This forum seemed to be the best place to post this topic due to the fact that it encompasses firearms of all types; Rifles, Shotguns, Pistols.

SAFETY is something that many with tons of experience become lax with whether it be among themselves or even when shooting/hunting with the inexperienced.

It is with great sadness that I report an accident that occured to a good friend's Nephew. My good friend is as an experienced gun handler as any on the planet and his Nephew grew up shooting and was taught by him.

The Nephew is 19 years old and took his girlfriend and another couple duck hunting. Not knowing the entire story, I understand that the other three besides him were inexperienced rookies. They were shooting ducks over decoys and the Nephew was retreiving them in the water. A duck came in, he saw it and told the rookies to shoot it. It crossed behind him and he was shot in the face at about 15 to 20 yards with a duck load which is obviously a heavy steel shot load.

He had MANY hits to the skull, destroyed right eye, 3 pellets behind the left eye in the socket, and 3 teeth shot out among all of the other hits to the face and skull that did not penetrate the skull, just under the skin against the bone. He had to be transported by Helicopter to the hospital.

Even though he was experienced, he made many mistakes. The incident will be Life-Changing.

This should serve as a wake up call for all of us whether we shoot targets, hunt, or plink.

PLEASE MAKE SAFETY A TOPIC OF DISCUSSION WITH ANYONE YOU HUNT OR SHOOT WITH BEFORE YOU GO INTO THE FIELD OR RANGE.

It is something I have done recently even with good friends and it's nothing to be ashamed of or even feared to discuss because you may hurt someone's feelings. Ignoring the topic could have dire consequences. At least get everyone thinking about it.

1. NEVER let an inexperienced shooter control ammo or use a firearm unless others are in a safe location. You control the ammo and load the gun.

2. MUZZLE CONTROL. Down range, up, or down only.

3. While hunting birds with shells in the chamber, ALWAYS HAVE THE GUN ON "SAFE", whether in a blind or walking fields.

4. With rifles, WALK WITH AN EMPTY CHAMBER UNTIL YOU SEE YOUR TARGET.


Be safe out there during the season!

quote:

PLEASE MAKE SAFETY A TOPIC OF DISCUSSION WITH ANYONE YOU HUNT OR SHOOT WITH BEFORE YOU GO INTO THE FIELD OR RANGE.

This should be posted every day of every week....It's easy to forget.....

I've been blessed to never been involved in such a tragedy....lets all try to keep ourselves in the same good graces.

That is indeed Horrific !!!.

Personally ; While hunting with others with a shotgun ,I use an O/U and break the breach whenever possible .

Several years back I too was on the receiving end of a Duck blind shot blast , from another hunters blind !. I thank my LUCKY STARS
that Either I was too far out of range or the person was a poor marksman . either way it's something that STICKS with you !!!.

Unfortunately there's NO Substitute for Experience !.

Hope he makes as good a recovery as possible.

quote:

Originally posted by vapodog:
This should be posted every day of every week....It's easy to forget.....

+1 but I would like to add that we also ought to think about our driving safety every day of the week.

I, too, agree. You just can't be too safety conscious around guns.

I often take my grandsons shooting and I'm constantly stressing safety (they range in age from 11 to 18). It seems that in spite of all I do and say, I'll still catch one of them pointing a gun where it shouldn't be pointed or someone will be standing where they shouldn't be standing. When this happens I always point out the potential problem to them. If it keeps occurring I'll end our shooting session and tell them why. (Yes, I've ended the shooting sessions early before.)

Lives are precious--never take guns and shooting for granted.

Great reminder. I haven't been able to shoot much the last several months, and caught myself a couple of times in deer camp being cafreless. Another good reason to shoot, handle the firearms, and reinforce our safety habits.

Very sorry to hear about the accident.

quote:

Originally posted by Red C.:
I, too, agree. You just can't be too safety conscious around guns.

I often take my grandsons shooting and I'm constantly stressing safety (they range in age from 11 to 18). It seems that in spite of all I do and say, I'll still catch one of them pointing a gun where it shouldn't be pointed or someone will be standing where they shouldn't be standing. When this happens I always point out the potential problem to them. If it keeps occurring I'll end our shooting session and tell them why. (Yes, I've ended the shooting sessions early before.)

Lives are precious--never take guns and shooting for granted.

It's a terrible tragedy that happened. He takes most of the blame in my opinion. He allowed an inexperienced gun handler to do so without being supervised. He wasn't wearing any eye protection.

The results of possibly not wanting to hurt someone's feelings or make them feel distrusted. The result is not worth the good intent.

Also take into consideration everyone who is effected by the accident. The person who shot him has to be devastated. Probably will have a poor attitude toward all of the things we love; hunting, shooting etc. forever and so will all those who are ignorant to firearms and hunting. All the families and friends as well. Just terrible.

It was easily avoidable with some thought about safety before the outing; that is the reason for this thread.

I hope a few folks who read this take it to heart and make safety #1 when they get together with others for fun.

quote:

Brice says:
Great reminder. I haven't been able to shoot much the last several months, and caught myself a couple of times in deer camp being cafreless. Another good reason to shoot, handle the firearms, and reinforce our safety habits.

