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Only takes one or two bad apples (long gripe)

B

BytorJr

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Nov 28, 2018
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Proverbially speaking that is. Two days at the range...two days one complete ass and another person less than sympathetic about listening to logic.

1a) Me: "So, when do you think you all will go cold on range so I can set my targets up? Oh, right now, cool. Hey...how do you like your CTR."
1b) Answer: WHAT? What are YOU talking about?
1c) Me: "Your Compact Tactical Rifle there, the CTR."
1d) Answer: "Oh, I thought you just weren't smart enough to say Tikka."
1c) "To myself: Ok...so you're a complete dickhead who really should go find their own fucking range to play at so you can jerk your dick off between "loads."

2) I'm going to ask same question about range going cold even though technically I'm "in charge" of hot/cold. So I physically walk down the line go ask every person if they are ready to go cold for 5 minutes. Here comes somebody directly at me, following me like some kind of HARM missile. Ok, I stop.
a) Me: "Hey, how's it going?"

b) Answer: YOU are shooting over the berm, you've been doing that all day. YOU need to stop.

c) Me: "Really? I've just gotten here, put four rounds down, changed rifles, and may have put another 12 down range."

d) Answer: Maybe so, that's what YOU say, but you're shooting over the berm.

e) Me: "No, I don't think so, I've only been shooting for maybe 20 minutes tops. Just really got here. Besides I see all the holes (16 of them) in my paper from each shot."

f) Answer "Just because you're hitting paper doesn't mean you're not shooting over the berm."

g) Me: "That's correct if your target is mounted too low they'll skip; however, I know for a fact none of my bullets are skipping before the berm."

h) Answer: "Well, YOU KNOW that paper doesn't mean you're hitting at the berm, you have to have the berm behind the sights too."

i) Me: "Yes, I know that, but I guarantee none of my bullets are skipping off the ground over the berm, I GUARANTEE it. I think he finally grasps that I'm about ready to tell him to fuck off. Then he says..well, they can bounce off the berm too, maybe that's what happened.

i) Me: still about to unload my potty mouth, thought the better of it, and said something to the effect of "well, thanks for telling me, I'll go look and see." So, he leaves, I call range cold, go look at my target now half way between bench & berm (before it was at berm), note all rounds in paper, then march down the line of sight of bullet...not a single mark in the wet clay, nothing, not directly in LOS, not 5 nor 10 yards to either side. No way in FUCK that was me unless they were skipping off something on the berm.

I should have asked him to show me how I was shooting over the berm with no marks in wet mud/clay and all holes in target (and I had the empty brass already collected) with obvious caliber change . I mention this later back at the range facility with folks around; and then I get the blame again that it was me...without anybody knowing WHEN or what I was shooting, how long I was shooting, what station I was shooting, etc. All because I brought up the fact that somebody confronted me rather aggressively to start with accusing me of this. I even said they could go look for themselves to see there are no bullet marks in the wet clay before berm. Which then was responded to by some fat fuck that I was hitting my wood stanchion (wood poles) or the metal stand. I have my own, made out of PVC to hold 1x2's, holding targets up. My brain was like "Ok MF's...come to my truck...look at my wood poles & my stand...not a bullet hole in them."

Nobody was taking into account the other long rifle bay right next to them has steel which some idiots shoot at obtuse angles, it could have been coming back over the other way or to their side. There were also newbies training on pistol where I was; which while they were supervised, who knows where shit was going.

One or two more of these incidents and I'm asking for my range money back and finding another place to shoot. Correct course of action is member go to range office, make complaint, range owner/manager comes and has discussion. Hence why I really try to not shoot on weekends; but they've started renting out part of the range on occasion (kinda violates what I call a private range).

Just curious...anybody else have assholes at their range?
 
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Yeah, well, like I said, I usually try to sneak out at least once a week during the week where there may be 1-2 people or just me (then if people show up, I usually see how they shoot and stay or leave). Now, if I'm shooting pistol, I always go to a bay (3) and shoot steel BY MYSELF. I only know about 2 people (not in my state) that I'd trust to shoot pistol with in an "open" environment like a bay or even "open" lanes not divided by hard dividers (like indoor ranges have...never seen an outdoor range like that). But, I worked a lot of OT last week and had to give a day up on top of that due to the McAffee virus people install....locked out my computer...and I can only charge billable hours. GRRRRRRR. Monday/Tuesday is really dead at range...

