Shooting Range Injuries: Every Risk You Need to Know Before You Pull the Trigger

Getting shot at isn’t the only way to get hurt at the range — and every shooter, new or experienced, is better off knowing the full picture before they ever step up to the line. There are Inherent Risks of Shooting Firearms.

The vast majority of range visits go completely without incident. Millions of people shoot every year and go home with nothing worse than a big smile and some brass in their boots. But shooting involves controlled explosions, fast-moving metal, hot gases, and human beings — and that combination comes with real, well-documented risks that every shooter deserves to understand up front.

This is a reference piece, plain and simple. Every hazard listed here is a known, documented risk associated with firearms and shooting ranges. Knowing what can go wrong is the first step to making sure it doesn’t happen to you. There are also other Inherent risks of shooting firearms.

Recoil Injuries and “Scope Bite”

These two are probably the most common range injuries that catch new shooters off guard, so let’s start here.

Recoil injuries happen when a firearm isn’t held properly and the rearward force of the shot travels somewhere it shouldn’t — usually into the shooter’s shoulder, face, or hands. High-powered rifles and magnum handguns are the most common culprits. “Bump fire,” where a loosely-gripped firearm fires again from recoil, falls into this category too.

Scope bite is a specific flavor of recoil injury that happens with scoped rifles. If your eye is too close to the scope when you fire, the scope comes back to meet your face. The result is usually a crescent-shaped cut above the eyebrow — sometimes called a “Weatherby tattoo” among experienced shooters. It bleeds impressively and feels about as fun as it sounds. Proper eye relief — the correct distance between your eye and the scope — prevents it entirely.

Both injuries are almost entirely avoidable with correct technique and a good instructor.

Slide Bite and Reciprocating Action Injuries

Slide bite is what happens when a semi-automatic pistol’s slide — which travels rearward fast and with authority after each shot — catches a piece of the shooter’s hand. Usually it’s the web of skin between the thumb and index finger. A “high grip” on a pistol is generally good for control, but if your thumb is positioned incorrectly, the slide will find it.

More broadly, any moving part of a firearm — the charging handle on a rifle, the bolt on a bolt-action, the cylinder on a revolver — can pinch, cut, or bruise fingers or thumbs that wander into the wrong place. These injuries are usually minor but occasionally severe, depending on the firearm and the circumstance.

Instruction on proper grip and hand placement prevents virtually all of these.

Ricochets and Shrapnel

Bullets hitting hard surfaces can and do bounce back. Steel targets, rocks, the ground at close range, even certain target frames — all of these can send fragments or whole rounds back toward shooters and bystanders. This is why minimum engagement distances for steel targets exist and why good ranges enforce them.

It’s also worth knowing that bullets don’t always behave predictably on impact. Fragmentation, deflection angles, and surface conditions all play a role. Ricochets can travel in unexpected directions and at unexpected speeds. Proper target selection, shooting angles, and distances matter more than most new shooters realize.

Hearing Damage

This one is sneaky because the damage accumulates invisibly over time — until it doesn’t.

Gunfire is among the loudest sounds a human being regularly encounters. A single unsuppressed rifle shot can exceed 160 decibels. Permanent hearing damage can occur from a single exposure above certain thresholds, and repeated exposure — even with protection — carries cumulative risk over a lifetime of shooting.

Quality hearing protection is non-negotiable. Over-ear muffs alone provide good protection. Doubling up with foam earplugs underneath muffs provides even more. Electronic hearing protection that amplifies ambient sound while blocking impulse noise is worth every penny for regular shooters. Don’t skip it, don’t borrow cheap earplugs and call it good, and don’t let “just one shot” be an excuse to not bother.

Eye Injuries

Spent brass ejects fast and hot. Debris, dust, and gas get disturbed at every shot. Fragments from targets or struck surfaces don’t always travel in predictable directions. All of it can find an unprotected eye in a hurry.

ANSI Z87.1-rated safety glasses are the minimum. They should sit close to your browline — not perched on your nose like reading glasses. Shooting glasses that wrap slightly around the face offer better protection than flat-frame styles. This is one piece of gear where appearance should take a back seat to coverage.

Burns from Hot Brass and Barrels

Spent brass casings come out of semi-automatic firearms hot — hot enough to raise a blister if they land on exposed skin and aren’t dealt with promptly. This is an especially common surprise for new shooters at indoor ranges, where brass sometimes bounces off dividers and into unexpected places like the collar of a shirt or down a low-cut neckline. Wearing higher collars and closed-toe shoes eliminates most of this problem.

Firearm barrels and suppressors can reach temperatures that cause serious burns after extended shooting sessions. Never grab or press against a barrel that’s been recently fired without verifying it’s cool first. The same applies to suppressors, which retain heat longer than bare barrels.

Negligent Discharges

A “negligent discharge” — sometimes called an accidental discharge, though “negligent” is technically more accurate in most cases — is when a firearm fires unintentionally due to mishandling or poor trigger discipline.

These incidents can cause serious injury or death. They are almost always preventable. The four fundamental rules of firearm safety exist specifically to ensure that even if one rule is violated, catastrophic consequences don’t follow. Treating every firearm as loaded, never pointing it at anything you’re unwilling to destroy, keeping your finger off the trigger until your sights are on target, and knowing your target and what’s beyond it — these aren’t suggestions. They’re the entire safety system.

New shooters should internalize these rules before they ever touch a firearm. Experienced shooters should revisit them regularly.

