Range Invaders

[Tempest]

At our club deer often walk into line of fire. At 1,000 yards we will still shoot as bullet is way above them. At 600 will stop just in case.

However, shooting matches, have to wait until they wander off.

 

[ben lurkin]

The worst thing we have are the brass scroungers. There’s four of them and they’ll sit and wait in their cars. Once someone leaves they descend like vultures on a dead carcass. I don’t mind that so much, but they tie up a spot unnecessarily if anyone else wants it shoot.

 

[Dug]

I've had to stop shooting Sporting Clays a few times to wait for the Whitetails to pass.

Then I've got this at home;

 

[gdbleb]

My club's range is in reservoir country in northern NJ so deer, turkeys and the occasional Black Bear. The firing line surveillance video caught a bobcat once. The pits are only open at one end. There is a ladder placed at the closed end. The story goes that some fellows were changing their targets and a black bear lumbered into the pits.

 

[NV_Dmax]

We get herds of the 2nd largest shit producer in North America. The feral horse.

 

[Ccrider]

They visit when they please and do not care about the gunfire.

 

[Old Tanker]

Laramie Gun Club range, July 2021.

 

[RDavies]

I dont have any pictures here, but in Australia, Kangaroos are attracted to rifle ranges by the open grassland. Big mobs of kangaroos between the shooters and targets are not unusual and they don't seem to mind bullets flying just over their heads one bit. Apart from kangaroos, I have seen a few deer, pigs, dingos and emus grazing happily in front of the shooters.
The memorable ones were when I have seen normally very slow moving echidnas and wombats suddenly hit top gear (still about walking speed) when the first shot of the day rang out above their heads.

 

[alf]

 

[Leeman]

I dont have any pictures here, but in Australia, Kangaroos are attracted to rifle ranges by the open grassland. Big mobs of kangaroos between the shooters and targets are not unusual and they don't seem to mind bullets flying just over their heads one bit. Apart from kangaroos, I have seen a few deer, pigs, dingos and emus grazing happily in front of the shooters.
The memorable ones were when I have seen normally very slow moving echidnas and wombats suddenly hit top gear (still about walking speed) when the first shot of the day rang out above their heads.

Rod,

I visited the Bendigo range a few years ago, just passing through, no shooting going on, would have been early Jan so exceptionally crisp and dry, but I'm told for the Commonwealth games, whenever that was, they irrigated the range to make it nice and green for all the overseas visitors. Of course also very attractive for the local wildlife especially the roos. Not sure I ever found out what method they used to control that problem!

 

[akajun]

Eagles! Cease fire called at Camp Perry because eagles were swooping down to pick up ground hogs. Shooting an eagle would be some bad press!!!

Dumb ass Boaters too

 

[Liven The Dream]

Central Oregon , Mule Deer , Antelope , Badgers , Sage Rats and lots of Birds .

 

[p-man]

Unbelievable how animals adapt to noise and concussion. For years I fired air to ground munitions from helicopters - everything from 7.62 miniguns, 40mm grenade launchers, 30mm cannon, and 2.75 rockets which impact like 155 howitzers. Even hellfire missiles. Sure they'll move off the range but in a few hours they come back. Of course in Texas with free-range laws/agreements, I've seen major fire engagement exercises at Ft. Hood delayed or cancelled for cows in the impact area - when just the day before we had blown the s--t out of the ground they were grazing on.

 

[dfrosch]

Back in the 90s, I shot skeet at a club just northwest of Houston. They had all sorts of critters, both wild and domestic. The most memorable was an insolent yellow lab that chased every clay target. It would stick it's head inside the low house window while we we shooting. Luckily, it was quick enough that it never got hit by a target.

Sure was hard to concentrate on the game when that pup was around.