Learned a LONG time ago...shoot by yourself or with only those you know and trust. Hell, even duck hunting as a kid...never forget Dad, Granddad, and I were in our blind, the blind to our left (pothole) with Dad's friends in it, had an A/D. Granddad, being super aware of any gun transgressions (like he had X-ray vision and predictive filtering) called out "Did you all see a duck fly through?" Knowing full well what had happened. "Blackbird" or something was reply. Grandfather quietly said to my Dad and me: "yep, there's definitely a hole in that blind now." Thank goodness it was plywood and above water.
 
Doesn't every range have idiots? Sometimes the range officers are idiots too

Unless you own enough land to shoot on or have a friend that does and will allow you access, it is what it is
 
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Ravenworks said:
My range is private and people are vetted.
No assholes period
Click to expand...
Not sure of vetting process, but this is a private range too. Hey, I recognized the skipping problem the first time I shot there a week after they opened it. I set my target up to be at about shoulder level on flat ground. Took it out...WTF....shot 2 rounds and was like...uhhhhhhh....I guess I'll have to practice mouse gun at 50 yards. Went into the office said..hey, you have a problem. You're going to have to make sure anybody shooting past 7 yards has at target at least 6 feet high. I was first person to spot this...so of course I knew there was a problem. For fucks sake. Hell, I see that problem on the main range too. People shooting 100 yard targets that sit about 2 feet high...and..you can see them skipping down the range (fortunately, not sloped).

They made range slope down so if one was like 15 yards, now all of a sudden the target was like 1 foot lower and by 50 yards the bullet would be skipping on the dirt. Too much slope, never seen a range with downward sloped pit, mistake IMO for this very reason.

What they need to do, is get the survey marks, do some basic trig based on slope of field/berm height...compute the MIN/MAX target height per X yards.
 
I could also add that as I walked away "Mr. Tikka" told me he wished the barrel was longer. I couldn't help but think...isn't that the POINT of a CTR?
 
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These are the bozo’s I have to deal with where I shoot.
FED9C91A-D2C0-4A5C-9980-492BE2816730.jpeg

not much into talking but definitely giving me the evil eye!
 
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I believe that some times when life is good the gods of luck send special assholes to fuck your day.... Just to even it all out.

If you look at that guy and his poor grasp of reality then imagine how much it sucks to be him, and his substandard put down of another is his desperate quest for a tidbit of meaning in a completely empty life.

Be kind don't let him see everyone sniggering behind his back. +2 points to you with St. Peter.
 
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diverdon said:
I believe that some times when life is good the gods of luck send special assholes to fuck your day.... Just to even it all out.

If you look at that guy and his poor grasp of reality then imagine how much it sucks to be him, and his substandard put down of another is his desperate quest for a tidbit of meaning in a completely empty life.

Be kind don't let him see everyone sniggering behind his back. +2 points to you with St. Peter.
Click to expand...
^^^nice person.

I say go to the parking lot and shit on his windshield.
 
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I'm kinda lucky, I'm retired. I go during the week and maybe two or three others during my time, show up. Sometimes, I have the place all to myself, for 6-8 hours and that's my best days. Mine is a club membership, so it keeps the riff-raff out. Mac
 
There are some disadvantages to living in Utah, but the open hilly desert makes the shooting good, and that makes up for it.
People suck. Make friends with someone who owns a ranch. That was the best option back in texas. And it allows you to spend more money on ammo.
 
This is a private range as well; but we've grown to about 375-425 members. Starting to almost be too many. I don't know if they are going to cap it at 1000 or not. Gotta pay for the building/land.
 
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The covid/political situation has made ranges worse. I used to go to a local indoor range and I'd know half the people there... we'd shoot each others firearms, help troubleshoot each others malfunctions and safety was never an issue.

