I was at an indoor range, and this old-timer came in with his teenage grandson to teach him to shoot. They did pretty well, but then flipped the rifle over to put it in the case and in doing so flagged everyone else in the range/shop. I was shooting in the adjacent lane at the time and didn't realize something was going on until I heard the RSO yelling something behind me - ripped this grandpa a new one. Grandpa apologized, RSO said "it's not a huge deal, just learn and here's how to do it right next time"... and the grandpa said "no, it IS a big deal and I screwed up and could've hurt someone so thanks for catching me". That grandson learned two things that day - safe directions AND owning up to your mistakes.=

Imagine going out to buy one's first firearm. You and your wife go out to the desert to practice on the advice from the gun store. Half way through your session, you get a visit from Gun Jesus! "Thou knowest not where thine rounds travel. Here, my child, send thine fury towards the hillside" "Also, wouldst thou like to try some obscure fully automatic prototype from the 1930's that I brought out to film for youtube with my wife?"

Ian remembers the fifth rule of gun safety: when you take fire, go for the big flank and catch your assailant unawares, still looking at your original position :D

“There is nothing more exhilarating than to be shot at with no result.” ― Winston Churchill

Oh the stories many a range officer could tell. Notable one : Shooter enters concrete admin blockhouse carrying his 1911. I ordered him out of the blockhouse with his weapon. He protested that he had "cleared it", proceded to pull the trigger to demonstrate, and pinged a 230 hardball around inside the blockhouse that lodged in the oak desk in front of me. Earned me new skivvies and him a lifetime ban.

I was once shooting sporting clays at a range when we started getting pelted in the face by a station farther down; they couldn't see us through the brush. Being birdshot and far away it didn't penetrate the skin but did leave marks. Without safety glasses we could have lost an eye. We notified an older gentleman working at the range and in the most sarcastic and smart ass way possible he said, do you want me to put a bandaid on it? We never went back to that range.

The most unsafe thing I've ever seen at the range was one guy shooting from a bench while his buddy was next to his target 100 yrds away pointing to his impacts with a stick. They were old and trying to avoid walking back and forth to check their groups. I guess they forgot to bring a spotting scope so this was plan B to avoid walking.

I was at an indoor range at a stall beside the classic “boyfriend teaching his girlfriend to shoot” scenario. He repeatedly stepped back out of the stall with uncased firearms, and I was on my way to complain to the RSO when she turned all the way around holding the AR pistol she had been shooting and pointed it directly at my head. I reflexively grabbed the muzzle to get it away from my face, and got a nice birdcage burn for my trouble. Fortunately the RSO happened to be watching the CCTV when that happened, and ejected them. That’s the worst I’ve been scared in a long time.

Definitely the least safe I've ever seen was new shooters "practicing skeet shooting" by having one guy stand down range and throw clays nearly vertically. Dude was getting muzzle swept every time the shooters (there was more than one) raised their shotguns. Talked to them about why it was a bad idea, how you should throw outwards instead of upwards, everything turned out ok.

I used to shoot .22 ISSF and we once a lady drive a car onto the range halfway through a match. The range had wood pole fences running halfway down on either side of the covered firing points and she obviously took a wrong turn on to the road used by the tractors to mow the lawn and ended up coming around the fence and onto the lawn between the firing points and the targets. I've never see someone's eyes go as wide as hers did when she realized she was staring down 50 barrels pointed in her general direction from the prone position. Suffice to say the range officer's command to cease fire was about 3 octaves higher than normal😆

I had an extractor break on a rented 1911. When I got the RO to come look at it he decided it would be a good idea to put the barrel in his mouth and try to blow the cartridge out. He wasn’t even in the room when I was shooting so he had no way of knowing for sure if it was a live round or a spent casing. It was the dumbest thing I’ve ever seen.

My dad owns a second property a couple miles from his house, and before I was born he and his friends were using it to race RC cars. One day, he and his buddies were out there racing when suddenly rounds started whizzing by right over their heads. They took cover as several more rounds went through, coming from the neighboring treeline. After waiting a bit after the shooting stopped, they went over to investigate and found the neighbors were firing a variety of guns into the treeline...with no backstop. Dad and his buddies were pretty livid to say the least, but I think it just ended with the neighbors taking their guns back inside and never doing it again. Dad told me this decades later as he was building up his own backstop on that property. He had the sense to face his backstop so that even if he missed it, it would go way out into the fields beyond and NOT into a neighbor's yard.

Had a guy try to drop the hammer on his pistol once while it was laying on the trunk of a car. Hammer slipped, and the round discharged in between 2 people standing about 2 feet apart, going through 2 open truck windows, and past my head about 10 yards away while i was talking on the phone down the hill. The bullet went through an ammo box sitting on the trunk, leaving a clean hole through it. They ran over to check on me, asking if I was ok. I brushed it off as them messing around, since I didnt notice the shot, they told me what happened afterward. I still cant believe it missed those 2 guys, went through 2 open truck windows and myself without hitting anything other than an ammo box. Everyone got lucky that day

At an indoor shooting range I watched a guy turn around with his barrel at the ceiling and pull the trigger repeatedly on a loaded gun while exclaiming "something is wrong with this thing" I politely asked to see it and remedied the lightly struck cartridge while explaining to always keep the barrel pointed at the backstop unless it has been cleared and checked.

I was once a participant in a small event where we shot at targets that disappeared when hit. An elderly woman was at the start, she used a revolver. After eliminating all targets, she turns to the audience and says "I still have ammo in my gun, what do I do now?" and - blam! - she fires a .357 into the ground about two meters in front of the first row of spectators.

