I took a recent ar 15 build out to a public range last weekend since i did not want to scare off the deer on my property.  The range was 25/100 yd with six lanes. Nice except for the fact there was no range master or anyone in charge. To my right, a guy had his 4 year old firing a glock. Normally, I don't care but this kid was sweeping everything except the target. To my left was a group of 6 college kids with about $1000 in ammo and about 20 guns including two ak47s. Fine. Except they were shooting soda bottle at 5 yards and spraying shit all over my new build. I gave the guy a look that caused them to switch to paper. Fine. And then, their girlfriends got to shoot the 1911s they had. After 3 rounds, she got a stovepipe. She sweeps the table and hands it to her boyfriend muzzle first. That was it. I got out of there. Is there a polite way to to approach these people or do I just stay at home?

That's why I never go to public ranges.  I have no desire to die or have to shoot someone. I've found that deer have short memories.  I've seen deer standing on my range within thirty minutes of the shooting stopping.

+1

Sounds like it's time to buy a suppressor.

Our ranges out here aren't that bad.  You get some fucktards now and then, but most folks are safe... never been swept.

+2.

Around my property, there are usually 4 to 5 groups of shooters every weekend, the deer and elk learn to ignore them quickly.
I once had an antelope check me out when I was shooting gophers because my gun was making wierd noises bouncing off the plywood rest. Got within 50 yards

I think the smartest thing to do is to pack up your shit and leave.

That beats hell out of having to appear as a witness.

Public range.

Where?

Two local public ranges in my area and you have to get there early on a weekday.
Any other time youll never get a bench and the jackasses are thick.

That's one reason why I joined the Palmetto Gun Club.

Thanks everyone. This was the one in Sumter national forest . Indian something. Never going back though.

I had an entirely opposite day last week while I was down in Fort Myers on business.  After finishing my work I decided to take my Krinkov SBR for some exercise.  In reality I was excited about having it, and wanted to blow through some brass.  I bought this as a pistol back in December, but waited for my stamp to come in (on the 16th of August) to actually shoot it.  So I stopped by the Cecil Webb range to go through a few magazines and have fun.  For my bad luck the range was a little over half full.  And to top it off allot of the people I saw were taking a shot, looking through their mono, then jotting  down on paper.  Very disciplined.  Did I have every right to go onto the range to get my rocks off?  Yep.  Would I have been ever so popular with my kick ass build that I had just finished? Yes, right up to the point that I started shooting.  So I took my black rifle with me and drove home.  I let the fudds enjoy another day
This was not as much about range safety as the OP's post, but more about the etiquette.  

Your safety first. Unass the AO.

Indian Creek, Newberry county.
I've never been there, but I've been to Boggy Head and Twin Ponds in the Francis Marion NF.

I always introduce myself to the shooters to my left and right in a friendly and respectful manner the first opportunity I get. I make it clear to them that if they need anything or see something unsafe whether it is me or someone else to feel free to let me know, because I say "safety is the most important thing." Every time I do that I typically get a ditto style reply where they ask me to do the same for them. If I ever had someone who was mute or seemed unconcerned than I'd watch them that much more carefully and be ready to leave when they start doing unsafe things.

However, to me you do just leave and let a person like that continue on with unsafe practices. A formal range is either privately owned, but open to the public or it's operated by a local or state government.  Either way there should be contact information available for the people who administer the range.  There may not be RSO's on site, but someone is in charge of administering that range. I would contact them, describe the shooter as best as I could, describe what safety violation I believe I witnessed and leave it at that.  At that point I've done everything I can to prevent any harm to others or liability to the range. IF the range gets enough complaints they'll probably take some additional safety steps.

Nobody wants to be a narc, but in this case it is pretty much a civic duty.

The initial intro can go a long way.  It establishes that you can both approach each other. It  establishes that you're not just some asshole, because your initial contact with them isn't stern looks or a harsh comment.  It helps prevent things from being adversarial when you do need to speak up about a safety violation you witness. It also puts them into the mindset of safety by bringing the topic up.  Now, safety should be a focus, but sometimes their brains just don't click on it like they should so bringing it up might help with that.

We all are apart of the firearms community as gun owners.  We should seek to foster that feeling of community and with it our duty to one another to exercise reasonable care.

I shot a large doe with a 30-06, thing jumped and dropped. No shit 1 second later I see another doe pop it's head out from the trees right behind the one that dropped (in a cleared shooting lane in heavy trees) kaboom another shot off and hits target. (100ish yrd shot)

I was soooo amazed that the second doe didn't give a shit and high tail out of the area!

Another story,  Large 8 point comes walking out during the rut. Kaboom shot off, damn I missed high, (I was shaking and was a 320yd shot), damn buck stays broad side, looks at me in the stand for 10 seconds and takes off.

They don't scare easy sometimes, and other times I think they are kind of confused and interested in what all the racket is about!

Your range sounds awesome!  Can I come next time?

Serious answer,  I like to go to the public range on weekdays during work hours,  to many yahoos on the weekend.  If it gets unsafe I'll leave.

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Unsupervised public ranges are great if you are the only one there.  Pack up and leave as soon as someone arrives, after seeing if they have any guns to sell.

