near death experience

ezzy6.5

Well-Known Member
Hi all,
Haven't posted in a while but i've just been reading some of the other posts recounting tales of dangerous game, so, i thought i would bore you with my own encounter.
A chap at work that new i shot asked me if i would visit his brothers small holding to sort out some problem foxes that were taking chickens and worrying his Ostriches!
I visited the place and met the blokes wife she walked me around and i explained we would be calling in one night later in the week.
i asked if i should ring and tell her when but she said not to but i was to park by the house so she and her husband would know it was us.
A couple of nights later we were out lamping and decided to call in, as requested i parked my little Suzuki sj outside the farm house and we set off on foot, we checked all the fields around the buildings and had moved off toward the border of the property to try and call.
1/2 an hour in and no sign of a fox so my mate sparks up a fag and we are leaning on a gate whispering to each other about whether to call it a night or not, when i heard a very familiar click from behind us.
The click was the safety catch of a very jumpy hill farmers side by side, as i turned around i was looking straight down the barrels from about 8 feet, the guy was in full Swat mode and shouted drop yer f***kin guns and put your hands up. despite being terified i managed to say 'are you Dave'.
This seemed to do the trick and he realised we might not be chicken rustlers. i told him who we were and that his wife had said not to ring, he apologised and lowered the gun and then wanted to chat about our rifles and tell us all about foxes.
He had shot a couple with his shotgun and foolishly i asked 'what cartridges are you using? ' 3" no 3s came the reply, this made me feel sick (as if shot size made a difference) and i went absolutely ballistic and told him i was going straight home to ring the police.
Later when the shock had worn off i thought better of it but i went back to talk to him to ask him what did he think we were stealing (we were 1000m from his house) and explain how stupid he had been.
unbelivbly he asked me when we were coming back to shoot the fox.
I learned a hard leson that night.
allways pack spare underwear when lamping new ground.

Ezzy
 
Blimey Ezzy, I'm not surprised you went mad at him! :eek:

Whilst serving in Northern Ireland, one of my young and foolish 'oppos' thought it would be funny to point a rifle at me. I 'Morris danced' all over him and bust his lip with the butt end of his own rifle. Its not nice looking down the barrel of a gun, it can make a chap 'irritable'! :lol:
 
ezzy
is the moral of the story
'sh4t before you shoot' :lol:
that could save a lot of embarassement in the long run
good account of a potential fatal evening
hell has no fury like a chicken farmer scorned :lol:
 
Guns

People like that should not be alowed to own guns. It is never acceptable to point your private fire arm at a person.

Dave
 
I just remembered, abbout 6 months after this happened the farmer got in touch to ask my advice, it seems that some deer were getting onto his land from a near by park, he was applying for a 22-250 to shoot them.
At first i started to explain that it wouldn't be legal but then i thought it would be better coming from his feo.
I wonder if he got his ticket?. probably!!!!!

Ezzy
[/u]
 
I have had shooting on one particular farm since I was 17 (35 years ago) and to date I have never set foot on the farm without a quick knock on the door, just to let them know I was having a mooch.
Either a short hello, or a longer, "come in and have a coffee" always their choice, their offer; not only do I feel this courtesy produces deeper friendships but also reduces the risks of the above topic.
I would suggest this action is even more important on a recently acquired farm. TONY M.
 
FA

mack said:
I agree always use a public one!

My point was that privately owned fire arms are owned by civilians where as police or military fire arms may be pointed at people when the situation is apropriate.

Dave
 
2 incidents spring to mind:

1. Some 15yrs ago or so i was a member of a small rough shoot. My father, uncles and cousins were also members so it was great for socialising etc. However some of the things i remember now make me wonder how we survived without serious injuries.
We were standing around a farm yard at the end of the day. One old guy had bought a semi and was continually playing with it all day - it was obvious that he just didn't know how it operated. Anyway, he'd pulled it out of the sleeve to show his mate and was sliding it back inside when the gun went of. The pellets ripped throught the bottom of the sleeve, bounced off the concrete ground and some hit the back of my legs.
One second i'm drinking soup and chatting with my cousin, the next i'm on my back and the back of my legs feel weird.
Fortunately my father and uncles were all soldiers so they soon confirmed that i'd received only small wounds but i do remember my father wrestling the gun from the old fart, reversing it and smashing it repeatedly of the concrete.