While in the military at School of Infantry, one of the other students did not understand the concept of an open-bolt weapon and sent the bolt home with a belt in the feed tray of an M249 SAW. The barrel was pointed at the port-o-potty's when it discharged. Within minutes our entire training company was getting a lesson on the characteristics and operating principles of all the weapons we were going to be live-firing that week. The offender received a written reprimand, the training NCOs were shuffled around, and every Marine who witnessed the offender handling his weapon in an unsafe manner was yelled at. Range safety is EVERYONE's responsibility. Mistakes happen but uncorrected mistakes are unforgivable. Edit: I don't know what training is common today, I served in the 90's. Compared to boot camp and the fleet, SOI was a cluster-f**k. When I went through we were divided by MOS, and sub-divided into sections depending on how many trainees were in the MOS. My MOS training Sgt was a lazy shitbird so he kept our section away from the others most of the time and would wonder off while leaving us to read for ourselves the expected lesson. Consequently, for my MOS we learned how to handle the M249 by a very short practical drill and test by a different training NCO: take it apart, put it pack together, demonstrate how to load it with a belt, unload, then load a magazine, unload, good-to-go, or get called a stupid fuck and have to redo it from the beginning. Book knowledge was usually quizzed to the whole section and as long as someone in the section knew the answer, we all got credit. The only exception to this was land navigation where each team of 2 was expected to have all of the answers for their assigned course. Even then, some of the training NCOs would just give the answers to their section just to get a pass and not have to come back on Saturday for retesting. I didn't learn land navigation effectively until completing the Land-Nav MCI in the fleet, and due to a really good platoon Sargent who kept us all learning and demonstrating new skills.

Back around 2006 I was at a range with a friend sighting in his hunting rifles, when he suddenly looked left, immediately dropped his rifle and jumped back. I didn’t see what he’d seen but did the same, and a split second later heard the range officer screaming “CEASE FIRE!” A couple guys had started walking diagonally across the range to set up their targets while the range was still hot and seemed utterly flabbergasted why this was a bad idea.

I lived in a remote cabin in the 80's and one sunny Sunday five rounds came in all around me, very near. I could hear someone shooting in the distance. I started shouting as we ran inside and I went back out to shoot some .38s into the ground to alert them. They stopped. No idea who it was. Then, TWICE, I've been showing a newbie how to shoot. First was a buddy and then a girlfriend years later. Both times I set them up with a 1911 and a safe target. I had coverd the Four Rules with them both. Both times they fired the first round and spun around to say how cool that was, completely forgetting the rules in their excitement as they fanned everyone with a loaded pistol and finger on the trigger. My lesson here was to only load ONE round for a newb.

At the range a former acquaintance went to put his 416 Rigby in his vehicle, as he placed it in the back of the SUV it discharged and shot completely through the vehicle and the projectile passed directly between a group of five shooters and continued down range. It was the most surreal feeling we were totally confused as what just happened. The Worst part was he jumped in his car and drove off not checking on anything or anyone. And that’s why he is a former acquaintance.

remember one guy in our conscript year in german military, firing his G3, missing target and turning around at his class, asking, what he did wrong, while gun still shouldered. He got smacked down by the instructor before he could finish the sentence.. he never did that again.

The craziest thing I’ve seen at the range was a guy bracing the muzzle of his pistol against his own stomach so he could work the slide. I informed him that that’s a great way to get a gut shot.

Oh holy crap Ian. My own most unsafe experience was at a range where a group of around 15 “gun tourists” from China were led by a single English speaker with a couple AR’s. They didn’t have a clue regarding the English language, gun safety, range rules or etiquette. So in addition to shooting everyone else’s targets full of random holes, their unsafe handling of said ARs (yes, even pointing barrels at other shooters), photography of other people at the range got them and all future tourists permanently kicked out. Scary!

I have a dangerous shooting story: A couple of us were in the woods shooting at a pile of old junk and trash dumped there by people not wanting to pay for proper disposal... old furniture, appliances, yard waste. Anyway, I shot into some twisted metal junk and heard it ricochet, loud. I fired once again, and felt something smack my stomach. I thought one of my friends was messing around and thew a small rock at me to mess me up. Nope, looked down and saw a flat penny-shaped chunk of lead sticking out of my shirt. I pulled it out and it was hot, of course. Thank God I was only shooting a .22 pistol, so it only gave me a small bruise below where it cut into my shirt, didn't even break the skin. Probably it lost a good bit of it's energy in the ricochet, but still dangerous. We obviously stopped immediately and moved on to some other pile of junk to shoot at. I still have that flattened bullet on a shelf at home. Technically, because of this, I guess I can say that I've shot someone and have been shot, if both being me and my fault still counts. :)

Oddly enough I got into the shooting sports back in the 80s when someone convinced me I should become a cop, took and intro class, police science I think, and intro to firearms, hated the former, just wasn't for me, but couldn't wait to get to the range twice a week, however, I discovered that even in a controlled, classroom environment we weren't necessarily safe, there was a temperamental woman that fancied herself a cop, she also fancied herself an expert shot, and when she would miss at 7, or 15 yards she would without exception become highly irritated, at which point she would gesticulate wildly with that ancient Colt revolver, pointing it at the target, then turning to those of us on the line and pointing it at us to look at her target, becoming more agitated with each non-ten ring hit, there were many, on one occasion at the end of her session she took off her belt ant returned it to the box and did the same with her handgun, I was in the following group and sensing her mood made sure to grab her weapon, opened the cylinder and sure enough, two live rounds, she'd left in her usual huff and simply dumped the gun without clearing, wonder if she became a cop?

Ah yes the space-saving Elbonian two-way range. Since discontinued, I hear they are reconsidering it's use on account of urban encroachment. In all seriousness, glad to hear you're okay after the experience. Geez...

