Observations from local Sighting InDays

[Elric]

Finally worked line safety at the local rifle club. For it seems forever my Dad would get his zeroing done a few weeks before deer season... Anyways, most folks are sensible with weapons handling, didn't see much of anything that was dangerous.

The biggest problem was folks not using the sand bags correctly. About a third didn't use a rear bag under the buttstock at all, some had their barrel or mag tube on the bag, and the seats were sometimes too high, so they would stack four sand bags on the wood stand. That made supporting the buttstock very difficult. And... the darned forend swivel was still connected...

I had one young man, "group" was ten inches wide... Dropped the seat, supported the buttstock, dropped the front swivel, adjusted the front sandbags, and waa-laa, inch and a half... Hardest part for me was taking care of those very simple issues, which I hadn't done in over twenty years, so I wasn't looking for them... Overall, not bad. A few folks CAN shoot with just the front stand plus a sand bag or two, and NO rear bags.

If folks would use the swivel attatchment where the "T" actually fits inside the stock, there would be a lot less difficulty...

 

[Elric]

Ooops, wrong button, long day 0700-1600....

 

[david s]

I belong to a shooting range that has a member side and a 200 yard public side. It also has an on residents maintenance-care taker/rule enforcer who gets a poor rap for enforcing the rules. There are 20 to 25 bench's on the public side and a shot gun area. Pistols are shot on the rifle range. Beginning around September thru the end of October things begin to get crazy on both sides of the range. The private side has four different rifle bench ranges from 100 yards to 500 plus and a couple of pistol bays. So the craziness gets spread out. On the public side look out it's all bench's full. Muzzle control is an alien concept and that's with long guns, hand guns are a Holly Bleep situation. And forget the posted rules about no handling of weapons when people are down range and the flags are back. When people are down range that's when you adjust your scope, practice loading/unloading, mount and remount your scope, clean your rifles, if it involves handling your gun then do it when 40 to 60 people are down range checking there targets. The poor care taker suddenly is the range master telling some one for the tenth time to put there weapon down. Two months in and the care taker is looking more than just a little frayed around the edges and now has a reputation as an elbow for telling you not to shoot someone. By late October he can be a little gruff with people but I couldn't do it. Mister Elric you have more patience and a better disposition than I will ever have. I'd run away scared.

 

[462]

The local range is located on county property and run by the county, and is open Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday. My range sessions are first thing Monday mornings, primarily because Saturdays and Sundays have a tendency to be populated by those who, by all outward appearances, are gangbangers. Or wannabes.
The range master and safety officer do a very good job of watching for safety violations, and are on malfunctions quickly. Still, I'm not comfortable that those gangbangers know anything about firearms safety, let alone practice it.

Oh, then, there was the incident of a one-armed guy who shot himself in the chest while in the process of loading his auto-loading .22 RF.

 

[fiver]

man.
my worst day at the range is when someone has 'my bench' and I have to wait for it or use another one just like it next to it.

 

[Elric]

I ran a Basic Rifle Marksmanship company in my murky past... Everything from Basic recruits to 30 year vets...

My club has adapted military range procedures as sensible. First, Sighting In Days are maybe three weekends, plus the last Wednesday before deer season. The guests come in and park. They then are met by parking lot greeters that rod their weapons, they are told muzzles up, and they walk to the main clubhouse. Their ammo is verified to be correct for their gun(s) (say 308 for 308, but NOT for 30-06), there is a gunsmith with tools to handle scope / sight tweaking, bore sighting, check action screws, and other items as the guest mentions. Simple stuff, no action jobs, trigger slicking...

Each bench has three sandbags and a wood front rest (to stack one or two bags on). Gun racks are to the rear of the benches, just off the concrete. Unused guns are always placed on the rack. All range personnel come in an hour early to set up the benches and put up roughly 250 targets (I know 100yd range has 42 sets of targets, three high, 126 total).

The guests are released from the clubhouse, then walk maybe 25 yards to the main range entrance, issued ear pro and eye pro if needed, and wait in the range shack (about 9'x16') until assigned to a line safety. Line safety asks where they need to start, 25, 50 or 100 yards. Once on a point, the guest doesn't have to pull targets, all shots are spotted with range scopes and plotted on target boards on each bench. Low tech and simple. If the guest starts out at 50, it's a simple thing to open the action and (with weapon up) walk to a bench at 100, set up, and zero.

Yes, there is an RSO. He watches stuff... he didn't have to sort anything out today, other than rotating range personnel to chow, and shutting the range down while range personnel put up new targets over the old ones.

As I always said, "Nobody hurt, nobody went to jail, we all go home. Successful AT". If guests want to zero on other than range days, any member can sign them in, a small fee (insurance purposes), and the guest can shoot, the clubmember is responsible for the guest following the rules...

Oh, today we had about 200 folks run through and zero. Not as many as a well run qual range, but it was a good fit to the number of range personnel.

Plus the Pack played today. If you consider it play.

 

[Elric]

Almost forgot, a young man, maybe 15 (?) was using a lever action 44 Mag with open sights (rear sight on barrel!)... After he got the front sling swivel off so he could rest the forend on the front sandbags, he put his last two shots just under the bull in the green (he was holding on bottom of bulls eye!).

It has been a LOOONG time since my eyes were that sharp...

