First mistake at the range... Very lucky

[hunterbob]

y'all scarin me ! I hate going to a range because I never know who is sitting next to me, and if they're thinkin right.... jaassuus!

 

[Sully2]

"ONLY ONE type of ammo on the bench at any one time is a GOOD RULE."

BINGO!!

 

[hunterbob]

Yep, I agree with you Sully2,, but I found out that its better to take one rifle to the range instead of two..... Years ago at a range near Channelview, I had a bad experience.... Some fellow with a brand new XP-100 was getting ready to shoot next to my buddy.... Unbeknownst to us he propped the loaded pistol on a sand bag. I guess he was afraid to shoot it? He put a string on the trigger, stood back a few feet and yanked it... The round went down range, and luckily for all of us on the bench... Unfortunately for him, his brand new pistol flew off the bench and hit the concrete. broke handle and scope off it.... and there was a come to Jesus meeting for him, where several of us helped him understand, that there was plenty of arss whippens available, and immediate, in which we obligingly gave freely to him; and for being so **** stupid and careless....

 

[hoffbill]

I have been considering this issue since I have enlarged my collection and added some additional calibers. I have some colored containers but not enough. I have decided to mark each container with a white address label on top with the caliber in large print with a black sharpie. This in addition to my load labeling. Hopefully it will reduce the chance of grabbing the wrong box.

 

[luv long range]

DID a 7.62x51 in a 7.5x55. Identical boxes from the same company. Blew out the primer and took a face full of powder leaving a small burn on the nose. Shooting glasses saved me. Its a mistake that you only make once. Two and a half hr.rifle tear down and inspection of every part of the rifle. The face healed but the pride is still hurts. Saftey First folks.

 

[MOA Chaser]

I neck size a lot of my brass and just the other day I put one cartridge from Rifle A into Rifle B ( same caliber) and it took me two days to remove it. Since the bolt did not close I was in no danger AND both boxes of ammo are clearly marked for each rifle. I had one rifle on the bench with one box of ammo. Just the wrong box. But Brain Farts do happen. And they happen very quick. Luckily I didn't screw up the barrel or blow myself up getting that live round out. Geez!

 

[Bill Johnson]

Always appreciate it when someone shares these close calls. No matter how experienced, it should make you review your process. I have just too much stuff for color coding but each box of cases is marked and associated with ONE rifle. "One box/component/process" at a time is integral to my process no matter what part of the loading/shooting cycle I'm on.

Although I haven't had my "close-call" yet, recently a range officer brought me a Garand that another shooter was having problems with. His enblocs wouldn't lock in. I took one look and he was attempting to shoot 8mm Mauser ammo!!! That would have been a blown up gun if he had gotten a round to chamber.

Bottom line: There are risks involved with this sport. Identify them and do things to mitigate the risk.

 

[Unofficial Gun Addict (UGA)]

Well said.

 

[Sargesniper]

Well said.

Ditto
SARGESNIPER .............SEMPER FI

 

[11 Charlie]

I pick a lot of brass at the range I frequent as the range officers are great guys and friends. I get all the brass I'll ever need for all my guns except my .300 WBY. I had never found any in the range buckets but a couple weeks ago I had a couple seconds elation as at first glance I saw the familiar Weatherby shoulder on some cases. Then I noticed extremely short necks. You probably have guessed it already as I new what it was before I looked at the head stamp. Somebody had fired .300 WIN MAG out of a .300 WBY. While that was bad enough, after going through buckets on the 50 and 100 yard lanes, I found 30 CASES this guy had fired. Half or so of them had blackened shoulders with up to 6 ruptures in them. As we know mistakes can happen to the best of us but how don't you notice in 30 rounds? Moron is to kind of a description!

 

[Demon061]

glad you're okay, dude

 

[MagnumManiac]

I pick a lot of brass at the range I frequent as the range officers are great guys and friends. I get all the brass I'll ever need for all my guns except my .300 WBY. I had never found any in the range buckets but a couple weeks ago I had a couple seconds elation as at first glance I saw the familiar Weatherby shoulder on some cases. Then I noticed extremely short necks. You probably have guessed it already as I new what it was before I looked at the head stamp. Somebody had fired .300 WIN MAG out of a .300 WBY. While that was bad enough, after going through buckets on the 50 and 100 yard lanes, I found 30 CASES this guy had fired. Half or so of them had blackened shoulders with up to 6 ruptures in them. As we know mistakes can happen to the best of us but how don't you notice in 30 rounds? Moron is to kind of a description!

Seen that myself, the huy was shooting next to my buddy a couple of benches away and he asked my buddy if he could fire a couple of shots over my chrony (we were both using it), my buddy said "sure you can" and helped him set up, then I saw what was happening and asked my buddy to shoot for him, have lost a chrony due to letting someone shoot over one that hadn't done it before. My buddy takes the ammo from the guy, 300 Win Mag, and chambers one, fires it, ejects into his hand like we always do from habit, and sees it's not right so looks at the barrel to see what it's chambered for, yep, 300 Weatherby. This was the third packet of ammo this bloke had fired through that rifle, it was brand new. The shop that sold the rifle also gave him the ammo! WOW!
I used to be a range officer once a month for several years, have seen very few nasty incidents, but many minor ones that were nearly always from novices. The worst was a bloke firing a round with the cleaning rod still in the barrel. His rifle was failing to extract fired cases, so he was tapping them out with the cleaning rod, forgot to remove it due to a cease fire, memory lapse that cost him a fine custom target rifle.

Cheers.
gun)