diff --git a/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/mapper/RangeFieldMapper.java b/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/mapper/RangeFieldMapper.java
index d2a6f28169f..067e47839c9 100644
--- a/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/mapper/RangeFieldMapper.java
+++ b/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/mapper/RangeFieldMapper.java
@@ -452,7 +452,14 @@ public class RangeFieldMapper extends FieldMapper {
             }
             @Override
             public InetAddress parse(Object value, boolean coerce) {
-                return value instanceof InetAddress ? (InetAddress) value : InetAddresses.forString((String) value);
+                if (value instanceof InetAddress) {
+                    return (InetAddress) value;
+                } else {
+                    if (value instanceof BytesRef) {
+                        value = ((BytesRef) value).utf8ToString();
+                    }
+                    return InetAddresses.forString(value.toString());
+                }
             }
             @Override
             public InetAddress minValue() {
diff --git a/core/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/index/mapper/RangeFieldTypeTests.java b/core/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/index/mapper/RangeFieldTypeTests.java
index 1a3606873c2..ad1f3ec37fb 100644
--- a/core/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/index/mapper/RangeFieldTypeTests.java
+++ b/core/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/index/mapper/RangeFieldTypeTests.java
@@ -29,10 +29,12 @@ import org.apache.lucene.index.IndexOptions;
 import org.apache.lucene.queries.BinaryDocValuesRangeQuery;
 import org.apache.lucene.search.IndexOrDocValuesQuery;
 import org.apache.lucene.search.Query;
+import org.apache.lucene.util.BytesRef;
 import org.elasticsearch.Version;
 import org.elasticsearch.cluster.metadata.IndexMetaData;
 import org.elasticsearch.common.geo.ShapeRelation;
 import org.elasticsearch.common.joda.Joda;
+import org.elasticsearch.common.network.InetAddresses;
 import org.elasticsearch.common.settings.Settings;
 import org.elasticsearch.index.IndexSettings;
 import org.elasticsearch.index.mapper.RangeFieldMapper.RangeType;
@@ -267,4 +269,10 @@ public class RangeFieldTypeTests extends FieldTypeTestCase {
                 return (Float)from + DISTANCE;
         }
     }
+
+    public void testParseIp() {
+        assertEquals(InetAddresses.forString("::1"), RangeFieldMapper.RangeType.IP.parse(InetAddresses.forString("::1"), randomBoolean()));
+        assertEquals(InetAddresses.forString("::1"), RangeFieldMapper.RangeType.IP.parse("::1", randomBoolean()));
+        assertEquals(InetAddresses.forString("::1"), RangeFieldMapper.RangeType.IP.parse(new BytesRef("::1"), randomBoolean()));
+    }
 }