Watch where you shoot!

jimwsea · Mar 28, 2009

This is not a snipe at the "places to shoot 1 mile thread" which made me think I should post this true story anyway.

Years ago, I was riding my mountain bike in the woods east of Monroe, Washington. There are some small gold mining operations in the area. I stopped at a very small borrow pit (more like a shallow hole in the ground) beside a dirt road to collect some rocks and take a rest. After about 5 minutes, bullets started flying over my head. Being in the pit, I was OK. Luckily, I was in shouting distance and they acknowledged and stopped shooting.:yes:

As for the shooters --they had no real backstop (just trees - don't think so!), they obviously did not walk along their proposed line of fire (or they would have seen me in the pit), they assumed there was nobody else around because I wasn't making noise or dust, they didn't bother to yell to see if anyone else was around, and they likely had no idea that further through the woods to the north was a mining operation with a small shed/office with a few people in it.

If they had been shooting from a greater distance from me, they likely would not have heard me shouting and I would probably have had to sit in the pit until they were finished shooting.

PS. That was before I started carrying when I go off in the woods.

ZeroRing · Mar 28, 2009

VERY good point!! Definitely worth stressing the importance of knowing (not assuming) what is behind your intended "target". :s0155:

twoclones · Mar 30, 2009

Last summer I was crossing a dry lake bed in S.E. Idaho and had bullets start flying overhead. Incredible feeling to hear the bullet before the shot... I was a few hundred yards from the nearest cover but also concerned that if I fired a warning shot, the shooter might think I was shooting at him. I had to walk to safety while listening to bullets flying past.

If *my shooter* had been in the lake bet with me, he could have been shooting across a half mile of flat land into a mountain side.

jimwsea · Mar 30, 2009

Maybe I should carry a flare gun?

solowars · Apr 18, 2009

tionico · Apr 18, 2009

I suppose there were some anti-gun hippies, but I never knew any, and I hung with lots of the long haired set, and even was one. Most of my friends thought guns were cool, it was guns against innocent people they abhorred (which most still do.....). Of course, the difference may well be that I was in coastal Northern California, almost to Oregon. Plenty of rednecks, loggers, REAL fishermen, crazy indians, and those who cultivated the funny smelling smoking weed for pocket cash. I suppose the LA Flowerchildren weren't so keen on long metal sticks that go boom..... BUT, you are right, most younger folks today have been raised in a culture that fears and hates firearms, and thus were never taught the due respect and careful handling they deserve. Hey, when I was in the Boy Scouts (in southern Calif), our Scoutmaster loved to take a few of us up into the canyons and hills of eastern Orange County for an afternoon of shooting, and Marksmanship used to be one of the Merit Badges. (no longer, as I understand it.... sigh...) No wonder so many are clueless. The scary bit is that sooner or later, someone is going to get hurt or worse, and it will be the GUN"S fault, of course. So, we'll just have to ban them, right? Duhhhhhh

Mutoman · Apr 18, 2009

More than once while driving the gravel roads around Coos County, I have encountered people shooting down a road. Most of the time it's a kid, but not long ago the boys and I were driving to one of our favorite spots to shoot clays and there were a couple of what looked to be common sportsmen shooting down a road toward a blind corner.