Me and my dad shooting at a private range, just a road with some targets at the end and huts every 50 yards. We were shooting shotguns at 100, when some jackass started shooting his fucking m14 from 50 yards behind us. Gotta say we didn't handle this as gently as you did this

At a FFDO requal (armed pilot program), the requal was run by some FBI guys and during the in briefing, they relayed the following tale. Another agent was in the day room and was going to demonstrate some firearm technique using his unloaded gun. With his unloaded gun, he shot a hole in the day room television set. So, for the next week, all the targets at the range were Xeroxed copies of television sets.

My worst incident here in the UK; my club was shooting at a "major national" centre just outside of London. Range is a large field with firing points from 600 to 100yrds. Range office had given us instruction as to which lane we were in at 100yrd, and as we proceeded to walk out with our gear, we started hearing whizzes and cracks nearby. I immediately went prone looking behind me seeing that the office had given us the incorrect lane, which would have involed us crossing a line of live fire from 600yrd point behind us. Fortunately noone was injured, but the idiocy involved proves that even on a national standard range, you must ALWAYS be aware of your surroundings. No staggering of firing points or "Live Fire Ahead" signage were in place. They even still charged us for the range use!

Had a French Officer Cadet ND with a FAMAS on 3-round burst while slung that nearly took my toes off; he just flipped the safety on and acted like nothing had happened, as did all the other French OCdts, and their Directing Staff. I think it was the need for diplomacy that kept myself and the other Brits around me from melting le moron...

Most unsafe thing I’ve seen: Army basic BRM. First day on the range to zero and we had a guy fire his five rounds and then get up and start running (yes, actually running) down range to check his target before the ceasefire was called. He didn’t leave basic with the same rank he started with.

Two things come to mind for me. First , many years ago a group of us were shooting full auto on a private range where one end of the berm was being extended making the target area wider and while several of us were shooting 3 young kids (early teens) came flying over the berm on 4 wheelers landing in the target area. Lucky for them we all saw them coming over the berm and shopped shooting. The property owner light into them big time about trespassing and ignoring all the warning signs about it being a gun range. Second time was about a month ago at an indoor range I was trying to sight in my new rifle and there was a young couple in the lane next to me who were just finishing up shooting what I believe was an AR-15 based pistol. I was hanging my target in front of the bench by leaning over it to clip it to the target frame the girl did a 30 round mag dump from about 2 feet BACK from the firing line basically putting me in front of the muzzle, the muzzle blast from her gun literally tore my target away. My head was pounding as the muzzle blast was incredible even with my hear protection on. I was very glad to see them leave the range.

I remember being in a pawn/gun shop once when a guy came in wanting to sell his handgun, and dropped a brown paper bag on the counter. The shopkeeper asked him to remove it himself, as he didn't want to reach into a bag for a mystery gun when he has no idea what condition it's in. Guy gets it out of the bag, lays it on the table, and the shopkeeper proceeds to clear it himself, discovering a full magazine and round in the chamber. Yeah, none of the nearby patrons were happy. After chewing the guy out for a minute, the shopkeeper asked some basic questions (like how long he'd had it, etc.), to which the guy starts spinning some yarn about how he doesn't know, because it's his girlfriend's gun, and she was at work at the time, and could he leave it here while he went home to ask her? Shopkeeper wasn't too keen on that idea. That's about when I decided to leave, because the whole thing was getting super sketchy. Or maybe they kicked him out, I can't remember. Either way, there was very little real danger, but it was a pretty clear demonstration that there are people with access to firearms who should NOT.

I was at a small gun rental in Atlanta one time. There were two girls at the station next to me who clearly had never handled a gun before... I guess whoever was running the range didn't ask them nor instruct them. Every time they fired the Glock they would rock the slide after the shot. When doing so they would rock it in such a way that it would tilt and point directly at me... I did go and help them out before they accidentally hurt someone. They learned fast and were safe the rest of the time.

My most unsafe incident happened when I was a Corporal in the Infantry. We were doing a twilight shoot with Stirling SMGs. My Platoon Commander asked me to RSO the right hand half of the line while he took the left due to low visibility. As the line was firing, I heard a strange POP from the shooter in front to my left and saw a large flame come out of the ejection port. "STOP. Unload, make safe." The Lt came running back over and sure enough, an out of battery had occurred and blocked the barrel. Buddy bought me beers that night in the mess.

In USAF nurse was qualifying on M1911; she aims at target, can’t get the safety off, and swings around shouting (while working safety & trigger) ‘I can’t get this thing to work!’ Everyone hit the deck real fast.

I was once out at an outdoor range near Beal AFB in northern California. There is no range master, just a firing line made up of a line of concrete picnic tables and then a series of berms at different distances leading up to a big hill as the final backstop, probably 300 yards is the farthest you can shoot. I'd been out there lots of times. Lots of friendly people, good times. Well, one day I was there with some friends and we were down on the left end of the line, happily shooting, listening to the sounds of an active range, like popcorn popping. Pop! Pop! Bang! Pop! Bang! Bang! Pop! Pop! And then, BOOOOM! Everything went quiet and we all looked down to the right end of the line and there was some dude with a HUGE revolver. BOOOOM! Goes another shot. BOOOM! And then, click. Confused, the guy points the gun at his face to look down the barrel! And the way he did so pointed the gun to the left, down the firing line at everyone else there. My friends and I hit the dirt immediately under the table. And looked at each other in horror. I just said, "truck, now!" We scrambled to the truck and backed it up way behind things to figure out what to do or possibly watch this guy blow his head off. Luckily some other guys gave him some "education" and he left.

The most unsafe thing I've witnessed was a "my first day at the range" event at my local gun range. Local dealers brought out a couple of guns to test fire (pistols, revolvers, shotguns, etc...) and instructors taught people how to use them. And most instructors took safety very seriously. Most. There was this one guy at the pistol range, who was just not caring what people did. Beginners got hurt by the slide of the pistols because he hadn't taught them how to properly grip the pistols. And many people flagged themselves or others, at times with loaded AND CHAMBERED pistols. In the end, I told the RO about the safety risk and luckily, he stepped in by suggesting the guy to "take a coffee break and have someone else take over". Luckily, no one got seriously hurt.

