Shooting and drinking?

I personally worry more about the people sharing the road with me than the people sipping on a couple of sodas in the gravel pit beside me. The rules of safe shooting are quite simple and the bottom line is muzzle control. I have yet to see a shooter unable to follow that one due to having a couple of drinks, sure I know there is some people who do get that drunk, but Id bet they dont have the intelligence to handle a gun sober either. Know your limits and stay within it as the saying goes. Then again there is that crowd among us that doesnt want us to be able to make out own decisions, they want us to wear helmets on our bicycles, seat belts in our cars, ban lawn darts, take away guns, all because if they dont like it then no one should be allowed.
 
PLEASE..WON'T SOMEONE THINK OF THE CHILDREN !!!!.....dripping with sarcasm !, our club has a licensed facility in it, and we may have a beer while shooting trap, and you know what....no one has been pulled over, no on has swept the line, no one has got out of hand , and there has not been any world ending issues !!...seriously you guys blow everything out of proportion !!!!!!!.....so all the guys that say "THEY HAVE NEVER DRANK AND SHOT AT THE SAME TIME"....HAVE "NEVER" HAD "A" BEER AND DROVE HOME BEFORE ??!!......i call bull$hit !

my 2 cents
 
Ussually I just hide the bottle in a paper bag and go out behind the shed when I get thirsty.
 
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Shooting AND drinking is a no- no, and that is what I was reffering to in my original answer.
our club permits drinking after all ranges are closed, but we do not have full time employees and a licensed bar.

There is no one to make sure that if some one is drinking, that they will not continue to keep shooting - or driving, for that matter.
Cat
 
I was stationed in Germany in 1977 Baden Baden, they had a beautiful rod and gun club there on the base. It had a bar and restaurant and shooting and drinking were common. Never saw a problem while I was there. The local Germans who worked on the base always drank at lunch time, different culture. Just the way it was.
 
tch1717 said:
PLEASE..WON'T SOMEONE THINK OF THE CHILDREN !!!!.....dripping with sarcasm !, our club has a licensed facility in it, and we may have a beer while shooting trap, and you know what....no one has been pulled over, no on has swept the line, no one has got out of hand , and there has not been any world ending issues !!...seriously you guys blow everything out of proportion !!!!!!!.....so all the guys that say "THEY HAVE NEVER DRANK AND SHOT AT THE SAME TIME"....HAVE "NEVER" HAD "A" BEER AND DROVE HOME BEFORE ??!!......i call bull$hit !

my 2 cents
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Don't forget to add that if anyone did have one too many at the bar, they would never be allowed on the trap line. It's a peer monitoring system and IT WORKS JUST FINE!!!!
 
I was shooting a round of trap in Idaho in 2008 with some friends. To my amazment when paying my fee there were some cold bud lights in the cooler directly behind the cashier. After spotting that I looked around the club house and sure enough there were people having their drinks. Struck me as really odd.
 
Riflesmith said:
I was shooting a round of trap in Idaho in 2008 with some friends. To my amazment when paying my fee there were some cold bud lights in the cooler directly behind the cashier. After spotting that I looked around the club house and sure enough there were people having their drinks. Struck me as really odd.
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In NZ as im sure it is in Canada, one of the 7 absolutes for using a firearm is NO drinking and shooting
 
I drink very little at all, but have nothing against it in moderation.

I have seen immature kids (and adults) who were 100% sober who should never be allowed to touch a loaded firearm; I have also seen very responisble and safe individuals who I would have no problem shooting with while they had a reasonable amount of alcohol.

I agree it is 100% necessary to be safe with firearms, but some people get carried away. Ever heard of a Fudd?

Some of the safety precautions taught in the firearms safety course are what I would call excessive. For example, according to the safety 'rules' to cross a barbed wire fence with a firearm you should unload it, leave the action open and set it at the base of the fence - after crossing the fence empty handed you may then pick everything up and reload. How many soldiers would do that? Even if all you did while crossing a fence was control the muzzle OR keep you ringer off the trigger, there is no way anyone can be hurt. If you control the muzzle and place the firearm on safe, you are that much safer. If you place the firearm on safe and unload it you are saferer; if you place the firearm on safe, unload it and leave the action open you are safererer; and if you do everything according to the book you are saferererer - do you really need to be saferererer? I am happy with just being reasonably safe.

...so basically I suggest you use your discretion at to how much you drink (or not) while shooting. You can drink a certain amount of alcohol and get behind the wheel of a truck, which I would consider much more dangerous. Of course driving or shooting while 'drunk' is completely unacceptable.

But that being said, I would never leave empty alcohol containers around a range since safe or not - it is still important to ensure nobody gets the wrong impression. Some have mentioned there are rules against drinking at ranges; I know very little about range rules since I use ranges very little - but if there are rules, they should be respected. At the farm use your discression.
 
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I suppose if I was in a war I would probably go across a fence without laying my gun down or unloading. But as a child of 9 with my first shotgun I was taught by my father, who was an instructor in battle school during the second world war, to be concerned about fences when crossing them. The way we were supposed to do it was to have our partner hold our gun and go across. Then he would pass both to you and go across himself. If you were by yourself you were to put the shotgun on the ground then climb over. As I recall, we often didn't unload. So, I guess we weren't really, really, really safe. Still the rules have served me well in the field for 60 years. On the other hand, I don't see any problem with unloading the gun because it probably is slightly safer and if my partner saw it as necessary or brought it up I would do it without complaint. Nor do I see why a person would want to climb over a fence with a loaded gun. The occasional person did get killed crossing fences at that time. One way of doing it was leaning a loaded gun against the fence then climbing over. You could probably get away with this often enough to think it was OK too. Another was climbing over the fence with a loaded gun and taking a fall. If I remember correctly, in this latter case, the guy holding the gun wasn't the one that was killed. I have to agree that rules get tiresome sometimes and you can create a problem with too many. But, for Pete's sake, part of being safe is having clear procedures that work. This is especially important when you are instructing or examining someone for a firearms or hunting licence.
 
Lots of rural gun clubs have corn roasts etc on the property after a shoot is over - KEY WORDS - after the shoot is over. So the trap range is shut down, the shot guns are put away, the corn is put on to boil, the ladies bring out the pot luck dinner and the boys have a beer. It's no big deal.

It would be a big deal if people were still shooting. So we do not do that.
 
I frequent a number of clubs in the US that have licenced bars. I've never seen any irresponsible behavour at any time.

There is one club in Southern Ontario that is licenced and again no problems. When the guns are put away a cold beer on a hot day is great.

If you are adult enough to handel firearms responsibly I think most people can manage a beer after shooting.
 
Claybuster said:
The risk that some shooter might get behind the wheel after having had one too many at a gun club with a licensed facility is no more than presented by millions of people who visit bars, taverns, pubs, nightclubs and restaurants across Canada. It's probably less given the additional complication of having guns in your vehicle if caught while impaired.

But if one beer makes you tipsy or you can't stop drinking once you've started then it's probably best for you to stick with Diet Coke not just at the range but everywhere.

Here's link to a blood alcohol guide. Read the disclaimers, insert your data and find out what your limits are.

http://www.ou.edu/oupd/bac.htm
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Cool link...

I can have 7 cans of beer in 3 hours and not be over .08. 8 beer put me at .08.

:)
 
Operating a motor vehicle is much more "challenging" than operating a firearm at a range. I know I can have a couple of beers and drive without risking my or anyone else's life, so the same should be true for operating a firearm, although I don't advise it.


COmes down to personal responsibility, which is so absent in society today.
 
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