New Testingstan

Unless this was all one incident, you made three major errors there. That's pretty bad. Choc's reaction is not unwarranted, seeing as how people could have died from at least two of the mistakes you made (and maybe the third, but I don't really know the context of "wasn't sure if it was loaded" though that shouldn't be a question in the first place in all honesty).

Dude those fuckups are NOT proper procedure, and 90% not being a dumbass when YOU HAVE A LOADED WEAPON IN YOUR HANDS is a completely unacceptable grade. Turning to someone beside you and shooting a round into the dirt will get your ASS KICKED on a military range.

Once again: if you're not aiming at a target, fucking keep your fucking finger off the fucking trigger! Do I really need to remind you not to actually point the weapon at a person on the line?

The weapon was pointed downrange and at the dirt when it went off. I just turned my head to talk to allen.

If you were turning your head to talk, your finger still should have been nowhere near that trigger. That weapon should never discharge unless it is by a deliberate action on your part.

I don't want to come across as a dick, but you understand there's no such thing as "coming down on someone too hard" when they mention they've basically violated every rule of firearm safety when handling a live weapon, even if it wasn't all at once, right?

yes. Allen said as much, and we went over some basic safety drills in his garage with empty weapons and airsoft guns, which he said we should have done in the first place so I could get the physical motions of everything down. They told me all the safety rules and such beforehand, but they didn't actually let me hold a weapon until we were at the range and using live ammo, which he admitted was a mistake.

Repeat after me; all weapons are always loaded. All weapons are always loaded. All weapons are always loaded. Continue repeating this.

That still would have gotten your ass kicked at MacDill, or even at Clearwater PD's range. You're shooting, so I presume your past the NRA's first four rules (which are for kids) and are responsible enough otherwise in your life.

Let me reiterate, and please, please practice with dummy rounds or toy guns:

Weapon on target and you want to shoot: finger ON trigger
Weapon on or off target and you DO NOT want to shoot: finger OFF trigger
Distracted from target and turning your head to talk to your friend: FUCKING finger off the FUCKING trigger.

Yes I'm being a completely assholish asshole here, but it's too goddamn easy for you or a random dumbass who won't pay attention to basic firearms safety to hurt or kill someone by "accident." Follow the rules. If you don't know the rules, find out what they are. Don't be that dumbass.

Just saw your post re: Allen, and yes he did make some important mistakes. It appears that he and you took a rather casual approach to the whole "goin' shootin'" thing. It's fun, but like everything else it takes a serious mind and focus to learn properly. Learning to shoot safely is broadly similar to learning to drive safely; there are rules, and reasons for them, but once you have some experience they're both a blast.

Yeah. I still need to get practice with actual physical objects to get the muscle memory and hand motions down right, which we've gone over since we last went to the range, basically tomorrow is the "test" to see if i've actually picked up everything we practiced.

Last night we practiced hand offs, and he basically said that a weapon is not safe to hand off to some on unless the action is open, the magazine is ejected, and you've visually confirmed that the chamber is empty

Last Thursday we went over aiming and firing the weapon, keeping your finger off the trigger until you're ready to shoot and such. He said to keep your trigger finger pressed to the side of the barrel, sort of pointing at the target you want to acquire until you have a sight picture, then take half a breath, and gently squeeze the trigger to fire.

people getting awfully jumpy in this thread

i'm going to have to ask everyone to give me their guns

Zablorg wrote:people getting awfully jumpy in this thread

i'm going to have to ask everyone to give me their guns

joke's on you

i don't have any

I don't have any guns, but I suspect Allen would tell you to pry it from his cold dead fingers.

Sounds like good progress in just a couple of days, both by you and your friend. "Oh Shit!" moments tend to stimulate thought...umm...so my friends have told me...never been there myself...uhhh....yeah. Here's my best wishes for safety, fun, and ridiculously small groups!

