Hi Gals  Somewhat new here (I'm a lurker since future hubby showed me the site), but am off for the day and had an experience yesterday that made my ears turn red... tell me I'm not alone:

Took my new G26-picked out/purchased-all by myself-keep it at MY house-only 100 rounds through it-first pistol I've ever owned gun to the new range. These trips require a bit of planning around kids schedules, range hours, homework, etc.
I also keep the pistol hidden well with a cable lock, and have the keys in different locations. I generally don't even have ammo for it in the house. Yet. Still in the process of setting up to carry this one.
ANYWAY...
We get to the range (complete with the requisite quartet of males), I check in correctly, take off the baggy (hot brass-trapping) warm clothing (it's cold here), open my case again and notice the red cable lock...
And I don't have my keys.

My WONDERFUL hubby-to-be simply walks up to the range dudes, asks if I can shoot his carry piece instead, escorts me into the range room and says "have fun, it's hot" and leaves me his piece. No "Really! You've got to be kidding me!" No eye rolls, nothing. He is a treasure, I tell you. I proceeded to hit my targets at 5 to 20 yards and was happy with the 100 rounds.

But i was slightly mortified. I'm used to going to his range, where we have a sort of ritual we go through when getting ready to go, and he has a gun safe so no cables or trigger locks to worry about...

Sooo.... any of YOU have any embarrassing gun stories to share??

As we were leaving, my fiance tells me he once drove an hour to go coyote hunting at 4 am and when he arrived he realized he didn't have the key for his trigger lock on his shotgun...

I've been happy to sit on the sidelines and try and keep up with you gals on this forum. Not a lot of time on my hands (THAT story later), but hope to be contributing a bit more in the future!!

First off, welcome to the board. The G-26 is a great pistol (And my EDC). You may want to look into one of the bio metric locking pistol boxes as they are secure, but easy for you to access. I had a locking pistol box when my kids were little, but it used a key and never felt 100% comfortable with it.

As for forgetting stuff, I have forgotten ammo and spotting scopes on a couple of my range trips. But, living about a 1/4 mile from the National Forest where I go shooting, a trip back to the hacienda is not too long. The local formal range is about 20 minutes away, so again, a trip back home is not too bad.

What pistol did you end up shooting at your range?

ETA: Oops, I just noticed this was in the Women's shooters forum....hope you don't mind!

I don't mind. Equal opportunity conversationalist

I've got a lock box, but as this is the first gun I've ever had in my household, i'm still working on location and methods of storage...

I can't carry at work, or most of the places I go (three kids in school activities), so the "carry all the time" thing is a bit difficult to apply in my situation.

The man carries a G19, I believe. I usually shoot either a 17 or 19 for USPSA, but the numbers really didn't make a difference to me until I needed to carry while doing horse chores.  Small women doing chores alone in the dark with mountain lions tend to need to carry bigger sticks than just a baseball bat.  The 19 I tried carrying also had a light, and was just entirely too much bulk. Would do in a pinch, but I'm also a runner, and it just wasn't going to work for me. I'd shot a few ruger's and some other smaller pistols, but they felt like they would jump out of my hand.  The G26 I testfired at the range felt good, and my groups were all very nice even out to distance.

I still need to work on which grip adapter I am most comfortable with, and would like pinky extensions on my 26, but as my kydex AIWB holster is still on backorder, I guess there's no hurry

What's up Doc! Welcome from a fellow newb.  I was taking a defensive course in some acclimate weather a while back and we were running a drill where we had to start seated in a vehicle, shoot through the windshield, exit the vehicle and run around to the rear and take cover.  Well, between the moisture and the fact that the course was on loose gravel, and my overall lack of coordination, I slipped AND muzzle swept the guy behind me.  It was not only really humiliating, but wayyyy dangerous too.  I was one of the only female shooters so I was all amped up which led to a careless, stupid mistake.  It taught me a huge lesson though.  Every single movement matters.  

i guess im still relatively new here.

i shoot a lot. im at the range just about every weekend attending some match or the other. im an ro as well, so i tend to get sidetracked when im gearing up. ive gone up for a couple of stages and drawn after the buzzer only to realize that my pistol wont fire because ive forgotten to load it. mags were just sitting on my belt.

and then theres all the scars from awkward brass burns

When I was young I begged my dad to take me hunting with him.  Finally he decided I was old enough (around 10 if I remember correctly) he took me to go get my first deer tag, orange vest and hat and told me to put the stuff away until the next morning when we were going to go.  He had already taught me how to shoot and had drilled gun safety into my head.  The next morning I was so excited that I was finally going deer hunting that I gathered up my stuff as fast as I could.  My dad asked if I had everything and I told him I did.  He asked if I was sure and I said that I was.  We got in the truck and drove quite always out to where we were going to hunt as the sun was just rising and we watched the biggest buck I had ever seen drinking at the lakeshore but I had been building a bad feeling in my stomach half the way there.  I kept thinking I had forgot something and sure enough, I checked all my pockets but no deer tag.  After all the begging I had done and telling my dad I was responsible enough to go with him, I had done something so stupid it made me sick to my stomach.  The worst part was telling him as prime hunting time was minutes away that I had forgot my tag after telling him I was ready and sure I had everything twice.  