 

[david s]

My range is state lands run by the Fish Wildlife and Parks. The private side cost 35 or 40 dollars a year I cant remember, what ever it is my mental health is worth it. The private side range is open all week long but during the summer some or all the ranges can be closed (the 1000 yard range shoots over all the rest of the ranges) on the weekends depending on what competitions are being held. The public side is open Wen-Sun and cost 5 dollars. It's suppose to be self regulating, no range officer. The roof over the bench's are supported by 4X4 post. And on each post by each bench is a list of the range rules. There are fewer rules than you would find on a ladder. The rules break down is pretty simple. By each bench is a red flag, if any flag is rocked forward and visible range is hot. All flags back and not visible range is cold and don't touch the firearms. To complicated. It takes about ten individual rules to spell this out in a legal manner but that's the gist of it. Where I work there are four of us who are pretty serious about shooting/hunting and then a couple dozen people who are weekend hunters. A week before general rifle season opens everyone from work goes to the range and sights in. This is done on the public side and for lack of a better term the four serious shooters host the others. This isn't by design or invitation it's just that the four serious shooters have front and rear rest, spotting scopes, bore sights and the most amazing tool of all staplers with staples. As a rule things go well doesn't mean it cant be scary though. The worst are the ones (age doesn't matter here) who are convinced they know what there doing but dont have a clue. Right up there with them are people like me who should know what there doing but hit auto pilot. We can get righteously indignant if you catch us doing wrong. The ones that make mistakes and take it as a lesson are okay as long as they dont keep making the same mistake over and over. The novelty of there muzzle wears off pretty quick. As a rule there an earnest group who want to confirm there sights and go hunting I dont really enjoy it though.

 

[david s]

When I'm at the range I actually consider it relaxing normally, try explaining that to an anti gunner.

 

[Bret4207]

After reading through all this, I now recall one of the main reasons I own a 342 acre farm. You guys are tougher than I am.

 

[dale2242]

"my bench". Now that`s funny Lamar.
Are you really that anal?
I know what you mean.
I don`t have "my bench" but I do prefer the east end of the firing line...dale

 

[fiver]

not that anal [shrug] but it's near the door I park at, my gear is set for the seat/bench height, and I did glue down the seat cushion and carpet on it.
I also leveled out the spot where my chronograph sits, and added brackets near the window to cool my rifles down.

it isn't mine since it's the 'caribou county shooting range' I have the whole place to myself often enough, but when the other club members are there they have their 'own' bench too.

 

[Ian]

I'm with Bret, except I own considerably less land. It's primo real estate though, appraised this year at $26,200 per acre, so you could say my range fees total about $2600 per year because that's what my property taxes currently amount to. If the range owner would quit having kids and adding on to his house he'd have time and money to finish the shooting shack.

 

[Bret4207]

I don't even want to think that way Ian. About $6K..........

 

[462]

Ian said, "If the range owner would quit having kids and adding on to his house he'd have time and money to finish the shooting."

But in the long run which will give you the most satisfaction?

 

[popper]

$2600 per year you get off easy, try 4600$ for a city lot. I detest going to the range on weekends. 10-12 on weekdays isn't too bad. 50 at the line and who know what gets shot next to you. There is more variety of guns though and some will even stop and chit chat. Around hunting season is worst.

 

[Ian]

My taxes doubled this year. Property went up 248%. Got a letter last week saying "you have a fence, locked gate, and 'no trespassing' signs so we couldn't snoop to see how many more square inches we can find to nail you for next year, so please contact us so we can meet and you give us the grand tour". I'm thinking about faxing them a copy of the bird. Yes, that kind of bird. Or maybe a moon....

 

[fiver]

I'm good with the 20$ a year voluntary membership fee thanks.
y'all can keep your ridiculous property tax bills too, I thought I was getting hosed paying 800 a year for 40 acres in Utah.

 

[L Ross]

Before I retired from full time work, my wife and I decided to have our home and recreational property all in one, to limit wasted travel time, and the inherent risks associated with that. Friends who lived in the Driftless Area of WI showed us around and recommended a realtor who we hired to serve as a buyer's broker. We gave her a list of 25 desirable characteristics in our future piece of property. One of which was topography suitable for safely shooting in multiple directions and the same topography would limit encroachment by future land owners. Minimum size of 80 acres. As a result, I have three personal ranges, 80 yards bermed, 210 yards with a 250 ft. high hill behind it, and a fully functional 200 yard .22 BPCR silhouette range with 7 gauge steel backers painted white behind the target rails again protected by hills. Property taxes suck at about 4k per year, but I did work part time for the County Sheriff's Dept. for 12 going on 13 years and those wages ameliorated the angst of paying in.
There is even an old garage with one side facing the 80 yd. berm that I put a tilt out window in and a shelf/bench I can shoot from standing up. As I age and will turn to shooting as a more sedate hobby I envision tearing down the old garage and putting up a new shooting shack/reloading building. The only thing wrong with public ranges is some of the public.

 

[Rally]

It's always struck me as odd, that the cities with rundown homes/ blocks, come up with programs to get houses back on the tax roles. As soon as a new homeowner cleans the place up, they double or quadruple the taxes. Doesn't seem like a good long range plan to me. Occupants of crack houses don't pay any taxes.