Your rudest encounter at a club or range

Mrs. H

Mrs. H

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I didn't want to hijack the thread about how to encourage new blood into the sport, but given how many people have commented along the general lines of making clubs friendly, welcoming and accommodating wondered what other members worst experiences have been?
Mine is quite bizarre and not even that long ago. First ever visit to this particular club and shooting with dad. There were 6 targets on their HFT course all visible from the one peg. The pegs on the firing line were numbered, but as the strings all criss-crossed each other and converged in the middle like one almighty cats cradle before veering off to different targets which weren't numbered, it was tricky to work out which was which. An issue borne out by my taking a shot, the target falling, and then realising it was the wrong one as the string didn't reset it.
I was obviously talking about this to dad as we tried to work out which target it actually was when an apparently self appointed club official marched up to us and informed us that this was a UKAHFT rules course and as such any discussions about the targets were forbidden and if we continued talking we'd be asked to leave. The level of rudeness was off the scale.
If the car hadn't been so far away we'd have left there and then, but we figured we were actually shooting the targets in sequence to get there so would just do that...but it managed to get worse! The officious little twerk was 2 pegs ahead of us and spent every free moment of his non shooting time stood there, hands on hips glaring at us.
We gave up and just left. Have never been back and have no intention of ever going back.

This wasn't an official UK round, it was just their club shoot. We'd never met this oik before so he wouldn't have known if we'd been shooting for 20 years or 2 weeks. As experienced shooters we simply won't go back, had we been complete novices we'd probably have lost all interest completely.
 
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Mrs. H said:
I didn't want to hijack the thread about how to encourage new blood into the sport, but given how many people have commented along the general lines of making clubs friendly, welcoming and accommodating wondered what other members worst experiences have been?
Mine is quite bizarre and not even that long ago. First ever visit to this particular club and shooting with dad. There were 6 targets on their HFT course all visible from the one peg. The pegs on the firing line were numbered, but as the strings all criss-crossed each other and converged in the middle like one almighty cats cradle before veering off to different targets which weren't numbered, it was tricky to work out which was which. An issue borne out by my taking a shot, the target falling, and then realising it was the wrong one as the string didn't reset it.
I was obviously talking about this to dad as we tried to work out which target it actually was when an apparently self appointed club official marched up to us and informed us that this was a UKAHFT rules course and as such any discussions about the targets were forbidden and if we continued talking we'd be asked to leave. The level of rudeness was off the scale.
If the car hadn't been so far away we'd have left there and then, but we figured we were actually shooting the targets in sequence to get there so would just do that...but it managed to get worse! The officious little twerk was 2 pegs ahead of us and spent every free moment of his non shooting time stood there, hands on hips glaring at us.
We gave up and just left. Have never been back and have no intention of ever going back.
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Shocking to read this and no excuse for the actions taken by the so called official , shame on him.
 
Anne-every club has a member like this. You have just been fortunate not to have encountered too many.

Perhaps the fact you were a lady shooter, he assumed, wrongly, that you were indeed novices.
Not a great experience and that club will not become successful if they treat visitors with such disrespect.

I hope you and the Prof. didn’t have to drive any great distance.

I have, sadly witnessed similar behaviour at many venues.

Have you notified the hosting club about your treatment? I think you should do, so they can ensure the situation doesn’t occur again👍
 
I was shooting with my young son. The outdoor open range was split into 2 sections , adjacent to each other was a plinking and a target range. My son wasn't interested in targets, but enjoyed his SMK XS20 shooting the cans placed on dead trees. I was watching him as a pellet punctured a coke can and sent it flying. The next thing I know is a shooter from the target section going apoplectic at him that he had deliberately shot at his target. As much as I tried to defend my son he wouldn't have it that any pellet hitting his target must have been a total fluke. Of course everyone on the range, all the regulars, received an individual update from him that my son had deliberately shot at his target. Put us off going for a while. Incredibly intimidating. We stuck to the back garden for a while before venturing out again.
 
It's called the human race, and there's no acc ounting for it.