2. I recently went to view a piece of land that a small syndicate have shooting rights to and were looking for a new member. The lead syndicate member confirmed that no-one was shooting on the day so i could walk through it. I was walking through the small wood when a round zipped through the trees! I didn't bother to go back.
 
A few years back l was stalking on the ground l had a syndicate place on in Scotland and was out one morning with a fellow member, we had stalked along one of the forestry roads that were cut into the side of the hill half way up so over looking the valley below and the hillside opposite, we spotted a beast opposite that was shootable so my mate dropped the beast, we decided that l would stay and guide him into the beast.

To get to the beast was a relatively easy rout strait of the road down the side across the valley bottom and up the other side the only difficult bit being getting of the road which was a very steep decent on scree for about 15 ft, the mate moved along the road to find a more suitable point to descend and of he went, l kept an eye on him to make sure he made it down this first bit ok, as he made it to the tree line of the scree l sat back and waited for him to appear on the opposite side just as l did just that a round was let off from his 270 which he was carrying muzzle up on his shoulders that he had forgot to apply the safety on after reloading from the shot.

There was no harm done but it could have been a lot different with me standing looking over the edge of the road, this all happened many years ago but l still remember it as if it was yesterday and l am sure it will be with me for many years.
 
It is frightening how many people have close shaves with firearms.
On the little game syndicate that I am part of, we have ony had trouble once and that was with an invited gun. Threw him off at lunchtime. It turned out he was a FEO!!!!!!
I thought I was a safe young shot at 13 until I put a .22 pellet into my leg from an HW80. Went through my wellies and jeans and into my leg. Could not tell my mother as she would have banned us so I pulled it out with a pair of tweezers. Talk about learn the hard way!!!!! Better an airgun at 13 than a .243 at 36!!!!!!!
 
As I have been reading these posts, and remembering some of the close shaves I've heard about, and been involved in, it makes me wonder one thing. We often see posts from guys here who are dead set against training being a requirement of owning firearms. The above posts just goes to prove the point. We would all like to be safe at all times, and by and large I'm sure we both are and strive to be. However "WE" and I mean the term collectively aren't all naturally safe people. We have all met the guys with a fast shooting style, or the ditherers, both catogories have the potential for danger, as we all have if tired excited or down right pi...ed off. It only takes a few added circumstances to end in tears.
Just my ten penneth, and nothing personal to anyone here, but who amongst us has never made a mistake in the field?
Mark
 
I firmly believe in gun safety being instilled from a very young age so it becomes second nature.As I have said before I am showing my young son how to hold and carry his deactivated air rifle when he sometimes comes out with me and he is only four.I only told off my 11yr old step son yesterday for pointing at someone with his finger.I told him that you don't point anything at anyone,whether it be your shotgun/rifle or your finger.At the very least it's rude.
The number of people I see on shoots who point their shotgun at people and swing through the line.They clearly haven't been shown the correct way to conduct themselves with a firearm.
Many years ago I was rabbit shooting with a friend on his farm.He was driving the landy pickup and I was shooting with a .22 semi auto on the back at any coneys I saw in the headlights.We came across two pairs of eyes in the lights.We got closer but we still couldn't see what they were (Landy headlights are like candles eh Sikamalc!!?).My mate told me to open fire as he thought they were newcastle united supporters but I was having none of it.I told him to get closer as they just didn't look right to me.The two pairs of eyes kept moving from side to side and only a few feet.He was getting really excited and irate and shouting at me to #*$*@## fire the whole mag into them.There was no way I was going to fire until I could see exactly what was there.(I only shoot at rabbits and foxes anyway).
He tried to get the rifle off me but I told him in no uncertain terms to keep driving up to them.When we got to within fifty yards my mate had the shock of his life.The two pairs of eyes were two alsation dogs and the reason they didn't move more than a few feet is because they were on leads.Their two owners were sitting against a bank behind them holding their leads....
It doesn't bear thinking about if my mate had the rifle..he would have put ten rounds into them all.
I told him there and then,you only #*^%$£ shoot what you can #*&^%$ see you #*&^%$ PRATT
This is what stupidity we are sometimes up against.
It's not rocket science..you keep you muzzle pointed to the sky or the ground and only shoot at an identified target with a safe backdrop.
These people who don't know any better...I bet they point their fingers at people as well...

