Unsafe hog hunters

[sidepass]

Your ranch your rules. Sometimes there is no second chance,all it takes is one accident and a life is lost. When I hunt with new people I let them know how I handle my Rifle or pistol.and what i'm uncomfortable with. And when i'm a guest, I ask how they want me to carry my firearm. I usually have a round in the chamber and saftey on when in the field. On guided hunts I ask the guide their preference and do accordingly.I personaly would not invite these people back, I could never relax around them and would not enjoy myself.

sidepass

 

[sancho]

no way. i never hike with a chambered round. the consequences are much to drastic. think about, going back home empty handed, or going back home..err alive. i have missed many chances at a "flushed" deer. it is actually the situation that caused the other situation where my bro almost blasted my head off. aint worth it. i dont ever shoot at running game anyways. i cant guarantee an instant death. hell, if you cant shut an animal off with a rifle, put the thing away. it is actually my "jagged pill" with archery hunting. i am adapting. i go out with one less round in the magazine. i push them down, and jack the bolt forward over the round. it takes seconds to jack the bolt back to pick up the next bullet. now if i was stalking seen game....bullet in, "GAME ON!" i will teach my kids the same rules.

 

[Duknutz]

Tell them that there are "Ranch Rules" that you and the guests must respect and go by!Tell them what they are and give them one warning, after that if they can't abide by them their out.Tell them thats how it is and it's for their own safety and everyone else's safety on the ranch. Plain and Simple,if they can't respect that then they aren't the hunting partners you need to be hunting with......

 

[xstream1]

Email them this post!

 

[el_vaquero]

Your ranch, your rules......like the saying goes "my way or the highway."

I wouldn't hunt with them again myself.....JMO.

 

[fishnhunt]

I too agree with every one of those except for the first one....I usually have a round in the chamber when I am hunting....But I ALWAYS have the safety and am aware of where my gun is when I am hunting and just about everyone else I hunt with does the same. And once again when I get back to the truck the gun is unloaded BEFORE I put it down. But that being said if I was hunting someone elses ranch I would follow their rules without question and do as they ask. I will not hunt with some people because of the way they handle their guns no matter how much they want to go....

 

[jackrabbit]

I had a similar problem with friends when we used to hunt the SoCal desert washes for quail. I had the only 4wd so everyone rode with me. They could not be trusted to remove their shells from the chamber before getting back into the vehicle when we moved from one spot to another. So, even though it was legal to have shells in the magazine while traveling in the vehicle off-road, I made the rule that all guns must be totally empty, and I enforced it by clearing each and every gun myself before a put it in the vehicle myself. They put up with it because they wanted to travel in my 4wd. It was no problem for them to keep three shells in their pockets and jump out of the vehicle with an empty shotgun if we flushed a good covey off the road -- and they never really had the opportunity for a roadside shot anyway! I had one cousin who I only deer hunted with once, and never again. Whenever he walked the trail in front of me, he had the barrel over his shoulder and it pointed right at my head most of the time. Then, when I made him walk behind me, he tended to carry it low in one hand and the barrel kept bumping me in my back. I made him unload his rifle and did not let him load it until he was on a stand and I was safely behind a boulder! Never took him with me again though.

 

[sfhoghunter]

Thanks for the feedback, everyone. I can see that all of you feel virtually the same as I do, except with having a round in the chamber while hunting. I feel as you do, Sancho: I go out into the field with one less round, and push the rounds in the magazine down as I close the bolt, so that there are none in the chamber. I'm ok with other people having a round in the chamber, so long as they have demonstrated excellent gun safety in all other ways: muzzle control, treating every gun as if loaded, judicious use of the safety, etc.

Looking back, I realize I should have been more insistent, and laid it all out for them at the first sign of unsafe behavior. It can be hard, sometimes, when the person you are lecturing is old enough to be your father! And also when that person has been hunting and handling guns his entire life, while I'm relatively new to both. Not as if that makes a difference when it comes to safe gun handling, but it can make it harder (for me) to be doing the instructing.

 

[Rick]

I would type up the rules, keeping it simple. Rounds are not chambered until ready to shoot. Guns are emptied upon entering a vehicle or upon return to camp. PERIOD. "These are the rules of our ranch...to hunt here, you must follow them. Violations will result in expulsion from our ranch." As the landowner, you ahve too much liability to let them get away with unsafe behavior. Tell them that these are the rules your family insists on for everyone, not just them. Frankly, I would have them sign a copy of the rules as well as including a release of liability for your family as the landowners. You could lose everything by getting sued for someone else's stupidity.

To me, the chambering of a round depends on the type of terrain and type of hunting I am doing - busting jack rabbits, hogs or deer out of the brush or upland bird hunting = loaded chamber, gun on safe and constant muzzle awareness. Spot and stalk hunting = empty chamber until ready to shoot since I am probably 75 or more yards away from the game. Stand hunting or sitting on a waterhole = round chambered, safety on since the noise of chambering a round could scare off game at close range. Safety, not habit, rules.

Too often, we want to make iron-clad rules that we want to impose on everyone else without regard to the different situations.

 

[jindydiver]

Accidents happen all the time...
Just this w/e in a nearby forest

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div>

Facts as they stand from Police — 25 February 2008

Inspector D, reading from the police notes on the incident, said that two men, one from Kingsgrove and one from Beverly Hills in Sydney were in Hampton State Forest on Sunday, February 24 and were packing up from a licensed hunt at about 4.15pm.

