I’m going on an overnight camping/shooting adventure this weekend in a remote area. As usual, I will be prepared for the unexpected. Sometimes, though, you just can’t prepare for some things.

At Lytle Creek in 1991, my buddy and I went out at about 6 am to avoid the weirdos. At about 6:30 am, some psycho pulls up right next to us and starts smoking pot while talking to himself. There were miles of shooting area but this ass had to park 30 feet from us. He kept repeating “I like cheese” and was shouting out random numbers. After about 5 minutes (when we were packing to leave), he rushes up to us with an AR in one hand and a .45 in the other. He then cheerfully asks us if we wanted to shoot his guns! He was totally stoned out of his gourd. We said ‘no thanks’ but later thought we should have taken the guns off his hands for ‘safe keeping’. No one would ever have known. Needless to say we left the area.[%|]

In 1998 in a remote area of the SoCal desert, I was with my bro-in-law on an overnight shooting trip. An old Ford truck came up the road with 2 male ‘desert folk’ in it. Each had a can of beer and looked us over pretty good. After the the truck passed us, it made a u-turn. As the truck approached us, there was now a woman in the center of the seat! She was not visible when they first passed us. When they pulled up along side of us, they all had big smiles on their faces and had a glazed look in their eyes. Freaks! They kept telling us to watch out for the sheriff because he was an asshole. WTF? The bed of the truck had probably 25 beer cans in it. Between the 3 of them I think they had 20 teeth. They told us they were “going to go check on our gold mine” as they laughed hysterically. Very strange.[:E]

Unexpected encounters with weirdos while out shooting has become an enjoyable part of the whole experience for me. It’s almost not a complete trip unless something bizarre happens.

Any good ones to share?

Not really weird, but rather interesting. The last time I went to the indoor rental range, there was the most diverse crowd I'd ever seen. It included an individual with a greased back pony tail and his 10 yr old son who rented an AK, two tiny Oriental girls/women with a .22 target gun, a couple of college age guys with a Mossberg 590A1 and an elderly gentleman with a Yamulka shooting an AR.

If you've ever seen me shoot a pistol at a target farther than ten yards, that in it self is a funny sight. Ask Jarhead 22, Redgoat, Mojo, and the other DFW members that have seen me shoot.

DInc. you wouldn't happen to be going with the SoCal Webshooters @ their SECRETII event are you. Those guys are weirdos to begin with [;D]

I'll be at SECRET III next weekend. If they're weirdos I guess I'll fit right in!

I took my younger brother to a public range once, hes not really a shooter. So hes shooting away with an AR and some half-wit back woods cowboy sits next to him. The cowboy starts plinking with a .22 single action revolver. Then sits at the bench with a rolling block 45-70. He starts shooting at a plastic shopping bag that wandered down range and was blowing around like a parachute. In between shots the cowboys yelling yeaaa haaaaa I love this gun.

I was out with my girlfriend teaching her correct shooting positions with my AR, and as she started shooting, a naked man and woman carrying their clothes ran out of the bushes scared out of their wits and down the path to where there were some cars parked..

We figured they were screwin' in the bushes as we were out in some loggin' roads with nothin' around for miles. Boy did we have a good laugh about the whole ordeal.

[sex]

Weirdest thing I've witnessed was about 50-60 illegal aliens trying to cross the desert behind the berms at the range I shoot at.  I was punching holes in paper at 100 yards when somebody yelled "Hey!  There's people downrange!"  Sure enough, they were in the hills back behind the berms, moving west.

I cannot [i]imagine[/i] the thought-process that would make people move [i]towards[/i] the sound of gunfire when trying to avoid law-enforcement.

we were shooting out in the desert once and I went too sleep and later that night I see these weird lights off in the distances like 4-5 of them I am thinking WTF would anything be doing out here in the middle of the night? I had my mossberg close in hand and when they got closer I could see it was a few quads or motorcycles driving around in the middle of the night kinda dumb in my mind too do that in the middle of the night especially dumb too get so close too a heavily armed group. we were less than a mile from the border so it was probably either drug dealers or border patrol.