I have caught myself at certain times. Usually when I am shooting alone. I routinely practice shooting clay targets and can do so alone with the set up I have. I have a few 12 volt traps with wireless time-delayed releases. I take the dogs and go. I set up where I can walk around the machines 360 degrees and shoot in all directions. With my sporting gun I just load two and shoot pairs. Once in a while something will distract me, the dogs, a machine quits working or whatever and I need to attend to it. I have forgotten how many shells are in the gun before or even if it is loaded and have rested it muzzle down on my shoe. I never use a safety on my competition gun and especially not when I am alone.

It sure wakes you up after you pick your gun up from your shoe to load it to continue shooting targets and realize what you have done!

When shooting organized competition a safety briefing is always part of the beginning of the match. I'm an instructor and am always conscious about stressing saftey when helping new shooters. The point of this is that even someone with my experience can become lax. Think about the average shooter or hunter who's just concentrating hard on the basic marksmanship idea and trying to hit targets. I bet safety is on the back burner.

Just yesterday a hunter here in NW Arkansas died when his gun went off and shot him. It's sad, but I have to wonder... Why was it pointed at him in the first place?

OMG ... and a shotgun is a devastating weapon! Prayers for your nephew.

quote:

Originally posted by mstarling:
OMG ... and a shotgun is a devastating weapon! Prayers for your nephew.

Not a relative of mine, but a friend I have shot with at tournaments. Thanks for your good thoughts!

All of you are correct; safety can not be over emphasized ! It is truly terrible what happened that started this thread; maybe it will save other lives and injuries.
We all who have shot for a long time have seen and been guilty of bad gun handling. We can NEVER be too experienced to say we don't need another safety lesson. I've seen "veteran" shooters make mistakes.
One thing a lot of us take for granted is the safety. DO NOT TRUST A SAFETY ! It is a mechanical devise that CAN and WILL fail when you least expect it.
Always embrace safety talks. You're never too old nor experienced to learn from it.
There's lots more, but that's all I will touch on.Be safe and always think down range.
Charles

Talked to a buddy who was shot in the leg as a kid by accident. We talked of all of the folks we know who have been involved in accidents.

One of my close friends was hit in the eye by a stray pellet while quail hunting. Blind for two weeks and it has never been the same.

One of our common aquaintences shot himself with a .270 up through the shoulder. Real bad.

While the discussion ensued, we talked of many weird ammo discharges. One guy dropped a metallic cartridge on the ground and it went off really hurting his face. My father ejected a 12 ga. shell as a kid from an over/under and it hit the ground and went off. A Game officer we talked about threw his pistol and belt on a hotel room bed and a shell went off in the loop and shot out a lamp.

All really weird.

Then he produced this box of .220 Swift ammo. He was shooting prarie dogs, missed one and was pissed so he threw the case in the box too hard and one went off:

BTT,

Please look at this as it has importance!

Just an update on my friend's nephew, and thanks for the thoughts on his recovery.

Two weeks after the incident he was already back to shooting!

They've been working together on the switch over to shooting off of the left shoulder.

The doctors left all of the pellets in his head and eye sockets alone, just removed the damaged eye.

What a trooper!

Good to hear he is doing better.

The routine of handling a firearm was brought up while we were together on our farm over the week of Thanksgiving. I had picked my daughter up from hunting and she had rode in the back of the truck to the house. Many times we see or catch a hog or two out int eh open while doing so and she wanted to be able to get out and make a shot if we did. I watched her unload the rifle before she climbed in, shoving the bullet down into the magazine and closing the bolt over the top. When we got tot he house, she handed the rifle to me before she climbed out. I immediately pulled the bolt open half way, tripped the release on the mag, and after pocketing the three rounds proceeded to check the cleared chamber.

About the time I closed the action, she said" you know that the chamber was clear, you watched me clear it". I reinforced my actions by telling her that she knows better than that, and that I ALWAYS check and clear any firearm when handling them. The conversation went on a bit and I reminded her of my friend who had brought his 30-06 into the same house we were walking into, laid it on the bed, and blew out the side window, along with a substantial portion of the bedspread and top blankets. This narrowly missed,(I haven't got a clue how), a 200# LP tank sitting not 30' away, but most importantly ME, who had just walked past that same window not two steps before the shot. Of course it had been unloaded by dropping the mag well cover and dumping the shells, but the chamber wasn't cleared.

With some things in life, there are second chances to do it over and do it right, with some the only chance you might get, is the first so always, especially with anything that has potential deadly results, do it right the first time.

quote:

With some things in life, there are second chances to do it over and do it right, with some the only chance you might get, is the first so always, especially with anything that has potential deadly results, do it right the first time.

AMEN If only everyone took safety so seriously. I am not sure if it is a society change of wanting to be too nice to people and not offend or what, but when i was a kid, if you did something dumb with a gun, an Ol' Timer was around to smack you and tell you how dumb you were. You didn't pout about it; you realized you could have hurt someone and became more aware of your actions. Today's world it always seems to be someone else's fault. May each of us constantly evaluate our safe gun handling practices.