Admit it, we all want to be cool and look comfortable and confident when learning new shooting tips and gun handling skills. Like all new things, especially in the early stages of gun training, learning how to handle guns can be intimidating. Now that Miss Manners’ Super Duper Guide to Shooting Etiquette is out of print, learning basic gun safety and shooting rules is extra hard.
Check out these shooting range etiquette tips and you’ll be safe and look like a pro shooter, or at least a well-rounded intermediate, in no time flat. And, before we start, since we’re talking about gun training, you might want to check out how I feel about serious training, here.
Face forward!
One of the best things you can do (besides displaying good manners) is to demonstrate that you are safe at the range. And the quickest way to freak out everyone else at the range is to turn around while holding your gun. I know, it’s a social event, and part of the fun is bragging to your friends when you blow a pomegranate to smithereens. Trash talking your friends is perfectly acceptable, and encouraged, as long as you keep facing the backstop. Don’t worry; they’ll still hear you while you’re facing forward.
If you need to turn around for some reason, no problem. Just set your gun down on the table, pointed down range, first. If you can, make it safe by unloading and opening the action. Doing that every time you finish a string of fire is a great habit that will impress your range neighbors.
Walk the line!
Back seat drivers can be frustrating, annoying and dangerous. So can back seat shooters.
These are the folks that stand way too far back from the shooting line. When that happens, the muzzles of their various firearms are actually behind other shooters on either side of them. Is it the result of some instinctive Dirty Harry reflex to have the drop on everyone else at the range? We don’t know. Yet, as nice as you seem to be, I don’t trust you! Not when you have a loaded gun behind my back!
Step on up to the shooting line. Get as close as you can. Look at the bright side, you’ll be a little closer to the target and shoot a better group! And that makes everyone happy.
Grab a copy of Tom’s free eBook, A Fistful of Shooting Tips. It will help make you a better shooter and the envy of your range in no time.
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