Gun Safety etiquette

[BerettaDan]

An awkward safety situation arose on Sunday that I hope the sage forum boys and girls can advise on? I was at a shooting ground on Sunday for some target only practice with my regular shooting mate and our wives. Whilst shooting a driven overhead bird off a high tower that due to the wind was virtually landing at our feet. My mate thought he would showboat by taking the bird virtually on the end of his gun! I was not happy about that, but it got worse! He missed it with his first shot then had to dodge the clay from hitting him and ended up with the gun still loaded, held hip high with the barrels parallel to the ground and pointing close to the wives stood behind and slightly to one side!! I quickly shouted him to point the gun down range or break it. We had a bit of an awkward moment and he knew I wasn’t happy. But nothing further has been said. But he’s been testing the water on WhatsApp today, talking about the clay nearly hitting him…..blah blah blah, but not mention the fact he was swinging a loaded gun around!! So far I’ve managed to grit my teeth and bite my tongue…..what are your thoughts?

PS sorry for the long winded post.

 

[Scotty]

He was definitely out of order. But it seems you berated him at the time. What are you unsure of? Is he an experienced shot with a long history of good safety practice, or is he someone new who had a lapse in judgement? Seems you have to decide if you're happy to continue shooting with this guy, and that's going to be down to if you think this was a one off.

 

[Will Hewland]

I’m a bit lost. Regardless of what the clay is doing, if the shooter is in a cage it shouldn’t be possible to be pointing the gun near to any bystanders. It’s easy to slate a small shoot (which is what I assume this may have been) but this is a basic safety measure you would expect anywhere. 

 

[BerettaDan]

Scotty, have shot with him quite a few times and he’s never done anything like this before. I did shout at the time abs he quickly pointed the unbroken gun back down range. It just nagging me that he’s messaged about the shooting yesterday but skirted around what happened? I think I’d feel much easier if he held his hands up on the incident unprompted?

 

[ColinD]

Let me get this straight, if he missed the clay it would still have landed at his feet anyway whenever he took the shot, by what your saying. So taking it early and missing he would still of had to duck out of the way.

I think I would have given the stand a miss and reported it to the ground owner, not only because of what happened but general safety, no one wants to miss a clay only for it land on them.

 

[BerettaDan]

Will, it wasn’t a ‘straw bailer’….far from it. He wasn’t stood in a cage, as he was stood on a paving slab. A bit like a skeet stand…..but not skeet? I guess what annoyed me was that if he’d shot it properly, the potential situation would never have happened. It’s was purely that he thought he’d be clever and shoot a dropping clay 6 feet in front of him, when he missed it, it nearly hit him. That’s what caused the situation.

Let me get this straight, if he missed the clay it would still have landed at his feet anyway whenever he took the shot, by what your saying. So taking it early and missing he would still of had to duck out of the way.

I think I would have given the stand a miss and reported it to the ground owner, not only because of what happened but general safety, no one wants to miss a clay only for it land on them.

  Correct, that’s where the unbroken clays were landing. To be fair to the ground staff, we were experiencing strong gusty winds, so I suspect that wasn’t happening when it was set up?

it was a very very easy bird if you shot it properly, I didn’t miss any of those and I’m not a particularly good shot. Maybe no one had noticed because it never got close to them previously?

 

[Will Hewland]

Will, it wasn’t a ‘straw bailer’….far from it. He wasn’t stood in a cage, as he was stood on a paving slab. A bit like a skeet stand…..but not skeet? I guess what annoyed me was that if he’d shot it properly, the potential situation would never have happened. It’s was purely that he thought he’d be clever and shoot a dropping clay 6 feet in front of him, when he missed it, it nearly hit him. That’s what caused the situation.

Definitely poor target setting, unless the wind whipped up just beforehand. I still don’t get how doing anything daft in front of him endangered other people though, who surely were stood behind him to a greater degree. Apologies if I don’t understand the geometry of it all

 

[BerettaDan]

Sorry Will, I may be explaining this poorly. If our man is stood on a clock face and the tower birds are coming from 12 o’clock toward 6 o’clock. The wives were stood at 5 o’clock behind him and slightly to one side (one of the wives was on the buttons). I was stood at 7 o’clock. When I shouted his guns muzzle was at 3-3:30….a bit too close to the ladies for my liking…..or did I over react?

 

[Will Hewland]

Sorry Will, I may be explaining this poorly. If our man is stood on a clock face and the tower birds are coming from 12 o’clock toward 6 o’clock. The wives were stood at 5 o’clock behind him and slightly to one side (one of the wives was on the buttons). I was stood at 7 o’clock. When I shouted his guns muzzle was at 3-3:30….a bit too close to the ladies for my liking…..or did I over react?

Ah, right, you didn’t explain that the driven was going off to the side of him and he was turning around to get it. Totally agree; nasty. This is where a cage would take away the possibility of him doing so. Otherwise, the shooter needs to make a few rules for himself about limits of gun movement. 

 

[ColinD]

He turned his back on the clay by the sounds of it, was he in a cage, as I can't understand how he swung the gun around without hitting the sides

Edit: just noticed there was no cage, just a slab. I'd give the ground a miss from now on then, not the best set up. Everywhere I've shot, even the so called straw bailers there's a cage

 

[MartynB]

The correct etiquette in this situation is to calmly say

“ FFS mate you’re going to kill someone ! if you can’t keep the muzzles in a safe direction pack up and **** off home “ 

His correct response should be to have a face glowing redder than a 3 bar electric fire as he grovels an apology to everyone present

I’m honestly of the opinion that there are a huge number of shooters who don’t actually realise that a shotgun will kill someone stone dead . 

 

[westley]

Get him some golf lessons for next Christmas  !