Fun day at the range with the 15-22

K

Kayback

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I got hauled over the coals by a "senior range officer" at my local club today.

Rocked up to shoot at the 75m "Rifles and shotgun" range to find they'd set up an IDPA clinic for swingers and turners. The 150m rifle range is a no go because they don't like young punks with their semi auto rifles there causing trouble for their one round every 15 minutes or whatever.

As I was function testing some ammo for IDPA I needed faster rates of fire than that.

So we went to the dedicated IDPA classifier range, as they weren't using it. And it is used for the IDPA DMG classifier as well. The range is the last one on the side of the mountain, with admittedly a rather restricted backstop. compared to the 100m+ of the rest of the range. But there is a sand berm and solid rock above it for about 3-5 meters, angling from high left to low right. So *conceivably* you could drop some rounds off the side. If you shoot about 1000000 times worse than even I shoot.

"I can't let you shoot that here. It's only for 9mm and .45." he says pointing at my 15-22.
"It is OK, it is only a .22 Long Rifle."
"Still, I can't let you shoot it here in case you miss or it ricochets and it goes into the road or the ocean. Only shoot pistols in 9mm or .45".
"Ok, I understand your concern, but we shoot 5.56mm, 7.62x39mm and .308 in this range for the rifle classifier"
"Yeah, but that's for SADPA, you're not shooting that so you can only shoot 9mm or .45 because that (15-22) is too powerful and you may miss."
"Can I shoot my .22 pistol?"
"Yes."
"But not the rifle?"
"No you may miss."
"Right" <packs up>

KBK
 
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Lol that will def ruin your day. Party pooper
 
we have a huge, i mean huge range here in AZ that there are NO range officers, you are your own. That's some BS right there. I understand about the single shot guys, you get next to them and fire rapid and they get a case of the butt, but it is a public range, nothing they can do about it. too bad it ruined your day. i now just go out in the desert, put up DIY portable target stand and blaze away. still sux though for you.
pistol vs rifle was classic. i got into an argument with the county sheriff who said i needed to be a 1/4 mile away from any occupied dwelling, i said yes i know, 440 yards away, he said NO 1/4 mile!!! (idiot) closest dwelling was like 5 miles away, and all i was doing was testing a new handgun for function, 16 rounds into a dirt mound from about 7 paces.
 
roadkill45 said:
i got into an argument with the county sheriff who said i needed to be a 1/4 mile away from any occupied dwelling, i said yes i know, 440 yards away, he said NO 1/4 mile!!! (idiot) closest dwelling was like 5 miles away, and all i was doing was testing a new handgun for function, 16 rounds into a dirt mound from about 7 paces.
Click to expand...

I'd laugh if it wasn't so pathetic. I've run into the same kind of moron occasionally.
 
I am with roadkill... I hit the AZ Desert and NONE of the Coyotes or Ground Hogs ever Yell at me for my Shooting Style or etiquette..:D

Wife and i may hit that BIG Range on Sunday though...been there a couple times but never shot their...

So wish me Luck

:)
 
It is quite hilarious actually. I've shot at this range since 2000, roughly. I've shot rifles and shotguns there in competition since 2005.

The Chairman of the club is quite happy for me to go there on closed days and fling as much lead as I want with whomever I want in tow. I've probably been a member of this club longer than the guy who spoke to me.

He also offered the advice we mustn't shoot across the range (still from front to back with the berm behind the targets) because we'd get ricochets off the rock. This berm is easily 4m tall and the targets were only 1.3m high. We'd have to be absolutely bloody awful shots or trying to shoot skeet to get the rounds to impact so high.

I shake my head sometimes.

KBK
 
Most of the ranges around here are just open. No "watch dogs" on duty.

Being out in the boondocks does have it's advatages too. Like shooting off my own deck. Nice when checking reloads.

There are some private clubs,but they can be "upity" about things depending on their mood that day. I use to shoot at one,but let my membership go a few years ago when they desided "we" couldn't bring a guest. They had to be a paid member to use the range.
 
You desert dwellers make me wish I still lived in Reno. Where I could pack up my truck and drive 15 minutes out into the hills and be able to plink away. Now I have to drive 45 minutes, wait for a spot or be lucky my friend is off or not at work.
 
The OP makes me glad the range here is an open public range. $3/day, which is on the honor system as there's nobody there that collects money, you just put it in a box. People just bring out whatever, whether it's paper targets stapled to old pallets, cans, clay pigeons, fire extinguishers, etc... only downside of that I guess is the place builds up a lot of trash that has to get picked up.
 
This is the first time I've ever had issues like this. Only last month I was laughing at some poor sod here who had a rate of fire restriction at their range.

This is a result of two things. 1) the law in South Africa needs you to have a "need" to own a firearm, so people spend more time at the ranges proving that need. Something I'm overall happy with. 2) this specific range has very successful open days where you can shoot anything that's available. The ammo is sold at a premium because it is a fundraiser and there is no full auto, but there is something for everyone. Hell we had a Delise carbine there last time. So more and more people are getting involved in shooting. This wasn't an open day, but more people are shooting overall now.

The first open day had about 30 people all day. This last one had 30 people waiting to use the 15-22!

So the range was fuller and we do need to keep a lid on the idiots. But like I said, I've been shooting here for over a decade, I'm a registered SO and an RO. This guy even designated me as the RO/SO for our little group (Myself, wife, brother, fellow shooter and his dad). But like I said, he didn't trust us to shoot standard IDPA targets from 15m with rifles without bouncing rounds off rocks that were easily 5m+ away from our POA!

KBK
 
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