I agree with George, but I would have politely asked the person in the second instance to immediately refrain from the practice and to hold the muzzle pointing up after ejecting/removing the spent hulls before they turn around or move off the station w/the action either just barely open or closed.
In the first instance, there are people who were taught to keep the gun open, empty and to hold it by the stock rather than the barrels when being carried over the shoulder. Concern for sweaty hands and corrosion, perhaps? I honestly don't know. Protocol is different in some places, but either way the gun was safe. In the same breath, if it was being held in a manner where the muzzles were pointing directly at you, rather than down & it was pushing your alert button, I would not hesitate to politely say something and ask them to desist and in the process point out that it is very easy to put a dent in a barrel when carried in that manner and the safest way to protect them is to hold the open gun by the barrels. Personally, I'm not threatened by a broken empty gun held either way, its safe.
Having a gun open & over a shoulder with live cartridges in the chambers, whether carried by the barrels or the stock forward is not acceptable, EVER. Period!
In the 5-stand situation described where the person fired into the ground immediately after the preceding shooter shot his targets. I would have interceded and made it CLEAR that not only is the next shooter to wait until the preceding shooter shoots, but they may NOT load the gun or place a shell in it until the preceding shooter has finished shooting at his target(s). That is inclusive of keeping the gun's muzzle(s) pointed outward and in a safe direction at all times.
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I think we have all seen the back of a trap house marked from where someone shot it at one time or another. Was it carelessness w/a release trigger or ?? Dunno, but whomever it was did understand to always keep the gun pointed in a safe direction when it got loaded, thankfully.
[i][/i]In Virginia we do not have all day and all night to shoot a 5 Stand......If you have 5 shooters with O/Us or SXSs then 3 of those 5 shotguns should be loaded and ready to shoot....One will be empty because it was just fired and one will be getting re-loaded....The other 3 should be loaded and ready so the squad can shoot-shoot-shoot....You seem to be telling me you do not want the guy on station 2 to even load his shotgun until after the guy on station 1 has finished shooting..????...Maybe I did not understand you..????...IF I understood you correctly it would take forever to shoot a 5 Stand and the Gun Club Management would NOT be happy. I was in a registered skeet shoot in Colorado about 15 years ago and I was on a squad with some guys who were good shooters for their age, which is my age now, and the manager of the shoot complained to our squad that we were shooting to slow. I think I actually laughed out loud. Those guys were lucky to be shooting anything, they were lucky to be doing anything outdoors. We had one shooter in Colorado that shot skeet with the help of two full size crutches, he only had one good leg. We had another shooter that shot from a three legged stool, I think he had a bad back......We have now all seen or even know wheelchair bound shooters.....Anyway back to the talk about having the shotguns ready and loaded so that the five stand squad can keep the game moving and shoot-shoot-shoot-shoot maybe I did not understand what you were trying to say...... Good Shooting To You, Jent