I guess this would be a bad place to post that it would have been funny to shoot the ground behind them to see how fast they could run?  Or do wetbacks only know how to swim fast?

Where is this place? Is it still open?

I saw homeless collecting lead down range with his kid once never believed it until I saw it.

The real weirdo is the group in full camo, each posing for picture with guns, truck different flags that I won't mention. And video taping themselves with illegal SBR.

basically same things I did when I was 19 (except the SBR and flags)
But they are 30'ish....!!!

Yeah where in the so cal desert? there is all sorts of crazy stuff going on out there last time I was out in the desert there was a guy just walking around in the desert in basically the middle of no where on this crappy ass road so we pull up and he starts talking too us about what we are doing out there and he is some kind of LE he didn't tell us which and then we tell him we are plinkin and he says ok walks off and a few minutes later when we were parked a couple more border patrol in there blazers pull up and ask us what were doing and the guy on the road was in the car with them but not in uniform as a border patrol, guess they thought we were coyote or something like that.

Back when I was in high school, a buddy and I had gone camping near Snoqualmie pass in Washington. We were cooking up some dinner when two a-holes started shooting up on an old airstrip. Problem was we were behind their "backstop" of trees, and had the pan we were cooking chilli on knocked into the fire from a stray round. We would have kicked off in their asses, but they were like 30, and we only had pellet guns with us.

While serving as a LT in a destroyer in the '80s, I was assigned to be an RO by the CO due to my previous experience as a young rifle toter.  I attended the requisite classes at Camp Pendleton and was anointed as RO.

Okay...comes qual time and we need to take a bunch of the young sailors up to Pendleton (We were homeported in San Diego.) so they can get a little (VERY little) familiar with the pistol, shotgun and the rifle.  We got our PWC bus and driver and motored on up to the MCB for our day in the sun.  When we got there to check in at Long Rifle, I noticed a bunch of helos circling and shooting at a couple of ranges.  We could hear the rockets and cannon fire.  It was cool.

Anyway, we drew our radio, got our range assignment, motored on over to the range, conducted our safety brief (...and don't shoot the wildlife!) and basic how-to class and called Long Rifle to go hot.

We were hot for an hour or so and were firing the M-14s at the 100 yard range when a Cobra gunship flew directly over and parallel to the berm and butts out at the edge of our HOT range.[shock]  I and my chief gunner's mate screamed cease fire but lots of rounds went downrange before I could get a response...and by that time, the helo driver was adios!

I had the troops hold fire while I called Long Rifle and reported the near mishap.  He said the helo driver should never have been anywhere near us...(Well DUH!) and he would call over to the helo control guys to make sure they didn't do that again.

Not sure if the sides of that bird would have withstood a 7.62 NATO round and I didn't want to find out!  Scared the hell out of me.  Imagine the damn paperwork!

[;D]

Once, in Korea, we were in the field. We were doing day defense and had two squads holding a small hilltop. We kept getting probes from the platoon that was attacking us and there was constant gunfire (blanks and MILES gear mind you, but still pretty loud).

This elderly Korean woman wanders into the perimeter. WTF, over? As I am pumping bursts from the M60 into our attackers downhill, she sidles up to me and starts picking up brass. Eventually, when her hands got full, she whips her shirt off and starts filling it with ejected blanks, sometimes even plucking them out of the air, still hot.

She followed us around the rerst of the day, salvaging our scrap. We tried to talk to her, but she refused to even make eye contact, let alone speak, and there really wasn't any way to get her to leave.

The area I go to is on the Northern boundary of the Chocolate Mountains Gunnery Range (a Navy range). The Bradshaw Trail, a popular dirt trail that goes all the way to Blythe, runs along this area. This is in the desert East of the Salton Sea, California's largest sewer/lake, about 20 miles from the 111.