Post covid, going to the range is almost scary. Every single time I've gone at least one person was swinging around a handgun behind the firing line with their finger on the trigger. Out of 18 lanes, two to three are down because someone blasted the shit out of them and you can see where bullets have been ricocheting off the walls. Sending a couple of boxes down range after work used to relieve a little stress. Now it stresses me out.

I can't wait until this bullshit is over.
 
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vinniedelpino said:
The covid/political situation has made ranges worse. I used to go to a local indoor range and I'd know half the people there... we'd shoot each others firearms, help troubleshoot each others malfunctions and safety was never an issue.

Post covid, going to the range is almost scary. Every single time I've gone at least one person was swinging around a handgun behind the firing line with their finger on the trigger. Out of 18 lanes, two to three are down because someone blasted the shit out of them and you can see where bullets have been ricocheting off the walls. Sending a couple of boxes down range after work used to relieve a little stress. Now it stresses me out.

I can't wait until this bullshit is over.
Click to expand...
Good point. All these new gun owners...great we have more folks on "our" side....so long as they don't cap our ass from negligence. Handguns are the worst...a newbie with a semi-auto is like...whoaaa nelly... turn up the head swivel cyclic rate...or leave. Men are worse by far than women on that front from my observation of the 1-2 women to whom I've taught basics.
 
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BytorJr said:
Good point. All these new gun owners...great we have more folks on "our" side....so long as they don't cap our ass from negligence. Handguns are the worst...a newbie with a semi-auto is like...whoaaa nelly... turn up the head swivel cyclic rate...or leave. Men are worse by far than women on that front from my observation of the 1-2 women to whom I've taught basics.
Click to expand...

Agreed about women being generally safer than men, but I don't know that some of these folks are on "our side." A few weeks back I saw not one, but two trannies that arrived separately.

One had calves like coconuts and lats like a gorilla. He looked like hulk hogan without the mustache and with longer hair. At a fit 5'11 and 175lbs there's no way I could have taken him.

Also lots of flat brimmed hats and squeaky clean shoes on the firing line. I do my best not to judge at first sight, but if were a betting man I'd say a lot of them voted for Biden.
 
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Hey. Wait. I wear beater loafers to range. Lol. Good point. Some are not on our side. Though I suspect my local problem is highly correlated to being an asshole or thinking they are some kind of operator in their mind.

it could have been hulks ex wife Linda 🤣🤣🤣
 
Public ranges are a shit magnet for mentally-ill people and assholes.

Last time I shot on a public range I was sighting a new AK in. There was hardly anyone on the rifle range and I made sure to get as far away from them on the firing line as I could. It wasn't long before a bunch of yahoos showed up and they had to set up next to me. I was shooting at a slow, deliberate pace and making adjustments on paper target at 50 yds. away from other clean targets. Of course it wasn't long before other holes started appearing in my target.

I told these dumfucks, "Target whatever is mine". The stupid clod shooting looked at me like I was speaking Swahili and finally said "Ok." I looked through my binos and the moron had put a round in most of the clean targets like it was a shooting gallery.

When I worked at a range, we assigned a shooter a clean numbered target that matched the numbered bench and shooting other clean targets cost .50.

Anyway, I packed my stuff up and left in disgust with a reinforced opinion of public ranges.
 
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We shoot and train on BLM land alot of the time.

Standard ROE is assume anyone you encounter out there is armed and up to no good unless proven otherwise. Works out well this way as, rule #1 is No new friends.
 
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vinniedelpino said:
The covid/political situation has made ranges worse. I used to go to a local indoor range and I'd know half the people there... we'd shoot each others firearms, help troubleshoot each others malfunctions and safety was never an issue.

Post covid, going to the range is almost scary. Every single time I've gone at least one person was swinging around a handgun behind the firing line with their finger on the trigger. Out of 18 lanes, two to three are down because someone blasted the shit out of them and you can see where bullets have been ricocheting off the walls. Sending a couple of boxes down range after work used to relieve a little stress. Now it stresses me out.

I can't wait until this bullshit is over.
Click to expand...
Hey Vinnie, did you ever check out coleman's creek?
 
