Thread: A reflection and a reminder - Unsafe act

Originally Posted by gundoc

A customer came into my shop one day with a Parker Hale .308 Norma Magnum for minor repair. As the muzzle swung towards my head I grabbed the muzzle and pushed it up, then took the rifle from him. "It's not loaded" he said indignantly then just about crapped himself when I opened the bolt and ejected a live round! He said it had been in the back of his car for three weeks since his last hunting trip. He was a serving Detective Sergeant.

That’s pretty damned bad - especially the muzzle control or lack of it Let alone not knowing the status of his rifle.
Hopefully he gets one of those warning letters from his ‘employer’!

Wow thats really bad.

People like that give me the bloody willies. I always know the state of my rifle whether that is loaded, empty, round in the chamber etc.

I must admit that when I was a young fella out duck shooting one opening day we were walking the river jump shooting ducks.

AS we walked along a couple of ducks got up. Bang bang down they go , then there was this horrendous yelling from the other side of the river.

A man and woman were there doing something behind a screen of trees. Don't know what they were doing there but they probably shouldn't have been there. We hadn't seen them

Man did she go crook at us.

Still feel quite bad about that.

Never even knew anyone was concerned about it until the internet came along. And then when it did, it was a completely American concern from what references to it I came across. Now we seem to have adopted it.

A very salient lesson, bravely posted when it could have been swept under the rug of ego.

Using binos or a spotter puts one extra point into the decision loop before you pull the trigger.

Does anyone else feel that if you glass with binos, you tend to have a much greater sense of gravitas when you pick up your rifle to acquire your target?

Doing patrol in Woodhill one hunting season a few years back.... Had just left the crossroads heading south on Inland road and as I drove past the then cutover in block 7 I saw 3 orange jackets standing on a clear bit about 350m away. Stopped the Jeep, lifted the binos and saw that all three of them were using their rifle scopes to check me out....Turned hard left, slammed it into 4 low, and drove straight over the cutover to them. Started to give them a piece of my mind when one of the guys said his rifle was unloaded................Told him to work the bolt and a live round came out.....Ditto with his two mates.
Cancelled their permit on the spot.

All three of them were in their late 40's or 50's and experienced hunters........ and all three had binos hanging around their necks!!!

To the OP......Thank you for posting this up and as someone said 'Owning it'. Reminders like these are good to shake complacency out of our behaviour.

Good, honest post. Need more of these, might get us all thinking and stop an accident down the line.

Originally Posted by Synthetic

Yes I have told him. He is very remorseful, which is good. To be honest I wouldn't mind taking him out again, although his extreme lack of fitness and fantasy to shoot 100+ animals a day from a ute window suggests he will never be out on the hills again

This person sounds like a fuckwit.

Situation might be reversible for them with a lot of hard work and common sense but that's not your prerogative.

Originally Posted by tac a1

Wow thats really bad.

People like that give me the bloody willies. I always know the state of my rifle whether that is loaded, empty, round in the chamber etc.

I must admit that when I was a young fella out duck shooting one opening day we were walking the river jump shooting ducks.

AS we walked along a couple of ducks got up. Bang bang down they go , then there was this horrendous yelling from the other side of the river.

A man and woman were there doing something behind a screen of trees. Don't know what they were doing there but they probably shouldn't have been there. We hadn't seen them

Man did she go crook at us.

Still feel quite bad about that.

As long as the ducks were shot in the sky, what's the issue?

Good on you for being upfront regarding your mistake. On the other hand, shit people are quick to nark to the cops these days...

Excellent reminder @Synthetic.
Years ago I was out hunting with a cocky mate and his son around Kaikoura , in those days the young fellow had his own rifle
We spotted some goats and the young fellow turned , as he did the muzzle briefly pointed at both of us.
His father took the rifle off him, unloaded the magazine and for the rest of the day the boy carried a rifle with no ammo all over the shop.
lesson learnt.

@caberslash
“This person sounds like a fuckwit.
Situation might be reversible for them with a lot of hard work and common sense but that's not your prerogative.”

“As long as the ducks were shot in the sky, what's the issue?”


Who sounds like a fuckwit? Consider your FIRING ZONE.

Originally Posted by JohnDuxbury

I realise that people have got all up in arms the last little while about this, but to be perfectly honest "scoping" has been going on all the time, and about everyone I know does it.
But scoping people is something you wouldnt do.

Chapter in one of Philip Holdens books..........he looking at a cutover clearing where he had shot a deer previous week,saw what looked like deer moving along edge,had a spike stiking up...good a spiker,up with SCOPE...shit its a fella in block where he shouldnt have been......comment a few lines later,the other fella wasnt meant to be there and had also been watching Phil....but he had no optics just open sights....
ARGUABLY using what optics on hand to ID something was the safer option.... now here is the interesting bit...those who rely on safety catch have bolt closed on live round...those old farts who still have bolt open/not closed, do not.......Ive put Xhairs on person in the bush once and it still gives me the shits thinking about it...brown flash across clear patch then nothing,then movement nearby...brown flash was his dog....saw blue in scope and nearly crapped myself...my rifle bolt was up and fingers no where near trigger...but still...not ideal. MOST times now I carry binos. bush hunting ,not so much.

Originally Posted by caberslash

As long as the ducks were shot in the sky, what's the issue?

Well i think they might have got a few pellets close to them thru the trees.

This is the first time I have ever mentioned this to anyone. If that was nowadays id imagine license would be gone and charges.

Originally Posted by gundoc

A customer came into my shop one day with a Parker Hale .308 Norma Magnum for minor repair. As the muzzle swung towards my head I grabbed the muzzle and pushed it up, then took the rifle from him. "It's not loaded" he said indignantly then just about crapped himself when I opened the bolt and ejected a live round! He said it had been in the back of his car for three weeks since his last hunting trip. He was a serving Detective Sergeant.

I'll have to say I hated the idea of the little plastic empty chamber indicators when I first saw them - but they do a lot to prevent this sort of incident and also why a lot of ranges now have a 'bolt and mag out before bagging the firearm' rule in place now. Seen more of this than you'd think, and also been in several shops looking at .303's and had the habit for a while of checking the but trap out. You could fit 2 rounds of CAC 'clipped tip' up there and I found about 4 or 5 rifles with the spares still in place. Shop owners would go funny shades of grey and green on that one...

As far as the scope, having been checked out a couple of times it isn't nice... Although a couple of times I've been trying to locate the source of movement and sound through the scope having seen animals break and while wondering why and trying to spot them I've seen someone walking through the area that was the person that spooked them. It's not ideal and should never be done as a deliberate action but especially in heavily trafficked areas it's inevitable. There's an entire 'safe practice' thing that goes along with the 'pointing of rifle' rule - including keeping your finger off the trigger and outside the trigger guard until you've positively identified your target!

Good having a packhorse tho