Not sure why, but I feel compelled to share this – I’ve never personally experienced fail while I was shooting like I did this past weekend at the range.

CSB ahead.  TL;DR - when shit starts going wrong, check all of your gear – even the stuff which you *think* should be reliable.

I had chance to go the range this weekend for the first time in eight months.  This year has been crazy busy far, so to say I was excited was an understatement.

Anyway, I sit down at the 100 yd line with a 20” OBR heavy, NF ATACR scope and a Thunderbeast suppressor.  This is only the second time I’ve had a chance to shoot this setup, so I’m still getting used to it.  Even so, this thing is a laser.  Even shooting with surplus M80 ball, I can almost put them in the same hole.  Feeling good that everything was adequately zeroed, I moved over the 250 yd line to shoot some steel plates.

This is where everything went wrong.  I couldn’t hit shit, and I didn’t know why.  My shots were all over the place, with some of them hitting the dirt 50 yards in front of the steel.  I went through a magazine trying to figure out what I was doing wrong, and that was when the RO came over and told me I was done.

I couldn’t believe it.  Talk about humiliating, and what was worse, he was right.  His job is to protect the range, and there I was sending lead all over the place.  The problem is, I had no idea why I was failing.

As I sat there, stunned by my performance and inability to diagnose the problem, and also feeling extremely embarrassed that I had just been told to stop shooting, a guy walks up and asked if my suppressor was loose.  Fuck.  Why didn’t I fucking think to check that?  I had gone ever everything else – repeatedly.
Well, the suppressor was loose.  So was the muzzle brake.  Double fuck.  I was lucky not to have a baffle strike, and even more lucky that I hadn’t shot the brake off the end of the barrel.  What a catastrophe that would have been.

Too little Rocksett and/or not enough torque applied to the brake at install allowed it to become loose while shooting.  Having the brake start spinning allowed the suppressor to become loose as well.  Being that the brake was tight before I started, I assumed it would still be and did not check it during my initial attempts at diagnosing my problem.  Live and learn.  It was good to be reminded that assumptions can make you an ass and get you into a lot of trouble (potentially), and this was a relatively cheap lesson – only wasted a little ammo and had to swallow some pride.

So, what’s the worst lesson you’ve learned at the range?

Shit happens and you diagnosed the problem. It's not the end of the world.

Yup, more than once. Part of the game.

Drove over 4 hours to another member's ranch for an ARFCOM shoot. As soon as I got there, they declared it canceled due to rain.

Bad day at the range:

Had my S&W 22A crack in half on me one day.  Another day a casing got stuck in my AR and wouldn't even mortar out.

Surprisingly those annoyed me more than when I got 7.62x39 fragments in my shoulder.  Actually I kept shooting for another few hours after that.

Yep.

Left my ear pro at home once. I keep a set of muffs under my seat at all times now.

Most of my most current range days have sucked. So I haven't shot much this year. I took my MIL out to practice with her CC pistol and we had fun. But I only fired maybe 10 rounds to show her a few things.

Instead of shooting as much, I've been working out a lot. But I wasn't making progress so I started looking into it. I found my T is 285. So I've near quit that as well.

The time Frog Lube gummed up almost all my guns.  

now I use Weapon Shield.

I've had bad days at the range, but I've never been told to stop shooting.  And I've never heard of an RO making someone stop due to accuracy problems.  We have a mountain as a backstop at my range, and I swear there are people there who'd have problems hitting it if they were actually aiming at it.  Also, assuming you weren't doing anything dangerous or against the rules, an RO would be more likely to come over and help you solve the problem rather than making you stop.

WHAT?

Once had a buddy come from out of state to hang out and go shooting...

I had the worst sinus headache at the time...I seriously wanted to die...Felt like my head was being hit by a sledge hammer everytime someone pulled their trigger.

Yep. Bolt on PA10 chipped apart, scope mount came loose, scope reticle broke. Not sure what else could have happened that day

30+yrs everything has happen! Stolen guns to my holster breaking.

I wasn't doing anything dangerous, nor was I breaking any rules.  There are ranches around this particular range, and I know they (the range operators) have had issues in the past related to people not keeping their lead on the range itself.  (They used to allow 50BMG until someone skipped a round over a berm that hit a farmhouse some distance away - or so I was told).  I think he got tired of watching my rounds land all over the place and it was apparent I wasn't "fixing" the issue.  He had nothing to offer outside of asking about the scope.

When I told him it was the brake and can, he said he would have never thought to even ask about them.

