Gun Safety Questions

[Bowfin]

I took firearms safety about 30 years ago, sat in when my son took the class 4 years ago and am sitting in with my daughter as she is taking the class currently. All have been good classes and it doesn't hurt to have refreshers in gun safety.

A couple questions have come up and I am wondering how everybody else views these questions:

Safety Statement #1: Never shoot a gun (translate rifle) into the air since bullets can travel 1-6 miles and have to come down somewhere.

Question: Squirrel hunting with a .22 rifle and shooting them up in trees is very common. I feel shooting them out of trees is many times safer than on the ground as there is less chance of ricochette. This seems to contradict that you should never shoot into the air.

Safety Statement #2: Be sure of your target and what is beyond.

Question: When hunting in the Minnesota woods you can rarely see over 50-100 yards. When do we ever have a 100% safe backstop especially deer hunting with a high powered rifle when hunting in the woods in MN? Especially with the rise in popularity of hunting out of ground blinds. I guess I've always felt that hunting out of a tree stand was a bit safer as you are shooting toward the ground. Even though a ricochette is possible, it seems like more chance the bullet will not travel as far.

What are your views on these 2 safety questions?

[Gordie]

#1 I think that translates to just shooting into the wide open. shooting squirrels out of a trre you have the tree on a high percentage as you back stop along with hitting the squirrel the bullet should fragment and slow enough to stop it from traveling much distance if you have a pass thru.

#2 I have thought of this several times and the thing is a bullet goes in a straight line other than the gravity puling it down it is bound to hit a tree in its path bullet deflection is a thing that happens easily enough. trees just dont jump out of the way of a bullet. I would be more cncerned shooting across some of the wide open fields of Minnesota.

Blaze orange is what you need to look for when deer hunting not just deer, and that is the reason we wear it for deer hunting and has been passed into law with certain requirements for it during small game and bird hunting.

[Wolffy]

if i Remember right the Mythbusters did an episode on shooting into the air. I cant remember what they used, or the out come for sure.

[leech~~]

I am a DNR Gun Safety Instructor and your answer to questions # 1 & 2 is the same.

Be sure of your target and what is beyond.

If your not confident you have a hit able target or what your back stop is. Don't take the shot!

[Spike76]

Didn't have gun safety when I was young, but have sat through classes with sons, daughter, and grandson. The most important rule of all is, muzzle control, and what is beyond you. Know this at all time with any gun in your hand, and you will be safe. Shooting in the air is unwise, even at a squirrel. What goes up, must come down, and if you don't know where, don't shoot.