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You Can't Be Serious.

When I was first starting, a Japanese guy and his son showed up for their safari.
He came into the mess with a new gun case, with a new, unfired rifle in it. In the case was the scope .... scope bases and rings still in the packages.
Turned out he (or his son) had never shot a rifle before.
I got things sorted out and gave them some shooting lessons.
Fortunately, he had brought the maximum amount of ammunition.

( I had quite a discussion with my booking agent later on).
 
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I spent nearly 10 years working for a fairly well known gun and sporting goods store.

I worked in the archery department for a few years and then in guns for about 5 years.

Here's a short list of things that I still can't believe...........

1) The same guys would come in each year and buy 10-12 boxes of "insert your caliber here" type of ammo. One guy that stuck out was a guy that was in each year buying 243. He'd buy a few hundred rounds EACH fall. Either he had a pile of it or was an absolutely horrendous shooter

2) Bore Sighting Rifles.............I would gladly bore sight a rifle for people when they brought their guns in. It never occurred to me that this is how a number of people thought a rifle would be "sighted in" until about my 3rd year of working there. Guys literally thought if the I stuck the bore sighter on their gun, they could go out hunting after we did that. Guys would come in opening day to do this. After a few years I would explain this in depth on each rifle I did it to.....or if they didn't believe me I'd just fake it.

3) Orange clothing......No clue where this stuff goes but every year I'd sell hundreds of hats, gloves, jackets etc. to all the same people. The dryer monsters must love blaze orange.

4) The magic cartridge.......each year I'd have a few guys that absolutely needed the next greatest thing because last's year cartridge didn't work the way they thought it should. Probably because they can't shoot but mainly becuase they didn't sight in the rifle after I bore sighted it. Thank God I left before Hornady started telling these guys they need a new magnum every year.

5) And....one of my favorites that I've written about before on this site.......Guy comes in and is staring at the wall of powder jugs we had displayed....they're empty and its kept off the floor but we displayed it all so people knew what we carried. He proceeds to ask me "which of these will make a 270 bullet go the farthest?" Not wanting to be rude and hopefully educate him a bit I asked " you mean the fastest?" He said no....."the farthest". So I had to ask....."what do you mean".........he said " I want a powder that will make my bullet from my 270 go the farthest" he explained to me he would miss deer at 400 yards and it was because the bullet wan't getting there. I asked him if he understood bullet drop, zero range...holdovers...all that....to which he just stared back at me. So I asked...."what powder are you using now" He say...."no clue, it's blue" so I figured he meant the label was blue....IMR 4064 maybe? I asked "how much do you put in the case".......he says....."no clue, I just dump it in and scrape it off the top" I told him he needed to buy a manual and follow what it says if he wanted to buy powder from me. He left slightly upset and I never saw him again. Here's hoping he still is alive.
 
xswanted said:
I spent nearly 10 years working for a fairly well known gun and sporting goods store.

I worked in the archery department for a few years and then in guns for about 5 years.

Here's a short list of things that I still can't believe...........

1) The same guys would come in each year and buy 10-12 boxes of "insert your caliber here" type of ammo. One guy that stuck out was a guy that was in each year buying 243. He'd buy a few hundred rounds EACH fall. Either he had a pile of it or was an absolutely horrendous shooter

2) Bore Sighting Rifles.............I would gladly bore sight a rifle for people when they brought their guns in. It never occurred to me that this is how a number of people thought a rifle would be "sighted in" until about my 3rd year of working there. Guys literally thought if the I stuck the bore sighter on their gun, they could go out hunting after we did that. Guys would come in opening day to do this. After a few years I would explain this in depth on each rifle I did it to.....or if they didn't believe me I'd just fake it.

3) Orange clothing......No clue where this stuff goes but every year I'd sell hundreds of hats, gloves, jackets etc. to all the same people. The dryer monsters must love blaze orange.

4) The magic cartridge.......each year I'd have a few guys that absolutely needed the next greatest thing because last's year cartridge didn't work the way they thought it should. Probably because they can't shoot but mainly becuase they didn't sight in the rifle after I bore sighted it. Thank God I left before Hornady started telling these guys they need a new magnum every year.