I've seen alot of strange stuff out there, including a sole illegal Mexican wandering around in a stupor so friggin' far from civilization that he probably died out there. Another time I saw 30-40 of them in a group along the Coachella canal, scrambling at the sight of my truck.

Night is cool out there because the US Navy always has something interesting going on at night on the bombing range. Strange lights and noises at night are a special treat.

About a year ago I took a newbie friend of mine out into the desert to shoot my AR.  The place I like to go is down in a wash that produces great 25' berms in front and back of where we shoot, with about 75 yards of flat ground in between. This makes overshooting the target near impossible, [b]if[/b] you're pointing at the berm.  So anyways, we're blasting away, having a good ol time wiping out invading enemy pepsi cans, when two guys in a pickup drive up and passed us, heading farther up the wash. They looked all right, and we gave each other a friendly nod as they drove through.

5 minutes later we hear them shooting a ways away. Then I hear wwwwwzzzzziinnngg!! as a round passes maybe 15 feet overhead.  I didn't think too much of it, as I thought it was probably a ricochet, and since the guys knew exactly where we were (but concealed by a curve in the wash, so we weren't in line-of-sight).
Then we hear BANG! BANG! BANG!... wwwwwzzzzziinnngg!! wwwwwzzzzziinnngg!! wwwwwzzzzziinnngg!! [:O]  Bob and I took cover behind my jeep, and at least 8 more rounds went by, some sounded very close!
I started screaming that there were people out here and to cease fire.. and there was a pause in the shooting, like they were thinking about it... then 2 more shots right overhead again! At that point I got pissed, grabbed my Carbon-15 (I know, I know!), scrambled halfway up the berm and let go 5 rounds back their way, in the dirt about 30 yards in front of them.  That got their attention!  They were laughing when I first saw them, like it was freakin hilarious.[whacko]

Needless to say we packed up and shagged ass out of there, posthaste!  And I know, I shouldn't have sent any rounds near them, but I was pissed at their stupid little joke. [pissed]

Assholes like that are why I'm losing my 2A rights.

The corn-fed country boy story---I was at the 50-yard plinking with my savage..trying to make the holes touch...the overall wearing gentleman to my left said"hey you shoot good, can ya help me sight my rifle?" Well after 4 rounds I finally got the point of impact--around 2 feet up and to the left-----crank, crank, crank--onto the plywood--crank,crank crank---onto the paper---crank,crank---into the ring---and this was his deer rifle....it was all I could do to ask him if he had ever hit anything....

okay, i'm at an indoor range, and almost all of the stalls are full, two stalls down this jackass is banging away with a jennings or lorcin or some POS, and his asshole buddy with taurus 9mm is right next to me.
(both are barely hitting silhouette targets so close to them that the paper is moving from the muzzle blast)
jennings asshole fires, a piece of hot brass crosses the barrier,goes down taurus asshole's shirt, who proceeds to scream and send a round throught the barrier between  himself and me.  had i been firing at the time, probobly would have hit my arm.
i ask him if he is allright, and calmly walk out, never to shoot at that fucking range again.

Not actually at the range but coming back from it.  

Driving around the lake near the range to get  to the highway and all of the sudden the right rear window of my buddy's SUV blows out.  I knew we were under fire right then.

We stopped and got out of the truck to see two guys in a rowboat near the shore; one with a shotgun.  I yelled at him, "What the f#@k are you doing?  You just shot out our window."  He replies that he was shooting at a beaver and couldn't have hit the window.  

Then I got really pissed and screamed some more but they just rowed away.  right then I had a half-a$$ed notion of jumping in after them but it was getting dark and cold...

We called the Sheriff's dept.  They showed up half and hour later.  They deployed the boat but couldn't find the two retards.  

They searched the hill up behind where we eventually saw them get out.  Turns out the two guys were just KIDS.  Both about 12 yrs. old.  The deputy got in touch with the kids parents who ended up paying for the window.  

I just hope they got their a$$es tanned as well.  

Years ago my brother and I were shooting up a 55 gal drum when this irate guy shows up armed with a hunting bow. He tried to pick a fight with us [shock].

