The last two weekends I went to a state park rifle range to shoot some test loads and sight-in my deer rifles. While shooting the test loads, I stepped away from the bench to let the barrel cool and stood behind the other shooters. There is a sign posted in front of the benches that says all firearms must be pointed down range at all times. A man was sighting in his slug gun and was having trouble with some sandbags. I watched him pump a round into the gun and start aiming down range. All of a sudden he pulls the slug gun off the bags and starts pounding one of the bags. With his finger still on the trigger, he sweeps the benches to his left and then points the gun directly behind him and straight at me! I shouted "Don't point that gun at me!" He put the gun back on the sand bags and mumbled an apology and went back to shooting. Later the same day, a cease fire was called to change targets. Again, a sign says that during a cease fire all guns are to be unloaded and left on the bench and no one is to handle ammo or touch the firearms. I was watching people change targets down range and just happened to look to my left and saw a man standing there with a rifle pointed opposite of downrange and into the parking lot behind the range. I told him to put the rifle down and pointed to the sign. He looked at the sign and then at me and said: "It's pointed in a safe direction." I looked toward the range officer's trailer and he put the rifle down. The next weekend I was sighting in the best loads I had tested the weekend before and man set up next to me. Seemed like a nice guy. We exchanged pleasantries. He started shooting and the rounds were all over the backstop. I looked through my spotting scope and saw he had hit my targets. I and some of the others complained to him about his shooting our targets and he laughed and said he just put the gun together and had not put sights on it. He just wanted to see if it would function. He put the gun away. Someone must have complained to the range officer because he confronted the man and told him not to shoot firearms on the range without sights because that is the leading cause of rounds going over the backstop. The guy looks at me for awhile and gets an AR out and starts shooting. He watches where his cases are ejecting and then positions himself so that the ejected cases hit me. Every time I started to fire, he picked up the AR and started shooting and showering me with cases. I just packed up and left. It's getting bad out there.

Sorry to hear. Lot of knuckleheads out there.

Common courtesy is not too common.

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Take your time, fast. J.Hughes

Using public ranges can be a scary thing! Even Conservation Clubs with paid memberships, there are still knuckleheads around! I have a membership at an indoor range/gun shop. They have viewing windows for the range, and new shooters are instructed on firearms/range use.

All the folks there are helpful, with firearms use and helpful instructions on shooting in general. This is the safest place I have to shoot; climate controlled, out of the elements and watchful eyes for those who might not be as mindful/careful as they should be!

Maybe take a look for a local indoor range, sometimes, it IS worth it!

About what age was this ****.

***** holes come in all ages...

I gotta tell ya', me and the dude with the AR would have had a discsussion before I left. . .

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Wisdom comes thru fear . . .

Arsehats come in all ages. Unless you're a member there I'd change ranges. That one seems to attract the clueless at best and the unbalanced at the worst.

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Oh well, what the hell.

I'm lucky I can go to the range early in the morning and in the middle of the week. No one is there.

Your lucky to have range officers, the state owned public ranges here are a total free for all. Luckily one isn't used much sometimes have the place to myself. New indoor range will open within the next 30 days. First in the area. I think it will be well run. When I signed up the manager explained that everyone would have to go through an orientation class before being allowed to shoot. I'm asking Santa for ammo for Christmas!

The AR guy as about 30 years old. He was with a bigger group. I couldn't afford the confrontation. As the boy said in the movie "Shane": "There's too many Shane. There's too many."

Being retired, I have the same luxury. I go during the week, never on weekends.

I used to be able to do that. These days i rarely have a weekday off of work.

Stories like these make me glad that I live in a rural area and can do
almost all of my shooting in my back yard.

try going to a miami range lots of know it alls and have no respect . thats y i go during the week to many people not following simple rules

Just found this post. Very sorry you have had to deal with such rude behavior. Range officer needs to attend to the line and deal with individuals who break the common rules of safety.

