Is "Beware of Plugged Bore" taught in hunter safety ed class?

F

FirstFreedom

Moderator
With all of the 'net reports of banana-peeling barrels, and with me falling yesterday and nearly plugging my bore while slipping on a muddy creek bank climbing up, this makes me wonder.

I never had a hunter safety ed class prior to getting my lifetime license, being grandfathered in as a result of being born pre-1972 in my state. Had I not been a "gun nut", I would never have known about a plugged bore being such a high danger.

I think it's a bad idea to grandfather the pre-1972 folks just on the assumption they've been hunting long enough to know all the safety rules. I started hunting in earnest late in life, in my 30's, years after I was "into" collecting/shooting guns, but for the average hunter who is not a gun nut, a few dangerous items of hunting/guns don't jump out at you instantly as being a common sense gun safety rule. Unlike "unload before traversing steep terrain" and other things that just make intuitive sense, a plugged bore isn't so obvious, particularly with something that seems relatively soft, like mud, that a novice might think "worst case scenario, the bullet will just blast the mud out of there". Sure it's obvious that the bore should be generally obstruction-free ideally, but I never would have known just HOW highly catastrophic of a failure which can occur from a mud-obstructed bore just from rudimentary gun safety knowledge and common sense... any thoughts from hunter safety ed instructors or others.
 
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Yes. I had my hunter safety about 2 years ago and they talked about it quite a bit. They passed around i think it was a 30-30 that they jammed with snow and fired(safely of course) and a 12 gauge shotgun that had fired with a 20 gauge shell in the barrel
 
Yes, not as muchas it should..

also no suggestions for applying 1" wide electrical tape to minimize the chance of snow, mud, etc getting in.
 
its been 20 years since i took my safety course. i think we were taught to be careful of barrel obstuctions. especially if you slip and the gun goes down. i have been fortunate enough i never slipped or fell. i bring my weapon up muzzle down. if its the shotgun i unload the chamber. pull it up into the tree. pull the barrel off and look through it. my muzzleloader i put a piece of elec.tape or a finger cot over the muzzle. i pull the cap/primer off before doing that and then let the bolt/hammer fall slowly on the nipple. my dad and gradndad didn't have to take a safety course for hunting until we started to muzzleload hunt. because of prior military service.
 
You can shoot right through it, no problem. With a muzzleloader, it won't change the point of impact or cause any problem at all. I suspect it won't change the POI with bottlenecked cartridges either. But I've only done this with a muzzleloader, to keep moisture off the powder charge.
 
black tape

sounds good to keep stuff out of you barrels but i wouldnt shoot though it. it may change poi on a long shot
 
www.birchwoodcasey.com

barrel cot gun protectors I found in this sept/ Oct issue on target mag basically a a a rubber like the vets used in WWII on their rifles to keep out dirt or sand.
 
I think the cut off has to do with the belief that most people who hunt by a certain age have learned the equivalent of a hunter's safety course.
Perhaps it's too many thinking that hunter's learn from their relations.
I took a Hunter's safety course many many...many years ago when it was only required for minors wanting to hunt.
Here in Washington state there are advanced classes in hunting culminating in a Master Hunter certificate that gets the holder some nice perks like being able to hunt in a unit closed to other hunters.
I'd like to see more people taking safety courses. Perhaps if some sparkely prize was given out to adult hunters that passed the course it'd be more attractive.
 
Wrap that rascal

You can get little roll on condoms that are meant for sealing used caulk tubes at Ace hardware. They are very thin latex and shouldn't affect POI at all. The package actually says "put a condom on your caulk" :rolleyes:
They used regular condoms and a rubber band in Vietnam to keep the rice patty gunk out. I would try to remember to slip it off before firing just to save it but I can't imagine a few mils of rubber changing the path of a speeding chunk of lead in the slightest.
 
13 years instructing Hunter ed in Montana. We cover bore obstruction pretty thoroughly in our class. I'm sure there are classes where it gets overlooked. Seems like whenever we try to cover something new that seems important we end up dropping off somthing else that was just as or more important.

Shoot through the tape. The tape is long gone by the time the bullet reaches the muzzle. No change to POI on any rifle. This has been tested off the benchrest.
 
i leave it on. unless it falls off before shooting. i had trouble one time with my muzzleloader getting rain inside the barrel and past the bullet. powder got wet and it wouldn't fire. i don't hunt in the rain anymore. light falling snow maybe but not rain.
 
So, much like relations with the fairer sex, the same axiom holds true... "Wrap it up for safety's sake!!". :p

Bushidomosquito, welcome to TFL!
 
I just got through taking one here in VA. They covered it pretty well and even detailed how to safely cross a fence or barbed wire. We had visuals too...an actual bulged barrel from a squib load. All the kids thought it was cool.:cool:

I'll have to remember the tape thing, that's pretty slick.
 
i've always heard of guys using unlubricated condoms. i've seen them for sale specifically for gun owners, but its nothing more than a regular unlubed condom. trojan original red pack. tell the clerk its for your gun. you might raise some eyebrows.
 
I took hunter safety two years ago and they covered it, the instructor had us handle an explode barrell for good measure.

i've always heard of guys using unlubricated condoms. i've seen them for sale specifically for gun owners, but its nothing more than a regular unlubed condom. trojan original red pack. tell the clerk its for your gun. you might raise some eyebrows.
Click to expand...

Who cares about the clerk, I'd worry about explaining them to my wife and surviving. To keep my health and marriage intact I cut the fingers off of heavy duty rubber gloves.
 
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