I've spent quite a bit of time at many different types of gun ranges and I've NEVER been aiming at the sky?
I wonder if the rifle and/or pistol range at MCAS Miramar has ever lost (or had any damage what-so-ever) to any type of aircraft?
I mean it is actually IN the landing pattern - so it must be dangerous!

USMCFLYR

 

I guess many fail to see the humor here. Suppose your name was Saif and you had manged to acquire a "heavy caliber automatic weapon" with the intention of shooting at aircraft. Would it not be dangerous to your health to attempt such a thing in close proximity to many heavily armed men and women who might take issue with your behavior?

 

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We've got a range right off the end of our runway - use it as a visual reference. And every AF base has a shooting range within ~a mile.

I guess it would be a problem if guys were trying 5-mile shots with 45 degree elevation setups... right... In that case, I'd be more worried about living in nearby neighborhoods.

For that matter, we ought to ban all flying over the Southern US during/around May 5, when the flyers go out urging folks not to shoot into the air.

And if some joker's going to try to shoot down a plane with small arms, he's not going to buy a gun range membership. Plenty of other places he could set up somewhat unobserved and try for the golden BB shot.

And let's look at the shot dynamics on that anyhow. I'm an OK shot in large bore. For a long hunting shot at 300 yards, I train to a 4" circle on a stationary target w/a 300WM. Supported with a bench rest I can probably get better, and I'm sure some guy with a nice .50 on a bipod can do even better, but you're planning a shot on a moving target.

So now you're planning to hit an airliner taking off on a ~10 degree climb, airborne 2,000' before the departure end. You manage to get a setup 1/2 mile from the runway, dead-on. You're waiting for him to get to 300 yards for your shot.

That shot happens when the aircraft goes right over your nugget at 200 knots, about 350fps. Go for it, sniper-boy.

So you wait till the next day and turn around to catch the guy on a 3 degree approach. Much easier, right?

At 300 yards, he's approaching now at a leisurely 300fps, but with a pretty impressive angular acceleration as he flies overhead. As a comparison, consider that most of us feel pretty good if we can limit in dove season (15 birds) inside a container of 25 shells. They're moving at ~30 knots and we're shooting at around 20 yards. You're trying to hit a target moving 5 times the speed at 15 times the distance - with a bullet, not a cloud of #8 shot. If you make that shot, and somehow find a vital spot, you've got a good chance to get your own sport shooting show on OLN once your lawyer gets you acquitted.

 

The beard would give you away...

 

There's a shooting range under final for one of the runways @ KFDK...

 

I often joke that my flirst *combat* was getting shot at in the FCLP pattern (at around the 90 deg position) at Fentriss Field near NAS Oceana. We didn't know it at the time. We thought we were just being spotlighted. I was helping guide the cops to them while flying around the pattern. About two days later we see in the local news that they arrested to Ya-Hoos with about an empty 12 pack in the back of the pick-up, along with a spotlight (we weren't crazy), a 12 gauge and a .22 and a few empty boxes of shells. Seems they were taking pot shots at us around the pattern.
As you can imagine, things didn't go too well for them but I can't remember the specifics. This was late '99 to early '01 timeframe so I'm sure they weren't charged as terrorists or soemthing

USMCFLYR

 

I saw this debated on FNC this morning. Some gent from the county taking the pro-range side, and Robert Mark from Jetwhine.com as the opposition.

The county man explained that the outdoor range would have a system of overhead baffles that would hide all open sky from the firing positions, and a no-.50 policy.

Mr. Mark blithely predicted gloom and destruction.

 

The only guns pointed in the air anyways (responsibly) are shotguns. I doubt sport loads of 7 1/2 or 8 shot (which is like very course sand) will even touch a plane as it doesn't travel far.