Had my Chilean .308 Mauser (one of the nice large ring Mauser conversions stamped Waffenfabrik Steyr Austria with the third lug on the bolt) out at the range today, and put about 30 rounds through it. Was trying out 3 types of ammo. Well anyway, I had some 1979 NATO Surplus ammo I was trying out, and when I pushed the bolt forward I could tell something didn't feel right. And when I hit resistance trying to close the bolt, I immediately quit and pulled it back open. And the shell came out, with the bullet hanging just out of the back of the barrel, and powder went EVERYWHERE. Ugh, down the magazine well, into the slots where the bolt slides, where the lugs lock... What a slotting mess! So now I've got it all stripped apart to clean it, and I only shot less than half of what I intended to today. And my secondary gun I took with me was only a pellet gun!

Oh well, could be worse. How about you guys -- anyone else ever have fun tales of range trips being cut short?

45 ACP 1911 and 38/357 revolver, 44 mag and 40 S&W ammo.

It was a nice round trip, but scrounged some new brass.

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S&WHF 366

I've had range trips cut short, but never like that. Glad you caught it before something went really wrong.

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Freedom isn't free.

It actually amazes me how I can't seem to get loose powder particles to stick to any cleaning material I try to use. It's taken me about an hour and a half to disassemble everything and really scrub it down, but I still keep finding the odd specs of powder here and there. Annoying. I will do one more pass of cleaning tomorrow before re-assembly. Getting it out of the locking ring area has been a real treat.

Back in the '80s, my dad was a real black powder fanatic, and he was eager to share the experience with me. He took me to the range to get me squared away on his CVA Hawkins replica, a Colonial Pistol, and a Philadelphia Derringer. We shot a few rounds with each gun, and I was getting the hang of reloading; however, after firing rounds for about an hour, I rammed a ball down the Hawkins, and instantly knew something was wrong. The ramrod didn't travel the same length as it had when I'd reloaded it before. I asked Dad to check it out, and he said he'd already reloaded. He confirmed we had a double charge down the barrel. That range trip was cut short so we could get back to the shop and pull the second ball and charge.

Dad said that during the Civil War, many rifles found on the battlefields had double charges in their barrels. Apparently, during battle, there was so much noise, smoke, and confusion, soldiers would forget to place a new cap on the nipple, pulled the trigger, and imagine they had fired, or simply forgot they had just loaded their rifle. Anyway, they reloaded a second charge on top of the first before they realized what they'd done, and either discarded the weapon, or fell with their rifle when they were hit by their enemy. It must have been hell for those men.

Lol, do I ever.
One day 8 years back now I went out to the range with Natasha, my Russian biathlon rifle, to do stone 100 yard bench shooting. As I set things up I thought I felt something hit my neck. A bee, I thought, and I carefully and reluctantly felt, pressed, and swatted at the area. Then right at the spot on my neck I took hold of the fabric of the hooded sweatshirt I was wearing and shook it. I was testing for an insect, but there was no sign of a bug. So I proceeded to ready the rifle, but before I got far I heard a high pitched buzz. It sounded a but like an ultralight motor, and I couldn't make out where it was coming from, so I turned my head to see if the sound remained from the same direction, but it didn't't, instead it followed my turn. So I knew I had some sort of bug in my shirt after all. Assuming it had a stinger, I made a grab for the fabric to try and bunch off the spot the bug was in. Then I tried to take it off. Neither idea worked, and I got stung right on the eyelid if my shooting eye. Never even took a shot that day before my day ended. Never saw what it was, but there was no sign of a stinger, so I think it must have been a hornet.

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Geoff. Since 1960.

I had a squib with my 4' M-57 years ago-my reloads. Put a range rod in my pistol box after that.

"Stupid user" story - went to the range a few weeks ago with 4 pistols and a lot of ammo.

Got there, and had picked up the wrong set of keys, so nothing to shoot. Had to pull out the car gun (.45 1911) and scrounge ammo. Was a more expensive day in that the .22 I had planned to shoot was "locked up", but in the end horse-traded the .22 ammo I had (but no one else did) for enough target .45 to make a short but enjoyable day of it. And met some new folks in the process.

At the same time I discovered I should never leave .45 or .357 brass (I am not a reloader) - in all the discussion one of the new acquaintances offered an ammo trade for the brass, and now gets all mine.

Amazing how folks step up and help where you don't expect it.
Thank you.

Loaded up all my gear and headed to the range last Friday. I forget they had a big charity shotgun shoot this weekend. The place was so crowded all I could do was go back home.

My last one I blame the surplus ammo. I brought my 2 newly acquired Mosin Nagant 91/30s as well as one I've had a bit longer out with a few friends. My hope was wed blow through a bunch of ammo, as I have a lot and normally after 20-40rds that gun is hot as hell, so the theory was, take all 3 out and alternate. Well, first gun the bolt jammed. I was like damn, might need to clean some more cosmoline out. Then second one did the same thing after a few shots. Mind you both these were the newly acquired ones. I said oh well, I guess I have to stick to the tried and true. Yep, you can guess it, the bolt got stuck and wouldn't eject the round. So all three had a spent casing and I couldn't eject them. I had to take a mallet to the bolts to get the casing out.