Why?
The first guy... Is there a protocol for cease fire for target inspection/set up/take down? Why ask someone shooting? Range official should be in charge.
Second knucklehead....
Why would you stand there and have a back and forth with some idiot? "Go the fuck away!" And walk around them.
 
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Sniperwannabee said:
How many acres?
Click to expand...

Not nearly enough...

I have 28 acres of timber 25 minutes from my house that allows me to shoot a maximum of 200yd, but I've got a buddy's property also 25min away that I can stretch to 450-500yd and my parents have property 80 minutes away where I have a 650yd position.

"Privilege" or some shit...

Last time I was at a public range, I watched a stupid college-age kid have a hangfire on a Mosin and the dipshit looked down the barrel...and the round fired as he was pushing the muzzle away from his face, with the path of the bullet maybe 18" from his head. His buddy exclaimed "Holy shit man!" and I packed my shit and left, never to return.
 
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BytorJr said:
Proverbially speaking that is. Two days at the range...two days one complete ass and another person less than sympathetic about listening to logic.

1a) Me: "So, when do you think you all will go cold on range so I can set my targets up? Oh, right now, cool. Hey...how do you like your CTR."
1b) Answer: WHAT? What are YOU talking about?
1c) Me: "Your Compact Tactical Rifle there, the CTR."
1d) Answer: "Oh, I thought you just weren't smart enough to say Tikka."
1c) "To myself: Ok...so you're a complete dickhead who really should go find their own fucking range to play at so you can jerk your dick off between "loads."

2) I'm going to ask same question about range going cold even though technically I'm "in charge" of hot/cold. So I physically walk down the line go ask every person if they are ready to go cold for 5 minutes. Here comes somebody directly at me, following me like some kind of HARM missile. Ok, I stop.
a) Me: "Hey, how's it going?"

b) Answer: YOU are shooting over the berm, you've been doing that all day. YOU need to stop.

c) Me: "Really? I've just gotten here, put four rounds down, changed rifles, and may have put another 12 down range."

d) Answer: Maybe so, that's what YOU say, but you're shooting over the berm.

e) Me: "No, I don't think so, I've only been shooting for maybe 20 minutes tops. Just really got here. Besides I see all the holes (16 of them) in my paper from each shot."

f) Answer "Just because you're hitting paper doesn't mean you're not shooting over the berm."

g) Me: "That's correct if your target is mounted too low they'll skip; however, I know for a fact none of my bullets are skipping before the berm."

h) Answer: "Well, YOU KNOW that paper doesn't mean you're hitting at the berm, you have to have the berm behind the sights too."

i) Me: "Yes, I know that, but I guarantee none of my bullets are skipping off the ground over the berm, I GUARANTEE it. I think he finally grasps that I'm about ready to tell him to fuck off. Then he says..well, they can bounce off the berm too, maybe that's what happened.

i) Me: still about to unload my potty mouth, thought the better of it, and said something to the effect of "well, thanks for telling me, I'll go look and see." So, he leaves, I call range cold, go look at my target now half way between bench & berm (before it was at berm), note all rounds in paper, then march down the line of sight of bullet...not a single mark in the wet clay, nothing, not directly in LOS, not 5 nor 10 yards to either side. No way in FUCK that was me unless they were skipping off something on the berm.

I should have asked him to show me how I was shooting over the berm with no marks in wet mud/clay and all holes in target (and I had the empty brass already collected) with obvious caliber change . I mention this later back at the range facility with folks around; and then I get the blame again that it was me...without anybody knowing WHEN or what I was shooting, how long I was shooting, what station I was shooting, etc. All because I brought up the fact that somebody confronted me rather aggressively to start with accusing me of this. I even said they could go look for themselves to see there are no bullet marks in the wet clay before berm. Which then was responded to by some fat fuck that I was hitting my wood stanchion (wood poles) or the metal stand. I have my own, made out of PVC to hold 1x2's, holding targets up. My brain was like "Ok MF's...come to my truck...look at my wood poles & my stand...not a bullet hole in them."

Nobody was taking into account the other long rifle bay right next to them has steel which some idiots shoot at obtuse angles, it could have been coming back over the other way or to their side. There were also newbies training on pistol where I was; which while they were supervised, who knows where shit was going.