Allen told me about this one time that he and Eric (another friend of ours) were cleaning their pistols after a trip to the range and Eric didn't have the action open on his weapon. Allen told him to clear it just to follow procedure, and Eric told him it was empty and not to be such a stickler for the letter of the rules (Though I believe he used more profanity than I did). Allen pressed the issue, and Eric relented. When he pulled back the slide, a round came flying out of the chamber. Apparently he had cleared the chamber, then somehow re-inserted the magazine and loaded another round before releasing it again and not realized it. The gun was sitting on the table pointed right at Allen's chest for like five minutes and they both thought it was empty. Apparently everyone has some sort of "oh shit" moment when they're first learning to use guns, but they're rarely as severe as my mistakes.

I've been both lucky and well trained, so I haven't had any "oh shit" moments with pistols or rifles. Flying, well...there was that one time I decided to do a roll and dished out at the top while inverted. To this day I've never seen such green, green leaves. Almost killing myself on a curve on a motorcyle was another "oh shit" moment that taught me how to countersteer. Good times, assuming you survive.

man

if only there was a mandatory safety course in the whole of the us

Tomorrow i'm going to ask Allen if he'll let me borrow one of his pistols to take the first safety course at a local range called Close Quarters Tactical. I know i've gone over stuff with him and i'm confident i'll be safer this time around, but i'd still like to get some formal training. And since I don't have enough money for my own gun yet, i'll have to use one of his.

they dont supply firearms for the safety course?

madness

EDIT: the funny thing is in canada there's nothing stopping your friends from bringing you to the range anyway, so you might have very well made the same mistakes

but at least your friends would be taking all this a lot more seriously

According to Allen, they don't let you take the course without bringing a pistol and a certain amount of ammunition with you. IIRC he said 100 rounds, but upon further thought that seems a bit much so I may be misremembering.

Phantasee wrote:i don't know what teh fuck you've been talking about for the past couple pages and i don't really care

my eyes glazed over

pg dn

pg dn

pg dn

pg dn















pg dn

Shhh not now, son
I'm making
TOAST

Yeah, i almost got a round in the foot when a buddy did that on the run down.

All guns are always loaded.
Never let the muzzle cover anything you are not willing to destroy.
Keep your finger off the trigger until your sights are on the target.
Be sure of your target and what is beyond it..

Incidentally I had to grab my 870 by the barrel on Friday because my friends girlfriend was going to muzzle sweep Val.

artemas wrote:they dont supply firearms for the safety course?

madness

EDIT: the funny thing is in canada there's nothing stopping your friends from bringing you to the range anyway, so you might have very well made the same mistakes

but at least your friends would be taking all this a lot more seriously

I expect they don't want to be responsible for loaning a gun to someone who might have a criminal history.

Man, even the shooting club I'm going to go to, which is using compressed air guns shooting BBs, is being really, really, REALLY scrupulous about proper gun safety.

Fucking. BB-guns.


Each time you violate safety procedures, even for the slightest moment, there's a death waiting to happen.


Even if shooting is fun, weapons. are. not. toys.



Yeah, formal safety training at a real shooting range would be a good thing.

Aaron wrote: Incidentally I had to grab my 870 by the barrel on Friday because my friends girlfriend was going to muzzle sweep Val.

Well that must have been nerve-wracking. Even I never muzzle swept anyone. The stuff they yelled at me for was mostly me holding the gun at a slight angle like / or \ while I was clearing it. I didn't have it pointed directly downrange, but It was never actually pointed at anyone. Though I did set it down on the table pointed directly left or right a couple of times, which is another no-no apparently.

Zod wrote:

artemas wrote:they dont supply firearms for the safety course?

madness

EDIT: the funny thing is in canada there's nothing stopping your friends from bringing you to the range anyway, so you might have very well made the same mistakes

but at least your friends would be taking all this a lot more seriously

I expect they don't want to be responsible for loaning a gun to someone who might have a criminal history.

wont the criminals just bring their own guns

just imagine

dozens of heavily tattoo'd, eager young pupils

just wanting to learn how to bust a cap in someones ass

Safely