I have a similar story from a previous century. I attended a well known ft club one of the largest and well respected in the country shortly after the advent of ft. The club secretary met me personally and spent the best part of an hour showing me around the club and accompanied me around the first few lanes of the course, making me feel welcome, he really was great. He mentioned not to forget to pay my due fees before I left and who I needed to pay it to and that was that.

I had a great time shooting and when the time came I approached the said person to pay, she was in conversation with someone and not wanting to be rude I didn't interrupt and just waited. It is not as if they didn't know I was there, but they just left me hanging there for ever with a sort if sneering look between them making a point of ignoring me as someone beneath them. After a quarter of on hour when finally she finished I said "excuse me me I have some subs to pay" but she just started talking to another friend of hers as if I wasn't even there. To this day I
Still owe that club a day's subs as I couldn't get their treasurer to acknowledge my existence. I couldn't help but feel it was pure snobbishness because I was a spotty 19 year old turning up on a motorbike when they were all affluent well established members with flashy cars.

Such a pity to spoil a great day like that
 
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Sadly, assholes get everywhere.
Jumped up self opinionated dick heads too.

Dog owners, cyclists, car drivers and so on all have a percentage of A-holes - we shooters are the same.

Committees need some odd-bods to function - not something which suits my personality at all.
Worst of all are the self appointed interfering twits who seem to have nothing more important in their lived.

But those who throw their weight around need to be confronted and corrected.

My Club manages to run without any such characters - the atmosphere is always friendly and welcoming.
Largely down to the input from the long established members who set the tone.

The only unpleasantness I have ever encountered was at Petes Airgun Farm from a couple of uptight old codgers.
Sad moaning old buggers.
But they deterred me from ever going back
 
I've said before that one of the things I like about ranges and shooting clubs is they are like golf courses and clubs but with a far lower ratio of w⚓s and arseholes amongst fellows and organisers.

Lower ratio being the operative but there is no form of organisation, however loose or formal, however notionally egalitarian or unashamedly and deliberately elitist, that doesn't have a percentage of their member constitution that shame them.
 
Byronic said:
My Club manages to run without any such characters - the atmosphere is always friendly and welcoming.
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I think thats the biggest compliment we've ever had, although I know there are a few people that would would disagee (all banned, by the way).
Being a technically responsible person is a fine line between letting people do what they want and keeping things safe. Ive given 3 or 4 people a propler bollcking this year for starting to go on range without following the procedure, and it can cause a bit of friction. Usually it blows over in a coupleof minutes, and any apologies required are dealt with, but sometimes its easy to go overboard on someone.

I managed it fairly recently, when someone started to walk on range (no one firing but a cease fire hadnt been called). We had had a couple already in the last 20 mins or so, and the poor unfortunate got the rough side of my tongue. It was definitley more than was required, but when its been done twice already it can be hard to sta civil- remember, those fo us classed as sompetent people are the ones that wil take the fal if anything goes wrong. Ended up with the poor chap retreating to his car and I ended up going over aminute or so later and apologising for flying off the handle, and he didnt deserve it. To be fair, he understood, and didnt take it badly- known each other too long fo rthat- and I did explain why. Ended up OK, but I did feel bad for an OTT outburst.

SO.. if you get a bollocking and feel it weas unnecessary or OTT, please talk to the person and ask (nicely as possible) what it was for, and that it felt a bit uncomfortable. I kno wfor me, it will usually result in an apology an dan explanation - either I was under pressure (not an excuse, but people usually understand) or they did something that was just too stupid or dangerous to pass on. If they still insist on being the ahole, then I at least would turn tail and leave, but give a chance to explain. Anyome charged with range safety has a huge resposibility, and sometimes you are just in th ewrong place at the wrong time. Apologies are easy when youre wrong, and if it seemsm to be annual Ahole day its easy to lose ti with someone that didnt deserve it.

NOTE- if you did deserve it, youll be told so. But again, its always better to educate that retaliate, and explain the circumstances. If the offender stilldoesnt get it and wants to argue, one of you will likely be leaving early.
 
For me it's always thats someone's seat he has sat there for years. I remember the old CIU clubs/Pubs people used to go to. All of them have closed down because they couldn't get people through the doors. There were a few I wouldn't go in because depending on the day a seat/area was empty but the seats were already taken.

