Beware of Thieves at your club or shooting ground

[ColinD]

This is the strange thing about a SGC as opposed to a FAC, there seems to be no training on gun safety required before a SGC is issued

 

[westley]

how do lowlife like that obtain shotgun certificates ?   

As long as they have no convictions, a personality check does not come into the equation   !

 

[TRINITY]

Certain grounds seem to attract groups of idiots. Usually 4/5 lads dressed like they're going clubbing, with one shotgun between them. I avoid them like the plague.

PM.

This is another reason why I avoid Sunday morning shoots. There is no doubt some people attending them have high levels of alcohol and what ever else is still in their system from the 'good Saturday night's ' perhaps less than 5 or six hours previously.

 

[paul b]

The picture being painted of our great sport here is not a great add for those looking in.

 

[FESkent]

This is another reason why I avoid Sunday morning shoots. There is no doubt some people attending them have high levels of alcohol and what ever else is still in their system from the 'good Saturday night's ' perhaps less than 5 or six hours previously.

Nothing wrong with Sunday morning shoots if run properly and professionally, or are you saying Saturday morning shoots are better because nobody goes out for a ‘good Friday night’ on the alcohol? 
 

Fact is clay shooting is a very safe sport and long may that continue.

 

[TRINITY]

Nothing wrong with Sunday morning shoots if run properly and professionally, or are you saying Saturday morning shoots are better because nobody goes out for a ‘good Friday night’ on the alcohol? 
 

Fact is clay shooting is a very safe sport and long may that continue.

if run properly and professionally   that is the issue from my experience. The small straw bailers that I have visited are run on a shoe string and get massively over attended if they are not closed shoots. They dont have the staff or the resources to cope. They try their best but that is just the way it is.

On the safety issue it's very recently that I came across a  group of three shooters sharing two cheap semi autos. They seemed to be acting like pratt's and two of us tried to keep well away. However we walked around some bushes and they were on the stand we were approaching. One of them was on the stand and he was swinging the loaded auto all over the place and it got pointed directly at our heads at a distance of around 10 yards. We both were forced to dive to the ground. 

The thing is I have seen this type of group of idiots on other shoots and it's always been on Sunday morning straw bailers. Hence my dislike for them and I reason I will never use them.

 

[westley]

BUT, if nobody puts them right, then it will continue.

 

[Nimbusgb]

My ears have become highly tuned at picking up the noise of a trap arm from any angle!

to paraphrase a purportedly Rolls Royce quote 'We'll have to work on that noise sir'  

 

[FESkent]

if run properly and professionally   that is the issue from my experience. The small straw bailers that I have visited are run on a shoe string and get massively over attended if they are not closed shoots. They dont have the staff or the resources to cope. They try their best but that is just the way it is.

On the safety issue it's very recently that I came across a  group of three shooters sharing two cheap semi autos. They seemed to be acting like pratt's and two of us tried to keep well away. However we walked around some bushes and they were on the stand we were approaching. One of them was on the stand and he was swinging the loaded auto all over the place and it got pointed directly at our heads at a distance of around 10 yards. We both were forced to dive to the ground. 

The thing is I have seen this type of group of idiots on other shoots and it's always been on Sunday morning straw bailers. Hence my dislike for them and I reason I will never use them.

I have been shooting for very many years, pistols (before the ban) rifles, and shotguns and witnessed various acts of poor safety over the years at varies location (MOD ranges, private ranges, straw bail, Club or premier clay grounds).

The location or the value of the firearm contributed zero to such incidents, be they with nearly fatal consequences (black powder pistol, indoor range) or omitting to carry a semi auto with a breach flag or an over and under not broken.
Safety is the responsibility of all and I say that as a Club secretary of fifteen plus years of a (CPSA affiliated) clay pigeon club.

If you see poor safety practice act and speak out, the next person may not dive to the ground.

 

[ColinD]

The first thing that's drummed into new members at our smallbore target club is gun safety, breach flags in when not on the firing point etc etc.

Your chaperoned on the firing point for quite some time until we think you are safe enough to be on your own.

What amazes me with a sgc they never seem to ask where your going to shoot it and what instruction you have had using it. We do a straw bailer once a month,nothing major 12-15 if we're lucky, any one not acting safely would soon be told about it, it only takes one accident for the antis to be all over it about why it should be banned

 

[VicW]

'Straw Baler' clay clubs are not all places to avoid. The one I was a committee member of for many years has been going for about forty years and always had three CPSA qualified safety officers to hand.  Experienced shooters behaving dangerously were given one warning and a further offence resulted in their being banned permanently, inexperienced ones were advised accordingly. In my experience the most offences of unsafe gun handling were committed by game shooters who thought that they knew it all or unsupervised new shooters of any kind who hadn't been briefed on gun safety. One of the commonest beliefs being "Oh of course it's safe the safety is on."

Vic.