Anyway nobody got hurt, especically him!

I've got a serious question:  We all know that there are idiots and yahoos out there that are a primary reason our right to arms is under assault.  Hell [b][i]WE[/b][/i] want these morons disarmed.

Is there anything that we CAN do to keep people like this from doing the things they do?

Shoot them?

nah... There will always be idiots... Natural selection will get most of them... hopefully...

The reason the gun-controllers have their panties in a bunch over guns is because, unfortunately, it isn't the moron who usually dies.  The moron kills somebody else.  

I think we should be able to shoot them with tranquilizer darts and turn them over to the authorities for forehead branding.  After due process, of course!

DamageInc
I loved the 2507 N+S. For one of the WTIs we were the range control out there. The zeros all left at about 3-4PM to go drinking with the guys in Yuma, so the 7242s ran things all night.
We would go to those bars in Niland and the locals would buy beers and ask when the range closed.
I always shaved a few hours off when I told them.
We used to call the patrol to come get some mexes, because for some reason they would turn north off the canal before the prison and try to go north west. That way lay death (from heat if nothing else)

did i catch a niner in there? where you posting from  a walkie-talkie?
jesus christ, let some of us poor cake eating civilians in on the conversation
bravo, whiskey 436532  ech 234-4 right?
WTF?

Was also out in the desert testing my new AK. Years ago. Friend and I were shooting into this huge dirt hill. At least 50 feet high and as much around. About dusk two, how shall I describe them, "dirtbags" came over to us fit to be tied. Accused us of shooting at them. Truth is we were nowhere near them. They were at our 3:00 and the target was ahead. So, they yelled at us, armed with shotguns and we stood there and took it, armed with AK's. Seemed like this went on forever. I remember wondering if I could drop both of them by myself, should the need arise. Lucky for all concerned they had enough of yelling and moved off. My pal and I just stood there for a few minutes like dummies. So close!

A buddy of mine and I went out to the desert to shoot my AR-this was only like the second or third time-shortly after I had bought it. We were taking a break, letting the shootin' irons cool off, and I pulled out a coyote call I had bought recently. Now, this thing is supposed to sound like a wounded rabbit, but sounds more like someone is using a cattle prod on a cat that's standing in a hot frying pan. At any rate, I blow on the thing a couple of times, my buddy (not a hunter but avid shooter) taps me on the arm and says, "What's that?", as he points in the direction we had been shooting. Lo and behold, it's Mr. Stupid Coyote. Now, this is only about 3-4 minutes after we stopped shooting, and this 'yote is only about 80 yards off. Well, time to heat up the AR again. I cleaned up their gene pool a bit for them.[50]

Back in the 80's I was living in Florida, a friend of mine and I would go out by his place to shoot,this place we used, was, I figure a housing delevlopment that, at the time, never really took off, paved roads, street signs up, but not a thing in sight, no houses, nothing, must of been 800-1000 acres there, not a thing on it except palmetto bushes,and large piles of sand (perfect backstops) looked alot like the surface of the moon, anyway, the locals used this area to dump off most anything,  cars, appliances of all kinds, dead livestock, you name it, it was probably there somewhere, at the time I had a mini-14 and what a blast it was shooting a dryer, or a washing machine,(DIE,Kenmore,Die!) I had more fun there than you can shake a stick at, actually, I did learn to shoot a handgun fairly well there, it was great, I once shot an air conditoner that still had freon in it, as I had appearently nicked one of the lines, and it started whistleing this shrill sounding whistle,Blew a hole in the ozone that day,My buddy once shot a dead cow,with this 30-30 he had just bought, cow had been dead about a week, and was bloated to the point it looked like the goodyear blimp, he shoots it, it quivers for a second as the bullet passes through, and then it makes this Farting sound,We both realized at about the same time, that was a big mistake, and was gonna really reek, so we left as fast as we could,before we gagged, We had alot of fun out there,One of my better memories of living in Florida......

