I was at a local range on federal land yesterday. No range officials but a local hunting group maintains the land pretty well with targets from 7 yards out to 150 yards. I like the range because there is usually no one there during weekdays and bad weather so I can run drills without the normal constraints. And, for the most part, the guys that frequent the range are hunters who are well schooled in gun safety.
Anyway, to keep this short, I was shooting on the move when when a truck pulled up so I stopped and reset on the 7 yard target to practice static drills. Well, the guy from the truck started setting up next to me and seemed to be safe (I wasn't getting flagged).
I heard him rack his slide (full size glock) and I turned my head to look since I'm always nervous until I've observed another shooter for a while. His glock was pointed directly at my chest, finger on trigger, as his lard ass moved directly toward me. Time slowed and I grabbed the gun with my left hand and pushed it off my center line. Sure enough, the surprise made him pull the trigger and the gun went off a foot from my ribcage and into the ground a few feet behind me. As I reached for my pistol, I realized that I was holding his gun and he wasn't. The shock of the event/gun firing caused him to let go and not clench down fortunately. I created distance for my safety in case the guy was actually a threat. It was pretty quickly apparent that he was not a threat. Lots of angry words were exchanged (one way exchange) and I left red in the face. I had to pull over and rest for 15 min because I was seeing so much red.
After the first shot fired, I was pretty sure from feel that there was only an empty case in the chamber since my fingers were holding the slide but I wasn't willing to bet my life on it. I would have shot if he had not released the gun and that would have made for a legal nightmare. So I am glad it ended as it did but dammit!
It took a lot of control to not lose my cool physically but I kept reminding myself that as I should be entering the LE world soon, I have to hold myself to a higher standard.
How would you guys have handled it? What other precautions could I take in the future. I always have an ifak but I'd rather not get shot to begin with. I'm starting to see the value of a range buddy but while my girlfriend finishes up grad school, I am somewhat isolated from my good friends (geographically).
Also, I didn't hesitate on drawing and would not have hesitated to shoot in what was a life threatening situation and I stopped before shooting only because I realized his gun was in my hand. But thinking about it after the fact, even though it would have been justified IF he hadn't let go of the gun, the legal system would not easily see my point of view. I can see fears like that creating hesitation the next time I am under similar circumstances. You train for a million scenarios with bad guys but you can't train for this or I should say I can't see how one can train for something like this.
I've seen students do stupid things in training but I am usually focused on them if I am instructing and also if I am a fellow student (in which case the instructors have eyes on also). I've never experienced anything like this. I really didn't know, at the time, if the guy was just a dumbass, a robber, or a killer.
Sorry for the possibly incoherent rambling, I guess a part of this is just venting. I haven't told my girlfriend out of fear that she will never go shooting again so you guys are my outlet.
By the way, it turns out that he just wanted to buy a target off of me.
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Originally Posted by Deputy Dan
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