A lot of places where matches are held, bullets leaving the property is a no-go, so downrange is not good enough, also has to be below certain level.
When at a match with 150-200 shooters, most of whom I don't know and have no idea their level of skill or the safety of their equipment, I can appreciate the safety nazis.
All/almost all matches I listed have the same range issues. And yet, issues are astronomically rare. Gun handling is (compared to PRS) spectacular. Litteraly overall the safest and best group of humans to be around with guns on a range.
I was at an NRL race gun match four years ago and a nearby farmer came over holding a 6.5 a-tip that hit his barn and fell by the mandoor. Fortunately, he didn't come to complain but wanted to see what it was all about.
How does aiming at the target stop that? ND’s happen regardless- mostly when people put their finger on a trigger when they shouldn’t, or when a safety isn’t applied when it should be.
Lot of confusion here. NRL Hunter is an NRL/PRS style rifle match first and foremost, the "Hunter" part/style is simply that the targets are unknown distance and shaped like animals. Don't believe it claims to replicate a hunt for live animal. What it does do is really help grow skill in position building, range finding, reading wind, etc.
Correct. And that means it is habituating certain habits. The problem is those habits cause the issues they seek to stop.
I perpetually sky load most of the time I am hunting. I am presumed alone or near alone, in the woods, with my safety on. I'm not at a shooting range with 100+ other people spread all over the place. Put me in the thankful for the safety nazi's camp. I've been one.
It isn’t about being a safety nazi- it’s causing the thing you/they want to avoid. Some of the worst, most dangerous people with guns are modern precision/PRS competitors. They are only topped by shotgunners. When we do a class, and someone is pointing guns at people, have ND’s when moving, etc. the excuse they always give is “but it’s unloaded”, “the bolt was back”, etc. When asked if they shoot PRS/precision matches, most of the time it’s “yes”.
On the flip side, it’s evident when someone shoots action pistol and multi-gun matches; they don’t point guns at people- ever. They don’t have their fingers on triggers unless preparing to fire- ever. Almost never do they move without the safety applied.
I have shot action matches for 23 years, hundreds of matches. Brand new shooters shoot matches all the time. In all that time, I have seen 1 ND. I have shot maybe 20 modern PRS/precision matches and have seen 5-6 ND’s, and heard of multiple others.
I went to a relatively large PRS match a few years ago on the east coast. A couple people there had also been to an action match the day prior, and they were talking about how they couldn’t believe how “unsafe” people were because they were moving with loaded guns.
I was at that match too, so I asked
“how many muzzles did you get pointed at you at the other match?”
Their response was “none”.
So I asked, how many have been pointed at you at this match?
They said “none”
I laughed turned around and pointed at 15+ rifles pointed at them and everyone else right then. “You’ve had muzzles pointed at you all day”.
Their response “yeah, but they’re bolt is back”.
I just started laughing at them and the ridiculous nonsense people were doing with rifles. I took pictures and videos of all the guns getting pointed at people behind the line- but hey, they got their bolts back while moving 6 inches on a barricade.
One group is barricade bench-rest with virtually no dynamic movement, yet causes terrible real world gun handling and has orders of magnitude more problems.
The other group has extremely aggressive movement during stages, fires orders of magnitude more rounds in competition per year, yet has fewer issues. And if you count just general poor gun handling, orders of magnitude less than the other.
Which one probably has a better grasp on “safety” with guns?