Only bad range days were the ones in the military where you had no option but to continue running the range
There were range weekends where you'd start the range in pouring rain and end it with snow on the ground.
You just did the best you could under the conditions and made sure that your shooters and range cadre were taken care of with heating tents, morale rats etc.

Id never go to a range that have Range Nazis
 

Screws for my M-lok rail sections were too far in and pushing on my stealth barrel. Groups were pretty erratic. This barrel usually gets 1/4" grouping with 77gr TMK's. Thought it was my scope or mount the first time it happened and re-mounted them, but found the real problem the second time when removing the muzzle br and checking it for bullet strikes and saw the crooked barrel in the hadnguard

Ouch.  Did you figure out what happened?

I'd agree - I hadn't thought this place had them, to be honest.

Yup. Had my browning A Bolt in .270. Its a Medallion model. Had it bagged and set upright on some bench stands. Well, one of the bags slouched, wind pushed the rifle off balance.

It fell 3 feet to the concrete slab. Scuffed the break, bolt handle, and put a dime sized scuff into the side of the polished stock.

100% my fault for thinking leaving the rifle upright in what I thought was a secured position was a good idea.

I'm assuming I'm looking at suppersor that blew open?



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i wanted to carry a swiss army knife in my atv tool box once.... so, me being smart and all... sprayed it down really well with a oil, ( wd-40) to, you know, keep it from rusting and shit...... then i wrapped it in a plastic bag, with some other odds and ends...

about a year later i dig it out to cut something...( i forgot it was even in the tool box) ... and i could not get the fucking thing open !    the damn wd-40, had dried out, and set up like epoxy..seriously... the wd-40 had basically turned into super glue, and froze everything in the knife solid, rock tight. it took pliers to open a blade.. i tried everything i could to un stick that knife., gaslone, either, more wd40, soaking in penetrating oil, sitting with pliers and pulling it open and closed 100 times.... nothing fucking worked. .. i finally just threw it away....

Very first AR I ever bought had a .223 match grade barrel.  At the time I believed .223 and 5.56 were the same.  Trust me, 5.56 will NOT fit in a .223 match grade barrel.   So there I sat at the range with my brand new toy and a whole case of ammo that wouldn't fit.

i used to hunt with a browning bar.... with beautiful polished blue, and beautiful wood stock, and gloss leupold scope. ..... everytime i got the tiniest scratch on it i felt sick, its raining ?!?!   fuck, i dig out a trash bag to cover the beautiful gun, and precious wood.


now i hunt with synthetics, and stainless,  and ar-15 rifles...... scratch? who cares...... rifle fell over !  is the scope damaged? no? well fuck it, who cares.... ill spray another coat of krylon on it tomorrow...   thats why i love glocks... scratch them and beat them... they look as good as a new one..

On the loose can:

Why don't manufacturers thread them with left hand threads instead of right?  From an engineering standpoint, I would think the the threads should be opposite the rifling, and I could have sworn that I read years ago that LH threads was the European standard.

All I can come up with is that without regular removal and cleaning, the can could seize on the barrel.

I have gotten to the range to realize I forgot the following (resulting in going back home and being ridiculed heavily by my wife):
1. Targets
2. Target stands
3. Stapler
4. Staples
5. Ammo

I watched a buddy try to get the scope zeroed on his SCAR for over an hour once.  I walked over and found that the scope mount was so loose it rattled on the rail.  Tightened it up, and it zeroed just like it should.
I've had sights fall off of a handgun 3 times.  None were installed by me.
My dad had a rifle stock break in half at the pistol grip once.  Jabbed him in the arm and stopped his shooting for a while (we used to go every weekend back then).
Gun rack fell over at the range one time, throwing my wife's 10/22 and my dad's Winchester '86 45-70 on the ground.

Shoot long enough, and you'll have all sorts of weird hiccups happen.

No, I have not.

Range trips are with family, and anything or any day with family in this life = always good!

A.W.D.

Shooting an AK, case head separates and cuts a circle in my cheek.

My son and I drove an hour to the range last summer , paid and walked out to the 100 yard range that was six in. deep with rain from the night before.  Never fired a round. Got our money back and drove home. Worst range trip ever , for me.

8 months since a range trip!!! damn son. i feel bad if dont shoot in the backyard range at least twice a week.

plus if i have a gun problem i just walk into the shop and fix it and keep shooting.

I know

New baby at home, new job this spring, we sold our house and moved into a rental, and we've been working with a builder to get our new house started.

Still, it sucks not getting out!  It would be so nice to be able to go out into the back yard - you have an awesome deal.

Just bad ranges.

And these were pay to shoot, professional ranges.

I just didn't go back, except for the "free" membership one I won in a charity raffle. Seems like we were always accused of doing something wrong there. I'm not sure they had their berms set up right for the actual amount of property they owned, because we only shot in the designated areas with their designated targets with their designated backstops. They always bitched about something.

i think almost every range trip in the military was the worst .. at least than the one before...

its amazing how going to a military range, where you get free guns, and free ammo to shoot..... on a range with pop up targets........ can be so miserable. there were days i fucking WISHED someone would shoot me in the leg by accident, so i could get the fuck off of it and go ANYWHERE else.


camp shelby mississippi was the worst.. 1000* heat, with 100% humidity...run by total retards..... from around 0500 am, until around midnight that night... i thought it would never fucking end... non fucking shooting mother fuckers.   and the idiot range cadre.... they REALLY made things extra retarded, by requiring EVERYONE to zero their m-4 rifles..... differently...

we were using m16-a2 zero targets....... ..so, we were REQUIRED to zero our weapons " lower" due to the shorter barrels.....  i was like WTF?    

i ended up zeroing my rifle, AND my aimpoint, right where they desired, with 12 rounds total....... ( which they told me was impossible, and i needed to keep shooting, and who told me to zero my aimpoint, as we were still doing iron sights......they attempted to stick me with range detail... but i blew them off and scooted over to the qual range....... WHERE EVERY MOTHER FUCKER WAS SHOOTING ABOUT 2 FEET LOW, AND HITTING DIRT 50% OF THE TIME....

i crank my adjustments back up to where the should have been, and shot a 33 of 40, and everyone thought i was magic or something, as the best anyone had done so far was the bare minimum of marksman....   i told all my guys,, " crank that shit up xx clicks and you will be fine"...


all you mil guys will call my a lier...... but those fuckers on the zero / qual range at camp shelby had this set up...... they took a standard m16-a2 zero target..... and since the m-4 carbine  had a shorter barrel...... the bullets would fall lower, than a m16a2...... so, we had to zero lower........ yes, it makes no fucking sense to me either... even if true well its true the m4 drops quicker, due to lower velocity, but thats not the problem here....you should have zeroed it the same, center mass etc... at worst, . , you would zero possibly slightly HIGHER... not fucking lower, as in 1-2 FEET lower @ 100 yards...... i tried to ask about it, but it was " were running this mutherfucker sergeant"... not you....


anyway...... they drew a box at the bottom of the standard zero target... and you were required to zero, with all your rounds into this box. ( while aiming center mass on the target)     which meant, when you ACTUALLY aimed at your target... your bullets were actually hitting the dirt, unless you got lucky and aimed high....

dumbest mutherfuckers i have EVER seen run a range in 20+ years... HOLY FUCK...


you were REQUIRED, to aim center mass...... and zero your rifle, so your rounds ended up in the box below your target.....

Yeah, design flaw in the suppressor. The new ones come without the the self destruct axial fluting.

They fixed it. Still took a long time and sucked.

I have to qualify twice a year.  Only my Dept could suck the fun out of a multi-day range trip with free guns and ammo.  

Yeah, I haven't had the rifle out since, I still feel bad about it.

Ill get it fixed eventually, and buy a synthetic stock version or something.

stripped a adjustment screw once
but my personal best was sighting in a scope
I start out on paper and the more I adjusted the worse I got
finally I was so far off I had no idea where I was hitting other than the backstop was still catching the rounds

I cranked on those scope dials I dont know how much and never once noticed the scope flopping all around in a loose mount
I had a equally awesome time dialing the scope back in once I had cranked on it that much

Forgot ear muffs for a trip to the indoor pistol range and used the muffs they had.  Of course, someone was shooting something big.  I came straight out and added foam ear plugs under the muffs.  Too late.  Yay tinnitus

Took my brother in law and his wife to a range an hour away.  His wife had never fired a gun before.  Got there and realized I brought everything except for the ammo can.  I had three full magazines for the 10/22 and nothing else.  I called my wife and she met me halfway with the ammo can that I had already set up just for the trip.  After that, everything was cool and the brother in laws wife actually enjoyed shooting the 22.

Not a range trip, but a guy at a gun shop offered to demonstrate a suppressed 22 for me.  It was a 10/22 with integrally suppressed barrel.  He fired 5 shots and I couldn't cover my ears quick enough when I heard the first one.  Now my tinnitus is at a much higher level.  Must not have been subsonic.  He acted like it was no big thing and said the brass hitting the wall was louder than the gun.  Didn't sound that way to me.

 
lol


been there!