One or two more of these incidents and I'm asking for my range money back and finding another place to shoot. Correct course of action is member go to range office, make complaint, range owner/manager comes and has discussion. Hence why I really try to not shoot on weekends; but they've started renting out part of the range on occasion (kinda violates what I call a private range).

Just curious...anybody else have assholes at their range?
Click to expand...

I am assuming that this is a public range? There are fucking morons everywhere but they mostly congregate at public ranges.

I don't have any trouble at the two ranges I frequent. Often times you see it at the qualification stage. Everyone has to qualify to use the outdoor range. If they are doing something stupid...they need to repeat it the following month. Works wonders.

Post qualification is another matter. It rarely happens except when someone don't know me. However, they only do it once and usually will get put in their place very quickly. I don't use profanity either....no need to as they usually can't shoot and you can ridicule them quite easily. If that don't work or they are stupid, I show them my RSO badge and tell them to knock it off or they will be shooting elsewhere from that point forward.

Moronic behavior or loss of control/perspective and guns goes against my grain.
 
got into it with a pistol range RO

indoors, basement, nice metal baffles the whole nine

range is 20-30 yards, what ever is needed for small bore competitions they host

range was empty, i wanted to shoot 5 yards sighting in my new sigp220

i hang the target send it out a few yards

start shooting

guy has a heart attack saying that i have to put the target at least half way and walk out on the range (or course only when its empty)

reason being that i will skip rounds off the ground and wreck the roof etc

of course i said thats impossible , he started to bitch at me

i asked how am i going to shoot the ground if the target is hanging about chest level

starts showing me all the strays...i say because guys cant shoot for shit not my problem

still gets on my ass, so now im just frustrated in general

i take out my little 45 laser and stuff it in chamber, and give the pistol a little wiggle from on paper to on the backstop

magically my red dot his down range where it should be

i asked him unless the bullet drops 5' from my target to the backstop how in the fuck am i shooting the ground, packed up and left
 
Just smile at them and say .."Yes sir , thanks for letting me know" Smile again with a fuck you stare and walk away
They will FEEL validated in their power but confused at the same time.
 
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Fuck all that shit. I stopped going to public ranges years ago for all these same reasons. Only acceptable shooting location for me is the middle of the desert
 
I would not have known what a CTR is either. Maybe if I had one I would know.
I would not have answered like your friend did, other than to say, "What do you mean?"
Hell I don't know what most of these abbreviations in common use today are nor a lot of shortening of words used in texting mean. I must be retarded.
 
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Nik H said:
I am assuming that this is a public range? There are fucking morons everywhere but they mostly congregate at public ranges.

I don't have any trouble at the two ranges I frequent. Often times you see it at the qualification stage. Everyone has to qualify to use the outdoor range. If they are doing something stupid...they need to repeat it the following month. Works wonders.

Post qualification is another matter. It rarely happens except when someone don't know me. However, they only do it once and usually will get put in their place very quickly. I don't use profanity either....no need to as they usually can't shoot and you can ridicule them quite easily. If that don't work or they are stupid, I show them my RSO badge and tell them to knock it off or they will be shooting elsewhere from that point forward.

Moronic behavior or loss of control/perspective and guns goes against my grain.
Click to expand...
Nope, member's only "private" range. No on-sight RSO. You get a key fob to get through gate, all on video as well; so from that aspect it's pretty tight. Like I was saying, fortunately I have met at least one guy who seems more interested in learning even more than he knows now, has a variety of guns he fiddles with, and is overall a hell of a nice guy.

Others, don't seem to have the skill set but are nice folks or have it and are not interested in anybody but themselves. Kinda like I said...just a few bad apples spoils it.
 
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BytorJr said:
This is a private range as well; but we've grown to about 375-425 members. Starting to almost be too many. I don't know if they are going to cap it at 1000 or not. Gotta pay for the building/land.
Click to expand...

