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This happened to me just the other day: got chew out for inspecting a rifle barrel from the muzzle end. This happened at the Chabot Gun Glub, and the said rifles (open action) were on the rack behind red safety line (Mind you, CGG is very stringent about the safety rules). While I was ooh-ahhing a pristine barrel/rifling of a real 1874 Sharps rifle, an oldtimer (WWII vet) ream me a new one for presenting my head as a target of a supposedly unloaded and unhandled rifle. I held my tongue bec he's right and I'm a fool.
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He is NOT 'right'.
I do not carry a borelight and a mirror when I "inspect" rifle barrels. To much bother. I just usually open the action and LEAVE IT OPEN and check the chamber visually and physically. Then I reverse the rifle and look down the bore.
If the action is open, and I've just checked the chamber (and no one has handled the firearm in the meantime) I am reasonably certain that there's no way the firearm can go off and shoot me short of another human interacting with it.
ANYONE who believes that it could is a fool. And a dangerous one at that. Especially since some firearms barrels CANNOT be inspected from the chamber end (blackpowder for example). -
whats wrong with that, I do it all the time. Mind you it's my bolt action and I normally have the bolt in my hand. Still probably a good rule to have drilled into you though.NRA - Life Member
Head ***** @ Firing-Line Burbank.
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Old timers are usually the ones who violate the muzzle control rules the most.
Why can't anybody over the age of 55 learn to carry their SG or rifle muzzle up??? Just ranting..got swept twice last Sat at a new to me trap range.Comment
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Nothing wrong with it at all, when done safely and correctly. I usually stick my finger in the open action below the chamber, and then let the light reflect off my fingernail up into the barrel to check it out. No replacement for a bore light, but a lot better than nothing!
JohnComment
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Well, I was a little miffed at the time, but I did pondered the following afterwards,
1. I can't afford the mistake if there is 1/1,000,000 chance something went wrong (don't know if there are cases of AD w/o human handling)
2. Most non-novice AD happened bec. it defied logics beforehand. Well, Mr. Murphy doesn't follow logics and sh*t can happen.
3. Not my rifles, so I didn't manually safety-check the rifle, only visually.
4. Sharps has double-set triggers, and it can be set so sensitive that once you pulled the set-trigger, if you slap the butt the touch-trigger will let go.
5. Muzzle awareness: be careful where your muzzle is pointing. Or be careful don't point your head in front of a muzzle.
6. He is an ~80yrs. old WW2 vet (a regular shooter at Chabot). Whom am I to argue his experience/wisdom half his age.Comment
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Guns don't shoot by themselves. I look down my barrels all the time. I don't pull my triggers unless I expect the gun to go BANG.I had a good friend in New York City, he never called me by my name, just Hillbilly.
I got a shotgun and a rifle and a fourty five and a country boy can survive.
(I have taken some poetic liberties with this line, with all due respect to Mr. Hank Williams Jr., because I do not own a four wheel drive.)
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Don't forget that >75% of vets never saw combat in WWII.
sigpic "On bended knee is no way to be free." - Eddie Vedder, "Guaranteed"
"Let your gun therefore be the constant companion of your walks." -Thomas Jefferson, in a letter to his nephew Peter Carr dated August 19, 1785
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