At WCSO range, safety is first priority
Where do you go when you’re new to shooting? Where do you go when you’ve been shooting for quite a while?
Right here, in Wakulla County, the Wakulla County Sheriff’s Office Range is a safe place to go. And a big thanks to Sheriff Jared Miller! You want to be as safe as you can be when handling firearms.
Several years ago, Joe and I visit a range in the forest. There weren’t many targets, and the distance from shooting area to target wasn’t marked.
Well, a couple guys were shooting.
“Can we go cold, soon?” Joe asked politely.
“Huh?”
“When you’re ready, we’d like to go cold,” Joe said again.
“Cold?” he acted like he’d never heard the word.
“Yes,” Joe explained, “We’d like to put up our targets.”
“Why didn’t you say so? Sure. Put up your targets!”
They are off to one side, and we are at the other. Joe starts to head down range.
Pow! Pow! The guy he’d just spoken to is shooting at his target.
We load up our range bags and handgun bags and leave. There isn’t any point staying and, obviously, it isn’t safe.
At the Wakulla County Sheriff’s Office range, safety is the first priority.
When you first drive in, you come to the range office. A deputy is always at the desk. If you’re new, he’ll orient you to the layout of the range, and he’ll tell you about range rules. He’ll ask to make sure you have brought hearing and vision protection. He’ll reassure you that if you have any questions, you can return to him. Deputies at the range have vast backgrounds with both handguns and long guns.
Wednesdays around 10 a.m. are a great time to visit the range. This is a time when a few experienced gun range members meet, and we’re happy to talk about the range and handguns to new shooters. When we meet up with more experienced shooters, we’ll compare the merits of our various handguns, so we come away with more knowledge than we had before.
If you’re still not quite certain about safety rules, there’s a very large sign at the pistol range. It includes that you don’t shoot when someone is downrange. This is what is called a “cold” range. When the range is cold, you don’t touch a gun. There’s a red line on the cement floor between a seating bench and a shooting bench.
I don’t know why it is called a shooting bench. It’s more like a counter-high table with partitions about every 3.5 feet wide or so. You handle your gun and ammunition and you shoot from this shooting bench. That is when the range is “hot.” However, when the range is cold, you stay on the side of that red line closest to the parking area. This way, you can’t reach your gun.
When the range is cold, you can go downrange and put up your target. Because everyone is behind that red line on the floor, people can’t touch their guns, so you know no one will be shooting when you’re downrange.
Hearing and eye protection are necessary to wear at the range. When guns are shot, they make a loud popping or cracking noise. Loud noises can be destructive to hearing, so we always wear stick-in-your-ear foam pads, or earmuff-type hearing protection. I like to wear both at the same time. ANSI-rated glasses help prevent hot, stray casings or bits of shooting residue from flying into your eyes. You’re required to wear both ear and eye protection for your own safety.
The shooting bench/table has partitions, as I noted earlier, at about 3 ½ foot wide intervals. Inside the partitions is Kevlar: the same material used for safety vests. These partitions provide a measure of safety from other shooters, and allow you a semi-private area to shoot and not be distracted by other shooters, although you will still hear the reports of their guns.
Target stands are set up at 7½ yards, 15, 25 and 50 yards. You bring your own targets to place on the backboards. If you have the sticky Shoot-N-See type targets, you just stick a target on the backboard. Otherwise, you bring a stapler or masking tape to affix your paper target. Targets are inexpensive, but if you don’t have any, you can even use paper plates.
Target stands are made of 2×4 frames. Old plastic signs are attached, and your own target attaches to them. We don’t shoot bottles or cans, so no pieces of glass or aluminum can harm you.
Another safety guide is “no naked gun.” This means you bring your handgun to the range in a range or gun bag. No one is walking around with a gun even when the range is hot. Guns are taken out of their pouches at the shooting bench, and then taken out with muzzle always pointing downrange.
And that’s another safety example. Guns are always pointing with the muzzle facing downrange. Even if your finger twitches in the trigger accidentally, your gun is pointing safely towards the targets.
I’d like to say wearing shirts with high necklines will prevent those hot casings from ever flying down your collar. And that’s true most of the time. However, four weeks ago I was wearing a T-shirt with an uncomfortably high neck and a casing did manage to lodge itself right there. Yikes! It took almost 3 weeks for the blister to die down. But this was a first for me in 12 years of shooting.
High neck shirts and loose clothing are good. When that errant casing does manage to sail down your shirt, a quick “hot shell Watusi” dance will send it flying to the floor. You might look a bit silly, but these fast shells don’t even leave marks.
Shooting can leave lead on your hands. After your shooting session, using hand wipes isn’t sissy; it’s smart.
Whether you’re new or experienced, the Wakulla County Sheriff’s Office range is a great place to learn about the sport of shooting. People who come here and range personnel alike are all about safety.
Marj Law is the former director of Keep Wakulla County Beautiful who has become an avid shooter in retirement.
