This is mild incident but worthy of print.
I have never had an issue with the game
commission and have talked to them many times in
the field. They always seemed like professionals
to me until a few summers ago...
I don't have the warning any more, that is all
that it was but is was a complete mistake. The
harassment was more of a pain than the warning
but I didn't want to acknowledge the paper when
it was given to me, but in the end, I did for
fear of the PGC giving me a bigger fine,
revoking my privilege or worse, confiscating
many dollars in guns that I had collected.
I was at the Allentown gun range 1 day. I had
brought along a few pistols, and rifle to sight
in. I have a CCP permit in Pa and thought
nothing of sitting my pistol on the table
without clip inserted ( Clip was loaded 6 rounds
).
Anyway, I was shooting 3 rounds at a time, and
checking my target with a .22 Browning that I
had. I proceeded to do this until I could drive
tacks with the gun.
Upon one check of my target, I walked back to my
bench to a PA game commission officer. I was the
only person at the range, except Dudly Do Right.
He looks down at my 9mm and tells me that I
cannot have a gun loaded at the range with 3 or
more rounds in it. I justify it as my carry gun
and there is no clip in it. He takes me to the
posted rules and tells me that this range isn't
really a pistol range ( The last space is a 25
yard dirt mount without bench rest ).He also
told me that I was shooting more than 3 rounds
at a time- Of which I never did and just wrote
it off as an error on his part.
I tell him that I will not load my pistol clip (
my carry gun ) with more than 3 rounds and
apologize- he goes on his way.
A younger guy pulls up with his girlfriend. He
has a high cap mag .22 rifle and proceeds to
light of the gun range. I tell him that I had
just received a verbal warning and that the PGC
officer isn't one of the nicest people that I
had ever met and suggested that he only shoot 3
at a time.
After many more multiple strings of rounds, the
PGC officer comes back to the range. I check my
target and walks to my bench again and totally
misses the fact that the kid beside me has a
banana clip longer than Texas hanging out of his
gun.
The PGC officer tells me that he was watching me
from the hill with field glasses and that I had
again fired multiple rounds from my gun. I
cannot believe that the he doesn't see the kid
beside me with the banana clip.
He tells me that I am getting a written warning.
I dispute but do not mention that the kid that
is 5' away from us wouldn't listen. He tells me
that I could get a fine. I think that a written
warning is better than a fine and tell him that
I will not ever use a public range again and
that he never saw me and I maintained that I
didn't break the rules. In short, he was not a
good example of the game commission or a good
experience that I usually had at the range.
From this incident, I learned that the guy in
uniform cannot always be trusted. Call me naive,
but I was at a total loss , because I have
always trusted these guys, that this guy was a
total bully and didn't care what actually
happened. Maybe he was having a bad day but as a
professional, it should never have happened. To
this day I am on guard and do not trust the PGC
like I once did.
