What’s behind that target

When I was a young fella my father taught me to “ never, never shoot at something unless you can safely see what’s behind it”. I’ve been watching the ever increasing number of videos of people taking short and long shots at pest birds sitting on power lines, trees, barnes and silos.

How do you make sure there is nothing behind that elevated shot when you pull the trigger without a spotter or something? Especially now with high powered pcp’s pushing out heavier pellets and now slugs. I was just interested to see what precautions people take.

Gary
 
I would say most are pretty lax based upon the knowledge that the pellet or bullet from an airgun is going to be in the dirt inside a few 100 yards on level or mild upward angles.

Steep angles for most common average power air guns seldom will travel 500 yards. Unlike a powder burner bullet which can and will go a mile or more.



Not condoning the lack of safe practices, just stating more a truth on the trajectory profile where it does differ quite a bit from rim fire or center fire guns.
 
When I was a young fella my father taught me to “ never, never shoot at something unless you can safely see what’s behind it”. I’ve been watching the ever increasing number of videos of people taking short and long shots at pest birds sitting on power lines, trees, barnes and silos.

How do you make sure there is nothing behind that elevated shot when you pull the trigger without a spotter or something? Especially now with high powered pcp’s pushing out heavier pellets and now slugs. I was just interested to see what precautions people take.

Gary


^^^ this^^^

Check the max distance on the 25.4gn JSB at 900fps. Somewhere around 600 yards I think. What is the distance for slugs at the same velocity? Be careful.

^^^and this^^^



IMO, Taking pot shots at distant birds in an elevated position with a slug doing 950fps is pure stupidity. Posters on YouTube are more concerned in views received rather than safe ethical hunting.

How hard can it be to get closer to a pigeon, starling or sparrow around grain silos or farm buildings anyway? 



Bb
 
Those silos are not in neighborhoods or cities. Nothing but corn fields as far as the eye can see. IMO it's not an issue most of the time

Exactly.

Or hundreds of acres of empty pasture or woods.

Also, Google Earth is my friend.

bucketboy

IMO, Taking pot shots at distant birds in an elevated position with a slug doing 950fps is pure stupidity. Posters on YouTube are more concerned in views received rather than safe ethical hunting.

Is there a difference between a guy who misses a bird at 70yds with pellet and me missing at 170yds with a slug? Were they both pot shots?

I can assure you that my long range shots are as calculated and steadied as I can make them.

I guess I'm about to go out and practice some more stupidity.

🙄




 
I grew up in an area much like the farm lands often shown. Could shoot at anything anytime at any position and not disturb anyone ever. I still have room to shoot now but could not even consider such inclined shooting or even not being aware of pass through. This issues seems entirely location related. Probably not a real concern for those locations shown.
 
Thank you to those who responded. From the responses this question received it appears that the main precaution that people are taking is to rely on open space and the knowledge that maybe no one is behind the target because it’s on a farm or in the bush or the pellet or slug wouldn’t go that far.

I agree that it probably isn’t a concern in some places but I personally wouldn’t take the risk if I couldn’t 100% guarantee that no one was behind my target when I pulled the trigger. I suppose people have to assess each situation prior to committing to the shot.. Thanks 

Gary
 
If your intention was to legally shoot a pigeon or bird up in the tree and you missed once or twice and that pellet or slug so happened to land on that person causing injury, you might run into some legal issues. 

If that person had every right to be where he/she was at because you/we assumed that nobody was there, one might face charges of reckless conduct and aggravated assault depending on your state and if the Attorney General or District Attorney is willing to prosecute.

It might be a stretch but I'm also wondering if there are any case laws on this.

I mean no offense to anyone. Just saying.
 
Best practice is to have the old Mother in Law standing behind the target before you take the shot. 

Your welcome 

Christian

So, some STUPID, dumb witted Moron, with ZERO sense of humor, and the ability to laugh at a very old sarcastic joke actually had the nads to give me a negative over this post without signing it. 

Jokes about mother in laws have been in place for thousands of years, get a life and grow a pair. 
 
Best practice is to have the old Mother in Law standing behind the target before you take the shot. 

Your welcome 

Christian

So, some STUPID, dumb witted Moron, with ZERO sense of humor, and the ability to laugh at a very old sarcastic joke actually had the nads to give me a negative over this post without signing it. 

Jokes about mother in laws have been in place for thousands of years, get a life and grow a pair.

Good one as we all know it was a JOKE took care of ya buddy +1
 
I can see both sides of this argument but my personal opinion is we are used to the pellet being safer but are underestimating a bit too much the slugs. Your basically shooting a 22 lr with a lot of these setups, I do feel some are too relaxed with shooting them in some of these videos.

I hate when people tell others there business so I say it’s best left up to the person pulling the trigger. I just hope we as a community use good judgment and try to understand the capabilities of the slugs.