Casual Range Wear: What’s the Word?

[rg115]

I'm trying to figure out the best way to dress when I hit the range. I'm not talking about all the gear and tactical stuff — just regular clothes that make sense for a day of shooting.

I've been to the range a few times now and started paying more attention to what people are wearing. One thing I've noticed is that camo really stands out, especially during basic drills or just blasting a few rounds through a rifle. It's not a bad look or anything, but it feels a bit much for what I'm doing, unless I'm planning on hunting later.

Lately, I've been sticking with neutral colors: jeans, a simple shirt, and decent boots. I want to be comfortable and safe—definitely no sandals or flip-flops. I'm also trying to avoid looking too much like I'm headed to a military operation, you know? Just a casual day at the range.

So, I'm curious: what do you all wear? Am I overthinking this? Should I just wear whatever or do y'all have a vibe you stick with when shooting? I want to learn from what everyone else does.

 

[Longcarbine]

I wear my everyday clothing which consists of engineer boots, black Carhart jeans, white tee shirt with a button up shirt over that, a good pair of shooting gloves, cap/hat to shade your eyes. And the two most important, vision and hearing protection. I may not be very fashionable but it works, I try to keep it simple but I would not mind having a decent shooting jacket for the range when shooting rifles or shotguns.

 

[Morgan101]

Wear whatever you want. I have never been to a range where anybody cared how you were dressed.

 

[shovelmike]

I wear whatever I want, here on my private range the only ones looking at me are a few squirrels and rabbits, they head further back in the woods once the shooting starts.

 

[Edmund]

As far as clothes, I suppose I have three thoughts:

1. I try to have a shirt that I can button up to the neck (or a reasonably tight necked t-shirt), as one of my favorite handguns likes to "shoot baskets" using spent brass as the ball and my shirt as the basket.
   (When I let others shoot that gun, I make sure they button up if necessary, and I tell them, "If you feel the need to do the Hot Brass Dance, first keep the gun pointed down range, and put the gun down. Then and only then do your dance. The hot brass isn't going to kill you." And I watch them like a hawk.)
   
   
2. If I'm firing my carry gun, I will typically wear what I wear when I carry. (A sport coat, or an untucked shirt.)
   
   
3. I try not to wear clothes that I will wear while traveling on an airplane unless it is all going through the laundry or heading to the dry cleaners first. (I also don't take bags to the range that I travel with.) No need to give their electronic sniffers false alarms with residual gun powder. I often shoot at an indoor range, so I assume the residuals build up a bit.

I generally don't wear tactical clothes or hunting clothes at all, so I don't wear them to the range.

 

[Flagaman]

Morgan101 covered it. Just so you wear something, otherwise hot brass may get your attention!

 

[Bobcat]

Jeans and a T shirt in the summer, add to that as needed in cooler temperatures. I always wear a hat, double hearing protection and most of the time some sort of protective eyewear. I'm very non-tactical and it makes me nervous if I see someone in full tactical gear, drop holster bla bla bla. I have occasionally seen the "ninja" types that spray bullets all over the range, leave trash and empty brass scattered around and steal all the free targets. In addition, they purposely shoot the target frames to pieces. Generally the type that gives gun owners a bad name. Conversely, I have seen some people with the latest tacticool stuff that were influenced by the previous type because they were new to shooting and thought they needed all that stuff to shoot.

Most of the time the latter category just need some quality range time with a positive influence and they realize that they can have a great time without all the paraphernalia and unsafe practices.

While I belong to a couple of private ranges, I do most of my shooting at an unsupervised MDC public range. So most of my comments are from experiences there.

I do want to make one other point, I'm in no way disparaging AR15s or any other firearm, I like them all.

 

[Edmund]

... I always wear ... double hearing protection....

I typically do this, too...in-ear foam ear plugs and over-the-ear muffs. I've had some hearing loss in my day, and I don't want to risk any more hearing loss. I often shoot at an indoor range as well, which makes this more important, I think.

 

[tcwild]

Same thing I wear every other day, overalls with shirt and drawers underneath withs boots