All the best,
Gyr


He carried on getting more woun
 
Well done Gyr! That was a 'toe curling' account. :eek: It will only take one idiot and we will all be sunk. The antis and the press would bury us. :(
 
No exaggeration, that story has just made the hair on the back of my head stand up and a shiver`s gone down my spine. :eek:
I`l have to go for a cup of tea or something. :( :eek: :mad:
 
like gyr
i had the same sort of incident when lamping rabbits with my boss
as we came up the farm track i flashed the light across the field onto the track then across the track onto the field the other side , just as the light passed an oak tree a pair of eyes shone brightly in the beam my boss in an instance raised the 22 ready to fire , i turned the lamp off to my bosses anger and shouts of it's a fox turn the f'ing lamp on, i told him, not to shoot as this is not a fox could be a badger or a munty, so lamp back on again swept thebeam across the tree and eyes lit up , off with the lamp as my boss again raised the gun intending to shoot as he knows better than me or so he thought this time i told him to let me identify first as this is strange and no fox or deer again swept the beam across the tree picked up the set of eyes then swept the beam up the tree to see a face half hidden , it was a neighbour from the barn conversions on the farm walking his dog at 1 am hid behind the tree fearing he would be shot
one lucky dog
the next incident i was at a field trial over rugby way and was using the quad to carry the shot game about when the keeper asked me to cut across the field and act as a stop at the end of this oblong shaped spinney,
halfway across the field about a hundred yards out , i heard the shouts looked to see a hen bird coming at me , next thing i felt this stinging sensation struggling to hold on to the quad i managed to stop still holding on put my hand to my face then looked at the blood dripping off my hand ,
i had been shot
the gun in question was probaly the safest and one of the best shotgun and rifle shots i hav known , just one moment of madness in a situation he had been in many times before, shooting on such important field trial, when birds were few and far between may of been the main cause of this lapse of concentration i don't know
but the gun in question was also the keeper and a friend, he should of known better and to this day he can't talk about it
 
I agree with Gyr, gun safety has to be instilled into youngsters. Obviously safety training for anyone who starts later in life is vital but I do not think that you can't beat being bought up with it. In my opinion, if gun safety is second nature, when that one instant arises where the pressure is on and the adrenaline is high then you stand more chance of keeping the gun down. On your average driven bird day anyone can be safe, new shot or experienced. A few lessons should be able to deal with the safety issues on a well organised day. However, put someone in a fox drive with the keeper shouting and a fox breaking through the line..... Well put me next to someone who has been born with guns anyday!!!
I have tried to teach gun safety to my kids from birth. That said, my boy Aaron was 10 on friday and I gave him his first shotgun. A little single .410. At first, I could see that he felt that it was only a small step up from an air rifle so I took him out into a field and put an apple on the earth about 6 foot in front of us. Standing next to him, I shot the apple and needless to say, it disappeared and left a bigger hole in the earth behind. The look on his face was enough for me to know that respect had been instilled. (Anyone who says that 10 is too young can eat my shorts!!! :lol: )
 
Good on ya Andy. I have taught my 2 grandsons the same . I bought a 9mm Garden Gun and a double 410. The eldest is more interested in my 450 Quad, whilst the younger one enjoys shooting the 9mm garden gun. 410 is a bit big fro him at present.

As for the farmer jumping out of the hedgerow a pointing a shotie at Ezzy, I think the farmer would have needed rectal surgery after if he had pointed it at me. I would have shoved the gun up his AR.. permission or no permission. :eek:
 
i was taught from a very early age to respect guns as they supplied food for the table aswell as ferrets and snares and a host of other things
my first lesson after learning how to pull the trigger was how to conseal the weapon this was done by having a garden gun and putting it into a hollowed out piece of cane usualy bamboo one day so it looked like a walking stick, i did this in a rush and well i think you know what went off luckily alll was well but since then the hammer was always decoked 9mm garden gun or not, at the age of ten i learn't a very valuable lesson
andy, malc or any one else all i can say is start young and hope they learn well life is greater than death
 
****s with guns

Hi,

I had the German Grezschützpolizei point two MP5s at my head while they wanted to know why was an English registered range rover coming out of the woods opposite to the US rangers base in Böblingen nr Stuttgart.
Stupid f****rs hadnt been told there was a wald restaurant down the track.
This was one week after 911 and they had been sent down from Hamburg as a knee jerk reaction.
Still not nice.

Regards

Bavarianbrit
 
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