The public ranges around here are total chaos around deer season. I usually pack up and go if someone shows up and is not safe. There are the guys that go to the public ranges that I have never seen shoot. Actually one I have never seen with a gun. The locals call them the range creepers. They usually show up and watch you from their car or stand around behind the line and watch you shoot.

We tried out a new range yesterday that was very casual and uncontrolled, and is kind of hidden away (we didn't even know it existed until a friend told us). We loved it. All of the other shooters were responsible and friendly. Oddly enough, the bigger, popular range off of the highway that we had been going to (which was also more expensive) felt more dangerous despite it being controlled. The guy running safety didn't have positive control over the range and there were a lot of people who were unsafe, untrained, or just assholes.

We will stick with this new range for now until something changes our mind.

I purposely go to a range just like this, unstaffed, hit that place at sunrise. I mean still dark out, get my stuff setup. As soon as I can clearly see my target, I start firing. This lets me beat the bubba's that propagate the place. I kid...all good honest American's. But there's a level of jackassery and there's usually more social hour going on that shooting. Or needing to walk 50 yds to finger a target with too much frequency (I bring binos, I'm lazy).

One way to get rid of people, I always bring an: M44/M38/M95. You pop off more than a few rounds with one of those and people get annoyed and leave. It works.

But in the end I'm in and out of there by 0830 and not too many people are going to do that on a Sunday morning. I would never ever go out there past that time of day.

Sounds like you were at the range in Union, SC. I have had that happen and yes i do say something.

I've been there also it's in the middle of nowhere. When I went there was a group of guys, that when they put the guns they were shooting down, they'd lay them with muzzle pointing at the other shooters. And was talking about buying some depleted uranium

Identify the leader and ask to speak with them away from the others.  Politely express your concerns.  Leave if it does not improve.

Tell them what they are doing wrong and make them more responsible shooters.  

I've had this happen to me. I was the only person at the range, sighting in a reddot on an AR. The usual routine of shoot a few, go down and check, make adjustments, etc. Car with two white trash dudes pulls up behind the range about 30 yards to the rear, watching me. I went about my business as long as they were in their car. Eventually one guy got out and was standing at the other end of the firing line, leaning against a post just watching me.

One of the best things that you could have done is to politely offer some corrective instruction. Help them to identify the problem (and perhaps why it's a problem), how they could correct the problem, and how to implement correct.

Take the female with the 1911 malfunction, for example-
(you)-I noticed you're having some difficulty working the slide
(her)- It's really hard to pull it back.
(you)- I can tell. You're pointing the gun all over the place. If you do manage to rack the slide like that, there's a good chance you could end up pointing that, loaded, towards another person....or something else you don't  want to shoot.
(her)
(you)- How about I give you a hand with that. How about you put the gun on the bench. With your permission, I'll help you clear this one and I'll show you a trick so you'll get it real easy next time.
(her)- okay....
(you)- [as your doing it]  First things first, drop the mag. Turn your body and grasp the slide like this. Using your shooting hand, grip the gun....like your shooting it, and push it forward. . Lock the slide back. Keep the gun pointed that way (downrange), the whole time...get that little bugger (case) out of there. Looks like it's clear now.
(her)- thanks...
(you)- I want you to try to move the slide the way I just did. (Drop the slide on an empty chamber and place the pistol on the bench- you may want to emphasize that proper protocol is to have the action open when transferring a firearm to another, but that you're taking advantage of an instructional opportunity)
(her)- I guess [inserts mag, turns body, racks the slide loading the pistol, pistol isn't pointed in an unsafe manner] Wow! that was way easier.
(you)- You looked like a pro.

Similarly- the soda bottles...teach about awareness (wrt. target selection, presence of others, target placement, etc....)

The guy with the little kid and the Glock- You may need to be more candid with him, just for the sake of practicality and safety (of him, the kid, and other bystanders). If he really thinks that it's safe and prudent to have such a young kid shooting a pistol, particularly a centerfire pistol, offer him some strategies to reduce or eliminate the potential of a catastrophe (e.g. single loaded magazines, direct supervision and how to supervise and when/ how to physically prevent unsafe movement, use of rests/ aids)

Here's your problem.  This is the exact reason why I only go to public ranges where there is a range master, and preferably a good, strict one.  Even better, find a range with a good range master AND go on weekdays like someone else suggested to eliminate the yahoo factor.

I hold regular firearms classes on my property, 63 acres, and we shoot as many as 3000 rounds in a days class... I have no problem with deer leaving.  Guys who have the hunt lease around me have said deer just look our way from time to time and the constant shooting has not bothered their hunting either.  Just throwing it out there...

My gun club has a  private 100 yard range with covered shooting positions.  Access is through a locked gate at the State Highway.  A few years back some members did not bother to lock the gate behind them when they entered the property.  They were going about their business sighting in rifles and were down range checking targets at the 100 yard line when someone drove up to the firing line grabbed a bunch of their guns and drove off.  This is probably what your creepers have in mind if you are not vigilant.

I had a very similar experience in the Ocala National Forest the first and only time I've ever been there.  It was retard anarchy island, and I left soon after I got there.



To this day it amazes me that there aren't weekly killings at that range.



 

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