New shooters unfamiliar with safety rules is one thing, but people who should know better screwing the basics up is whole different type of stupidity. When I was doing my Finnish military service, I remember one moron, who by that point had already gained a reputation for his baffling idiocy, reveal that up to that point he had only followed the safety rules by accident. He just started randomly pointing his rifle every which way, including at the sergeant who told him to stop. In response the sergeant physically ripped the still loaded and ready to fire RK out of his hands and basically told the guy to fuck off. It's not like this was our first day at the range or anything but apparently repeating the safety rules dozens upon dozens of times still isn't enough for some unfortunate individuals.

Props to Ian for being so polite in that situation. I probably wouldn't have been too thrilled

I remember me and a buddy went to the rifle range as kids to pick brass. We ended up on the far side of the range looking for "'intact'" bullets in the hill that was used as backstop. We sat down in a ditch to go over and compare what we had found when bullets started to snap over our heads. We ended up low crawling in the ditch to get out of there. lol, good memories of stupid stuff we did as kids. The distance from the shooting platform to the backstop was around 1000m so we would have been pretty hard to spot if the shooter used iron or a low powered scope.

When I was a teen, a classmate had a disused doghouse in his yard that we used as a plinking target. One time, we unloaded on it with BBs, pellets, and paintballs for an hour and then, during a pause, a drifter hurried out of the doghouse and ran off. We had no idea he was in there.

More than once I've seen (most of us have seen) Johnny Rambo at the range waving around his gold Desert Eagle. More than once I've seen a Range Officer almost tackle one of these guys.

This was in the bay area when the night stalker serial killer was terrifying everyone including my great grandmother. She was a little tiny thing (RIP) and decided she ought to buy a 38 snub nose and not tell anyone. That is until my father found it one day and asked about it. Then she proceeded to tell him that she'd been practicing in her fenced in suburban back yard to learn how to shoot. I'm very surprised she didn't kill someone. Suffice to say she didn't take shit though.

Not the shooting range, but the first time I went into a store to buy ammo, some middle aged dude asked me what gun I had and when I told him, he said I needed to get one like his. So he proceeded to unholster his gun and point it directly at my upper chest to show it off. I moved to the side and he tracked me with his gun and when I, now flustered and with quite a bit of adrenaline going, asked him to put his gun back in his holster, he told me to not worry because it was on safe. He then proceeded to yell at me for being some "new age youngin' that didn't know anything" (His exact words which are now etched into my cranium as what I thought were the last words I'd ever hear before I died. His wife finally came over and told him to know it off because "You're scaring the poor child" (I was 21). I went and told the shop owner if they saw what had just happened and they told me: "Oh, that's Bob (fake name), he does that all the time. Don't worry about him." And that's the story of how I can never purchase anything from the one store locally that sells ammo or guns. I literally drive an hour away because they were just cool with that shit.

I saw a video once of Mexican Federales training with eggs. They had a berm set up maybe 15 to 20 yards from the firing line and then set their eggs on the berm and then they'd shoot them (I think they were using M4s). The catch was that when you hit your egg you would then walk down to the berm and replace the egg with a new one and try to shoot that one. You did this while everyone was still trying to shoot their egg. No cease fire. No partitions between lanes. Just one big firing line with people shooting while other people were replacing targets. I will say that this training looked deliberate, like they were trying to get people used to having rounds going off all around them.

My wife and I had just gotten engaged and were visiting her parents whose country home sat adjacent to a large reservoir. We had gone for a walk on the public land behind her parents home which was a mix of woods and old farm land going down towards the lake. We were walking back to the house when, about 200 meters from the house I heard the first round cutting high grass and hit the rising ground in front of us. This was followed by the sound of rifle fire. The next round hit towards our right side and I was yelling at my bride to be to run. She was confused about it at first but picked up on what was happening pretty fast when she heard the popping of the rifle. We made it, no problems, but her family was pretty steamed. They heard the shooting, saw us running back and already called the game warden. Seems that people would go down into the old creek bottom that ran into the lake to shoot and poach deer from time to time. Never heard back from the game warden.

This is a story from a friend of mine. I've been to the place it happened. There are some forest roads we go shooting on, originally made for logging and occasionally in use for it. There are gravel pits and abandoned roads that are popularly used as shooting pits, but the abandoned roads are occasionally used by hikers. It's simple - you don't shoot there if somebody has left their vehicle or a sign or something. In this specific road, it's a long slow incline that makes for a great berm, and at the top is a sharp turn left around. It's on the side of a mountain, so the corner is thankfully safe. But as long as you follow the rule "don't shoot where you know there's people," you don't need to utilize cover. Well, in the case of my buddy, a bunch of morons completely disregarded that rule. He left his truck to go on a hike, and when he was almost back at his truck, some real human beans opened fire. He had to use a tree for cover as he screamed for them to hold fire. Now he positions his truck to completely block off access and make shooting a massive pain.

Navigating a tank range in the 1980's, the jeep with the evaluator for the tank ahead of us turned around and came back up the live fire road, instead of following the tank down the return road at the end of the range. The jeep ended up driving in front of our machine gun target as we were engaging it. Fortunately, my Gunner ceased fire in time and didn't kill them.

