What does "cease-fire" mean at your range

[ijustdontknow]

I was witness to a very curious situation over the weekend. A cease-fire was called at an indoor range. Everyone was instructed to move along the back wall away from the shooting stalls while they repaired a hanger that wouldn't come back to the stall. Bad enough that they did this while the range was less than half full, but then the RSO started yelling at one guy for sweeping brass and another guy for taking a notebook out of his range bag.

I've never seen anything like this and I'm curious. What does cease-fire mean at your range?

[lgm118icbm]

Usually means stay completely away from the benches, behind the safety line or along the back wall.

If the notebook was near the shooting bench or the brass sweeper blocked the RSO's view down the line, makes sense to me.

[Creampuff]

For the Bay area ranges I go to:

Stop shooting and get behind the red or yellow line. Essentially don't be anywhere near the bench so as to not negligently shoot the RSO fixing the hanger.

[232_ray]

Marines Corps cease-fire means stop shooting. Nothing else. But like lgm11 said it makes sense if any of the things going on were questionable to the RSO.

[Garv]

Open breech, remove mags, etc. and get behind the red line until called back.

[fritztkatt]

Condition 4, show clear, holster/sling, face uprange. Never had an issue loading mags or doing other small stuff during cease fires on civilian or military ranges.

[alfred1222]

Clear your weapon, lay it down pointed downrange, and step back behind the line or against the wall. Don't approach until RSO's are clear

[GeorgeGeorgerson]

Stop shooting, mags out, actions open, grab what you need to mess with your targets, and step behind the line until they okay you to get back to shooting or to go downrange and check/change/put up/take down targets. After you get behind the line, you stay behind the line and don't mess with anything at the shooting bench until the RSO/range boss says it's alright to shoot again.

[ja308]

Cease fire means,stop shooting instantly,not even the round where trigger pull was 99% completed .

In range protocal cease fire is often followed by. Open actions,remove clips and magazines and step behind the saftey line. The Sacramento valley range sells and loans chamber flags as an extra security measure that the gun is unloaded.
I liked the chamber flag idea used at this range .

Being yelled at by an RSO for going near a bench is a good thing ! It shows they are paying attention .
That said every shooter is a safety officer and has the obligation to call cease fire if warranted. Its also OK to tell a fellow shooter " I think were supposed to stay here."

[Junkie]

I've never had problems performing other tasks when behind the line as long as I stay behind the line and don't have any firearms with me.

[diveRN]

[SonofWWIIDI]

Don't touch anything on the bench. Stay back behind the line. Don't shoot anybody moving to fix target hangers, or check targets.

Sounds like something everybody should be familiar with. However I can't tell you how many times I've seen/heard people get chewed out for approaching the bench.

Just stay back.

[shakyshoot]

If I were the one going in front of the firing line, I wouldn't want any activity like sweeping brass. It's just a "question mark" when you see a lot of movement and have to think "hmmm, what's that guy doing." Best policy would be to clear your weapon, back up, and basically stand there. I was surprised that the couple of times they have called for a cease fire at my range, they didn't check for clear or even instruct people to clear their weapon. They just said set em down and step back.

[ElDub1950]

Seems that it needs to be different, depending on the range and the type of cease fire.

Most indoor ranges don't have routine cease fires for target changes so a cease fire is unusual and lots of folks don't know the process so RSOs have to be extra vigilant & strict.

Outdoor ranges that routinely have cease fires announce them, give people time to finish firing what they have loaded and to clear their guns and get behind the safety line.

Other than insisting folks stay behind the line and not handle any guns, what's allowed to be done during a cease fire depends the range and the reason for the cease fire.

[ja308]

If I were the one going in front of the firing line, I wouldn't want any activity like sweeping brass. It's just a "question mark" when you see a lot of movement and have to think "hmmm, what's that guy doing." Best policy would be to clear your weapon, back up, and basically stand there. I was surprised that the couple of times they have called for a cease fire at my range, they didn't check for clear or even instruct people to clear their weapon. They just said set em down and step back.

Im guessing an animal or other temporary situation is why a cease fire was called.
By having folks handle guns by clearing and removing mags etc there is a better chance of a round going off than just leaving them on the bench and stepping back.

Under no circumstances should a person go downrange w/o guns being cleared and inspected.