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That sucks. Sounds like that range needs safety officer that will have the stones to confront these idiots before someone gets hurt or worse! Makes me glad I also live in an area where I can go out to the farm and shoot anytime i desire!

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NRA Life member

Much as I prefer shooting outside, I've pretty much given up especially on weekends and the time leading up to deer season. Guys like the ones the OP describes are the reason I quit deer hunting. You know there are guys like this in the woods. If they're that big a horse's hinder on the range where there are rules, imagine how they act in the woods on their own. The indoor range I frequent is very strict on safety. Cameras everywhere, unsafe actions aren't tolerated. Period. Too many people think real weapons are like HALO and World of Warcraft, there's a reset button and no one ever really dies. Hello, not the real world.

Me too!

The last thing we need as gun owners it to be represented in public by clowns such as this.

I feel your frustration! Maybe I'm out of line here but I feel that the current atmosphere of "me first" and "entitlement" makes interacting with folks kind of hard these days. It has to be a case of clear and present danger for me to comment on unsafe behavior any more. I'm retired now and I go to the range during the week around 9 AM and almost always have the place to myself. I avoid weekends and the run up to deer season.

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Stay safe people!

Exactly why I built my own range and don't go to public ranges anymore. Give some thought to going in with a few good friends and buying a couple of acres in the country. Building a range isn't all that complicated and it will give you a lifetime of enjoyment.

Everybody has "rights" but few have courtesy. Joe

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Wisdom chases me; I'm faster

& you really did not do anything any normal person should have done. Hopefully next year you won't wait until the last minute, and have to deal with idiots like that. IMO the only thing weekends at a public range are good for is checking out the scantily clad trophy girlfriends, dumpster diving for all the stuff people throw away like: brass, ammo boxes, high viz target dots, stripper & moon clips etc.

the one range i go to is strict on rules , but very friendly i like going there the range officers help you if you need it, will even spot for you a very personal bunch. but if if you act like a blank and ignore rule s 3 strikes your out at least for the rest of that day very rarely happens

But those of us who have been in the military know how a range should be run. We know what "up and down range" and "point in a safe direction at all times" mean. Maybe they can't read the signs....maybe we should text them the rules? And then again there are those "know it all's" and those who believe "I don't have to go by the rules"!

While I would prefer to live in the middle of nowhere so that I can shoot of my porch I would gladly use any state game land that's free of range officers. This is why I drive an hour and a half out of my way to range with no Nazis instead of using the one that's one mile from my house

I feel for the OP and having to deal with idiots like that.
I go to a private range that has rules and range officers that enforce them. Being retired I go during the week when nobody much is there. Even so some idiots slip through the gaps but are quickly taken care of.
I have my own little range out back I shoot at too and love having one. Sometimes though it's nice to go to the range and shoot with others. Most are real interested in my revolvers and 1911s as you don't see so many these days. I've been commended for my shooting before and explain a lot of it has to do with the gun's accuracy and not me.

A guy about 35 shows up a public range with 3 kids. No target, no target holder, no ear protection for any one, bolt action .270 rifle, and new box of factory ammo.

I am shooting an XP-100 in 223 Rem, the muzzle blast and noise can be described as intolerable. Two other shooters besides my self are shooting. He wants to know if he can have one of my "copied" targets? I asked him what he was going to do with it, seeing as he didn't have a "target holder" and laying it on the ground wouldn't work.

He shoots at the dirt berm 125 yards away for 2 shots. I fire XP once. It is 10:15 AM. He asks me how long I'm going to shoot. I look at my watch, look at him, and reply, "About 3:30 or 4:00 PM" He acknowledges that my gun is really loud. I inform him that there is no problem shooting it with ear protection -- I'm using plugs and muffs.

He gets very angry, packs up, and leaves without saying good-bye. I picked up his 2 pieces of fired brass. He didn't do a very good job either of supervising the children.

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S&WHF 366

At an old public range near hear----they had a RO that would pick up rifles on the bench that did not have the actions open WHILE the shooters were downrange.

I told the management that their RO was a goon and they needed to get smart real fast.