I dragged mine fatigued feeling fat arse out of my chair and to my car today and headed to a more or less local outdoor range over in AR today. I have not been to the range for some fun shooting in too long and brought along my Glock 30 pistols (two of them), my latest acquisition a Beretta 1934 for a test shoot and my Savage Axis XP in 308 to sight in its new Vortex Crossfire II scope.
I think I have mentioned, in a previous blogpost, that I now go to this range only on weekdays because of the arsehat factor often present there on weekends. I should have listened to my own advice.
When I got there today, there were three other shooters there. They had been taking a break from shooting and the line appeared safe. They asked me if I needed to set up targets to which I replied no since I'd be shooting the Beretta first just to make sure it worked okay. Soon they called a hot line and the shooting commenced. The two guys at the other end of the range seemed to be doing things right. The other guy, one bench to my left was not shooting at the moment. I loaded up the Beretta mags (only have two mags 7 rounds each) and fired away for a function check. It worked just fine. I did that two times more and the third time I was shooting it I started having a problem in as much as pulling the trigger did not result in the hammer falling on intermittent attempts. Sometimes it went bang because the hammer fell, other times the hammer did not budge. "Oh no..." I thought "...the gun is screwed up".
Well, as I was reloading mags that last time, I noticed the guy next to me was having problems with what I think was a Mossberg shotgun with only a pistol grip. He was shooting or trying to shoot short mini-shells through it but they were not going bang and he complained he was getting only slight dimple or none at al from the firing pin on the primers. I suggested he try some normal length shells and he loaded up behind the firing line! He then walked to the line and started shooting but luckily did not cover anyone in the process. The first went bang but then most of the others had the same problem. He then uttered something about having taken the gun apart and maybe screwing up something when he put it back together.
DANGER WILL ROBINSON - DANGER! - is what I should have heard booming inside my head. Next thing I know, the guy turns around and covers the other two shooters with the muzzle and walks away from the firing line - fully charged shotgun in hand - points the gun at the road behind the range on which the shooters' vehicles were parked and starts unloading it while pointing it that way. He put it down once unloaded and bagged it. He then went to the line to shoot a pistol but not before loading it well behind the line. That was it for me, I decided to leave but not until I also got a video of him with his pistol because he was loading it behind the firing line and I mean several feet behind it. While making the video of him loading like that and then shooting, he had a misfire. He immediately racked the slide and ejected the round that did not go off, picked it up, put it back into the chamber and tried firing it. had the same problem and did that three times in all. Normally I'd wait several seconds, probably do a ten count, before opening the action just in the event it was a hang fire (which is a delayed fire shot).
You can take a look at the video below. While I will not comment on what I think of his range etiquette, you can leave all the comments you want to about him. He was scary in his absolute... - oh wait - I said I'd not comment.
It's a pity I had to leave because I felt it was not safe due to his apparent ineptness with firearms/range safety. (Whoops did I just comment about his range etiquette and such?) It was also very disappointing. I had at least another 100 rounds to go through the Beretta and since I seemed to be having a problem with it not firing some of the times I pulled the trigger (the hammer was not dropping on some trigger pulls) I definitely wanted to try to figure out the problem. (Probably not the gun but user/knucklehead (that would be me) error as later on I realized I had had the safety partially engaged, once I disengaged it completely the problem went away while dry firing at home.) I must have engaged it with my grip or whatever and I did not realize it or even take the time to check why I was having the problem once I realized there seemingly was an unsafe arsehat shooting next to me. (Whoops there I go again commenting on that guy - sorry.) Another trip to the range, this time on a weekday when it is much more likely I will be the only one there, should allow me to determine if the safety being partially engaged was the problem as I am pretty sure that was exactly it. Besides not shooting the Beretta any more, I also did not shoot any of the other guns I had along with me.
Oh Well, at least I made it home alive and unventilated and can go to the range another day to try again.
All the best,
Glenn B
I think I have mentioned, in a previous blogpost, that I now go to this range only on weekdays because of the arsehat factor often present there on weekends. I should have listened to my own advice.
When I got there today, there were three other shooters there. They had been taking a break from shooting and the line appeared safe. They asked me if I needed to set up targets to which I replied no since I'd be shooting the Beretta first just to make sure it worked okay. Soon they called a hot line and the shooting commenced. The two guys at the other end of the range seemed to be doing things right. The other guy, one bench to my left was not shooting at the moment. I loaded up the Beretta mags (only have two mags 7 rounds each) and fired away for a function check. It worked just fine. I did that two times more and the third time I was shooting it I started having a problem in as much as pulling the trigger did not result in the hammer falling on intermittent attempts. Sometimes it went bang because the hammer fell, other times the hammer did not budge. "Oh no..." I thought "...the gun is screwed up".
Well, as I was reloading mags that last time, I noticed the guy next to me was having problems with what I think was a Mossberg shotgun with only a pistol grip. He was shooting or trying to shoot short mini-shells through it but they were not going bang and he complained he was getting only slight dimple or none at al from the firing pin on the primers. I suggested he try some normal length shells and he loaded up behind the firing line! He then walked to the line and started shooting but luckily did not cover anyone in the process. The first went bang but then most of the others had the same problem. He then uttered something about having taken the gun apart and maybe screwing up something when he put it back together.
DANGER WILL ROBINSON - DANGER! - is what I should have heard booming inside my head. Next thing I know, the guy turns around and covers the other two shooters with the muzzle and walks away from the firing line - fully charged shotgun in hand - points the gun at the road behind the range on which the shooters' vehicles were parked and starts unloading it while pointing it that way. He put it down once unloaded and bagged it. He then went to the line to shoot a pistol but not before loading it well behind the line. That was it for me, I decided to leave but not until I also got a video of him with his pistol because he was loading it behind the firing line and I mean several feet behind it. While making the video of him loading like that and then shooting, he had a misfire. He immediately racked the slide and ejected the round that did not go off, picked it up, put it back into the chamber and tried firing it. had the same problem and did that three times in all. Normally I'd wait several seconds, probably do a ten count, before opening the action just in the event it was a hang fire (which is a delayed fire shot).
You can take a look at the video below. While I will not comment on what I think of his range etiquette, you can leave all the comments you want to about him. He was scary in his absolute... - oh wait - I said I'd not comment.
It's a pity I had to leave because I felt it was not safe due to his apparent ineptness with firearms/range safety. (Whoops did I just comment about his range etiquette and such?) It was also very disappointing. I had at least another 100 rounds to go through the Beretta and since I seemed to be having a problem with it not firing some of the times I pulled the trigger (the hammer was not dropping on some trigger pulls) I definitely wanted to try to figure out the problem. (Probably not the gun but user/knucklehead (that would be me) error as later on I realized I had had the safety partially engaged, once I disengaged it completely the problem went away while dry firing at home.) I must have engaged it with my grip or whatever and I did not realize it or even take the time to check why I was having the problem once I realized there seemingly was an unsafe arsehat shooting next to me. (Whoops there I go again commenting on that guy - sorry.) Another trip to the range, this time on a weekday when it is much more likely I will be the only one there, should allow me to determine if the safety being partially engaged was the problem as I am pretty sure that was exactly it. Besides not shooting the Beretta any more, I also did not shoot any of the other guns I had along with me.
Oh Well, at least I made it home alive and unventilated and can go to the range another day to try again.
All the best,
Glenn B