I haven't been to a range in over 15 years.. I have my own "range"
these days at my dirt patch in OK. Course, I don't shoot too often
being it's a fairly long drive. But I'll be back up there around the end
of the month for more action packed adventure and mayhem.. :|

cut mine short to many nitwits trying to sight in guns for hunting season that forget the rules. another tine useing cheap angila ammo for a ruger 22 mark 3 or 4 the lead broke off went into barrel had a heck of a time getting that out never used that ammo again no more problems i guess you get what u pay for

Gunworker's best friend:

Air compressor and spray nozzle.

...or at the very least, some *canned air*

Works a treat for many gun cleaning jobs and a real time saver.
Best done in a garage or shop where one can blow debris (and oil & solvents) to kingdom come with abandon!

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Be Well

Packed 100 rounds of .22WMR ammo and the Model 17 not the 48 DOH!

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Jim
Many K and N Frames

Run a propane torch over the rifle action and the powder pellets will disappear. There won't be enough heat generated to do any damage to the finish or the heat treatment of the metal parts. Really fast clean-up.

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Bill

The range is a long drive away so I have to make sure I've got EVERYTHING because it's out in the woods. I always take several guns and ammo for each in case something goes wrong with one. Fortunately, I've never been stung or snakebit or something that would cut the day short in an undesirable way. Usually when I leave the range I'm worn out and missing about 10 pounds of lead and happy as a clam.

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"He was kinda funny lookin'"

I tried to shoot in an NRA style high power match but every rifle had to be stock condition, no pimped or custom builds. I took my M1 Garand and was loading the single shot sight-ins by putting one in the chamber and released the slide like I had always done in the past. Another guy saw that and said the would damage my extractor. He loaned me a single-round clip, something I had never used before.

In the heat of competition is the wrong time to learn a new tool or technique. I kept getting the round partially chambered and cockeyed. Finally when trying to clear it the bullet got jammed and pulled out pouring powder everywhere. We cleared the jam but I was so disgusted I just went home.

In 1987 I was shooting within 50" of the back door, trying out a sabot load for a 45-70 1886 Browning. First shot the primer flashed the powder but didn't ignite it. The bullet left the sabot at 352 fps and went through the Crony screens, The sabot smashed into the LED readout and crunched it! The unburnt powder was scorched yellow and went in to the action. End of project. As I detail stripped the 1886 I learned the differences between the Original Winchester and a Browning modern production: coil springs! and all that goes with them. The hammer is like a giant 1911 hammer. I had unburnt powder all the way back to the end of the hammer strut. What a mess. Ivan

IMO that beats getting to the range and finding out that you had put your wallet into the wash just before you left the house. Yeah, I did that. Good thing I didn't need any gas because I only had about 85 cents of change in my pocket. Went home and spent most of the day drying everything out and applying leather conditioner to the wallet.

Packed up several firearms, ammo, gear, drove half hour to the range, parked, grabbed it all, realized I'd forgotten the keys to the lock on the bag that had everything -- everything -- in it.

Drove home.

Shortest range trip ever.

Back in the 80's me and a buddy were duck hunting at Ted Shanks Conservation Area near Hannibal and my buddy pulls upon a duck that was locked in. He pulled the trigger and his shotgun made a mortar sound and we could see the wad AND the shot slowly heave from the barrel in a slow arc and hit the water about 20 feet out.
WA WA WA

Bought a Glock 23 about ten years ago. Took it to the range to shake it out and get used to firing it. Got about three rounds into the session when something went "ting" and the gun stopped shooting.

Trigger spring broke. This wasn't a new gun, but it had been factory rebuilt, so it was very disappointing.

A few days later I brought it back to the FFL and he replaced the spring in about five minutes. That was nice, but it still ruined the day.

Second place goes to a new to me Mdl 457. It came with seven magazines, which was nice. What wasn't nice, and at the time I didn't know enough about 3rd gen magazines to tell the difference, was that two of them were Pro Mag, not OEM. I was running through all seven magazines to make sure that there were no problems. Slapped in a magazine and no bang. I still had the memory of the Glock experience in my mind so I was worried I had another broken gun.

I looked at everything, but couldn't figure out what was wrong. I then put in an OEM magazine and BANG the gun fired just like the guys in Springfield designed it to. Close inspection of the magazines revealed that two were not OEM. For whatever reason (poor build quality) those would not allow the 457 to fire double action. Single action, fine, but no double action.

Got rid of those *** Pro Mags and have never had a problem since.

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Can open, worms everywhere.

I got to the range once with all my stuff but forgot one thing, the gun. Unbelievable.

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Shoot fast & live long
Warren

vegetaman- Sinclair makes a neat little item to do just what you mentioned.

Met my buddy at the range with his new to him surplus rifle of some sort and he found he forgot his key to the trigger lock. Bill had to make the long drive back home to get it and we did our shooting then.

I always take some extra guns with me to the range in case of problems or I forget the right ammo or something. I did forget magazines for a 10/22 once and had to shoot it single shot and loading is a pain.
One gun I always pack is my S&W Model 17 and it always seem to get some use between whatever main guns I have planned to shoot. It's a hoot to shoot and ammo is cheap enough providing you can find some.