Accidental shooting injuries or even death used to be common in the past. But has reduced greatly nowadays because of the rigorous campaign and lots of awareness programs. Even so, it’s happening in small numbers and the loss is tremendous.
Shooting inflicts serious injury which often leads to death unless you handle the gun with care. As you can understand, these accidents happen due to careless handling of the gun or sometimes the shooter becomes inattentive.
I am gonna cover some serious shooting safety tips and as a shooter, you should read, understand, and follow them. This excellent guide on shooting safety will make your shooting experience exciting as well as safe so that you don’t have to regret for the rest of your life.
Useful Shooting Safety Tips You Must Follow
- Being Attentive!
Like I said, injuries/death due to accidental shooting happens mainly because of not being attentive to what you are doing. You have to pay attention to other people surrounding your vicinity. When you go hunting in a group and everyone is scattered, this becomes too important to check other hunters nearby you.
- Point The Muzzle Carefully
Never point it somewhere where you don’t intend to shoot. This is the most basic safety rule that every shooter must follow. But people tend to forget that. Accidental gun injuries would drastically reduce if they followed this simple rule.
The muzzle should be carefully pointed even when you load or unload the gun. If you point if to the safe direction, even the accidental triggering won’t cause any injury. Use a red dot sight to point the target precisely.
- Wear Ear & Eye Protection
I am pretty sure (or at least hoping to!) you wear them all the time when it comes to shooting/hunting. If you don’t, you are making a BIG mistake. You are literally damaging your ear and eye.
Any form of shooting (both indoor and outdoor) cause loud noise that exceeds the allowed dB for human ears. Exposure to such loud noise can literally make you go deaf. Only good ear protection for shooting can save your ears.
Shooting glasses, on the other hand, protects you against falling shots, twigs, ruptured case, etc. Never go shooting without wearing your protective gear!
- Don’t Be Fool To Rely On Gun’s ‘Safety’
In general, a gun is a piece of equipment. And like any other types of equipment, the ‘safety’ of your gun may not work when you needed it badly. It may go malfunctioning anytime without giving you any prior knowledge about it. So, don’t rely on it entirely!
Besides, it may be actually ‘on’ when you believe it is ‘off’. Trust me, that happens and it happens a lot. So, instead of relying on it entirely, you must apply your common sense. Never touch the trigger when loading or unloading the gun or when you don’t intend to shoot.
- Clear The Barrel
The barrel of your gun may burst on firing or bulge if there are any obstacles in there. There may be excess lubricating oil or grease, snow, mud, etc. in the barrel and all these can make your gun go malfunctioning.
With such elements in the barrel, you can’t pull the trigger unless you wanna hurt yourself or other people nearby you. Do yourself a favor, use a cleaning rod to clean the barrel. You should do that every time you intend to shoot.
It should be your habit to clean the bore and remove all such elements.
- Use The Right Ammunition
I get it, we hate to read such instructions and manuals that come with the gun and the ammunition boxes. It gets worse for the experienced shooter who thinks they know it all. But you know what! It makes you an irresponsible shooter too.
The wrong ammunition will destroy your gun and cause you serious personal injury. An inexpensive cartidge with wrong gauge/caliber can destroy your expensive gun and make your life miserable hurting yourself badly.
So, pay heed to whatever says in the manual. Even the right ammunition with unknown components is dangerous.
- Unload The Gun With Great Care
A lot of gun accidents happen when the shooter try to unload the gun without being attentive. Never assume your gun is already unloaded, you should check it yourself. Unless you are in the field to shoot something, your gun should be unloaded all the time but with great care.
When you carry the gun, it has to be unloaded. When unloaded, keep the gun and ammunition separately. And keep it outside the reach of the children or from anybody whom you don’t trust with the gun.
- Servicing Your Gun
You have no idea how complex the gun engineering is and your gun only performs well in its original condition. Never try to alter it or do any kind of modification. I know it’s tempting but don’t do that. It’s illegal and makes your gun unstable.
Also, over the passes of time, your gun will wear. It’s a mechanical device, so it’s very common. Servicing it with the qualified person is something you should do more often. Usually, the manufacturer of your gun let you know how often you should service your gun.
Other Common Tips
- As a great thing, you can actually teach everyone in your family about gun safety. If there is a firearm inside the home, everyone should know about firearms safety. That way, everyone will be safe from accidental gun shooting injuries.
- As an additional safety precaution, use a gun locking device. There are cool gun vault or storage available in the market.
- Enroll yourself in a hunting safety or shooting safety courses. It can be online or short term on the field course.
Summing Up Shooting Safety
There is no doubt that hunting and shooting is the safest sport when you do it responsibly. My intention was not to make you scared but to let you know how you can do it without hurting yourself or anybody else near your vicinity.
I hope you have learned a thing or two about gun safety. And I surely request you to follow these safety guidelines next time you go hunting or any shooting sports. Show me some love sharing this article with your friends if you think I deserve it 🙂