Just a Safety Rant

[SawtoothShooter]

Backstory:

This year I had 3 individuals point their rifles at me. I assume to look through their scope at what was moving on the mountain. Each and every one of them was on an ATV or dirtbike, and one even had his young son with him.

For the love of God people, use your damn binos before flagging a human being. This has to be my biggest pet peeve, especially when I can see that you have binos hanging from your neck. And also, if you can tell I'm a human (pretty easy to do at 400 yards) why do you need to watch me hike for 5 minutes.

I have worn orange in the past, and now I just wear camo all the time. I have experienced fewer incidents, but it still happens with alarming regularity.

What I ask is that our community takes a more proactive approach with these folks. If you do this, please stop. If you know someone who does, have a conversation. And please teach your kids how to do it the right way. Imagine if those guys had flagged an anti-hunter, and the nightmare that would cause for all of us.

This has been a season for the books so far, so please be courteous to your fellow hunters, be safe out there, and good luck on your hunts.

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[2ski]

I teach hunter's safety. And Every. Single. Class. I make sure I emphasize this multiple times. Starting the first day. One of the 4 rules of firearm safety is Always point your muzzle in a safe direction. We talk about safe directions. And then I ask, "what about me"? If you're in the hills and you see me walking and you use that nice scope to see what I'm doing, am I a safe direction? Am I something you want to shoot? If you only point your rifle at things you want to shoot, then why would you ever point it at me?

 

[elkduds]

Famous story of Vietnam Marine sniper Hathcock:
"We worked around to where he was," Hathcock said. "I took his old spot, he took my old spot, which was bad news for him because he was facing the sun and glinted off the lens of his scope, I saw the glint and shot the glint." White Feather had shot the Cobra just moments before the Cobra would have taken his own shot.

 

[tracker12]

I met Hathcock many years ago when was helping with the Seal snipers. Now how does that tie into the post?

 

[elkduds]

I met Hathcock many years ago when was helping with the Seal snipers. Now how does that tie into the post?

He shot the scope that was glassing him.

 

[5MilesBack]

He shot the scope that was glassing him.

......With a rifle and scope that was pointed at and glassing the other sniper.........

I guess it comes down to whether or not these guys are going to take a shot or not.

 

[KayLee]

I experience this a lot too. I typically don't wear orange except when I'm in an area with a lot of people. I guess not everyone has binos so they use their rifle scope? I like to assume their rifles aren't loaded when I see them pointing them at me, but we all know that's not always true. Education is the best way to prevent this.

 

[nodakian]

The only time I caught someone glassing me with their rifle I did it right back. The guy was with a shady looking crew about 200 yards away, and I figured if the shooting was going to start for some stupid reason I wanted to be ready. He stopped instantly and took off.

I don’t recommend this technique as a general rule, but I was in my 20s and it seemed like a good idea in that situation at that moment.

 

[widnert]

Stupid habit and perpetuated by some claiming to be hunters on U-Tube and other places.

 

[boom]

the Hathcock story is cool, but actually doesnt fit in this discussion. in that instance, i believe the goal WAS to shoot a person. but awesome name drop.

here, in this discussion: it is a retarded habit. i see it all the time. i've seen idiots without binoculars because their intention is to use the gun optics.

 

[Rokwiia]

Once while hiking, I rounded a turn in the trail and was greeted by a hunter with his bow fully drawn and pointing right at me. He obviously heard "something" coming, didn't know what it was, but was ready for it. Knucklehead.

Too bad I wasn't a State Ranger that day.

 

[TomAZ]

That sucks, but it’s an all too common practice. Unfortunately a lot of people are numbskulls.


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[lyle_destroys]

Im very careful about who I go to the range with and the only people who come to my house to shoot are my friends that Ive shot with since we were kids. Same reasons that you stated.

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[Beendare]

Its not just guns bro...but knives also.

Just last week, I was appalled to see a budding young guide drawing his knife towards himself in such a way that if that knife slipped....we would be pulling it out of his thigh and getting him to a hospital before he bled out. The 25 yr old scoffed at my comment..... at least I tried.