Here’s a little holiday video from Hamilton Island off the Great Barrier Reef in Australia. It’s a perfect example of what happens when you put safety first, last and always—ahead of freedom and personal responsibility. [NB: the Powers That Be Down Under have banned handguns for personal defense. Target shooters are limited to handguns of .38 or 9mm calibre or less and magazines may hold a maximum of 10 rounds. The handgun used here is—gasp!—a .44 Magnum.]
I don’t know about all the Aussie silliness in their laws, but yesterday at our local pistol indoor range the guy 3 lines over needed the harness on his pistol.
he shot the carrier twice and the lights at the 55 foot mark thru the baffle no less, glass showered down on the floor and I could just see everyone cringe. Safety trainer was there in a second after the lights went and spoke with him. Wife is scared he was training for CWP.
It sounds like what he needs is a .22 rather than whatever he was shooting (a .45?) and a little instruction.
glock 40.
And yes, I would gladly lend one of my many .22 handguns to learn marksmanship and safety.
but again I was putting down 1.5 inch group at 7 yards with my cz 75b on an off day. Thanks to learning to shoot with .22 and lots of it.
Of course my wife catches a squib on the guy in the lane next to us. smoke but no bang on a 45 auto so he just keeps pulling the trigger lots of times, nothing happens so he manually ejects and levels to fire again. I say woah man, check the barrel. he looks at me funny but does finally decide on checking the barrel. surprise there is the round in the barrel. Later on his buddy (who did the reloads) thanks me for saving his gun.
I’ve always felt fortunate for folk like you that point out how better at everything they are than everyone else.
If you got boasting from my comment that was far from it’s intent. The intent of my commentary is one may buy the biggest and most expensive gun (in this case a Glock) but it is not a guarantee of aim or accuracy. My accuracy is due to diligent practice starting with a small caliber pistol, specifically a .22 and a good teacher many years ago.
Marksmanship and safety are learned by repetition and knowledge of your weapon. If you are afraid of the weapon it needs to be tethered to the table to stop ventilating the range.
I’ve seen plenty of complete failures to fire (mostly with .22lr rifles that haven’t been well maintained combined with hard-primed brass), several failures to properly eject and/or extract, and a few examples of failures to properly feed, however I’ve only ever seen ONE squib load.
Luckily, that squib still had enough juice behind it to push the bullet (100 grain CMJ .380) through the ~2.7″ of barrel on my P238, and through the target 5-7 yards away.
good that it cleared, I have seen a few squibs, one that was not cleared and what happens to it when the next round fired. .38 spl semi wad cutter
The barrel split and big loud crack bang sound with a strange metallic ring . have also seen a few pictures and a few guns or at least what is left of them when bad things happen.
He’s shooting like a cop. Maybe a new career is in his future.
Have you ever seen guys with the lasers? They are always fun to watch.
The guy will point the laser dot properly on target, then just before the gun fires the laser dot zooms leftward of the target, then it zooms back to the upper right. You can see all of the poor points of shooting. From flinching to not holding on target. I usually want to say something but ….. I don’t.
Sometimes its good when used to identify a flinch. I will put a boresight in a cleared and unloaded gun to see what my wife or a friend is doing wrong. Of course you have to learn from it or its just wasting ammo.
Anyone notice the PADLOCK on the harness?
The range(s) near me do the same thing with their rental NFA guns.
Is it actually Australian law or simply the gun range trying to avoid lawsuits?
Likely a combination of both.
It looks very similar to what one of the major ranges around here does with their rental NFA guns — it’s to ensure that the chain of custody is such that you, as the shooter, never really have ‘possession’ of the otherwise illegal device.
I guess I’ve been lucky at the ranges I’ve been to because I’ve not seen anyone that ought to have the harness. The harness idea is about as knuckleheaded as the group in London giving away tickets to the Olympics forbidding their use to watch shooting events because guns are dangerous and the children might see them used safely.
I’ll only say this once: if I ever unwittingly set foot in a shooting range where the guns are on leashes, I shall loudly utter many obscene oaths and expletives while I perform an abrupt about-face and quickly retreat to a place of sanity and reason.
I’m not saying that such dens of lunacy shouldn’t exist; just that they’re not for me. They may well be the only shooting option for mental defectives and the unfortunate residents of places like NYC and North Korea, but I just don’t roll that way.
Are they banned for hunting?
The Aussies were once some pretty tough dudes and now they’re a bunch of sissy ass girl scouts. I should take that back, because I didn’t mean to insult the girl scouts.
Yeah man they’re banned for hunting too, can get calibres over .38 for long range silhouette or CAS only. Gotta shoot a certain number of events per year for each category of pistol you own else it’s confiscation time. Long arms is a similar mess, wikipedia the australian gun laws. That page is accurate.