Slips, Trips, and Falls

Ranges — especially outdoor ranges — have uneven ground, brass underfoot, gear bags in walkways, and all manner of obstacles. Add in the fact that shooters are often focused on targets rather than their footing, and you have reasonable conditions for a fall.

Falls at the range carry a complication that falls elsewhere don’t: the person going down is probably holding a loaded firearm. Range safety rules about muzzle direction and trigger discipline become doubly important when your balance is compromised. Wear appropriate footwear, watch where you’re stepping, and keep situational awareness even when you’re not actively shooting.

Lead Exposure

Lead is present in most conventional ammunition — in the projectile itself and, more significantly, in the primer. When a round fires, fine lead particles become airborne. At indoor ranges with poor ventilation, cumulative lead exposure is a genuine occupational and recreational health concern. At outdoor ranges, residue settles on hands, clothing, and gear.

The mitigation is straightforward: wash your hands thoroughly after handling ammunition or firearms, before eating or touching your face, and change clothes after a range session if you’ve been shooting for extended periods. Lead exposure doesn’t produce immediate symptoms, which is exactly why it tends to be underestimated.

Violent or Careless Behavior by Others

Rare, but real. Most people at a range are responsible, safety-minded individuals. Occasionally, someone isn’t — whether through inexperience, carelessness, impairment, or in extremely rare cases, intent.

Being aware of who else is on the range, reporting obviously unsafe behavior to range staff immediately, and not hesitating to step away from a situation that feels wrong are all reasonable precautions. The baseline risk here is low, but it’s not zero.

Revolver Gas Blast

Revolvers have a gap between the cylinder and the barrel — it’s inherent to the design. When the firearm fires, hot, high-pressure gas escapes through that gap. For the shooter, this generally isn’t a problem. For someone standing beside the shooter — or for a left-handed shooter whose support hand is positioned incorrectly — that blast can cause burns or lacerations.

This is a good reason to know proper revolver grip technique and to be mindful of bystander positioning when revolvers are being fired.

Misfires and Squib Loads

A misfire is when the trigger is pulled and the round doesn’t fire. The correct response is to keep the firearm pointed downrange, wait at least 30 seconds (in case of a “hangfire” — a delayed ignition), and then safely unload.

A squib load is more dangerous: the round fires, but with insufficient powder charge to push the bullet completely out of the barrel. The bullet lodges partway down. If a second round is fired behind it, the result is a catastrophic firearm failure — an “out-of-battery detonation” — that can destroy the gun and injure the shooter and anyone nearby.

Squibs are recognizable by a noticeably reduced report and reduced recoil. If something sounds or feels “off,” stop shooting immediately and have the firearm inspected before firing again.

Firearm Malfunctions

Even reliable firearms malfunction. Failure to feed, failure to extract, stovepipes, double-feeds — these are all normal parts of the shooting experience over a lifetime, and most are resolved with basic malfunction drills. The concern is when a shooter who doesn’t know the correct response to a malfunction starts improvising in ways that could compromise muzzle direction or trigger safety.

Learning basic malfunction drills for whatever platform you’re shooting is time well spent. Tap-rack-reassess is a starting point for most semi-automatic pistol and rifle malfunctions. When in doubt, ask your instructor rather than guessing.

Falling Targets and Equipment

Target stands, steel plates, and shooting benches can fall — from wind, from impacts, from poor setup, or from wear. A falling steel target can pinch a foot. A collapsing target stand can swing a steel plate into unexpected territory. Equipment falling in cramped or multi-shooter environments adds trip and impact hazards that are easy to overlook.

Check target setups before shooting sessions, don’t crowd gear into tight spaces, and be aware that impact on steel targets can shift their position over a session.

Environmental Hazards

Outdoor shooting means outdoor conditions. Heat exhaustion is a real risk on a hot day when you’re physically active, focused, and possibly wearing hearing protection that insulates your ears. Lightning is genuinely dangerous at an exposed outdoor range. Cold weather affects fine motor skills in ways that can compromise safe firearm handling. Strong winds affect both ballistics and situational awareness.

Know the forecast before you head out, dress appropriately, stay hydrated, and don’t push through conditions that are compromising your ability to function safely.

Gear-Related Trip Hazards

Range bags, ammo cans, spotting scope tripods, shooting mats, rifle rests — ranges accumulate gear quickly, and it tends to end up wherever the shooter put it down. Add in other shooters doing the same thing, and you have a legitimate trip hazard in a setting where falling while holding a firearm carries extra consequences.

Keep your gear organized, off common walkways, and in front of your shooting position rather than behind it when possible.

Medical Emergencies

Physical exertion, heat, stress, and the adrenaline response that shooting can produce — especially for newer shooters — can collectively contribute to cardiac or other medical emergencies. This risk is elevated for anyone with a preexisting cardiovascular condition, though healthy individuals aren’t immune.

Know where the nearest first aid kit and AED are located on any range you visit. Know whether cell service is available or whether the range has a landline for emergency calls. Tell someone if you’re feeling unwell, and don’t push through symptoms that might be significant.

The Bottom Line About the Inherent Risks of Shooting Firearms

This is a long list. It’s supposed to be.

Not because shooting is unusually dangerous — it isn’t, when done correctly — but because informed shooters are safer shooters. Every one of these hazards is known, documented, and in most cases almost entirely preventable with proper technique, appropriate gear, and a little situational awareness.

This article exists so that anyone who visits a shooting range — anywhere, ever — has access to a thorough, plain-language accounting of what the known risks are. That’s good for shooters, good for ranges, and good for the sport.

Shoot safely out there.

Article by Shepard Humphries