My worst trip to the range yet!

A friend called last night, and was wanting to go out to his folks house to do some shooting today and wanted to know if another friend and I wanted to go. Well yes we did!

We started the day out with shot guns. We were doing ok, but could be better. I think the dove will be ok on opening day tomorrow, but we did hit some rock. After he had shot a few, the buddy that had invited us grabbed the riding lawn mower to go trim the grass, so we could find our brass when shooting pistols and rifles. He finished with that about the time we were done with the shotguns.

He put the mower up and we went down to start shooting. We got out of my jeep, and started getting stuff out ready to play. My buddy had time to shoot 1 magazine, and then we looked for his brass. As he was reloading his magazine, and I was grabbing the gun I was going to use first, he said something about smoke or fire. Turns out the lawn mower caught fire and was starting to burn in the shed that it was kept in.

Nobody got hurt, but it sucked a lot to see. Made for the worst trip I have ever had to the range. I know that people have trips to the range that are far worse than that, and I am glad that this is as bad as it has been for me, but it just sucked. Hope y"all had a better trip to the range this weekend.

Any ideas how the sucker started on fire?

The best we could guess is based on the fact that the lawn mower back fired when he shut it off. He said he didn't think anything of it at the time. He also said that it was three feet from anything, so its hard to tell. I don't expect the fire department will check it out more than that statement. Maybe if insurance needs more, but it is a rural fire department near a small town, so I don't know. I will say that I was glad that they showed up and were able to put the fire out. I know that we were not getting very far with the two garden hoses we were using.

Yeah, if the gas tank was full, water doesn't help much unless you MASSIVELY water it.

Reminds me of firefighting training in the Navy. If you out in the middle of the deep blue briny, you can't call the fire department.

We were trying to contain the fire, and maybe protect the toys inside. The building had two restored tractors, some machinery, a boat, and some 80+ year old wood. We knew it was a lost cause, but we did stop it from spreding to the other buildings before the fire department got to it.

I don't bother with the lawn mower if I'm shooting the AR, it drops brass so consistently in the same area that I can put down a 3x5 moving blanket and let them pile up on it... My beretta on the other hand, it throws brass pretty much anywhere except to the left... The savage drops them neatly 10" from my hand when shooting from a bench or prone...

The worst day at the range is STILL better than a day at work!

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Originally Posted by gandog56

The worst day at the range is STILL better than a day at work!

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You are right, but only shooting a hand full of clays is more like a tease of a trip to the range. If that was a date, it would have made it worse.