The two men laid their bolt action rifles along the back seat crossing each other when the 39-year-old’s rifle discharged and hit the 34-year-old in the right thigh causing serious injuries.

The 39-year-old drove his companion to a nearby farm-house where police and an ambulance were called. The man was airlifted to Sydney and is in a serious condition.

Local police seized the firearms and Oberon Police are conducting the investigation.[/b]

The younger bloke has a wound from a .270 in his thigh and the older guy has lost his right to hunt...

 

[mark650]

Gun safety is non-negotiable for me. There's stupid, and then there's stupid that requires an ambulance and a mop. The bit where he handed the loaded .45 to the inexperienced shooter gave me the chills. Personally, I would not extend a invite to these guys again. They spent a weekend hunting, you spent a weekend babysitting and worrying about someone getting shot.

 

[Bwana Turtle]

Didn't you know these guys before you asked them up ? I would think that they would have given you an abundant amount of clues that they were yahoos of the first magnitude.
Oh well, they votes are in and they have been tallied. You are now officially justified in not asking them back to your ranch. I don't think they will ever improve their gun safety quotient

 

[sfhoghunter]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Bwana Turtle @ Feb 27 2008, 08:50 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div>

Didn't you know these guys before you asked them up ? I would think that they would have given you an abundant amount of clues that they were yahoos of the first magnitude.[/b]

I had met both of them before. They are the father and brother of a good friend of mine. I've been abalone diving with the father, and met the brother a few times when he's come to visit. Never had an inkling that they would be unsafe around firearms. They are not yahoos, just very unsafe around firearms. To give you some idea of their character, the father is a judge. Go figure.

 

[fishnhunt]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (sfhoghunter @ Feb 27 2008, 09:10 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div>

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Bwana Turtle @ Feb 27 2008, 08:50 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Didn't you know these guys before you asked them up ? I would think that they would have given you an abundant amount of clues that they were yahoos of the first magnitude.[/b]

I had met both of them before. They are the father and brother of a good friend of mine. I've been abalone diving with the father, and met the brother a few times when he's come to visit. Never had an inkling that they would be unsafe around firearms. They are not yahoos, just very unsafe around firearms. To give you some idea of their character, the father is a judge. Go figure.
[/b][/quote]
Everybody from a small town knows that the worst kids are the preachers, judges, and the sheriffs

 

[jackrabbit]

I would not give up on inviting them back just yet. Sometimes all it takes is someone to lay down the rules and enforce them. Education, example, and enforcement can sometimes turn a sloppy hunter into a very safe hunter and firearms handler. Think about wearing seatbelts, if the driver insists everyone buckle up, they usually do, and many of them will get used to wearing the belts and wear them in their own vehicles. The judge may even see you printing and enforcing safety rules on your property as a reasonable way to minimize your liability. You might even gather reports of firearms accidents and post them or put them in a scrap book at the property.

 

[Cold1nhand]

SCARY SCARY SCARY! I think you should write up a set of Rules for hunting on your ranch. If they are to come back the must read and sign so that they acknowledge what you expect from them. Let them know that in the future there will be ZERO tollerance for breaking these rules. If they are the stand up guys you make them out to be they will get the picture.

 

[Davidw100]

I would of booted them out if they had been warned once and still continued. Having a set of rules and a quick overview before hand can press upon them the need to be safe also. Don't invite them back.

 

[HIhunter]

Good for you for bringing the issue up. I learned gun safety away from my family, and while I was away my father and his friends took up hunting. Now when I am home and we go out hunting, I am always scared by their disregard for proper firearm safety, especially muzzle control. Nothing gets me like seeing the barrel of a loaded rifle pointing in my direction. Tough to bring it up with your father's friends on their land on their hunts... When it is your land, YOU get to set the rules.

 

[Huntr Pat]

You should have stop that guy dead in his tracks when he said that he was going out soon. Maybe even a safety meeting before the hunt.

 

[duramax]

If you teach them safety they will change their ways for a hunt or two because they want to hunt your ranch. But sooner rather than later they will be back to their bad habits. Besides how can you enjoy the hunt if you constantly have to watch them because your worried about your safety. If it were me I wouldn’t invite them back if they no longer talk to you then they were using you for the hunts anyway.

Another thing to watch out for is drunk hunters. Once a round from a 300 Weatherby missed the back of my head by about 2 inches. When I proceeded to get out of the truck to get a shot at a pig the drunk guy in the back of the truck shot over the roof and didn’t see my head in rifle his scope. The rules were no shooting out of the vehicle and he knew it, but drunk guys don’t always follow rules.

I believe what Rick posted above. “To me, the chambering of a round depends on the type of terrain and type of hunting I am doing - busting jack rabbits, hogs or deer out of the brush or upland bird hunting = loaded chamber, gun on safe and constant muzzle awareness. Spot and stalk hunting = empty chamber until ready to shoot since I am probably 75 or more yards away from the game. Stand hunting or sitting on a waterhole = round chambered, safety on since the noise of chambering a round could scare off game at close range. Safety, not habit, rules”. I would also add hunting in small groups (2-4), hunting with experienced hunters who are safe, and saving the drinking until after the hunt.