Range Safety
Club Safety Rules.
In our club we train all new shooters primarily on safety before technique is covered. We have a list of six cardinal rules:1. Never point an airgun at anyone.
This means always carrying air weapons in the clubroom with the action open, and pointing either to the floor, or up to the ceiling.2. Always Prove an air weapon when first picking it up.
That means checking that there is no pellet in the breach or barrel, and ensuring it is not c*cked, by whatever means is best suited for that weapon.3. Only load an air weapon on the firing range.
There is no other time or place at which a pellet would be loaded into the weapon.4. Never handle or touch a weapon whilst people are forward of the firing line.
It should be on the table with the action open. This is because in our club we change target cards manually at the signal of the Range Officer who is responsible for ensuring rule 4 is obeyed.5. Do not load until the Range Officer tells you to do so.
There is a clear verbal order to load and fire by the Range Officer during a detail, and an equally clear order to change targets only after all weapons are seen to be clear.6. When loading keep the weapon pointing down the range.
This is the one that youngsters can be clumsy at, trying to c*ck a heavy spring weapon, but the Range Officer will supervise all shooters to ensure compliance.(Apologies for use of asterisks in the above. Some parental control programs will otherwise think the material is explicit.)