Clay shooting - resting on your foot

[madhatter]

Saw someone balance a pump, with the action closed, on his toes on Saturday, when I mentioned that it may not be the best thing to do, I was told not to worry, because he knows his shotgun. It really sent shivers up my spine.

Fortunately nothing had gone wrong by the time I left and I hope he rethinks his habit.

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Doing this with a pump action or semi auto is silly.

A broken over & under or side by side is standard practice though and a non-event.

[bruce.patience]

Unbelievable - pumps should be unloaded breach facing out barrel in the air. This is the basic “safety rule” in the CTSASA rule book.

I think the fundamental rule is treat it like it’s loaded. Resting the gun on your foot is only safe with a broken over under or side by side.

I have started putting the barrel on the rubber mats at the range. Mostly because it gets heavy on the foot especially when you shoot 100 clays.


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[Agent Smith]

Pointing guns at your foot is a stupid as wearing tweed jackets to do so . . . mmmkay . . .

[Southpaw]

I shoot with a guy in Naboom who detests the practice. I agree with so many of you- I don't see an issue with resting empty pipes on my foot. Have seen a man, finger on trigger, (apparently he thought it was on the trigger guard?) close a loaded sxs that had been resting on his foot and blast a crater into the floor cms in front of his bit toe...

[BBCT]

I speculate that a whole lot of what is discussed above has its origins in a time before pump-actions & semi-autos were in general use, probably when the British gentry were standing on the Scottish moors waiting for grouse to be driven towards them with the barrels of the BROKEN shotguns resting on their toes.

Such bird shooting not only has lots of tradition but the "rules" are more about etiquette and being polite to the other gentlemen around you than they are about "disqualification for breaking said rules".

A side-by-side or over/under is made safe by breaking it. You do this out of politeness to those around you and they can all see that your gun is safe from 100 yards or more away, at a glance. You've got to have pretty good eyesight to be able to see if a revolver/pistol/rifle/semi-auto or pump action shotgun is safe from that distance.

I've stated before on this forum that I have attended bird shoots (here in SA) where the host does not allow pump action or semi-auto shotguns specifically because the safety of such guns does not tie in with the general practise which is designed around break-barrel guns. Nobody on these shoots is even the slightest bit concerned about standing round in a group chatting with BROKEN shotguns over their shoulders because the guns are just so obviously & blatantly safe. On the other hand, if someone closes his gun in the group, people can & do get jumpy!

Unless you're using slugs in a shotgun, I reckon anyone can visually tell that a break-barrel shotgun is safe from beyond the range of such a gun. Once again, I don't believe this is true for revolver/pistol/rifle/semi-auto or pump action shotgun.

If you pick up your gun correctly ("etiqette") it will be well away from your toes by the time it is capable of being discharged so you aren't going to shoot your toe off.

I agree with the sentiment behind "don't point the gun at anything you're not willing to destroy", but I also think that by trying to force a rule onto a situation where it's inappropriate you're going to cause more problems that you solve. In another context, I've seen the chaos created in industry where, for example HR people manage to impose rules that are completely out of context merely because they have inadequate understanding of what a particular job entails.

To each his own. If somebody wants to rest the muzzle of his broken SxS or O/U shotgun on his toes leave him to it. If he does it with a semi or a pump, maybe have a quiet word with him and explain the difference because he's probably a beginner and still has lots to learn.

For what it's worth, resting the muzzle of a semi or pump shotgun on your toe is nowhere near as comfortable or natural as doing so with a break barrel.