Sitting out in the training area of West Berlin 1988(this was right next to the Berlin Wall) as a member of a US Tank Platoon (4 M60A3 tanks), I was eating an MRE while sitting on the front of my tank. The area was cleared land about a mile along . Anyway , a US infantry mortar platoon(4 M113 APC's with 107mm mortars) was at the other end . Well that mortar platoon , decided to shoot a downrange training excersie , using our tanks as targets! I saw 4 puffs from the 4 tracks, , heard the whumps, and then a few seconds later , there were 4 small explosions and columns of smoke, in and around our tanks. These were spotting/training rounds, not HE, , but the one that landed closest to me , about 10 yards from me/front of my tank, blew about a 2 foot hole in the ground. I was thinking that was pretty dangerous, and those mortarmen are obviously infantry! i.e. idiots! My TC pops up out of the tank, yelling. "What the F are you doing Perrien ?! Get in the GD Tank! Everybody button up! Artillery Attack!", Getting in the tank another 4 mortar round were fired and landed , luckily again none hit anybody or dropped though a tank hatch (which would have detonated the tank ammo, and pieces of tank would h ave been landing in East Berlin LOL). We buttoned up quickly, so they could not really hurt us now. I think they dropped a third salvo , IDK. I get inside, my TC was fumbling though our code book like a madman trying to find a freq and callsign for that unit or range control IDK. There were 2 of us in the tank. Anyway, I finally got "P' O'ed" about idiots nearly killing my ass. So , I loaded a 105mm HEAT (black one , not a blueone;)), into our tank cannon. and put the gun on "fire". Climbed over to the gunner's seat , and spun the turret to aim at one of them idiot infantry mortar PC's. My TC knocked off balanced when I spun the turret , said " WTF are doing you Perrien!?" I said,"If they shoot again , I am shooting back!" I looked though the tank sight and pointed the cannon at the APC's and sighted in on one , then I thought. No those idiots are just following orders of their officer idiot , and killing them would probably be a " Big No-NO" LOL So I pointed the gun, slighly off target, to blow a big hole in the ground near them , I could see several troops in front of the PC's with bino's (probably their idiot platoon leader too) gesturing wildly, and pointing at my tank. They never fired another salvo . I don't know if they really knew how close they came to dying . But I had my finger on the trigger , gun off safe and that 105 HEAT would have destroyed that track and probably killed sevral soldiers near it as well. And I came about a trigger pull/second from going to Leavenworth from intentionally blowing away 10-20 US soldiers or just firing a live shell in that area/next to the Berlin Wall. I can only think what the East German and Russian Guards in the Iron Curtain machine gun towers watching this whole show thought! "Jeezus , these crazy ass Americans are fighting each other!" LOL I hope it scared them. If I had fired that cannon with a live HEAT round , it would have been an international incident. The Mortar Platoon leader was relieved of command , and various write ups handed out to several other supervisors/NCO's of that unit.

I was out in the desert one day with my grandfather, setting up some steel when something very similar happened, the people were shooting rifles and the Crack of a round came very close (about 10 yards) My grandfather hit the dirt, while I just kind of looked around and started shouting loudly that there's people over here, lol I walked over and asked them to hold off for min for us to move. It was a "fun" experience 🙃

My maintenance detachment was supporting a tank unit during their annual training. That included tank gunnery for them. Our encampment was a good 90 degrees off to the side and over a 1000 meters away from the tank range. I was in the shop truck when there was a BOOM-CRACK... Seems one of the gunners had gotten outside the range fan. and was intending to engage dismounts in the open with the M240 coax but had the main gun selected by mistake and fired the sabot directly over us.

I was at a IPSC match when a new shooter ran forward to shoot a couple targets and then did a complete 180 facing the watching crowd. She then came running back and it was like Mozes splitting the sea. One part of the crowd ran left. Me and the rest ran to the right.

I worked as a range safety officer when I got out of the military years ago. At the time I considered myself vehemently pro-gun After working there for a year I had seen a ton of stupid stuff that “average Joe” gun owners do that actually changed my whole mindset on guns. Some of the things I saw were 1. A older man in his 60s just walk onto the hot range to change his target, and they look puzzled when I told him to leave 2. Younger guy throws a old iron wok onto the dirt backstop and attempts to shoot at it before I stopped him. His logic was we rent AR500 steel targets and the wok is steel so what’s the big deal? 3. We had a few clubs at the range where old (65+) guys would shoot together and bullshit to get away from their wives. One day they were shooting pistols and had set up their targets in a way where the rounds were going over the backstop. When I told them to correct it they all got a massive attitudes and left I’m still pro gun, but holy fuck are their allot of dumb gun owners, and they all think they are subject matter experts

Did you give the couple a quick history of the firearm they were using?

I shot the ground like 3 feet away from my foot with a 500 Magnum. I have a single action MRI BFR, I cocked it which requires moving my support hand. I put it down to low ready and tried to regrip my support hand, and either I touched off the trigger with my gloved dominant hand, or my support hand, I don't know. However I screwed up, it left an inch wide hole in the ground that probably goes all the way to the earth's core, 440gr hard cast moving over 1700fps, the BFR flew out of my hand, bounced off the ceiling, and landed about 10 feet away. Happened at a nearly empty unsupervised range in the middle of nowhere, easily the event in my life that I'm the most ashamed of...

I've spent some time shooting railroad track plates, as my family business comes across a lot of scrap metal. Normally, with pistol rounds, .22 LR, buck/birdshot, this was no issue as the somewhat hardened steel tended to simply splash the lead, stopping it dead. However, I at one point decided to take my Westinghouse Mosin to the range, and 7.62 screaming at 2700 fps was enough to crater the 3/4" thick steel, sending a couple of shards flying backwards(safety glasses were worn, thankfully). Feeling a sting in my right shoulder, I just assumed I had failed to brace the thing properly, until I noticed a little spot of blood on my tank top, and a bit of lead stuck in me! Suffice to say, those track plates are now jack plates, not targets.

Couple of us were all trussed up in our shooting jackets and slings shooting prone at a public shooting area. In the middle of doing our thing, we hear rapid fire coming from behind us and dust flying all around our targets 50 yards down range. We roll over and look back in time to see some fine folks hanging one handed out the side door of a van practicing their drive by shooting skills. During the reloading faze of their drill we walked up to inquire why they thought shooting a couple feet over us and at our targets was a good idea and they commented that since it’s public land they were free to do whatever they wanted and that they assumed the targets were public as well. Things rapidly went south from there.

