot at target. Out of the corner of my eye, I see movement and then I realize it is the new guy walking down range!! Very quickly I lower my weapon, and look for the range officer (not sure why I did that). At this point the new guy walking down range sees I have a gun in my hand and I tell him, the range is hot! Evidentally, the guy assumed that since no on was shooting at that specific moment, that he would go down and put up targets. At no point did he ask if the range was clear.


I did have the pleasure to meet an extremely nice older gentleman. He brought two people with him (I'm assuming BF & GF in their middle 20's) to let them shoot his guns. They never shot them, and he was out there to get them comfortable with them. I started talking to him, because I saw that he had a Walther PPK/S which is what I had just bought during the last weekend's gun show. He just bought it as well, so we got to talking. I showed him how to take it apart, and reassemble it. I also told him about the blowback design, and some bit's of the origin of the .380 cartridge. I felt bad for the guy because someone sold him a broken gun. The gun would not fire. It looks like something was preventing the firing pin from fully contacting the primer, as the shells would only be barely dimpled from the firing pin. Anyway, we looked at it for a bit before giving up. He offered me a box of .380 shells for my help, but I felt too guilty to take it. Since he had a broken gun, the .380 shells he bought were useless, so I offered him a trade of some 9mm shells for his .380 shells, which he took. I appreciated the guy was out there trying to get new people exposed to shooting.

[KC5AV]

With the exception of the guy with poor muzzle etiquette, I don't see much wrong. I'd likely have some pretty strong words for him in short order. I'd let the guy with the habit of shooting 9mm through his .40 know that it's nothing to be proud of, and might be dangerous, but I'd let him know in a congenial sort of way.

As for the rest of them, at least they are out there. At least they seem to be trying to get better, rather than sitting at home doing nothing on a nice afternoon. Every shot can't be perfect every time.