Saw something today that underscored the importance of being conscious of and always observing good range safety practices.
I'm sure (or at least hope) that all the folks reading this board are aware of basic range safety rules and follow them scrupulously, so even though I may be preaching to the choir, even highly experienced people can get complacent over time.
This afternoon, Sunday 28 OCT 2012, at the Philson's Crossroad range, about 15 or so individuals were at the range when my family and I arrived at about 14:30. Apparently most of these folks were part of a group that had been there for some time. They appeared to be acting responsibly, with one of the guys calling "Range Hot" and "Range Cold", and when the range was cold they were policing their brass, so we felt comfortable being there with them.
At around 15:30, they had called "Range Cold", with several of them policing brass and cleaning up downrange. We were preparing to leave, so we cleaned up as well, and were waiting for the range to go hot again so we could handle our weapons to case them and go. Most of the folks had come back to the line and were standing around talking, although one guy was standing on the downrange side of the firing line rail chatting with the group. After standing there several minutes, no one had called range hot, so I called out "Can we go hot?" I heard someone say, "We're getting ready to leave", but still, no one had confirmed "Range Hot". Then I saw some of them start to handle weapons... one of the guys picked up an SKS, and another appeared to be handling a pistol, even though there was someone standing downrange, so I called "The range is hot, weapons are being handled".
They looked at me like I was from Mars. The one guy finally came back around from in front of the line, and they all continued packing up, but it seemed as though they were all OK with handling weapons even though the range had not been called hot.
I don't know what their range experience level was, but it appeared that several of them had gear that would seem to indicate they were not new shooters. They certainly should have known better than to allow handling weapons on a range that had not been declared hot, and worse yet, with someone standing in front of the line.
Some folks might think it?s no big deal to handle a weapon without explicitly calling the range to be hot, but when it comes to safety, there should be no assumptions about anything.
I'm sure (or at least hope) that all the folks reading this board are aware of basic range safety rules and follow them scrupulously, so even though I may be preaching to the choir, even highly experienced people can get complacent over time.
This afternoon, Sunday 28 OCT 2012, at the Philson's Crossroad range, about 15 or so individuals were at the range when my family and I arrived at about 14:30. Apparently most of these folks were part of a group that had been there for some time. They appeared to be acting responsibly, with one of the guys calling "Range Hot" and "Range Cold", and when the range was cold they were policing their brass, so we felt comfortable being there with them.
At around 15:30, they had called "Range Cold", with several of them policing brass and cleaning up downrange. We were preparing to leave, so we cleaned up as well, and were waiting for the range to go hot again so we could handle our weapons to case them and go. Most of the folks had come back to the line and were standing around talking, although one guy was standing on the downrange side of the firing line rail chatting with the group. After standing there several minutes, no one had called range hot, so I called out "Can we go hot?" I heard someone say, "We're getting ready to leave", but still, no one had confirmed "Range Hot". Then I saw some of them start to handle weapons... one of the guys picked up an SKS, and another appeared to be handling a pistol, even though there was someone standing downrange, so I called "The range is hot, weapons are being handled".
They looked at me like I was from Mars. The one guy finally came back around from in front of the line, and they all continued packing up, but it seemed as though they were all OK with handling weapons even though the range had not been called hot.
I don't know what their range experience level was, but it appeared that several of them had gear that would seem to indicate they were not new shooters. They certainly should have known better than to allow handling weapons on a range that had not been declared hot, and worse yet, with someone standing in front of the line.
Some folks might think it?s no big deal to handle a weapon without explicitly calling the range to be hot, but when it comes to safety, there should be no assumptions about anything.