Alas, Fudd is at every range. Somewhere. Lurking. In my experience, it depends on range/club and what it's primary focus is. Around here, some (we'll call is Club "A") are focused on clays and have a small rifle range that essentially exists for the sole purpose of sighting in a deer rifle once a year. Fudd will show up, put 5-10 rounds down range, pack up, and you'll never see him again until the next fall. You don't go to this range to have any kind of fun. Fudd will see to it that you don't. But Fudd pays the same dues I do, so he subsidizes the people who show up regularly, so we accept Fudd and gladly take his money. The downside is that we have to have rules in place to pacify him, and for the general safety of others who don't shoot very often. Lots of people will tell you they are "comfortable" around guns. I'm comfortable around women - that doesn't mean I'm any good with them.

Club "B" is a tactical range. Fudd doesn't show up here. His mentality is out of place. He doesn't understand a breaching door, doesn't own an EBR, and never shoots past 100 yards. The dues here are higher - we don't need his money. As mentioned, we have to pay for the land and supplies. The member ship is limited and members police each other. You know what you're getting here. There are no pretenses.

I was on the board of club "A" for a while - I shoot a lot of clays. Its a fascinating experience - I recommend it to anyone who has the time. Once you know how the sausage is made, you'll never look at it the same way again. We have over 1500 members right now - it sounds like a lot, and if they all actually showed up, it would be. But they don't - statistically we learned that out of those 1500 members, between 200-250 show up regularly. The rest you almost never see. We can further divide them into sub categories:

1) The "Fudds" mentioned above. Show up once a year to sight in a hunting rifle. Then he's gone. Maybe comes to a membership meeting once a year or so. Doesn't use any other club facilities. These people are easy money and help drive down shooting costs for the rest of us. Usually nice guys, but old fashioned and sometimes judgmental. Most of them also represent a generation that current generations can learn a lot from, so we treat them with all due respect.

2) New pistol owners. We have a very nice indoor pistol range. These guys join with the best intentions. They show up regularly for a few weeks - maybe a couple of months, and then disappear. They quickly realize that while GUNS are cool, SHOOTING is expensive and time consuming. This is also where you get the occasional idiot. Bullet holes in places you cannot fathom. We found an empty liquor bottle in the junk brass bin. Cameras are your friend - it was resolved quickly.

3) The holiday "bumpers": We get a boost every year from right after Christmas and maybe 2-3 weeks into the new year. People get a new toy for Christmas, become obsessed with it, shoot the hell out of it for a few weeks, but then fall back into the reality that, once again, shooting is expensive and time consuming.

This year is, of course, and anomaly. They dynamics have changed, but there are waiting lists at both clubs so it's still somewhat selective. We try to weed out the idiots. Occasionally we fail. Still, the numbers suggests that less than 20% of members actually use Club "A" consistently; the other 80% keep it financially solvent. Don't worry about the overall numbers until you break them down.
 
My local to me (10 minutes away) range just reopened Friday after being closed for renovations the last 3 years. Only 100 yards max, but it's convenient for quick load testing or taking the kids plinking. Anyway, I went opening day and after 15 minutes I already regretted it. I needed to re-zero a rifle and zero a rimfire for a match on Saturday. I think I was at the firing line 45 minutes before firing the first shot because one guys target backer kept falling off and he had to go put it back up. Another guy didn't contact everyone shooting for a cold range and started heading down while a dude was still shooting, which caused a lot of arguing. Then there's the folks who set up targets, shoot 4 rounds, then call another cease fire to go collect their target so they can leave. o_O🤦‍♂️ Then we start shooting again for 2 minutes and a new shooter shows up and immediately asks for another cease fire to hang targets.

I had joined a private club in the intervening 3 years this place was closed, that is 35 minute drive from me. I'll just keep driving the extra 25 minutes to do load testing etc. The two 1,000+ yard ranges are 2 hours which isn't terrible. But yeah, no more public ranges!
 
thestumper said:
Alas, Fudd is at every range. Somewhere. Lurking. In my experience, it depends on range/club and what it's primary focus is. Around here, some (we'll call is Club "A") are focused on clays and have a small rifle range that essentially exists for the sole purpose of sighting in a deer rifle once a year. Fudd will show up, put 5-10 rounds down range, pack up, and you'll never see him again until the next fall. You don't go to this range to have any kind of fun. Fudd will see to it that you don't. But Fudd pays the same dues I do, so he subsidizes the people who show up regularly, so we accept Fudd and gladly take his money. The downside is that we have to have rules in place to pacify him, and for the general safety of others who don't shoot very often. Lots of people will tell you they are "comfortable" around guns. I'm comfortable around women - that doesn't mean I'm any good with them.