Mr. Tacticool Cosplaytriot was at the public range once, nice place for sighting in your hunting rifle, not so much for drills. But he did anyway. And every time he dropped his rifle to his side on the nifty single-point sling, he swept the entire line to his right.

Was on a live fire, night fire exercise at 29 palms California. We had M16's, M60 light machine guns, M60 tanks firing their main guns and M2 50 cals across/down this open valley. I guess there was a road (civilian highway) at the end of it, presumably out of range. You could see headlights of vehicles going off road to come down to investigate. Was on a live fire range in Hawaii for an assortment of weapon systems, multiple stations depending on the weapon. I don't know if the guy was in the wrong place or if they were dropping short rounds but the road guard for the 60mm mortar range came running back to camp, said they were dropping them right in front of him. Was on a live fire exercise in the Philippines. Locals started coming into the down range area to scavenge brass before we were done. As far as I know none of those turned out bad.

I've heard tales of someone shooting a Mauser, not locking the bolt all the way down, telling someone at the next point to mind their own business when they pointed out the issue, only for captain Mauser to blow up the gun and sever his thumb a dozen rounds later.

My brother learned about knowing your backstop the hard way. He shot holes in a few of our neighbors 12 x 5 foot plate glass windows with his soon to be confiscated BB gun. Fortunately, it was nothing a summer of detasseling corn could not pay for.

The worst thing I saw at a shooting range happened a few decades ago. We had a pistol demonstration and evaluation session where a large number of LE officers would have a change to test fire various pistols in various calibers. During the first relay of six shooters, one of them would fire one or two rounds, stop firing and turn the pistol sideways to examine it thus pointing a loaded pistol at every shooter on the line to his left. The first time the RO gave him a stern warning. The second time the RO sent him directly home. You should have seen the terror in everybody's eyes seeing this. Specially the ones to his left who happened to look and see why someone had stopped firing. They were ducking and trying to get out of the line of fire as fast as they could with terror in their eyes.

I have had a few close calls at the range, usually with a new person to the shooting world that did not have someone to show them the ropes as it were. With the best intentions in the world, someone who is ignorant can only be accidentally safe. Keep in mind that the overwhelming odds are that the only examples are what they see in movies and none of them are very good with safety etc. I've had loaded guns pointed at me when they were looking around to see who was walking by, I've had people next to me mag dump into the ceiling or the walls of the indoor range. I've had one person drop their pistol off the forward side of the bench - in front of the firing line and just hop over the bench to get it. Just about every handling error possible including someone that did not know that there were different calibers and just thought you bought Smith and Wesson bullets for all Smith and Wessons (fortunately they were struggling to get 40 s&w rounds into their .380 magazine and failing). I have taken to not going on busy days/times and watching the line a bit before going to a stall myself. I have lost count of the safety and handling lessons I have given so that I could practice safely. I have tried shifting to a different range only to have the same issue. Thinking of joining a gun club for safety, but the closest one wants me to have a recommendation from a member (I don't know any of their members) and has a 100 person waiting list. Not sure that kind of club would be for me - seems a little socialite thing and I am a nerd.

I had a similar experience, in the Army. Group guys at a canted angle to us, and they were shooting air-burst 40mm. I have never sought cover so fast in my life.

I saw a guy put the barrel of his. 22 in his mouth to try and blow out a jammed light primer cartridge

Back in 2010 I got to come home for some leave time in the military so I brought my mother and her first and new handgun to a spot in the nevada desert to shoot against a mountain valley hillside pretty similar to Ian's shooting spot, but a lot less cactusy-- I brought a couple of my guns for her to shoot just to enjoy the day. Just like Ian's hillside, there were many spots where people shoot against the same length of mountain; to our left at a spot 50 yards away was a group of teenagers showed up a half hour later that seemed to have bought their first long guns. At first, they were respectful to the rules of firearm safety, but eventually that went out of the window when they were trying to "bend the bullet like the movie Wanted" and "do a 360 no scope" with a couple of .22lr rifles and some shotguns. As you can imagine what happened, a couple of rounds zipped our direction and to the shooters behind them facing the other hillside across the valley by about 500 yards. Unlike Ian, I was not calm and instead quite apocalyptically pissed. I can't quite remember what I said, but it was enough for them to pack up and leave; something about range etiquette, getting the sheriff involved and if it kept happening a quip about defending myself by sending rounds back at them with judicious accuracy. My mother likes bragging about the story during family holidays, however since then I wear a chest rig and keep a full trauma kit with me everytime I go shoot outdoors.

In the early 00's when my buddy was a Marine Corps D I one of his jobs was teaching recruits how to throw live grenades. Well one day during training a recruit pulled the pin then panicked, threw the pin and dropped the grenade. My buddy tackled the guy as hard as he could out of the pit and into the safety pit. To keep this family friendly my buddy was pissed and the recruit got in a lot of trouble. The most dangerous thing that I have experienced at a range was being flagged with a chambered .308. But for a long time I was going to a private range that very few people could use so I have been lucky. Now that I no longer have access to that range (sadly the owner passed away) I am sure that I will be experiencing more.

The most unsafe experience I had shooting was when I was out with a group of friends shooting at a mountainside. Some back story here: We have permission to be on this guy's property, we can all see directly what is infront of us. No trees, nothing in the way, just a straight shot to this great back stop. After being here for a couple hours, some guy rolls up in this lifted f350 and block all of our vehicles in and he starts waving a pistol at us, threatening to shoot us. He apparently was yelling "stop firing" because he was in the woods off to our left (illegally on this property i might add) shooting with his friends. None of us heard anything the entire time so we never stopped shooting minus going to modify our targets. They werent even in our line of fire either. All 5 of us had to calm him down and try to get him to leave since, coincidentally, we all just shot the last of the ammo we had and were getting ready to head home. 100% was expecting to get shot at that day and we managed to get this guy to stop waving a loaded gun at us and get him to leave this property. Ever since then I have always had my conceal carry loaded or atleast a spare mag on standby when I go target practice.