Now THAT is a true melting pot!!

I LOVE AMERICA

Bulldog OUT

HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA! I can't stop laughing! I think I just pissed myself.

Somewhat off the topic, but -- the TV news tonight reported on a shooting on Interstate 90 around, oh, I'll say 120 miles away from Seattle.

A 19yo and a 17yo claim to have been "target shooting" in the woods just off the road, with a handgun (unspecified) and a 12ga shotgun loaded with slugs.  Unfortunately, the target they hit was dead center in the front door of a car on I-90.  The Brenneke slug grazed one hand, went through his leg, and went through the other hand.

Sorry, the range north west of the Salton Sea is the "2507 North and South" on air charts.
That range in the late 80s/early 90s was used by arty, air, and SEALS for training. The seals had a small training base there as well.
The range was part of the Luke complex --even though the closest luke sub base was Gila Bend, some 2 road hours away.
Anyway, the Corps loved using the range for the semi-annual WTI, which stands for something I can't recall, but is basicially a chance for the next generation of air commanders to go to school, and for the school to test new tatics.
Anyway, being what it was, the officers who were supprting the school needed lots of face time, which means briefings and lots of after hours drinking.
As 7242s, we were the enlisted personal in the Direct Air Support Center (DACS), the officers were 7208s. The officers needed to leave Niland by 3 or 4 o'clock to get back to the last briefing, and from there to drinking with the crowd.
That left us enlisted in charge. Since we had to spend the night, Corporals ran the airspace then until the last flight/arty shot, because niland sucks and no staff NCOs would stay out there, and we didn't have any E5s.
We would to to one of the 2 bars in Niland while 2 or 3 of us stayed in the system (Niland also had seven churches, and an RV group which sold stolen good to each other for marketing at flea markets and placed painted rocks on a low hill, to the glory of God --judging by the pictures and words on said hill)
The locals wanted to smuggle stuff in fur wheelers up the canal and turn north across the 2507, avoiding the boarder patrol check points and the prison security zone.

Sorry--Niland is the odd little town which used to be a train water stop and now is nothing. It is a few miles from a prison (15?) but the guards live farther away.
The town is on the south end of the range, to the west side slightly.

When I was in high school me and my brother went to the outdoor range. Probally 30 tables set up. A few benches down a guy was shooting at one of those metal targets that spin around when you hit it with a .22 with his kid.
Another guy unloads his FAL on the target and totally blows the shit out of it. It got scary real quick, yelling proceeding, weapons being pointed at each other. Everyone else on the line grabbed there weapons and backed up behind there vehicles.
The range master little round old woman with like 4 teeth everyone refered to as "grandma" started yelling at them and they both left eventually. I couldn't have imagined what would have happened if some rounds started flying down the firing lane.

What a dick why would the guy with the FAL destroy the kids .22 target? was it a accident or was there malice intent?

Which range??

The range was out passed Medford on Long Island NY, Hempstead maybe in 1989 if I recall. Was fun range lots of stuff to shoot. Was lot of debris on the range 50 gallon barrels, other crap people left. The guy probally shot up the kids target not knowing what it was, or maybe he didn't know that a .308 would blow holes in it and not just spin it.

Years ago, I was at a crowded outdoor range (I hate that kind) shooting my HK SR9 from the bench.  HK's throw brass at about 9 million miles an hour, so I had a little sandbag barricade set up to keep my empties in my own tiny space.  Well, one of those burning hot .308 shells missed the sandbags and went straight down the shirt of the guy next to me just as he was lining up a shot.  I'm not sure what was louder; the sound of his screams, the noise of the stool flying back into the racks or the sound of the gravel as he did the tap dance of death.  He jumped and howled quite a while until it finally dropped out his pant leg.  I apologized profusely and tried to make it up to him, but he just packed up and left.  Poor guy.  I still feel bad when I think about it and laugh out loud.  [:D]  Now I never shoot that rifle if there is anyone to the right within 5 miles.
[Edited for clarity]

I like cheese