Watch your backstop, boys and girls

[308rws]

Correct!

A bloke had a crack at me one day for suggesting a shot at a deer half skylined ...he didn't know it but I did advise him that the next road and property was seven kilometres away. Thats safe enough,

and in the UK provided you have permission to shoot over at least three of those seven kilometres without endangering persons or property then no problem you’re good to go.

 

[Foxyboy43]

Hmmm.
T’internet is liberally sprinkled with eejits “zeroing” their latest bit of sponsored kit. One in particular regularly shoots c/f rifles at 100 yards down a farm lane with a large building on the rhs and the lane turning through right at 90 degrees at said building’s corner. Consequently anyone coming round the corner is unseen until they are in the firing line. Worse still the “backstop” of choice is a distant line of trees and the “butt” (bullet trap?) is the cardboard box which holds his paper target!
I am very surprised that the well-known sponsors have not noticed this.
You couldn’t make it up….

 

[Liveonce]

Rule Number 4 of Jeff Coopers Firearms safety: Be sure of your target and what lies beyond it.
I have seen a few "risky" shots taken before, but never anything so dangerous it could be classed as negligent, this case is an example of why it is important to put safety at the front of any stalking/pest control activity.

Blimey Jeff Cooper that’s a name from the distant past and the days of owning pistols.

 

[Liveonce]

One of the many reasons I wouldnt post anything without it being anonymous. Perspective is very important as well, angles can be odd and line of sight vs line of fire can change massively just by moving a few inches. Not surprised the police had no interest, they wouldnt want to look shown up.

Good example I recently had was trying to get a rifle sighted in on some woodland where a ride had been cut for powerlines, shooting straight down the ride couldnt guarantee a great backstop, and due to a small hill brow I didnt like not being able to see behind it, moved about 3 metres to my left and put the target up so Im shooting from one side of the ride to the other over a long distance and it was a perfectly safe clearly visible backstop.

The film industry are experts at using perspective to miss lead the viewer.

 

[kevtherev]

Hmmm.
T’internet is liberally sprinkled with eejits “zeroing” their latest bit of sponsored kit. One in particular regularly shoots c/f rifles at 100 yards down a farm lane with a large building on the rhs and the lane turning through right at 90 degrees at said building’s corner. Consequently anyone coming round the corner is unseen until they are in the firing line. Worse still the “backstop” of choice is a distant line of trees and the “butt” (bullet trap?) is the cardboard box which holds his paper target!
I am very surprised that the well-known sponsors have not noticed this.
You couldn’t make it up….

Unfortunately there are many examples on internet of unsafe shots taken plus a lot of unsafe general gun handling.
My late grandfathers saying was
‘Walk behind a shooter but always infront of a shitter’

 

[tarponhead]

I do. He's easy enough to find...but I'd never do that to someone, even if it is extremely dangerous what they are doing

Why not? The standards we walk by are the standards we accept… guess where that quote came from…

 

[TringSaint]

Its not just over the pond, some of the videos British people are choosing to post online showing their own outings and the shots they took, are horrific.

If you took such a stupid shot, why would you then chose to post it publicly...And then people are commenting saying nice shot, nice buck etc, missing the obvious...

It's only a matter of time before something horrendous happens....

I was sent a video the other week of a chap out stalking with a guide and he takes aim (with permission from the guide I hasten to add) at a deer on the brow of a hill with only a woodland behind.
The scope is seen dancing all over the animal before the trigger is pulled.

I couldn’t believe what I saw - no one could have known where that bullet would end up, and the guy pulling the trigger had a fairly high chance of totally missing the deer judging by the way that the rifle was moving about - very little control.

Very dangerous imho.