5) And....one of my favorites that I've written about before on this site.......Guy comes in and is staring at the wall of powder jugs we had displayed....they're empty and its kept off the floor but we displayed it all so people knew what we carried. He proceeds to ask me "which of these will make a 270 bullet go the farthest?" Not wanting to be rude and hopefully educate him a bit I asked " you mean the fastest?" He said no....."the farthest". So I had to ask....."what do you mean".........he said " I want a powder that will make my bullet from my 270 go the farthest" he explained to me he would miss deer at 400 yards and it was because the bullet wan't getting there. I asked him if he understood bullet drop, zero range...holdovers...all that....to which he just stared back at me. So I asked...."what powder are you using now" He say...."no clue, it's blue" so I figured he meant the label was blue....IMR 4064 maybe? I asked "how much do you put in the case".......he says....."no clue, I just dump it in and scrape it off the top" I told him he needed to buy a manual and follow what it says if he wanted to buy powder from me. He left slightly upset and I never saw him again. Here's hoping he still is alive.
Click to expand...
I must fully redact my earlier post I made on this thread. We don’t live in a country of the smartest people in the world!!!;)
 
xswanted said:
I spent nearly 10 years working for a fairly well known gun and sporting goods store.

I worked in the archery department for a few years and then in guns for about 5 years.

Here's a short list of things that I still can't believe...........

1) The same guys would come in each year and buy 10-12 boxes of "insert your caliber here" type of ammo. One guy that stuck out was a guy that was in each year buying 243. He'd buy a few hundred rounds EACH fall. Either he had a pile of it or was an absolutely horrendous shooter

2) Bore Sighting Rifles.............I would gladly bore sight a rifle for people when they brought their guns in. It never occurred to me that this is how a number of people thought a rifle would be "sighted in" until about my 3rd year of working there. Guys literally thought if the I stuck the bore sighter on their gun, they could go out hunting after we did that. Guys would come in opening day to do this. After a few years I would explain this in depth on each rifle I did it to.....or if they didn't believe me I'd just fake it.

3) Orange clothing......No clue where this stuff goes but every year I'd sell hundreds of hats, gloves, jackets etc. to all the same people. The dryer monsters must love blaze orange.

4) The magic cartridge.......each year I'd have a few guys that absolutely needed the next greatest thing because last's year cartridge didn't work the way they thought it should. Probably because they can't shoot but mainly becuase they didn't sight in the rifle after I bore sighted it. Thank God I left before Hornady started telling these guys they need a new magnum every year.

5) And....one of my favorites that I've written about before on this site.......Guy comes in and is staring at the wall of powder jugs we had displayed....they're empty and its kept off the floor but we displayed it all so people knew what we carried. He proceeds to ask me "which of these will make a 270 bullet go the farthest?" Not wanting to be rude and hopefully educate him a bit I asked " you mean the fastest?" He said no....."the farthest". So I had to ask....."what do you mean".........he said " I want a powder that will make my bullet from my 270 go the farthest" he explained to me he would miss deer at 400 yards and it was because the bullet wan't getting there. I asked him if he understood bullet drop, zero range...holdovers...all that....to which he just stared back at me. So I asked...."what powder are you using now" He say...."no clue, it's blue" so I figured he meant the label was blue....IMR 4064 maybe? I asked "how much do you put in the case".......he says....."no clue, I just dump it in and scrape it off the top" I told him he needed to buy a manual and follow what it says if he wanted to buy powder from me. He left slightly upset and I never saw him again. Here's hoping he still is alive.
Click to expand...
Hell, I get nervous if I get a stiff bolt when I'm doing a ladder test; can't imagine someone just filling the case and scraping off the top. How do these people survive?
 
urbanrifleman said:
I've been the dumb guy before. We can all be the dumb guy. Just give it enough time.
Click to expand...
Yeah, one of my favorite witticisms is, "We're all dummies, just in different ways."

That being said, we're living in a period of incredible ignorance among young adults who simply lack good upbringing. How many times have you entered into conversation with what looks like a full grown adult, only to realize that on a given topic his or her intellect is down around that of an eight year old? jd
 
jds holler said:
Yeah, one of my favorite witticisms is, "We're all dummies, just in different ways."

That being said, we're living in a period of incredible ignorance among young adults who simply lack good upbringing. How many times have you entered into conversation with what looks like a full grown adult, only to realize that on a given topic his or her intellect is down around that of an eight year old? jd
Click to expand...

Yes. No argument from me.
 
I hinted deer, in November, with a man that had a Remington 7600 pump in 30/06, and after firing it was really stiff to rack the slide.

I told him to get it to me the following January so that I could take it apart and clean it, and possibly polish the chamber. Answer was OK. The following October he wanted it done. He was PO'd because I said I haven't got enough time.. He still had problems and still does today.

