Two Texans killed in rifle accidents at ranges

[Guest slothful1]

Weird coincidence: yesterday, a man in Houston & an LEO in Corpus Cristi were both fatally (and apparently accidentally) shot with rifles.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/5392923.html

[Guest Mugster]

Civilian ranges can be dangerous places, no question.

[ZZRguy]

Civilian ranges can be dangerous places, no question.

So can police ranges.

[shaftbass]

Civilian ranges can be dangerous places, no question.

Yea, especially that Owl Hollow range. What a debacle of safety that place is.

[Guest Mugster]

So can police ranges.

Right. Police are civilians.

[Guest bkelm18]

I've seen military ranges that were pretty sheisty too....

[Guest bob-e]

How did this happen? Walking around a hot range I guess? That's awful

[Guest ETS_Inc]

Yea, especially that Owl Hollow range. What a debacle of safety that place is.

Owl Hollow isn't manned by a professional range staff at all hours. It is, however, a private range, where the members must sign a contract, stating that they understand the safety rules.

If you are out there shooting, and see an unsafe act, and there are no Range Officers present to whom you can report the incident, get the offenders badge number (again, by the rules, they should be wearing it), and let someone know. They can take it up with the offender.

Is that an ideal situation? No. But, with a range like Owl Hollow, without an on-site, professional safety staff, you're going to have some idiots do stupid stuff. If you think Owl Hollow is bad, you need to stay as far away as possible from the Cheatham County TWRA range. You really take your life into your own hands out there.

Oh, and BTW, starting in 2008, all members of Owl Hollow, whether new or renewal, will have to go through a short safety orientation at the range, where the rules will be explained to them, and they will have to sign their application, certifying that they've had the orientation, before they are given their new badge.

[shaftbass]

Well I'll leave the reporting to someone else as I'm not a member and don't plan on being one.

Here's the deal:

I went to Owl Hollow one day back in June 06. While it is nice to have an relatively free range to do what you want, I did witness something there to make me never want to return. I was a guest of a member, and while the range was hot and several people were actively shooting on the rifle range, a man walked out onto the range to set up his targets only about 50 feet to the left of where we were shooting. He completely ignored our yells, didn't even give us a look! I don't know if he was deaf, drunk, or just incompetent, but that one experience is enough to make me never want to return.

It really doesn't matter now because I go to Gallatin Gun Club, but it's not hard to understand how range accidents happen when someone acts like that.

[Guest CrazyLincoln]

These are always sad and unfortunate. I knew of someone who died on a range when holstering somehow the gun went off.

[Guest Shooting Coach]

In the last year, two folks died while attempting to holster sidearms in shoulder holsters at MSSA in west Tn.

Lack of training can be fatal!

[et45]

That is why I love Cleveland.They have 5 pistol ranges with berms around you.They say you must share if all the ranges are full but that has never been the case for me.It is like having your own private range.

[Guest canynracer]

This is horrible... god bless the fallen officers families...

[BigDaddyx4]

I'm a new guy here but I plan on joining Owl Hollow for several reasons. I've checked it out and spoke to numerous other folks that have had very good experiences there. I big plus for me is it is literally 5 minutes from my house.

So my question for ReefBlueCoupe (or anyone else) is, was that one idiot the only issue you had w/ the range? This is not a loaded question or setup...I'm just making sure I know what I'm getting before I invest my hard earned money.