I have a Taurus PT24/7 OSS that's been sitting in the safe for the past ~5 years.  I shot it exactly once when it was new, and wasn't able to hit anything with it.  I threw it back in the safe and there it sat until last month when I decided to give it another try.

This time, it ran 100% from a reliability standpoint, but was still shooting WAY low and left.  I decided to try and adjust the sights and found the rear sight screw was impossibly tight.  I used my multi-bit screwdriver and snapped the allen bit off in the rear sight screw.  It's still in there.

I've had my share of bad range trips.  Mini-14 scope ring mount came loose, fell off and got lost one time.  Another time my M44 bolt stuck shut on a fired case so badly that I had to quit and go home.  It opened after the rifle cooled off.

Shoot enough and these things happen.  My fun, stress-free range trips far outnumber my bad trips.  Now fishing on the other hand... I almost always end up more frustrated than when I left home.

i once  took a AT-4 backblast full to my ear @ around 30 yards max once...they were supposed to fire three rockets, during a live fire... but i thought they were only firing 2...... i shot my m16, until they called fire in the hole ! !  i hunkered down, and stuck my fingers in my ears...... BOOM ! ! ! ....a few seconds go by........ BOOM ! ! !... i pop up and start shooting targets again.. and   BOOM ! ! ! ! !  EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE   i felt like this... ......it  felt like i was kicked in the head... i SWORE i had blood coming from my ear it hurt so bad..... but could not find any...   yup tinnitus, which eventually turned into menerieres disease in that ear, dizziness, and lots of other issues.

i had a brand new taurus .357 snubbie once......... at the range i fired it, the first shot, and my brother who was standing almost directly beside me, started cussing and grabbed his face... he was hit with shrapnel in his face, and was bleeding. we were not sure what happened, as there were 1/2 dozen guns being shot at once..... the gun LOOKED OK,  the barrel LOOKED like it was lining up right....... so, we held up cardboard targets on both sides of the gun, and fired one more round,  both targets on the left and right ended up with brass / lead stuck in them, and holes thru them.   gun went back to taurus, ... they fixed it for free, and i never even shot it again, just traded it back to the lgs.

Dayum, that sucks.  Makes me afraid to keep shooting.

Blew the flashhider off of a Mini-14, resulting in powder burns all over my face.



Had the receiver cover shoot off the back of an SKS into my face, resulting in cuts.



Had an Uzi clone go cyclic.



Couldn't figure out why my 20", BEAUTIFULLY shooting AR wouldn't cycle at all, thought I had a magazine problem...



....range officer came over and sprayed it with some gun oil, and it worked perfectly (I don't think I've ever been that embarrassed)



I've had some rough ones.

As a safety rule - all rounds need to hit the berm (and be stopped by it).  Shots that are short of the target can bounce over the berm - and can create a huge liability for the range (of course poor berm construction could cause ricochets off the berm as well).





I have only shot at 3 ranges other than my own.  In Manor I was at a shoot with bullets flying over my head (they had a range behind a berm - and tons of rounds were going over that berm).  In Leaner I watched shooters launching rounds over the berm (and into/over the parking lot and highway).  At the National shooting sports center - watched plenty of rounds impacting very low, which might have gone over the berm - which is probably why that shoot was eventually not invited back to the facilities.





The biggest problem was targets set up at various ranges in front of the berm.  You can not set targets at 40 yards and expect all the rounds to hit the 100 yard berm.

---

Brother got a new FAL.  He was nice enough to let me fire it first.  First shot blew the muzzle brake about 20 yards down range.

Did a live fire exercise with tanks once. I thought we (grunts) were the only ones going the live fire, and maybe the tanks with COAX machine gun. Nobody said anything about the tanks shooing their cannon. So we take over this MOUT town and hold up inside a building and 2 Abrams roll up next to the house and stop in front of a berm. We aren't using ear pro  because we need to be able to hear commands and relay commands to each other (like when you're doing rush's, where you'll eventually end up in someones line of fire unless you tell them to shift).

 

So I'm in the building looking out the window watching the tanks shoot their COAX no further than 20 yards from me. Then all of a sudden "BOOM". My eyes shut and im pushed back a bit and confused. BOOM again...


Fucking tanks...

Yeah, picked up a box of .32 S&W to test out a very old S&W revolver, no primer striker were hard enough to fire

Yesterday I shot the muzzle brake loose on my 3-gun rig. Fortunately I keep an armorer's wrench with me so I was able to carry on. It got some red Loctite yesterday evening.