This happened about 1997.
 
onelastshot said:
Deer season, opening day. Two guys I hunt with brought along a friend without my permission. I was sitting in the passenger seat of my truck at 5:00am with the three of them standing around me as we discussed where everyone would sit. The new guy stepped forward towards me to grab a paper towel from the dashboard with his rifle pointed between my legs. Just as I started to say something about pointing the rifle at me the rifle goes off, fortunately missing my leg but putting a bullet in the middle of the floorboard between my feet. When everyone stopped yelling I looked at the three of them and said sorry, today's hunt has been canceled. As they were leaving I grabbed the guy who had brought him and advised him that his buddy was not welcome on the property ever again, that he was on probation for bringing such an idiot and if I ever saw his friend again, I'd shoot him. Ten years later I still have the truck and the hole is still there. For the past 5-6 years, I've opted to hunt alone. There are too many people who don't take practice and safety seriously. I grew tired worrying about the new guy in camp.
Click to expand...
Even adults born after Dec. 31 1965 must pass a Utah Hunter Education course. A lot of states don't have this kind of requirement but they should.
 
onelastshot said:
Hell, I get nervous if I get a stiff bolt when I'm doing a ladder test; can't imagine someone just filling the case and scraping off the top. How do these people survive?
Click to expand...
When I first started reloading back in 68 I actually had a friend that showed me that. I am pretty sure it was a 300 Win Mag. He was actually an armature gun smith. He knew I had an 06 and a .243 and never told me not to do that. Common sense and a Speer reloading manual told me not to do that.
 
My 1st centerfire rifle was a Marlin 30-30. Got it after a long stay in the hospital where I had lost over 60 lbs. At 6'3" & weighing in at a whopping 126, it was painful to sit on hard chairs cuz there was no cushion there. I was also on crutches & non-weight bearing on one leg. No bench, just a field behind the house, standing on a leg & 2 crutches, the 1st shot had me landing on my ass. It was about a year until the 2nd shot.

Another time, three young guys showed up at the range day before deer season opened. They had just bought a new rifle & scope at the local big box store & paid them $25 (it was the 1980s) to install the scope & bore sight it. Straight to the range they came. They all took turns firing & there were no holes in the paper @ 100 yds. After 2 or 3 boxes, you could see the heat waves over the barrel, & one of them went to the shop down the road for more ammo. Still no visible holes. It turned out they didn't clean the factory grease (cosmoline?) out of the barrel before firing, & had no idea about twisting the knobs on the scope. It was bore sighted... Right? But they just kept shooting before finally asking for help 80 to 100 rounds in. They got squared away with a good bore scrubbing & 25yd. eyeball down the bore scope adjust before fine tuning.
 
This is absolutely true !!!!!!!!!!!! A guy I knew from high school bought a new semi auto 22lr at two guys dept store. He met us in a small town west of rochester,ny. My brother and me were out in the woods shooting 22's at targets but this ass decided he would shoot at a small personal airplane. We came out of the woods and I started running towards him . Once I got close I dove and grabbed it out of his hands and jammed the barrel straight down into the mud. He looks at me with death in his eyes. He says what the heck did you do that for? I said you were shooting at an airplane. He then says that his gun wont hurt the plane because the bullets burn up in the atmosphere. I was stunned,I was only 15 years old so I grabbed the gun out of the mud and ran with it. I hid and unloaded it and threw it behind the barn. As we got in our car we screwed out of there. I yelled your gun is behind the barn in the ding weeds. After this event he stayed far from trouble and he never got caught. I could have called police but he would of beat me really bad and I was scared. The pilot had to get his plane repaired but sustained no injury thank the good Lord.. In retrospect I wish I would of blown him in. He was 6'4" and about 300 pounds of muscle.
 
Overheard at Cabela's "A 150 lb. crossbow isn't enough to kill a deer".

At the range, more times than I can count. "Is your AR/AK safe so we can go downrange"?
Reply: "Yes". Me: "Please open the bolt". Them: "OK". CAJING as a live round gets ejected.
Me: SMH.
In today's world, there's no such thing as common sense. It's so rare, it should be called uncommon sense.
 
jds holler said:
Yeah, one of my favorite witticisms is, "We're all dummies, just in different ways."

That being said, we're living in a period of incredible ignorance among young adults who simply lack good upbringing. How many times have you entered into conversation with what looks like a full grown adult, only to realize that on a given topic his or her intellect is down around that of an eight year old? jd
Click to expand...
Arrested Development
 
We are all blessed with opportunities to help others.

Begged my dad to take me hunting and shooting as a youth. He wasn't much of a hunter or a shooter but tried to help me. We were a big mess together and probably the source of a story or two. I try to provide the guidance that I needed along the way.
 
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