Range behaviour simplified ...

[IainWR]

RANGE SAFETY FOR DUMMIES

Only load your firearm when the Range Officer says it is OK.
Point your loaded firearm at the target. Nowhere else.
If you can’t manage that all the time:
Don’t point it vertically above 70 mils while loading
Don’t point it horizontally more than 200 mils off the line to your target.
Always clear your firearm and have it checked clear before you leave the firing point.

RANGE ETIQUETTE FOR DUMMIES

Don’t point your gun at anyone. Not ever.
Turn up on time. If you are late, the whole programme may go wrong in accommodating you.
Don’t argue with officials.
Obey the rules, sensibly not slavishly.
Your view that a rule is not sensible is NOT VALID.
The answer to your question is probably written down somewhere. Have you looked?
Range time is valuable. Be ready to move forward when your turn comes.
Range time is valuable. Fix technical problems off the firing point.
Range time is valuable. When you have fired your last shot, clear your firearm and get off the range.
Your handloads, and the consequences, are your responsibility.
It is not acceptable to guess at the correct elevation. If you don’t know, go away and find out.
Shooting out of turn once can happen to anyone. If it keeps happening to you, you are not paying enough attention.
If you are keeping the score, speak clearly. Some of us have been shooting for years and are A BIT DEAF.
On the radio, listen out before you transmit. Keep it accurate, clear, brief, relevant and logical. And on the correct channel.
Your bad shooting is not the butt marker’s fault.
Muzzle brakes, black powder and benches in amongst a club day are an inconvenience. Ask before using them and don’t expect the ordinary range user to accommodate your minority behaviour.
If you don’t know, say so.
If someone says they don’t know, that’s an invitation to help, not to ridicule. We were all new to this once.
If somebody demonstrably doesn’t know, by all means correct them – politely - if it’s unsafe. Otherwise, until they ask, leave them to learn from experience – it’s a better teacher than you.
If you do know, before you open your mouth, are you sure? When did you last read the underlying rule?
Keep your conversation polite, quiet and friendly. We are all out to enjoy ourselves and really don’t care what you think of the Prime Minister / Pope / Jimmy Savile / git on the third target along / idiot who cut you up on the drive in / latest bizarre MoD / EU / NRA / Elf’n’safety regulation.
Take your turn at duties on the range and in the butts. But don’t accept duties you aren’t qualified for.
Your club Range Officers are doing you a favour just by being there. Show them respect.
Your club Treasurer is doing you a favour just by being there. Pay your bill.
If you get someone to mind your firearm, you have just marooned them to the spot. Don’t abuse the favour they are doing you.
Don’t get your car bogged down and bring the range to a standstill.
Pick up your brass
and your litter.
Children and dogs are welcome. Screaming / barking delinquents loose on the ranges are not.
The staff are doing their best. Not all problems can be solved. Please keep the discussion constructive.
The rain is NOT THE NRAs FAULT. Buy an umbrella (£15 in the Range Office, in support of GB teams).
And so on …


Which goes to show, there’s not a lot to being safe, so just do it. Good manners equally cost nothing, but there is more to it. Please make the effort.
sign92

[Ovenpaa]

Bravo, are you going to put this version of range behaviour in the Bisley Bible?

[20series]

Love it :goodjob: it should be made a sticky

Alan

[Dougan]

Before you make it a sticky...two points...

One serious: When you mention the 70 mil rule, it only says 'above'...don't forget 'below'...ricochets off the ground are more dangerous than one into the danger area...

And not so serious: Can't those reactive hearing muffs be banned - It's quite off-putting when you're having a chat behind the point to have folk 5 targets down giving you disapproving looks razz

[IainWR]

When you mention the 70 mil rule, it only says 'above'...don't forget 'below'...ricochets off the ground are more dangerous than one into the danger area...

The theory of this is that, on a Limited Danger Area range, the Danger Area will capture ricochets fired within the calibre / ME / MV limits and within the limits of Cone of Fire and allowances to CofF. But if you elevate the firearm more than 70 mil (about 4 degrees) the bullet will clear the stop butt (by quite a large margin) and will fall to earth beyond the far end of the DA. So the 70 mil rule is concerned with direct fire, not with ricochet.

The dimensions of the Danger Area at Bisley are such that there is a substantial additional area beyond the template of Century / Short Siberia before you actually get to the fence, so there is quite a lot of margin beyond the distance achieved by 70 mil elevation. But I'm trying to be a bit more generic, and if you have a standard 1850 metre Danger Area, a little bit more than 70 mils elevation will get your 7.62 x51 milspec bullet out the back end to where people are going about their business. And of course, deep within the regulations, the DA template dimensions change with the calibre / ME / MV limits, so 70 mils works pretty well regardless of the firearm in use.

But the "for dummies" answer remains - point your loaded firearm at the target.

[Watcher]

Think I'll steal those for the club hut

[John25]

[quote="IainWR
But the "for dummies" answer remains - point your loaded firearm at the target.[/quote]


Do the non dummy 'clever dicks' have to comply as well?

[Ovenpaa]

And not so serious: Can't those reactive hearing muffs be banned - It's quite off-putting when you're having a chat behind the point to have folk 5 targets down giving you disapproving looks razz

Noo... I wear them and they can be quite handy on occasion, just wind the volume up I can hear a pin drop at the other side of the firing point. I invariably turn them down or off when shooting.

[IainWR]

[quote="IainWR
But the "for dummies" answer remains - point your loaded firearm at the target.


Do the non dummy 'clever dicks' have to comply as well?

No - if they are genuinely clever they understand fully the construction of a range safety template, will have looked up the detail of the one for the range and firearm in use, and will carefully exploit the actual limits to the extent necessary to achieve their responsibly-conducted range activity.

Alternatively, they could stick with the simple approach - point your loaded firearm at the target.

[IainWR]

Bravo, are you going to put this version of range behaviour in the Bisley Bible?

Too late for this year, but it's an idea for 2014. The South African rule book has a list of useful hints in something like the same style. It includes a comment along the lines of "If your partner is having difficulty finding the target, look out for the splash of his shot so you can help him get a hit. By the way, this is against the rules, so tell him quietly."

We have actually written a regulation allowing this, but I have a lot of affection for the SABU approach to rules!

Iain (Off to SA for the eighteenth time next week)