It's one thing if it's quite full and a group of people come in together and say "excuse me would you mind moving up a bit so me and my friends/family can sit together please" I don't mind that and usually do.

The owners of the club don't realise it's happening and once these usually old folk stop shooting the next generation that should be taking over are shooting elsewhere already or chose to not pursue the sport and the club has a bad name.

I usually shoot on a weekend at the place I go to but if I'm off during the week I may go shooting. I went with my mate who has also been shooting for years to the club I have shot at for years and was called a tourist because I don't shoot regularly on that day and told I shouldn't sit in certain seats because they sit there every Wednesday and I reminded them it's first come first serve. He went on to tell me I should watch out or I will get a name for myself..... That was the range warden saying that.

I feel sorry for any young person who goes to a club and has to put up with these people. I have been shooting that long I know the rules and what authority they have.

So a word to all experienced shooters. If you have a group of little Hitler's at your club and you know the rules. When these people start going on like they own the place with the young ones just remind them of the rules and remember long after we are gone these young kids will be the next generation of shooters training the next generation.

Be friendly, be safe and be a positive influence.
 
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This was rudeness but also selfish and distracting.

On a lane at a local club, a large gentleman plomped down next to me and unpacked his rifles, then food, a flask, then a RADIO!

He says to no one in particular, "Everyone loves music while they shoot, don't they?"

"No" says I. Directly. He took no notice, just carried on as if we'd all cheered for him. What a €¥|\|t!

If he could afford a rifle, range fees and all that food, he can afford headphones.

I moved lanes, maybe that was his plan. It ruined my mood, and I was tempted to ruin his.
 
Mrs. H said:
I didn't want to hijack the thread about how to encourage new blood into the sport, but given how many people have commented along the general lines of making clubs friendly, welcoming and accommodating wondered what other members worst experiences have been?
Mine is quite bizarre and not even that long ago. First ever visit to this particular club and shooting with dad. There were 6 targets on their HFT course all visible from the one peg. The pegs on the firing line were numbered, but as the strings all criss-crossed each other and converged in the middle like one almighty cats cradle before veering off to different targets which weren't numbered, it was tricky to work out which was which. An issue borne out by my taking a shot, the target falling, and then realising it was the wrong one as the string didn't reset it.
I was obviously talking about this to dad as we tried to work out which target it actually was when an apparently self appointed club official marched up to us and informed us that this was a UKAHFT rules course and as such any discussions about the targets were forbidden and if we continued talking we'd be asked to leave. The level of rudeness was off the scale.
If the car hadn't been so far away we'd have left there and then, but we figured we were actually shooting the targets in sequence to get there so would just do that...but it managed to get worse! The officious little twerk was 2 pegs ahead of us and spent every free moment of his non shooting time stood there, hands on hips glaring at us.
We gave up and just left. Have never been back and have no intention of ever going back.

This wasn't an official UK round, it was just their club shoot. We'd never met this oik before so he wouldn't have known if we'd been shooting for 20 years or 2 weeks. As experienced shooters we simply won't go back, had we been complete novices we'd probably have lost all interest completely.
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Years ago I was shooting clays with my pump action at a club I used to be a member of. It was set up so that you had lanes and after each round you moved 1 position. I was shoving my safety flag in after each round so that when I walked the 2 yds between positions my pump was showing safe. The bloke next to me kept on accusing me of loading 3 (I wasn't) as I used to load 2 and then pump to load one from the magazine into the chamber. I explained and offered that he could check if he wanted.

Well this wasn't enough for this guy who started to demand to the trapper that I was unsafe and why was I shooting a pump anyway ? The trapper didn't care. Really spoiled my morning as I had to move stands to get away from this bloke.

Anyway a while later I ended up shooting in the same place (this time with a Beretta o/u) and this bloke and his group joined but this time there was a really old guy with them and part of their coterie. Anyway apparently the old guy had dementia and couldn't work out which clays were his and which were others. So would just randomly shoot what was in front of him if the pair were yours or what ever.