 

[weblyish]

Saw this in a wood once

I spent a while looking at it and could not for the life of me see a shot I would have taken on either direction at that very near horizontal angle and not much below shoulder height

Flat as a pancake and drifting off into trees and scrub on both directions within sight of a public footpath behind you but people potentially anywhere

 

[Phil fox man]

I was trying out a rifle at a local gun shop in Florida and their Idea of a backstop was " the Everglades" .
now bearing that in mind the next day I was on a boat somewhere around the back of the shop

 

[User00056]

This is in my farmyard. Given the position of this stanchion, and that bullet holes are only a foot from the top I'm baffled as to why anyone with any sense whatsoever could consider these shots to be safe

 

[VSS]

This is in my farmyard. Given the position of this stanchion, and that bullet holes are only a foot from the top I'm baffled as to why anyone with any sense whatsoever could consider these shots to be safe

View attachment 453220


View attachment 453219

The bullet holes may pre-date the stanchion being placed in that location.

 

[wellyboot]

Let's hope it was from an early steel spit gun....

 

[User00056]

The bullet holes may pre-date the stanchion being placed in that location.

Hadn't considered that

 

[Kane01]

Blimey Jeff Cooper that’s a name from the distant past and the days of owning pistols.

Certainly is, fortunately the two individuals who basically taught me everything I know about shooting and gun safety both came from the days you could own pistols, and one from the days of fullbore semi-autos, so I was taught the Cooper rules as basics as an eleven year old!

 

[Liveonce]

Certainly is, fortunately the two individuals who basically taught me everything I know about shooting and gun safety both came from the days you could own pistols, and one from the days of fullbore semi-autos, so I was taught the Cooper rules as basics as an eleven year old!

We followed the Cooper and Massad Ayoob way for practical pistol, days long gone.

 

[Deerkeeper2]

In the old days people could defend their dodgy backstop videos by saying that the camera position was to blame for the angle looking bad.

Now that we are seeing videos taken directly through electronic scopes there is no place to hide.

There are a couple of people on Facebook that are getting quite a reputation for their lack of backstop and disregard for safety but the interesting thing is, not only are they not called out on it but they get hundreds of ‘likes’. If anyone does say anything the mob instantly turns on them and bangs on about having to ‘get the cull done’.

 

[Mungo]

It doesn’t seem to be anything new.

This is by the side of a road in Craigmillar Castle Park, Edinburgh. Top of a hill, backstop is housing.

Got to be decades old.

 

[Bavarianbrit]

A local numpty here last Sunday from the local paper.

A hunting accident occurred in a wooded area near Hemau Bavaria on Sunday evening. The local hunting leaseholder a 74-year-old was out hunting with a 54-year-old friend from Regensburg. Both were occupying separate hunting high seats. The 54-year-old shot a wild boar around 11 p.m. and informed the leaseholder by phone, they agreed to retrieve the animal. For reasons still unknown, as the 54-year-old was leaving his high seat, his "loaded" hunting rifle fell to the ground, discharged, and struck him in the foot.

 

[NP435]

A local numpty here last Sunday from the local paper.

A hunting accident occurred in a wooded area near Hemau Bavaria on Sunday evening. The local hunting leaseholder a 74-year-old was out hunting with a 54-year-old friend from Regensburg. Both were occupying separate hunting high seats. The 54-year-old shot a wild boar around 11 p.m. and informed the leaseholder by phone, they agreed to retrieve the animal. For reasons still unknown, as the 54-year-old was leaving his high seat, his "loaded" hunting rifle fell to the ground, discharged, and struck him in the foot.

The agony now being endured should teach the fool something. Glad the shot didn't hit the other fellow or some other innocent being,

 

[12gsnapcaps]

Heard of several incidents over the years including a shot at a roosting pigeon that went through a bedroom window narrowly missing a teen-ager and a pony shot dead in an adjacent field. I've attached a memorable one below

This is why it winds me up no end when I see people with .22LR's shooting into trees. The only thing I would ever shoot into a tree is a 12ft/b air rifle, and even then only if i know there are atleast a few hundred yards of farmland behind.

With any firearm, I only take shots from an elevated position and only soft ground, like grass. I've moved away from bipods for this reason now, with sticks you're giving yourself even more of an edge to make sure your angle is always going to strike the ground.

To be honest, i just don't take the shot half the time, or should I say, I spend so long assessing the safety of the shot that half the time I miss my chance to take it. But that's fine. better to be safe than sorry. There will always be another pigeon, rabbit or deer!!