Who/what taught you about gun safety

[Shuck.]

Quite interested to hear this, should be a good one

 

Multiple choice poll.

 

Now updated

Edited April 30, 2010 by Shuck.

[Kent Militia]

Mine is: Other.

 

Shooting instructor.

[bobt]

you forgot cadet force?

[J@mes]

1. Dad - with an SA80

2. Other - shooting instructor for shotgun

[Shuck.]

I'd have to say nobody taught me and I learnt through not so much stupidity, but trial & error (with bb/pellet guns going up to air rifles).

 

From those plastic 6mm softair handguns to the BSA lightnings to the shotguns all the way up to centerfire rifles, they're all very different but all have the same ground rules that if you stick by you can't go far wrong.

 

Everything I've learned about -core- gun safety I learned from lower powered (can't think of a better word at the moment but..) 'practice/target' guns.

 

That's not to say I haven't learned anything over the past years as you can never know too much, but the majority of it I've carried around my whole life.

 

I'm probably going to get a slandering for this as someone's bound to find something they don't like about this

Edited April 30, 2010 by Shuck.

[TonySmith]

you forgot cadet force?

 

 

Yeah...Sea Cadets me..........

[barrelsniffer]

My dad when young then army days and gained quals for differing weapons..upto present day.

[Shuck.]

This poll is suprising me

 

It seems the quiet one's taught themselves and the rest learnt from someone else

 

C'mon let's hear from some of you 'nobody's!

[Shuck.]

No older brothers taught any of you?? I thought that would be a popular one

[SimonT]

Learnt to shoot in the Marines, shoot RF and CF rifles now

[Rizzini]

My uncle who was in the TA but sadly died on a training course in Cyprus, Never forget what he told me.

[Vipa]

The Army... Duke of Lancs Own Yeomanry TA first then reg RMP.

 

You need a choice for HM Forces up there

[EastSussexLad]

The old man taught me everything i know from the age of 8, and all his dirty habits.....

[Lez325]

rimfire and centre fire skills learnt during 22 years in HM Forces (Army) although we never shot at Foxes or Rabbits

 

shotgun I just picked up along the way ( not that Im any good at it you understand)

 

Les

[MM]

my brother and i taught each other about gun safety. When he shot me with the air rifle, i screamed and shot him with the pistol. We learnt that its safer not to shoot each other, as it hurts.

[George1990]

Taught myself. To be honest it's pretty straightforward (or not as the case may be )

[RC45]

My dad taught me when I was 8 and used to shoot rimfire with the boys club. My father also took me pistol shooting and I was in the TA when I was in my teens. I also done the NSRA instructor course ..

 

Phil

[mossy835]

why should you be shown gun saftey when you can teatch your self.its strait forward.

[poontang]

No older brothers taught any of you?? I thought that would be a popular one :yp:

 

Well one of my brothers got me pistol shooting with the police in a roundabout sort of way.

When i was at school i used to have a Webley Junior air pistol, which i used to keep in my school bag. Anyway one lunchtime my brother got hold of it and shot another lad in the face and hit him on the end of the nose!! The lads brother threatened to tell the headmaster so to even things up a bit i shot my brother in the thigh, thinking that should settle it, an eye for an eye and all that Not so apparently, and shortly afterwards i was summoned from my RE lesson and taken to the headmasters office, where i met the local police schools liaison officer

Anyway to cut a long story short, i got a ####ing and the cane etc. etc. no big deal and i figured i'd got off lightly. Until i got home and my dad, who was a police inspector at the time, er 'questioned me' I told my dad of my interest in guns/shooting and that i was a fine upstanding citizen whereas my brother was obviously a homicidal maniac and should be banished from the family home forthwith. After a bit of a chat my dad reckoned that if i were to shoot then i'd have to learn properly. He arranged for me to shoot with a couple of lads from his shift who had a 'ticket' (none of your Ramboesque RoboCop types in those days).