The national guard unit I belonged to back in the 80's had a hole through the back of the armory safe, the wall behind it, the wall on the other side of the parking bay for the 2.5 and 5 ton trucks, and then through the next wall on the other side of the classroom.... Out the building into a farmers field.... Someone squeezed the trigger on a Ma Deuce to "prove it clear" before putting it away.🙄🤨

My most unsafe range experience came from my time in the arm while deployed to Afghanistan. Bunch of soldiers from another unit thought horseplay with 40mm HE was acceptable because the range was outside the wire. One decided to one-hand his M320. The grenade detonated about 25-30 meters in front of me. Our platoon sergeant put a righteous stop to those antics. They packed up and left a moment afterward.

Hey Ian, I hope you explained to them WHY they needed to reposition their target/change their shooting direction, because if you didn't then they will be just a likely to remake the mistake, potentially with more serious consequences. I understand that you don't want to be mean to someone who had no ill intent, but this is a serious safety issue which needs to be fully explained and understood.

I can’t help but remember the scene from “BlCk Hawk Down” “Why aren’t you shouting?” “They aren’t shooting at us!” “How can you tell?” “A crack means it’s close, a snap means-“ *snap* “Now they’re shootings at us!”

I had a similar experience, when I was in the military. I was in an Army engineer battalion. We went to a correctional facility, to help renovate their shooting range. We were out there with heavy equipment, rebuilding the berm and stuff. After the majority of the work was done, some of us went downrange on foot to inspect our work. Meanwhile, somebody must have thought the work was done, and decided to start using the range! Needless to say, we were NOT amused when bullets started whizzing past us! Those correctional officers got a thorough ass-chewing.

closest shave I have had was with an arrow I was clearing brush from the side of a highway(dangerous work so you are careful!) suddenly there was a thud ... the ground had vibrated too so I looked down to see the flight of a target arrow! missed by less than a foot! not EVER did I think THAT would have been a risk of highway work but there you go! we found out later there was an archery class that was close enough to have sent it and we made them aware they maybe needed to watch their students a little more (highway traffic at risk and that direction of fire was banned on site) returned their arrow and left it's not just the range that can be scary best wishes to all and follow the 4 rules :)

I am legit scared to go to public shooting ranges because I have had several awful experiences with claimed experienced shooters being extremely cavalier about waving hot weapons around and pointing them at other shooters. I even went to a friend's club where someone started firing down range while several other shooters were changing targets at the backstop. There is an unreal amount of unsafe gun owners out there and it seems the dumb ones use their experience to rationalize their unsafe practices.

One day at basic Training in the austrian armed forces when we went to the range we were split into 2 big groups. One was shooting at the range while the other one was marching in formation. My Sergeant decided that it would be a good idea to take us marching parallel to the range. Everything got shut down as soon as the supervisor saw us down there and luckily nobody besides the Sergeants ego got injured.

I saw a video once from a 3-gun competition, guy is going through a stage, turns a corner and runs into an RO taping up targets.

My most unsafe experience was a few years ago. Someone in front of me lost grip on his pistol and tried to catch that falling thing. 2 yards next to me the bullet impacted the wall. This is a vacation trip (to Slovakia) that I will never forget. It was also a range where every untrained civilian can rent and shoot full auto stuff (from PM63 to MG42) The rest of the day, after the immense amount of adrenaline left my body, was one of the greatest days of my life

When I was on active duty my unit was at Camp Fuji doing a machine gun and m203 shoot. We had just finished courses of fire with the mk19 and 203 and EOD had declared the range cold to go clear any UXO so we could put up targets for the 249 and 240 course up next. The area was cleared, 5 or 6 Marines and I started taking the new targets downrange. A JGSDF unit had pulled into the firing line next to my unit's for some training and I guess they got confused as to which area they were supposed to be shooting at because the area we were walking to started to get lit up with machinegun fire. The firing line was elevated above the impact area and you can see the foot path to get to the target area clearly so I have no clue how they didn't notice a bunch of noisy Marines with big ass targets, pallets, etc but they claimed they never saw us. Based on where the rounds impacted, the supersonic cracks, and the angle they had to be firing from the rounds were flying uncomfortably close over our heads. No one got hurt and I don't think anyone got in trouble but it was more than a little annoying being shot at by people who are supposedly trained.

I was once doing a magdump with a group of friends at the range, there were 5 of us on line, and once the shooting was over and I *thought* we were all empty, I was moving back from the line just as I heard a bang. One of my buddies had a round left in the chamber and had popped it off into the ground a few feet from my leg. He looked sheepish for the rest of the session and he never showed up to the range again.

I've been hit my a ricochet before! My local pistol range uses metal stands to hold two 2x2 boards up to hang targets from. A new shooter was at the range seemed to be squeezing her shots low hitting the metal base. What had to be a good 80% of mangled 9mm bullet came back and hit me in the arm. Thankfully not with a lot of speed and barely broke the skin but it has forever convinced me of safety glasses because it could've easily taken an eye.

This was around 2019, and some friends of a co worker and, the co worker, and myself were at a range with a tac bay. During that session, the co worker goes up to change targets, and one of the other people proceeds to load up his pistol and shoot a target while the guy was down range. I saw it, I knew what I saw, but I couldn't believe what I saw. Needless to say, he was asked to leave.

