Safety infractions committed on range today.

[Evan Thomas]

Are you going to stop in the middle of combat to emplace ear plugs? Do you Stalk an animal in the brush with ear plugs in?

Assuming these are serious rather than rhetorical questions, I believe that combat troops in Iraq and Afghanistan are issued air-valve type earplugs. I'm sure that other members who have BTDT know more about this than I do, and also have opinions about how well they work. The principle, however, is a good one. And plenty of people who hunt use either the air-valve plugs or the electronic muffs which block impulse noise. Some say the latter give them more ability to track game, not less.

If you look at the hearing protection sticky in the General Discussion forum, you'll find a lengthy discussion of these issues.
http://www.thefiringline.com/forums/showthread.php?t=200072

And, yeah, as Tuzo noted above, eye protection is just as important, which is why both are mandatory at many ranges.

 

[Huey Long]

Yes, to be young and stupid. Too bad we all get old and wiser (and deaf too).

It is your choice to take simple protection - precautions to protect your ears, eyes and the rest of your health. Don't follow in our foot steps in becoming deaf, blind and even worse.

Your young now but believe me if you live any longer you'll get old. When you get old the simple joys in life is all that is left so take a few steps to protect them because you only get one body. Yes, I'm sure by the time your old they may have come up with transplating your brain into a new body but until they do that you only get one - take reasonable care of it.

Issues of hearing damage aside, I always wear ear plugs (or at least a couple shells stuck in my ears) simply because the sound of loud gunshots right near me hurts my ears. I always have.

Actually, I'd just as soon not have my tax dollars paying the lifelong medical expenses of the fools I see riding without helmets, some of whom are going to wind up with severe brain injuries... same can be said of seatbelt use, I think. There are different kinds of "hurt."

Those "fools" pay taxes just like you and some of them probably aren't too happy with some of your lifestyle choices. I say live and let live.

 

[TEDDY]

safty

some of you must be southern as you sound like the I do my thing and the el with you.yes I come from the north and I belong to a pistol indoor club.we even have a reloading room.infractions like have been posted would be grounds to be expelled.eye and ear protection is manditory.if the gun is not pointed at the target you get a warning,nextime your out.400 members and none have been kicked out.no one wants the disgrace as no club will take them.and there is no combat or cowboy .it is a bullseye target shoot and many are very good shoots even the women.we have had several national champians.and I know what hearing is as my wife is always upset as i cannot hear her unless she is right there.I have been shooting since the late 1930s
I have a number of trophys.but I was also a machine gunner in WW2 and shot high power before WW2 when there were no earmuffs.
be an ideot but when you kill some body theres no going back.

 

[fatboy02]

I was at an outdoor range that I belong to, doing my range portion of CPL class when we got down to the pistol range (right next to the 50 yd range) ther was a couple of guys sighting in a .22 with one downrange next to the target "spotting impacts". He was less than 6' from the target

Yes they were done after that my instructor had a few words with them.

 

[Ben Towe]

Something I've seen alot is new shooters that have just fired their first shot grinning like a mule eatin sawbriars and spinning around with the gun pointed to look at their buddies. Of course their buddies are ducking and falling to get away from the swinging gun. The problem is that we expect new shooters to know the basics right out of the box and many don't. I've made it a mental note to mention this to the next new person I take shooting.

A note about eye and ear protection: All through my younger days I refused to wear it thinking it was "sissy" or some such nonsense. I still don't wear eye protection like I should but I virtually always wear ear plugs or muffs since I'm 23 and already have tinnitus. It's not severe but it can get annoying at times. Of course I also have a fair amount of hearing loss to go along with it. So wear some plugs!

 

[Stuohn]

When I lived in Texas I went to the range often and the range officers (for the most part) were pretty much on top of things. I've seen some people do some stupid things though. The least safe would have been a guy walking down range during live fire. The most disturbing thing I've seen was a guy posting pictures of (I'm assuming) an ex on target. Both told to leave immediately.

 

[Double Naught Spy]

I have stopped people from going into "hot" indoor ranges without hearing protection. This happened the very same day all the other safety laws were infracted upon as mentioned in the first posting.
I sincerely don't believe I will be attending that indoor range and will allow my membership to expire. It is not worth the effort.

Given your apparent stress over this stuff, I can see why. It is probably best for everyone that you do.