Bazoo
Member
I have only one shooting buddy. He is somewhat unsafe. I enjoy running around to gun stores with him and we talk guns. But he does little things that ain’t safe.
He occasionally will muzzle me or others. Okay no big deal, everyone makes mistakes. He keeps making them.
But he does other things. He often leaves the safety off on his gun when shooting. It’s just not a habit like it is for me to put the safety on. Especially when shooting clays. Like for example, if he lets me shoot his gun , he’ll hand it to me with the safety off. When I return it with the safety on, he will always pull the trigger and no bangy because he didn’t assume the safety to be on and didn’t check. Does the same when we are shooting 22 rifles.
But when shooting a Rossi 92 he will put the safety on, as if half cock ain’t enough there.
Then sometimes he will show me his carry gun, unload it and look at it. When he loads it back, instead of stop looking at it, he has occasionally, turned it sideways and muzzled my wife, or me to show me a feature of the gun he forgot to mention. Finger off the trigger cause it was loaded...
Once he shot a round off in my house. He’s always dry firing. So in this instance he showed me his loaded carry gun, I unloaded it, checked it out, loaded it back and handed it back in the same condition it was handed to me in. He pointed it and bang. No one was hurt. He did have it pointed in a safe direction. He said he thought I unloaded it and was just going to dry fire. So trying to duck the blame and put it on me.
I found out later he did the same at his house. Dry firing.
I’ve seen him have his finger on the trigger when readjusting the grip on a cocked single action. Muzzle was pointed upwards. On the range. I mentioned it and he got huffy. I’ve seen him do the same thing with his off hand over the cylinder gap.... that would have sucked for him.
I’ve tried to mention things here and there and he always gets defensive. He was in the air force. He says I was safe enough in the AF and now I’m not safe I guess. He goes to an indoor range and he must be safe enough for them? Maybe they ain’t got high standards.
I’ve been friends with him 20 years or so. He’s only been “into” guns 10 years or so. Friends with his son. He’s a nice guy, Christian, fun to go to gun stores with. But he just does these little things here and there that are unsafe.
Then of course he’s had 3 NDs I’m aware of. One was on the range, so it wasn’t as bad but still. He was behind me I here pow. Single six was in his hands. He shot his car. We were using his trunk for a table.
So anyways. He’s a great friend, and fun to go to gun stores with. And he’s my only friend to go do that sort of thing with. So, I put up with his unsafe gun handling. I’ve considered several things. Just telling him he’s unsafe and so be it if I lose him as a friend. I have been limiting the amount I’m around him on the range and try to look at guns outside rather than inside the house to help mitigate the issue. I don’t particularly want to hurt his feelings and just run him off. He’s not just my only shooting buddy, he’s really one of only a handful of friends I have.
How best to approach this?
Thanks for reading. Prayer and advice welcomed here.
He occasionally will muzzle me or others. Okay no big deal, everyone makes mistakes. He keeps making them.
But he does other things. He often leaves the safety off on his gun when shooting. It’s just not a habit like it is for me to put the safety on. Especially when shooting clays. Like for example, if he lets me shoot his gun , he’ll hand it to me with the safety off. When I return it with the safety on, he will always pull the trigger and no bangy because he didn’t assume the safety to be on and didn’t check. Does the same when we are shooting 22 rifles.
But when shooting a Rossi 92 he will put the safety on, as if half cock ain’t enough there.
Then sometimes he will show me his carry gun, unload it and look at it. When he loads it back, instead of stop looking at it, he has occasionally, turned it sideways and muzzled my wife, or me to show me a feature of the gun he forgot to mention. Finger off the trigger cause it was loaded...
Once he shot a round off in my house. He’s always dry firing. So in this instance he showed me his loaded carry gun, I unloaded it, checked it out, loaded it back and handed it back in the same condition it was handed to me in. He pointed it and bang. No one was hurt. He did have it pointed in a safe direction. He said he thought I unloaded it and was just going to dry fire. So trying to duck the blame and put it on me.
I found out later he did the same at his house. Dry firing.
I’ve seen him have his finger on the trigger when readjusting the grip on a cocked single action. Muzzle was pointed upwards. On the range. I mentioned it and he got huffy. I’ve seen him do the same thing with his off hand over the cylinder gap.... that would have sucked for him.
I’ve tried to mention things here and there and he always gets defensive. He was in the air force. He says I was safe enough in the AF and now I’m not safe I guess. He goes to an indoor range and he must be safe enough for them? Maybe they ain’t got high standards.
I’ve been friends with him 20 years or so. He’s only been “into” guns 10 years or so. Friends with his son. He’s a nice guy, Christian, fun to go to gun stores with. But he just does these little things here and there that are unsafe.
Then of course he’s had 3 NDs I’m aware of. One was on the range, so it wasn’t as bad but still. He was behind me I here pow. Single six was in his hands. He shot his car. We were using his trunk for a table.
So anyways. He’s a great friend, and fun to go to gun stores with. And he’s my only friend to go do that sort of thing with. So, I put up with his unsafe gun handling. I’ve considered several things. Just telling him he’s unsafe and so be it if I lose him as a friend. I have been limiting the amount I’m around him on the range and try to look at guns outside rather than inside the house to help mitigate the issue. I don’t particularly want to hurt his feelings and just run him off. He’s not just my only shooting buddy, he’s really one of only a handful of friends I have.
How best to approach this?
Thanks for reading. Prayer and advice welcomed here.