I told him and he was understandably angry with me and lectured me all the way home about being irresponsible.  I felt the dumbest I had ever felt and far harder on myself than my dad was.  I fully expected for him to make me stay home while he went out hunting by himself or just not go back out at all but he looked down at me and asked if I was sure I had everything this time, I told him I did and he said to get in the truck.  I still felt like an idiot but he never said anything about it after that and I got to go on my first hunt.  We never saw a deer on our second trip out that day but I learned a huge lesson about responsibility that day.  We got to hunt another couple days but didn't get a deer but it didn't matter to me, it was an adventure with a life lesson added as a bonus.  Dad didn't have time to go hunting the next couple seasons and he died that third year after our hunt.  He was my best friend and my hero and I really felt bad that I let him down that morning but now that I'm an adult I know he was likely far more pleased that I learned such a valuable lesson far more than getting a deer.  It's a lesson that has served me well my entire life so it was definitely worth it.

Very satisfied with Pearce PG39's on my G26.

Good Luck

My buddy and I packed food, cooler, radio, tackle, etc. in my little rowboat once.  Once we got out in the water we noticed we had forgotten our fishing poles.

I gathered everything to go shoot... Got to range and no ear protection. Used spent brass shoved in my ears. Since then I shove ear plugs in all my ar grips and in all my cases that I normally take shooting.

I once took a date to my range as kind of a "here's something fun we can do together on a Sunday" thing.  I'd been a member there for a year, but my date had never been (in fact, I'd never taken anyone there).  So, I leave my guy in the shop and run to the restroom (for like, five minutes at most).  I come back out and my date is lurking outside the restroom door.  He hands me my bag and says, "I thought you said your dad was dead--that guy behind the counter just told me if I tried anything funny with you he'd put two in my chest and one in my head."  

He never called again--probably unrelated.

I to once forgot about the cable lock took it up to the counter and we cut it off 2min and done.  I have also frogotten mags tools and dumb little things most range are nice people and have had the same things happen to them.

i would start keeping ammo in the house at least keep one loaded mag it wont take some one take long to make it all the way though your house in a hurry

I got a sheet of paper permanently attached to the inside of my safe door that says:

ammo?
mags?
earpro?
eyepro?
targets?

Just because of events like this.

ETA: haha, didn't even realize this was the women shooters section, sorry for intruding!

Guys are welcome to chime in, as well...
I just didn't want all the stupidity of the GD is all, and wanted to start a nice intro thread in the ladies room

Lil more about me:  Farm girl who only had a bb gun and no hunting experience until a couple of years ago. Divorce, new guy, new life, new interests, ya know how it goes...  Tagged along to a few USPSA shoots with the now-fiance, learned to shoot pistols, a .22, shotgun, .203... the boys at the range kept pressing me to try it, and since i'm a tad competitive, I finally caved. Wonderful group of guys combined with a fantastically patient and safety-minded teacher (my fiance) made for a great time. Slow as molasses, but fairly accurate, I'm speeding up and last april and July (?) i placed in the middle of a couple groups


What I like the most about my newly found passion, is that I can always improve. Trying to shoot small groups at 25 yards with a .22 with a mediocre scope and ammo has been exciting. Learning to shoot a 4" target at 200 yards is awesome, and working on getting smaller groups in all types of weather and shooting positions is quite entertaining.

I work at a high tech job (molecular plant research), and am working on my PhD, so blowing off steam and blasting away is a very nice way to take my mind off of things.  Not knowing the terminology and referring to things as the "insert descriptor here-thingy" is humbling, and leads to entertaining discussions and future inside jokes.

What I ALSO find pretty cool about this community is the high quality of people I run across, especially the women. Seems they are all strong, determined, and more than a few of them have some very interesting and inspiring stories to tell regarding how they became involved in shooting sports. So thank you, ladies, for encouraging and inspiring, perhaps without even realizing you have done so!

More about me later, sounds like i need to put a young one to bed. again.

Thanks for posting, this was really nice to read and welcome aboard!

i had to read it again before i figured out you were embarrassed about forgetting your key

im very visual and literally will put things in the middle of the floor so i trip over them and dont forget them

welcome to wimminz