Shooting Range Question

You are at the shooting range and people are looking at your fine muzzleloader with awe...

Being the nice person you are, you offer to let them shoot it, and they do...

However, when they shoot it, they put a big old scratch in the stock from banging it against the shooting bench...

How would you handle this?

There's really nothing you can say...but I bet you'd already be forming the thought:

That's the last time I'll ever do that!

How would I handle it? :hmm: Well, it involves powder, patch, and ball, and breaking the first rule of gun safety. :winking: He won't ding up any more guns.

I have to take responsibility for letting them handle it.

I'd be kicking myself in the butt all the way home, but I'd fix the scratch and probably do the same thing again. It's a great feeling to let someone shoot a flintlock for the first time.

I've let people at the range shoot my flinter before, when it's the first time for them and they're curious. They always enjoy it. When they're watching and asking questions, what I do is load the next shot while answering questions or explaining the loading procedure, lay it down on the sandbags, then offer to let them shoot it. There's much less handling of the rifle (by the new shooter) that way. So far, they've always preferred to shoot it off the sandbags, rather than offhand, since they don't know what they're doing. But I wouldn't object if they wanted to shoot it offhand, since I made the offer. Of course, if they then ask to load it and shoot it again, that's another matter, but that hasn't happened to me yet. One shot has always been enough to satisfy their curiosity. I also dispel myths and explain how simple it really is to clean a muzzleloader, which goes a long way toward attracting new recruits to the sport.

I'd be kicking myself, but for letting the situation get out of hand. It's my gun and my demonstration, and if I had been doing my job the scratch would never get there in the first place. Scratches can be fixed quickly, but turning around the problem of fewer and fewer shooters is going to take a lot longer. Worth a few scratches along the way.

Brown Bear,
i do not understand anyother answer than yours and Claude's. fix it and forget it and you most likely have a another f/l b/p shooter or at the very least a b/p
shooter. maybe it's just me but i have never refused to let a person fire my weapons(man, women or child<w proper supervision>). i love this sport and i am more than ready
to share it with anyone that wants to know about it. a scratch is minor compared to a convert :imo: i am really :: by some of the answers :imo: :m2c:


snake-eyes :hmm:

To me it's the chance I take whether it's a gun, car or whatever. If someone wants to try it out I always load it for him. That not only reduces handling but the odds of something worse than a scratch are reduced as well, such as ringing the barrel from not seating the ball all the way.
In any case, as others have said, a scratch is small potatoes compared to the potential benefits.

Have to agree with you, Claude... I think the person who scratched the stock would feel as bad or worse then the gun's owner. :sorry: At least I hope they would...

It's all part of the shooting game. Things happen... :relax: