Shooting Range Etiquette

[uncle buck]

  I am sure we all can tell some good stories about what we have experienced at a public and or club shooting range..

Maybe by posting a few things we have seen it might make people that do this have more "Shooting Range Etiquette".

I remember I was at one of the Public ranges. Gee that was the last time I went there too...Guy was having his boy mark where his 22 bullets were hitting. The grown up was shooting 25 yards...The boy was right next to the target as the guy fired..The boy would circle the hit and the grown up would adjust the scope..The grown up would shoot again and then the boy circled the target hit with marker as he stood not three feet from the target the grown up was shooting at...I still have Post Traumatic Stress Disorder from seeing that kid stand there and his father or grandfather firing away as the kid stood three feet to the side of the target..

Please! two days before deer season people will be shooting their deer rifles in and walking back and forth to the targets to check the zero's. Please that is the time to leave the M16's and M1 Garand Rifles at home. People firing for effect when 999 other people are trying to sight in their deer rifles..

Lastly when shooting at the 25 yard range...Please do not walk behind the table and shoot your hand gun while I am sitting right next to you an am about 4 to 5 feet in front of you while your firing.. Oh I know you really want to shoot 29 yards instead of 25 yards no matter I am feeling your blast and wow who knows what may come out the side of your semiautomatic hand guns and kill me.

Thats why I have always said: Not All Men Are Created Equal!" 

[scott]

did not happen to me but if it did, someone would have been missing a gun.   a buddy a mine took his kid out to shoot, they get to the 100 yard range and there is one guy there, they ask if it is ok that they go down and set up a target the guy said sure, so they get down to the target and start stapeling and the guy takes a shot at his target next to where my buddy and his kid were stapeling.  i would have gone to jail but i would have taken his gun off of him at gunpoint if it came down to it. 

[Pa Goosehntr]

UB,

          "Common Sense is Not Common to everyone"    They have a hard time realizing that once the trigger is pulled they can't pull that bullet back!!

[uncle buck]

Saw this info on another hunting site....For you people who use the PGC range just off of RT 118 near Sweet Valley, Pa:
Comments by the person is in bold letters below:
 
I also tried the one off Rt 118 but didn't feel comfortable there after hearing theft reports. The shooting stations are near the road. A car pulled up while people were checking targets and they grabbed an armload of rifles and took off

[furbug]

 Purchase a portable bench, and construct a portable target, and find a nice quiet place to enjoy yourself while shooting. Many are going that route. And
I can not say I fault them.

[bigben]

I still like the people who show with their decked out ar's and ak's and empty two full banna clips at someone elses target then leave quick before the wco shows up. 

When i shoot at the carlisle range i take a buddy.  One checks targets and the other watchs the rifles.

[Critterslayer51]

I shoot at a private club, and dont' really have to worry about my rifle leaving, because it goes over my shoulder when I walk to the target when i'm alone. But i've got a story or two about a public range at a gamelands near my brothers college in Indiana, PA.

The ranges are open during deer season on all public ranges at pa game lands, which is the most stupid crap i've ever heard of. Just invites people that the locals say are there every year during the season at 3:30 pm to shoot clip after clip...animal rights activists. Which at first, I was like comon guys, animal rights ppl? with guns? Probably some kid blastin off a semi auto hand gun, or some guy rippin off a clip in his AR. Turns out, 2 seasons i've hunted in the same area, never fails from 330-430pm guns are blastin non-stop. I have no idea how they do not run out of ammo. The scary part is, unless they're really bad shots, the mats are held up with steal pipe, which are hung effectively pretty low from the pipe. Somehow these guys are hitting this pipe and having bullets flying into the woods, directly behind the range. I know this because I hunt the ridge right above the range and watch and hear the bullets bouncing off pipe and then trees. It's a little scary. Why have the range open during deer season? If you didn't shoot your rifle by then too bad imo. Funny thing is, they're emptying clip after clip, and the deer walk right behind the range and right up to me. If I wasn't scared of gettin popped be accident walking up to the range, i'd drag that dead deer right out in front of them with a grin, "hey thanks for all the shooting, this one ran right up to me"

[uncle buck]

My 11:00 PM local news just reported that someone was murdered at one of the PGC ranges in Cumberland County...
Name was not released yet.  Media said that last week someone also stole someones gun at this particular range...

[bigben]

yeah I read it.  I allways worried myself going to the game commision ranges up there with the filth that comes in there emptyin their ak 47 30 rd clips and then leaving.  not careing what they shoot at and what is going on around them.   

http://www.cumberlink.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/article_495dc3ac-94f5-11df-af9f-001cc4c002e0.html

definately going there locked and loaded carrying my handgun.  who knows though this incident there might not have been enough time to defend ones self.  I normally go with a partner and I am allways aware of who is around me when at that range.  might have to donate some money to carlisle F+G and use their range from now on. 

[uncle buck]

yep I might get upset when there are a lot of people shooting at my club...Mechanicsburg but things like this make you see things in a different perspective.  I do hunt that area at night at the PGL in question.  Of course never alone.

[bigben]

I am not too worried about hunting it at night.  the creeps from the city dont come out to the country in the dark.  their afraid of squirrels and rabbits and such.  its the ones during the daytime that worry me.  of course that doesnt mean there isnt some crazy in the back woods of cumberland county.

[uncle buck]

You got that right Ben about the people of the mountain being nuts.  I was hunting anterless deer right on the edge of the PGL by the pistol range... I was approached by a gun totting guy who said he owned the land next the the PGL.. Told me he was keeping an eye on people  who might hunt on his land more then hunting anterless deer himself..  Kind of a wise guy... Also they got that crazed look in their eye too. kind of showed up and started saying things when I was not even on the private land...However the way he was holding the gun and warning me all at the same time...Never hunted anterless deer there again.  Ben ....it probably was      J u n i o r    M o u n t s? They lived close by for sure..

[foxpro51]

yea, a lot of those guys post land they don't own.

[uncle buck]

I have been following the post over at the pa web site about the shooting at the PGL range in Cumberland county.
The guy was a lawyer. His AR was also taken. I hope they catch this person who shot him soon.
Also talk about cold blooded murder? Yep they need to give this guy the death sentence for sure..
Also a few people commenting on how people come out of the brush there and take your gun and run.
Just a heads up for members.. Be careful first of all at all ranges and might be better to take your gun
with you or only check the target with a spotting scope. 

[uncle buck]

http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2010/07/prime_suspect_in_custody_in_en.html