So, in summary i guess my brother, in his own inimitable way got me trained in the safe use of guns.

[JonD]

On shotguns i taught myself, before applying for my SGC I bought and read the BASC book of the sporting shotgun cover to cover several times. By the time I had my interview I was able to answer the questions and my FEO commented that i'd made his job easy as he didn't need to spend additional time covering the safety aspect.

 

I had no one in the family that shot to intoroduce me to gun safety but it's mostly common sense.

 

A gun is always treated as loaded irrespective of if it has a safety or not until you have broken it or checked it and proven it to be unloaded.

 

Never point a gun, loaded or unloaded at anything you are not prepared to kill.

 

Always be aware of where the muzzles are pointing.

 

Rifle wise RF and CF i was taught and supervised by a friend both at a rifle club and also in the field with rifle and shotgun.

 

So far as i'm concerned safety is the first and most important fundamental of shooting.

 

I'm planning on doing the CPSA Safety Officers course later this year, not for the badge etc but to increase my awareness of things I may not have come across.

 

Since i switched to a SA shotgun i have been even more aware of some people being nervous around them and make a point of the muzzles always being skyward untill i enter a stand, it's then pointed downrange and loaded, the muzzles are back skywards before i leave the stand and then the butt is on my foot with the breech easily visible to anyone around, for skeet fitting a breech flag is not always practical but sporting it's fitted normally even though the gun is slipped between stands.

 

No matter what the experience level you can never become complacent around guns IMO.

 

Jon.

[RC45]

why should you be shown gun saftey when you can teatch your self.its strait forward.

I made sure MY kids knew gun safety. I made sure they were taught properly.

 

:-)

[groach1234]

I told my dad of my interest in guns/shooting and that i was a fine upstanding citizen whereas my brother was obviously a homicidal maniac and should be banished from the family home forthwith.

 

That made me chuckle not sure why think it was the use of forthwith .

 

George

[Floating Chamber]

Eley diary, 1962:

 

'If a sportsman true you'd be,

Listen carefully to me.

 

Never, never, let your gun,

Pointed be at anyone,

That unloaded it may be,

Matters not the least to me...'

 

I read and read this, (together with all the other verses), on the night I got my first Eley Yearbook. I did not put my head down to sleep until I could recite it word perfect. I was 15. I can still recite every word.

 

FC

Edited April 30, 2010 by Floating Chamber

[webber]

Eley diary, 1962:

 

'If a sportsman true you'd be,

Listen carefully to me.

 

Never, never, let your gun,

Pointed be at anyone,

That unloaded it may be,

Matters not the least to me...'

 

I read and read this, (together with all the other verses), on the night I got my first Eley Yearbook. I did not put my head down to sleep until I could recite it word perfect. I was 15. I can still recite every word.

 

FC

 

Here you go.

 

A Fathers Advice

 

If a sportsman true you’d be

Listen carefully to me. . .

 

Never, never let your gun

Pointed be at anyone.

That it may unloaded be

Matters not the least to me.

 

When a hedge or fence you cross

Though of time it cause a loss

From your gun the cartridge take

For the greater safety’s sake.

 

If twixt you and neighbouring gun

Bird shall fly or beast may run

Let this maxim ere be thine

“Follow not across the line.”

 

Stops and beaters oft unseen

Lurk behind some leafy screen.

Calm and steady always be

“Never shoot where you can’t see.”

 

You may kill or you may miss

But at all times think this:

“All the pheasants ever bred

Won’t repay for one man dead.”

 

Keep your place and silent be;

Game can hear, and game can see;

Don’t be greedy, better spared

Is a pheasant, than one shared.

[Cranfield]

My grandfather accompanied me on my first shotgun forays (at the age of 10), but the gun safety he must have "taught" me was so subtle, I didn't realise it was happening.

I always assumed I had "taught" myself, as 99% of it is commonsense, but he must have guided me in some ways.