You certainly don’t need to get all tacti-cool when you go to the range, but is imperative that you dress for the occasion. This is especially true for women, who have a much wider range of clothing options, including certain styles of tops that simply seem to attract hot brass.

A 55-year-old woman in McHenry, Illinois found this out the hard way on Monday, and then compounded the error by completely losing her composure due to the pain with a gun in her hand.

As she contorted in an attempt to fish out the hot brass with one hand, she coon-fingered the trigger of the pistol that was still in the other, with disastrous results.

A 55-year-old female resident of McHenry Illinois was injured at a gun range at around 12:43 p.m. April 20, police reported.

The incident happened at the On-Target firearms range at 560 Beechcraft Lane in Crystal Lake.

“Upon arrival, officers confirmed that a patron using the pistol range had suffered a leg injury when a hot, expended shell casing landed inside the shooter’s shirt, and in an effort to remove the casing, the shooter experienced an accidental discharge of the pistol, and the fired bullet struck the patron’s own thigh,” police said in a written release.

The extent of the woman’s injuries were not released, but she was treated by paramedics at the scene before being transported to the hospital for further care. We hope that her wounds are neither serious nor permanent.

Please dress appropriately for the range, folks, and when you do eventually catch hot brass down your shirt, in your pocket, between your hat and glasses, etc, make sure that you safe your weapon first before attempting to go after the hot brass.

Burns form hot brass are very painful, but that pain, while intense, is temporary. You’ll live, maybe ending up with an interesting scar at worse.

Gun shot wounds are more permanent.

Be safe out there, folks.