Posted: 2/12/2011 1:29:26 PM EDT
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So, I'm having a great day at the range today with my M4, happens to be my birthday. Getting ready to pack it up and leave. Rule at our range is that if you are the first one on the firing line, you are "range officer." So, two guys show up and obviously want to put some targets down range. So, I call the range cold, pull the caution light and siren, standard procedure.
Continue packing up my gear. A grizzly old fud comes hobbling up to me and gets in my face and starts to chew me out saying, "You didn't call the range cold!" I looked at him and said: "I just called the range cold. I pulled the siren and turned the safety light on. What more do you want?" He tried to persist, I just looked at him and yelled right into his ear, "The range is cold, now go bother somebody else." I was tempted to give him more of an earful, but he was an old guy and I was taught to respect my elders, so I refrained. I turned my back on him and continued packing up to leave. As I was driving away I realized why he was hanging around. He was scrounging up brass. Fuds, I hope I never become one. |
I go out of my way to be at my range during times of day when most people aren't there. Like 10 AM on a Monday morning. 
I work night shift (12 AM to 8 AM) from Wednesday to Saturday, then evening shift on Sunday (4 PM to 12 AM), so it's easy enough for me to be at the range during non-peak days/times. I know this solution doesn't work for everyone, though. For what it's worth, my range is a private range that I pay $150/yr to be a member of. I can't stand the crowds or the dumbass unsafe behavior typically encountered at public ranges (or the Range Nazis who have to exist because of it). 
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You know, looking back at it, I probably should have been more understanding. The guy had a legitimate point. He was concerned about safety, can't blame him for that.
We have a great range, and if we have a few older gents who are a tad on the quick-trigger with safety issues, that's not a bad price to pay. So, I probably over-reacted. |
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Quoted:
So, I'm having a great day at the range today with my M4, happens to be my birthday. Getting ready to pack it up and leave. Rule at our range is that if you are the first one on the firing line, you are "range officer." So, two guys show up and obviously want to put some targets down range. So, I call the range cold, pull the caution light and siren, standard procedure. Continue packing up my gear. A grizzly old fud comes hobbling up to me and gets in my face and starts to chew me out saying, "You didn't call the range cold!" I looked at him and said: "I just called the range cold. I pulled the siren and turned the safety light on. What more do you want?" He tried to persist, I just looked at him and yelled right into his ear, "The range is cold, now go bother somebody else." I was tempted to give him more of an earful, but he was an old guy and I was taught to respect my elders, so I refrained. I turned my back on him and continued packing up to leave. As I was driving away I realized why he was hanging around. He was scrounging up brass. Fuds, I hope I never become one. Just make sure ya stop confusing how you treated him with "respect" 
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I got called a 'range nazi' once because, while serving as an RO I called the line cold, made sure all the firearms were cleared, etc. WHile people were downrange, a guy picked up his Beretta 92 and started DRY FIRING at the people downrange. He was actually aiming the gun at specific people, double-tapping, then moving on to the next person downrange.
I walked up to him (springted is more like it) and took the gun from his retarded hands and placed it on the bench, loudly proclaiming in my best Red Forman voice "DON'T POINT THE GUN AT OTHER PEOPLE AND PULL THE TRIGGER !!!" Guy glared at me, muttered "Range nazi !" and then added the icing on the dumb-ass cake : "It's not like I was shooting live ammo at them." 
The ass-hattery of the general shooting public has to be seen to be believed. I think firearms enthusiasts in general seem to forget sometimes how a good portion of the casual untrained shooters have NO FUCKING CLUE about firearms safety. The basic rules of firearms safety––muzzle in safe direction, treat firearms as though always loaded, finger off trigger––things we take for granted––are unknown, alien concepts to many of them. |
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Oh. My. Gosh.
Yesterday, I helped put out new target backdrops and we had to close the range. There was a guy there with his Remington 870 and as we walked down the line explaining to each person what we were doing, and why, everyone was cool with it, except.... Got to this guy and he was angry and said, "Look, I just pulled the bolt out of my rifle, here it is. I'm bore sighting it now, so don't worry." We asked him to step away from his firearm and invited him to help us change the target backgrounds if he did not want to have as long a wait. He chose to sit on a bench and pout.
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You know, it is funny, but so far at my club, when I have been there blasting away with my DD M4, I invariably get people walking to me and asking, "What is that?? And they are genuinely interested. I usually let them take a few shots if they have never used one before.
Several people have asked me why it is "so loud." I'm not sure what to say. I even had a guy shooting a classic M-16 ask me that after he noticed me shooting it. I've even had people ask me if it is full auto when I shot in three round bursts quickly. |