I've experienced something similar to this. My family and I were camping at a designated camping area. It was late at night and we were around the campfire and heard someone start shooting down the road from us. Rounds were flying over our campsite. The park we were at did not allow discharging of firearms. That shit was wild and I'm glad no one was injured

Can we all just say that Ian is a champ not going ballistic like most of us might after getting shot at.

The worst part about that second story is that the one in the back is the one who is a bad shot.

While at an indoor range, a guy had a sawed off shotgun without a butt stock he was shooting despite being against range rules. Gave it to an older woman to shoot. It knocked out all her front teeth. She had to go to hospital and range had to close that section for cleaning

Back in the early 80's some butter bar had us shooting an M2 on a 25m range causing a lot of rounds to bounce all over the place. We got a bunch of shrapnel coming back at us, and I caught one in the arm.

Worst I’ve had is a pair of idiots who wouldn’t warn anyone before they went downrange to change targets.

I've been a range officer for the military before. You'd think that being in the military generally means a person knows how to shoot to a basic degree and understands safety. You'd be wrong. Assume nothing. I've seen accidental shootings, ricochet hits, lost fingers, destroyed hands, exploded rifles, struck vehicles. Yikes.

Let's say somebody I happen to know had the funny idea to try something special. He hooked up an electrically fired MG to a battery, and then had the bright idea to get one long ammo belt, must have been 500 or so rounds. Being an aircraft MG, he was wise enough to attach it to a table and then hooked the battery and suddenly the whole thing comes alive as he didn't know in which position the firing solenoid was, before he knew what happened the thing goes out of control, the back legs of the table give way and suddenly it's firing up in the air at a 45° angle with a runaway belt. Now the gun was attached with plastic zip ties which melt after maybe 50 rounds and the whole thing makes a backflip and arcs backwards towards where everyone is standing. Luck would have it they ran to the left towards the cars, and not to the right where the gun fell and raked the ground. The ammo runs out and they get out of cover some with extra content in their pants. Now they were lucky as they were smart enough to try this in an old quarry pit, the problem is that they had a few hundred rounds going into a parabolic arc towards the nearest village. Luckily nobody got hurt, bullets did little or no damage to speak of, but yeah, runaway machineguns are very scary and extremely loud especially coming from a quarry. And that's when the police showed up ... "Hey guys !" "Hey Chief !" Yeah, the genius with the MG happened to be the chief of police and of all present nobody who didn't have some kind of official badge ... Let's say they buried the whole thing given nobody got hurt.

In the UK: Way back in the 80s I shot 22LR target pistol at my local range, the ceiling and roof had holes in them and there were bullet holes in the desks at the firing line. At least one club member shot himself dead 'cleaning' his gun at home. Post Hungerford but pre Dunblane we sold our guns as we could see the writing on the wall.

The public land incident is wild, wise reaction on your part. That's why I always recommend new owners/ shooters to bring an experienced person with them, not just for fundamentals sake, but so stuff like that doesn't happen.

A SGM that I knew would check targets while soldiers were still firing and call out sight adjustments from down range. “Y’all MFs better not shoot me.” As he points his knife.

Been there done that, just much closer. Mine was once whine at a range in the town I attended undergrad and vet school I was signing in my 94 Winchester .30 WCF. While out at the 200 yard target checking my target I heard a whistler and then a whistler followed by a dull thud in the target behind me. Yeah I was getting shot at. I tucked low against side berm, running low and fast came up on the 100 yard and two Iraq veterans who were at range asked me what was up and before I could answer they heard it and we all ran to the firing line. I went around the berm to find a student from my university who was attempting to teach some students who had just arrived in Texas how to shoot. Unfortunately they were firing at the rocks and bullets were ricocheting over their berm and into the rifle range.

Good stories Ian, I love this new platform of answering questions. Also that hoodie is awesome, love the color, I need one of those!!

Definitely my own fault on "closest to be shot" but I stapled a target to an old stump on a burm and was stacking rounds with my 10/22 and eventually a ricochet came in inches from my head striking the barn behind me. That concluded my range day.

In a similar vein, I want to tell a story in the hopes of sparking a conversation. There is a nice shooting range in the desert, on BLM land, north of Grand Junction, CO. It has concrete shooting benches under a metal roof (a little shade is good). The range has distance markers, to my certain knowledge, beyond 300yds. It even has a gong at either 1000 or 1500 yds. (I never shot at it, measured it or went out to it). There is a nice graveled path beside the range where you can walk or drive a ATV down range. The entire range is back stopped very nicely by the bookcliffs. If you've not seen them, they rise very abruptly over a thousand feet and make an excellent backstop. There is even a HUGE sign posted with range safety rules. Here is my complaint. It is shot to $%^#. You name the part of that facility and somewhere on it there are bullet holes or scars. People have shot the roof, the structure that holds up the roof, the shooting benches, the posts in the fence around the parking lot, the concrete bumpers you park against, the rules sign, the yardage markers, the trash cans, etc etc. There is far too much damage for it to have been accidental discharges. Can someone explain to me why so many people think it's acceptable to shoot the facility? Is it not enjoyable enough to take a target onto the range to shoot at? Are they so *&@(@$_) lazy that they can't walk out there? Personally I feel like people caught shooting up a public facility should forfeit their vehicle for use as a range target. This type of behavior just burns me up. And yes, I realize it is most likely a very small percentage of people who have done this, but if it's you, STOP

Goes to show how patient and calm a man Ian is. If someone was shooting in my general direction, there sure wouldn’t have been a polite request to watch their backstop when I got there…

Right after I got my first gun, I took a local CCW class. The instructor said we need to get used to shooting at real people not paper targets. He told us to unload and reholster. He then told us to draw our firearms and aim at him. Finally, the instructor said pull the trigger. And the guy standing next to me said "Uhh did you want us to unload first?"

You handled the situation perfectly. And thank you for not losing your composure (Which would have been understandable) while correcting the issue. Quite the professional.