Sight-In Days at Gun Club -- Whoa...

[misser]

I have never seen so many guys that don't know how to shoot from a bench since last year

 

[D the D]

You should see our local public range. I use it during normal working hours because it's a lot closer than the club. Elmer and friends have shot up the 12"x12" posts that hold the overhead baffles so bad they will have to replace many. 3"x4' lumber pieces shot off of them. Overhead baffles full of holes and starting to fall. Everything is all shot up just from the weeks before hunting seasons started.

 

[jackieschmidt]

The holes in the roof that covers the firing line are the most worry some.

 

[jxb]

After spending some range time a bit too close to hunting season what worried me most was the thought of being out in the woods with these people.

 

[MrK.]

We used to have a public range on city land. It was basically a trash dump with a shooting bench and the worst bunch of yahoos ever. There was no supervision at all and the fact that no one got killed is a miracle. I shot there for a while in my 20s because it was the only place I had. This was in the early 80's
I stopped going because:
1. Typically people would let everyone know they were going to shoot if the muffs were off and people were standing around chatting. One time there was a lull and I was sitting at the bench writing in my notebook. I noticed some movement to my left but really didn't pay it any attention. All of a sudden BOOM. Some guy touches off a .458 Win Mag probably a foot from my ear. That ear still goes eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.
2. I pulled up one time and a fist fight was going on.
3. One guy was trying to chamber 7mm Rem Mag ammo into a gun chambered for 7mm Express Remington. The guy at the store told him it was the same thing (pretty sure the guy at the store was confusing the .280 Remington for the 7 Mag).
4. The bench was crowded one Sat. Some guy pulls up and there is no where to shoot. He pulls his truck up sideways and prepares to shoot over the hood. He is off to the right but probably 20 feet BEHIND the built in bench. I just step back out of the way in disbelief. Reminder I'm in my early 20s and learning this on my own. The guy has a Savage Model 99, no idea what caliber. He starts shooting and about every other shot it fails to fire. He cusses and jacks the lever open and the gun would go off. It would be pointed somewhat downrange but I think more over the trees.

That was my last day there.
Another story from there. Once it was just me and another couple of guys about my age. One guy was spotting, the other was sighting in one of those 742 Remington Autos. I've seen a few of them and none of them would do better than 3 moa with factory ammo. The shooter would shoot. Spotter would say "2in right". Shooter would dial scope 8 bumps and fire. Spotter would say "Still 1in right". Shooter would dial four bumps and fire. Spotter says "4in left" . I told him to try shooting a group but he was adamant he was doing it right.

 

[tmwinds]

Quite whining and give them a helping hand.

 

[Dead Eye]

Love these threads. That way the gun haters and anti hunters don’t have to do their own data collection.

 

[Spike A]

Our local club has an “open day “ for people to bring things to sight in, generally there is several members there to assist and help, I think with the people there to help it goes very well, not much crazy going on … there are some people that show up that need assistance with their new rifle, I always volunteered in this area… helped get the scope mounted bore sighted, or just went over guns for people looking for obvious problems… then just went over things with them, I found that if you were respectful and didn’t talk to them like an idiot.. they would generally be willing to ask more questions which I thought would help…. I think only twice I had to ask some one to walk away and get something to drink or snack on and come back as their attitude was not good… each case 5 min later they came back and apologized and admitted they were just frustrated …. I always felt bad for the guys not knowing what they were getting into when they dropped a ton of money on some big weatherby mag this or that… complaining about 80 for a box of ammo.. then that it kicked like a mule… then explained that the guy at the store said it was the best thing since sliced bread… overall I thought it was a good thing they opened up to help …

 

[dryhumor]

I haven’t shot at a public rifle range in many years.

Though I do shoot pistols at indoor ranges from time to time. I used to look at all the impacts and think a sharp fellow could get all the free ammo they wanted just by spending a half hour teaching novice shooters how to shoot well and safely. One box for a half hour of instruction seemed pretty fair I thought….

 

[DShortt]

I've had similar experiences at public ranges and will no longer use one for my personal safety.
I'd add the guy who wants to talk at length about a subject he's completely uneducated on. Such as velocity testing ammo in a hunting rifle with a short barrel as opposed to the barrel length used during testing.

 

[Dead Eye]

Our local club has an “open day “ for people to bring things to sight in, generally there is several members there to assist and help, I think with the people there to help it goes very well, not much crazy going on … there are some people that show up that need assistance with their new rifle, I always volunteered in this area… helped get the scope mounted bore sighted, or just went over guns for people looking for obvious problems… then just went over things with them, I found that if you were respectful and didn’t talk to them like an idiot.. they would generally be willing to ask more questions which I thought would help…. I think only twice I had to ask some one to walk away and get something to drink or snack on and come back as their attitude was not good… each case 5 min later they came back and apologized and admitted they were just frustrated …. I always felt bad for the guys not knowing what they were getting into when they dropped a ton of money on some big weatherby mag this or that… complaining about 80 for a box of ammo.. then that it kicked like a mule… then explained that the guy at the store said it was the best thing since sliced bread… overall I thought it was a good thing they opened up to help …

This is how to address any issues. There are people out there that have not been as fortunate as many of us when it comes to having a mentor. Spike is helping to elevate the opinion of the non-shooting public that we rely on to help us protect our rights.