Club "B" is a tactical range. Fudd doesn't show up here. His mentality is out of place. He doesn't understand a breaching door, doesn't own an EBR, and never shoots past 100 yards. The dues here are higher - we don't need his money. As mentioned, we have to pay for the land and supplies. The member ship is limited and members police each other. You know what you're getting here. There are no pretenses.

I was on the board of club "A" for a while - I shoot a lot of clays. Its a fascinating experience - I recommend it to anyone who has the time. Once you know how the sausage is made, you'll never look at it the same way again. We have over 1500 members right now - it sounds like a lot, and if they all actually showed up, it would be. But they don't - statistically we learned that out of those 1500 members, between 200-250 show up regularly. The rest you almost never see. We can further divide them into sub categories:

1) The "Fudds" mentioned above. Show up once a year to sight in a hunting rifle. Then he's gone. Maybe comes to a membership meeting once a year or so. Doesn't use any other club facilities. These people are easy money and help drive down shooting costs for the rest of us. Usually nice guys, but old fashioned and sometimes judgmental. Most of them also represent a generation that current generations can learn a lot from, so we treat them with all due respect.

2) New pistol owners. We have a very nice indoor pistol range. These guys join with the best intentions. They show up regularly for a few weeks - maybe a couple of months, and then disappear. They quickly realize that while GUNS are cool, SHOOTING is expensive and time consuming. This is also where you get the occasional idiot. Bullet holes in places you cannot fathom. We found an empty liquor bottle in the junk brass bin. Cameras are your friend - it was resolved quickly.

3) The holiday "bumpers": We get a boost every year from right after Christmas and maybe 2-3 weeks into the new year. People get a new toy for Christmas, become obsessed with it, shoot the hell out of it for a few weeks, but then fall back into the reality that, once again, shooting is expensive and time consuming.

This year is, of course, and anomaly. They dynamics have changed, but there are waiting lists at both clubs so it's still somewhat selective. We try to weed out the idiots. Occasionally we fail. Still, the numbers suggests that less than 20% of members actually use Club "A" consistently; the other 80% keep it financially solvent. Don't worry about the overall numbers until you break them down.
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Nice analysis.

Conceptually I like the range...a lot; but, I'm always perplexed how people interact with people. Since I did a fair amount of racetrack events, most folks mil about between sessions and talk to their fellow participants. Either trying to figure out what they should modify on their car next, what a better line is, just bullshitting to kill time, have some snacks, whatever. A few people, usually either the newbie already on full slicks at first track event or the uber rich dude in this GT3 (again first time out) with his Porsche dealer mechanics, generally are assholes.

So, it's the same game, just seems because of the location I'm in, a lot of people think they know a LOT more than they do. I don't expect nor want a lot of talking on the line; but when it's cold and you notice something you're interested in acquiring, there should be no smart ass dickhead answer coming back at you. But what really pissed me off more, at least about the range, is the implied "you don't know where your bullets are going" bullshit.
 
We had the usual stolen valor heroes on an outdoor range I shot on. We also had some real deal active and retired operators. One was a well known retired Army Col. and Delta Force commander who was in charge of Operation Eagle Claw, the 1980 raid to free American hostages in Tehran during the Carter Administration.

There was also some flat footed, chinless endomorph that wore Coke bottle glasses who routinely shot on the range that claimed he took part in that raid.

One day, both the Green Beret Col. and fatbody were both shooting on the range at the same time and we asked the Col. if J.R. was on his team. He said "Whaaat? I've never seen that boy in my life."

We went over and asked the SF sniper if he was going to go over and talk to his former commander. He quickly packed up his shit and unassed the area. We always laughed that it was OPSEC that he pretended to not know the Col. to keep from blowing their Black Ops cover.
 
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