It’s a miracle this crew didn’t shoot each other – more than once.
I shoot at a public range in a national forest. It’s beautiful, fun and perfectly safe 90% of the time I go there. Maybe that’s because I only go on weekdays when all the crazy is at work. On weekday outings, if I’m not by myself, I’m usually accompanied by experienced and safe range neighbors. Today was a 10% day, or more accurately, a 1% day.
Walking from my car to the range, I noticed that the range was cold – people were down range setting targets. Then I saw something freaky. A young lady was at one of the shooting benches aiming a scoped AR down range at one of her shooting partners. He was 50 yards down range placing a target. She was waving him side to side to he could get his target placed in the correct shooting lane.
“No, just a bit more to the left, I can’t quite plug you with this rifle yet.”
“A bit more to the right, I would only graze you if I fired now.”
“That’s perfect, I’ve got you sighted right between the eyes!”
I kid you not. As random as some of my thoughts are, I couldn’t make this up.
Well, maybe I made up the internal dialog to accompany the story, but the guy was down range saying “aim at me and tell me when I have the target in the right place.” I thought I also heard him say, “Have you checked up on my insurance policy recently?” I can’t be entirely sure about that one.
A little while later, after surviving the rifle fire obstacle course, our target dummy started drawing from the small of his back, and in the process muzzle sweeping everyone to his left, followed by everyone to his right, including his two shooting partners.
At least he was using the world’s crappiest holster. You know, one of those canvas deals that’s only slightly better than duct taping a clay flower pot to your belt? It had about the same level of gun security and retention.
That’s when I left. Perhaps tomorrow will be a better day.
If you haven’t guessed already, this trio invested more time bumming a cigarette from the guy in the next lane than the sum total of their gun safety education.
The four rules of gun safety are really easy folks, and require just minutes to memorize forever. That minute or two learning about guns and safety might just help you avoid a lifetime of regret. There are inexpensive and free learning resources everywhere.
Remember, we’re not born with shooting safety knowledge genetically pre-wired – we have to make at least the slightest effort to learn. Buy a book. Watch free videos online. Learn from an experienced friend.
Whatever you do, don’t be proud and think you already know everything – that’s dangerous to you and everyone else.
Rule 1: A gun is always loaded.
Rule 2: Keep your finger off the trigger until ready to fire.
Rule 3: Never let your muzzle point at anything you’re not willing to destroy.
Rule 4: Be sure of your target and backstop. (This does not mean that just because you’re SURE you’re aiming right at your buddy, that it’s OK.)
At my range, any member who saw this would be obligated to ask them to leave, and report it to safety and education committee. Also it would be captured on surveillance cameras.
Ah, the joys of a private shooting range!
This is exactly why I don’t go to public ranges! I support gun use and responsible ownership, but the training that should be required is simply not there!
Oh, there’s plenty of training available, and much of it free. What angered me about this situation was that these folks had thousands of dollars of nice guns, hundreds of dollars in ammo, yet hadn’t invested 5 cents and/or 5 seconds in trying to learn what they were doing before going out in public. Exactly like choosing to drive drunk and just as irresponsible.
I would’ve had to leave as soon as I saw the rifle aimed downrange with someone down there. I haven’t seen that anywhere I’ve gone, thankfully, but I was at a shoot where a young girl , 15/16, had trouble with the rifle she was using. She shot, missed and then turned to her left and…. EVERYONE HIT THE GROUND. She was pointing the rifle at the entire firing line and even had her finger on the trigger while doing it. She was totally unaware that this was a problem. Her family removed her from the area pretty quick afterwards. It kind of unnerved everyone to the point that most us left and haven’t been shooting there since.
Why does that look like an SCDNR Range to me? Looks an awful lot like Leeds in the Sumter National Forest. Where I occasional go to shoot.
Good eyes 🙂 It is an SCDNR range, just not in Sumter.
I really wasn’t sure it was Leeds. Too many healthy trees along the right side. The benches and the construction, the sidewalk along the right to downrange, the berms, pretty much identical to Leeds. The blue barrel is what made me doubt it is Leeds, they don’t have one. But I haven’t been there in a few months.
Um, which one is it , really?
I GO TO A DIRT PIT WITH I KNOW
looks kinda like Ocala National Forest to me. But seeing your not from here, prolly not
Looks like twin ponds to me. Seen plenty of crazy there.
I think you’re right. Found some pics with Google search.
https://foursquare.com/v/twin-ponds-rifle-range/4c8eb4ca14fdb713660834c4
Just exactly what was the range officer doing during all of this???
He was really stoned and ran out for some Jalapeno Bacon Bugles! Nah, just kidding. This is an unsupervised, self-policing public range.