 

[Liven The Dream]

Unbelievable how animals adapt to noise and concussion. For years I fired air to ground munitions from helicopters - everything from 7.62 miniguns, 40mm grenade launchers, 30mm cannon, and 2.75 rockets which impact like 155 howitzers. Even hellfire missiles. Sure they'll move off the range but in a few hours they come back. Of course in Texas with free-range laws/agreements, I've seen major fire engagement exercises at Ft. Hood delayed or cancelled for cows in the impact area - when just the day before we had blown the s--t out of the ground they were grazing on.

1967 Ft. Dix M-60 Range White Tail Deer at the tree line most days..

 

[nakneker]

I’ve seen coyotes and deer at various ranges in Arizona, quail too. I lived in Alaska back in the early nineties. My brother in law and cousin came up to hunt caribou the second year I was there. The day before we were going to fly out to camp we went to the local range which wasn’t much but it’s where everyone went to check zero. My brother in law got his rifle out and sat down to sight it in when 20 or so caribou walked over the target bank and proceeded to walk across the range, two decent bulls were in the group and my brother in law couldn’t help it and shot the bigger of the two. That ended his hunt, I encouraged him not to but he couldn’t help himself. He still flew out with us and we enjoyed 5 days of really amazing hunting, this is back when the Mulchatna herd was strong in numbers but we appreciated his presence when it came time to get the meat and horns back to camp. The amount of caribou we saw was mind boggling, at least to someone who hadn’t seen numbers like that before.

 

[mtncwru]

I was firing a 1000 yard match at Camp Pendleton Range 117 when cease fire sounded because one of the Pendleton bison herd wandered onto the range. Several guys went out there and yelled at him from a safe distance, but he was notably unimpressed and took about an hour to decide to leave.

Yep, she's come by a few times. These were from a 1000 yard match in 2019 on R117.

 

[KMart]

The usual stuff
Swamp rabbits
Cat squirrels
Coons
Possums
Armadillos
Whitetail Deer
Coyotes. Had 3 pups playing on the 400 yd range. Stayed there several hours playing grab ass while we shot over their heads
Bobcats. One was carrying a kit to new digs.
Hogs
The lady that lives near the entrance gate told me she had seen a cougar (4 legged) sitting in front of the gate on a few occasions.
Then there was the heard of goats that took up residence. One of the neighbors had a fence down and they liked our place better.
Bald Eagle perched on top of the 200 yd covered shooting stations. They are pretty common in SE Texas in the winter.
Boone and Crockett class mosquitos

 

[Bill Score]

20 some years ago I was at a range in Ft Benning and watched a rabbit sprint across 25 (iirc) lanes of shooters around the 50 meter target line. Pretty sure everbody took a shot or ten at that thing. It was either a terrible display of running marksmanship or the world’s luckiest rabbit. Either way, we never figured out which, tower called a cease fire and everybody did pushups and flutter kicks for a while.

 

[PRR1957]

Unbelievable how animals adapt to noise and concussion. For years I fired air to ground munitions from helicopters - everything from 7.62 miniguns, 40mm grenade launchers, 30mm cannon, and 2.75 rockets which impact like 155 howitzers. Even hellfire missiles. Sure they'll move off the range but in a few hours they come back. Of course in Texas with free-range laws/agreements, I've seen major the fire engagement exercises at Ft. Hood delayed or cancelled for cows in the impact area - when just the day before we had blown the s--t out of the ground they were grazing on.

I spent a year and half at Ft. Hood (1980-82) in the 2nd Armored Div.. I fixed the turret components in M60A3 tanks that made it go bang. I also helped in the artillery repair and on one occasion I went on a M163 VADS (M113 with a 20mm Vulcan) gunnery. One of the crews was shooting at a moving ground target when a small herd of long horn cattle wondered out from behind a tree line. A ceasefire was immediately called, but the gunner in the M163 decision to strafe the herd was not good. He reduced about ten cattle into hamburger. It was literally a cloud of red mist where the cattle once stood. As I latter learned that the gunner was rank busted down to buck private and he spent six months time at the CCF (Controlled Custody Facility). The training grounds of Ft. Hood had multitudes of free ranging cattle all over the post training grounds, plus plenty of Texas whitetail and axis dear wondering around.