 

[Longtrain]

We have a number of gun clubs in our area. I generally only go during the work week, avoiding weekends. I’m happy when I pull in that there is no one there. It has an electronic key gate, full on video, full roof over the benches, down range horn and light system and no blue sky baffles out to 200 yards. They pretty much got it covered.

However, at another range, Dad and his two 16-17 year old son’s were sighting their shotguns for deer season. They were all shooting and Dad and one son asked to walk down to check their target. I opened my action, placed my rifle on the bench and stepped away. Junior, the other son was still playing with his shotgun. I told him to bench the gun, open the action and step away, as his Dad and brother were down range. He said don’t worry it’s not loaded. I told him to open the action and bench the gun again, annoyed he pulled the slide back and sure enough a 12 ga slug popped right out. Dad (who was equally guilty for going down range with Junior still screwing around), saw this and had Junior case his shotgun and go sit in the car.
At that time I heard my mom calling me for dinner and I got the hell out of there. Never went back. You can’t enjoy shooting when you’ve got dumbass’s playing around, keeping you eyes on them and not enjoying your sport.

 

[Turkeytider]

After spending some range time a bit too close to hunting season what worried me most was the thought of being out in the woods with these people.

That’s why the thought of hunting on public land has always given me the heebie jeebies.

 

[DShortt]

That’s why the thought of hunting on public land has always given me the heebie jeebies.

I was naive and went once in my mid-20s. Never again.

 

[rwj]

Quite whining and give them a helping hand.

I try, but the majority become combative and that’s when I pack up and leave. Dropped my membership at a club because this behavior became rampant and the board refused to engage and address the safety issue.

 

[Turkeytider]

We have a number of gun clubs in our area. I generally only go during the work week, avoiding weekends. I’m happy when I pull in that there is no one there. It has an electronic key gate, full on video, full roof over the benches, down range horn and light system and no blue sky baffles out to 200 yards. They pretty much got it covered.

However, at another range, Dad and his two 16-17 year old son’s were sighting their shotguns for deer season. They were all shooting and Dad and one son asked to walk down to check their target. I opened my action, placed my rifle on the bench and stepped away. Junior, the other son was still playing with his shotgun. I told him to bench the gun, open the action and step away, as his Dad and brother were down range. He said don’t worry it’s not loaded. I told him to open the action and bench the gun again, annoyed he pulled the slide back and sure enough a 12 ga slug popped right out. Dad (who was equally guilty for going down range with Junior still screwing around), saw this and had Junior case his shotgun and go sit in the car.
At that time I heard my mom calling me for dinner and I got the hell out of there. Never went back. You can’t enjoy shooting when you’ve got dumbass’s playing around, keeping you eyes on them and not enjoying your sport.

Though the Dad certainly could/should have corrected his son prior to going down range, at least he did the right thing in the end. There are some who wouldn’t have and who might have confronted YOU for correcting THEIR mistake!

 

[1K6BRA]

There are more dead eye Dicks that show up for public sight in days with everything from a peep sighted 22 hornet to a target scoped 460 Weatherby than I can comprehend. I praise God I wasn’t born a critter. Been a long time since I have been to such an event. Probably never will again.

 

[F Class John]

Both of my clubs (approx 6,000 members and 2,000 members respectively) did or do sight in days and I'd like to think that both clubs are incredibly safe in their general protocols. My larger club stopped a couple years ago and I'm not sure exactly why but I've helped in the past and it's always an adventure. One thing about both clubs is they do/did a 1:1 ratio so there's always an experienced shooter with every sight in person. While not a perfect system, and totally reliant on a strong turn out of volunteers to keep it from going slowly, it's made sure that everyone who comes gets any help they need to improve in some way and to be fair a very small group of people resent being helped and leave as others have said. At both clubs, the firearm and ammo is checked for matching because it's amazing how many mis-matched combos show up. I'd like to believe that most of the people who've shown up leave safer and more competent shooters in some capacity.

My larger club is where I run the 600yd program and since the time that they stopped sight in days I've seen an increase of "can I sight in my hunting rifle at 600yds". To be fair most of the people who show have a gun and are capable of shoot a roughly MOA group. I'm not a hunter so I can't weigh in on people who want to know their gun can take a shot if the opportunity arrises but I think Eric Cortina has done a good job of that with his Ethical Hunter Challenge series of videos with quite a few not so surprising results.

 

[misser]

Quite whining and give them a helping hand.

they will get help if they ask for it

 

[jxb]

That’s why the thought of hunting on public land has always given me the heebie jeebies.

Yeah but over the years I've found it's highly location specific. Most of those types don't walk much and/or use stands a lot so it's really not hard to get away from most of them. At least out west.