Anyone have friends with bad gun etiquette?

[lance22]

I just gotta share this one ...

I had a brother-in-law pick up my Glock 35 and point it at his head. Evidentally he wanted to look down the barrel.

I had just bought the G35 and brought it over to his house, cased, and wanted to show it to him. He is not familiar with guns and at the time I think it was the first time he had held a handgun. I uncase it, give a quick instruction on how to check the chamber and that when handed to him he is to check the chamber himself - the first thing he does when he gets it in his hand is he sticks his finger in the triggerguard and points it at his face [peering down the barrel with a squinted eye]. I had expected that he would hold it reverently while I give the finger / muzzle / all guns are presumed loaded speech but his idiocy was quicker than my tongue.

I simply asked for it back, cased it back up and walked it to the car That was enough for one day.

Since then, I've had him shooting twice, both times after the trigger / muzzle lectures - and in his case - I always add that pointing it at yourself is as bad as point it at others. The gun is safe if handled correctly but it is extremely unforgiving of stupidity.

 

[trickyasafox]

yea my hunting buddy. asked to borrow my 22 as his dad took his. He left it in the back of his work truck (a hummer) and went be-poppin' around the countryside. then had the marbles to tell me that the scope was off and crooked.

I said yea, they are now. . . .

 

[Wes Janson]

If the finish on any of my guns wears to the point that it's no longer functional, I'll refinish that gun. If a part breaks, I'll replace that part; I have the tools, parts and know-how to do so.

I'm not worried about my guns lasting for three or four lifetimes. I don't care if someone 150 years in the future is still shooting my firearms. What I do care about is having reliable weapons and the skills to use them if I need to. And sometimes it takes some rough handling to figure out if a weapon is truly reliable or to build the skills one needs to properly use it.

+1

There are many out there who are unsafe and should not be entrusted with firearms, but there are also a small minority of shooters who need to learn to relax. The four rules are great, and should be followed as best as possible, but they get read literally waaay too much. I had the pleasure once of a few hours of instruction from Rob Pincus, and one of the things that stuck with me the most from that time was a statement on safety along the lines that "The important thing is to just remember that you're holding a deadly weapon, and to act accordingly".

People who complain/fear dry firing, people who get whiny when they see a video clip or a professional photo close to the barrel's axis, people who can't stand to inspect the condition of a weapon's bore...are ultimately showing the lack of judgement necessary to properly evaluate rules and their purposes. Cartridges do not magically materialize in chambers-they get there because someone physically placed them there, whether intentionally or not. When you open the action, look into the chamber, and verify that the feeding mechanism has been removed/is empty, then the weapon is safe. If you're failing to do any of those steps properly, then either training is needed or else a different hobby...something nice and safe like chess.

As for wear...well, you're either going to buy a weapon to shoot it, or to collect it. In the case of the former, it's prudent to avoid unnecessary damage, but the fact of the matter is that any mechanical device will wear, and entropy will prevail. That's why we have gunsmiths, refinishing services, and the great Brownell's (and Midway too). If you're a collector, then great-people like you help pay my rent-but please don't make the mistake of thinking that everyone else should be a collector as well (and that if they're not they're committing a sin). No matter how well you take care of it, someday that Colt or Springfield is going to be nothing more than a loose assortment of carbon and iron. Even a Glock will eventually degrade down. It might be ten years or ten thousand, but all things in this universe are ultimately transitory. The only thing to do is to enjoy them while you can.

 

[beretta9]

My wife's brother-in-law told me he had a nd when he was pulling the slide back on his pistol and it slipped, had his finger on the trigger. The next day we were looking at some pistols at the local store. He picks one up and the first thing he does is put his finger on the trigger. I guess some people just don't learn.

 

[wideym]

A friend wanted to see my S&W 29 I just bought, so I unload it and hand it to him with the cylinder open. He then proceeds to spin the cylinder and flick it closed. He couldn't understand why I was mad, he's seen people do it on TV all the time.

 

[alex_trebek]

I guess this will sound silly compared to the more safety oriented complaints, but my brother refuses stop calling magazines "clips."

 

[230RN]

Alex Trebek

I guess this will sound silly compared to the more safety oriented complaints, but my brother refuses stop calling magazines "clips."

Oh, boy. Here we go.

 

[Rule556]

...my brother refuses stop calling magazines "clips."

Show him this visual aid. Maybe it'll help.

 

[DFW1911]

I have a hole in my kitchen floor to prove one guy has a lot to learn.

My dogs still hate him.

Take care,
DFW1911

 

[brighamr]

Anyone have friends with bad gun etiquette?

Not anymore...

 

[CountGlockula]

On gripping...

Seeing those with semi-auto handguns gripping with their weak side thumb right behind the slide...OUCHIE!!!

And...

 

[BobbyQuickdraw]

^^ What is wrong with the grip? Weak hand underneath?

 

[AirplaneDoc]

1. My neighbor brought over a TC Encore barrel the other day, and asked me if I could run it by our mutual gunsmith, when I was picking up my Shotgun that evening. I asked him what was wrong with it, he told me to look down the barrel, when I did, I saw the most fouled, corroded barrel I had ever seen. I asked him what happened, he told me that his friend loaned it to him for deer season, since he (the friend) was in the hospital. Apparently his friend bought the barrel new last year for deer hunting, he sighted it in and used it. He never bothered to clean the blackpowder residue out of it. So there it sat all year, with 50 rounds of BP residue eating away at it. I took it in a used my secret formula bp cleaner on it, and made a dramatic improvement, but the pitting was so bad, I gave it back to the neighbor and told him I thought it was done for. He agreed and expressed his frustration with his buddy.

2. I Shot trap with a guy from work who assured me that there was no need to clean his beretta OU untill the season was over. He could not understand why I cleaned my browning at the end of each night's shoot. the same guy when asked if we were shooting that night in the rain, said that there were guys with 5K shotguns, there was no way we would shoot if there was still rain. I told him that the cartriges were no made of paper anymore, and $5k shotguns shot just fine in the rain or shin last I checked.