The mouthy man didn't think that this was a safety issue at all and I left mid round as I didn't want to get shot and was bored of how long it was taking with all the replacement targets

I don't shoot clays there anymore
 
Over the years i have took part in most shooting sports, & have seen this on a regular basis, but for me i have truly found that bell target seems to be the most inclusive of all, everyone is welcome, juniors, males, females, no gun snobbery, plenty of banter, but nothing offensive. It could just be the venues in the Lincolnshire & Nottinghamshire leagues that i've attended, but so far i haven't seen any offensive behaviour
 
Bluesboydave said:
I was shooting with my young son. The outdoor open range was split into 2 sections , adjacent to each other was a plinking and a target range. My son wasn't interested in targets, but enjoyed his SMK XS20 shooting the cans placed on dead trees. I was watching him as a pellet punctured a coke can and sent it flying. The next thing I know is a shooter from the target section going apoplectic at him that he had deliberately shot at his target. As much as I tried to defend my son he wouldn't have it that any pellet hitting his target must have been a total fluke. Of course everyone on the range, all the regulars, received an individual update from him that my son had deliberately shot at his target. Put us off going for a while. Incredibly intimidating. We stuck to the back garden for a while before venturing out again.
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Grown bloke having a go at a kid? They'd be getting told to wind it in or prepare to pick their teeth up. No excuses for that I'm afraid.
 
robthedog said:
Over the years i have took part in most shooting sports, & have seen this on a regular basis, but for me i have truly found that bell target seems to be the most inclusive of all, everyone is welcome, juniors, males, females, no gun snobbery, plenty of banter, but nothing offensive. It could just be the venues in the Lincolnshire & Nottinghamshire leagues that i've attended, but so far i haven't seen any offensive behaviour
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I would agree with this. We did have one fairly rubbish evening though. Myself, wife and 4 other friends regularly shot at a local quite informal club. One day we were asked if we could help a team out at a competition as they were short of numbers. So we drove 50 minutes there only to find that some of the team had turned up after all, so two of us wouldn't get to take part.
The pace of the shoot was glacial and performed in near silence. Anything above a whisper got glares from the regulars, and all the tight leather and buckles was making me feel a bit uneasy.

When it was my turn to put my official score in, I was 5 shots, 5 bells. My mates were whispering things to me to try and put me off, which I thought was hilarious but felt like they could have been asked to leave 😂 . I got the 6th bell, our 'team' won and we never went back
 
Mr Bond said:
This was rudeness but also selfish and distracting.

On a lane at a local club, a large gentleman plomped down next to me and unpacked his rifles, then food, a flask, then a RADIO!

He says to no one in particular, "Everyone loves music while they shoot, don't they?"

"No" says I. Directly. He took no notice, just carried on as if we'd all cheered for him. What a €¥|\|t!

If he could afford a rifle, range fees and all that food, he can afford headphones.

I moved lanes, maybe that was his plan. It ruined my mood, and I was tempted to ruin his.
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That’s just awful! I can’t think of anything worse than a radio playing while shooting, even if it’s just a fun plinking session, I’d hate to have music playing 😖!
 
I have had one or three 'clashes of personality' over the years. But, thankfully, the overwhelming majority of my experiences have mostly been positive.

I'm not one to remain quiet when I witness poor behaviour, either towards myself, or others, and will bark back if you bark at me. Other than that, I'm a petite, cuddly little sweetie pie of a man 🤔😂
 
I was a member of the National Field Archery Society for 25 years and helped run a club and as a coach for many years, but decided that life was just too short to put up with all the sort of stuff mentioned and left, it’s why I’ll only do pay to play at a range as really had enough. Currently looking for a field to rent/buy so my wife and I can play bows and arrows or shoot in peace and quiet.
 
As above, why I've avoided clubs for ages too for the same reason as per @Troy.T. succinct but unerringly accurate description. 😀.

Too many clubs of all descriptions suffer from power mad narcissists who get a kick of wielding what they see as power over people just wanting to enjoy their time.

Human nature unfortunately. All the way from a small shooting club to the so called leader of the free world........
 
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