By Steve Meyer, for the Redoubt Reporter
In a matter of days we’ll be able to smell hunting season in the air. Now’s the time to prepare, particularly zeroing and practice with your hunting firearms.
For some this is a required chore, and for others it is a formality, having been shooting throughout the year for the sheer pleasure of the activity. Knowing your firearm shoots where you aim it and knowing what your own limitations are, in terms of placing accurate shots at known distances from various positions, is a must if success is your goal. An aspect of this is the importance of making clean killing shots for the sake of the hunted animal. Wounding an animal and having it run off to suffer and die should be unacceptable to everyone who takes to the field.
Zeroing the firearms typically takes place at 100 yards and should be done from a platform that provides a solid rest for the forend and the buttstock. Some are machine rests and solidly lock the firearm into place. These are fine for load testing for absolute accuracy and getting close to zero. But the final zeroing must be done with the firearm able to recoil, as when held by the shooter. For most modern firearms, a zero of 2 to 3 inches high at 100 yards takes advantage of ballistics and allows a center hold out to 250 yards to 300 yards, depending on the cartridge. Check ballistic charts published by most ammunition companies to determine what is best for your cartridge.
A place to do this safely is becoming harder to find with the expansion of human population into areas that were once safe shooting lanes. In the past there have been three gravel pits on the Escape Route and Marathon Road that were used by shooters for practicing and zeroing. These pits were never open to public shooting. They are on private property and the property owners have posted them and made attempts to keep shooters out, with little success. Because of the astonishing amount of litter left behind by shooters and others, these places are being cleaned up and the property owners are going to make a concerted effort to prosecute those who trespass.
Fortunately, there is a relatively inexpensive and easily accessed shooting range locally. The Snow Shoe Gun Club, between Kenai and Soldotna off the Kenai Spur Highway across from Beaver Loop Road, is a club-owned facility with membership open to the public. Membership is $80 per year, which gets a key to the gate and unlimited access. There are shotgun, rifle and handgun ranges that are well set up for each of these shooting activities.
Belaboring the issues of safe firearms handling and use is a constant in the business, and remains the prime reason hunting is still one of the safer outdoor activities in which to engage. Formal target shooting, due to the strict regimen of firearms safety at events, makes it among the least-likely activities at which one would get hurt. So my repeating firearms safety rules here seems appropriate, even if you have heard them before.
- Treat all guns as though they are always loaded. A high percentage of firearms-related negligent discharges are followed by the phrase, “I didn’t think it was loaded.” This is why we insist on treating all firearms as if they are loaded. Don’t “think” it is unloaded. Make sure.
- Never allow the muzzle to cover anything you are not willing to destroy. If one is around firearms long enough, at some point you will make one go off when you didn’t want it to. This is not referred to as an accidental discharge, as it once was. Rather, it is a negligent discharge, meaning you neglected something in the handling of the firearm that caused it to go off when you didn’t want it to.
If you handle firearms with complete muzzle control and never allow the muzzle to cover anything you are not willing to destroy, then when it happens it will at worst be a damage of property that you deemed expendable. No one wants to look up and see directly into the muzzle of a firearm. Why would you ever want to be the person on the other end of that gun?
- Keep your finger off the trigger until the sights are on the target and you have made the decision to shoot. This rule is among the most violated and, to some degree, can probably be blamed on what people see on TV and motion pictures. Fingers are always on the trigger and, inevitably, a first-time shooter, even having been advised, will pick up a gun and immediately put their finger on the trigger.
We have an expression in the firearms business — “Your finger lives on the receiver and only visits the trigger.” Keeping the finger up and away from the trigger, resting on the receiver, until you have made the decision to shoot will alleviate the three things that cause negligent discharges when your finger is on the trigger. They are: postural instability — when you find yourself off-balance and you involuntarily squeeze your grip; startle response — when something surprises you and you involuntarily flex and squeeze your grip; and overflow effect — when you reach out to grab something with your free hand and your other hand involuntarily squeezes its grip. In each of these cases, a finger on the trigger will likely result in the firearms going off.
- Be sure of your target as well as your surroundings. The blaze-orange hunting apparel market has grown tremendously because of people in the field getting excited and shooting at things they have not identified. The use of blaze orange has greatly reduced those incidents of misidentification.
Alaska does not have a blanket, blaze-orange rule for hunters. However, there are some special hunts/areas where it may be required, so consult regulations before going afield. Identifying the target is only the first step. The hunter must also account for the surroundings, particularly what is behind or to the sides of the intended target. Shooting a skylined animal, for example, when you do not know what is beyond the ridge can result in complete penetration of the animal, and the bullet continues on to points unknown.
There have been cases of hunters shooting hunting partners by not knowing they were behind an animal they chose to take. Keep track of your partners and be aware of others that may be afield with you. Every bullet you discharge from a firearm has your name on it, it cannot be called back and no matter what the cause was, you are ultimately responsible for it.
For those interested in firearms safety training or getting started in hunting, there are a couple of hunter education classes scheduled for the local area in August. Contact the Alaska Department of Fish and Game for class dates and schedules.
The Snow Shoe Gun Club and Delta Waterfowl will sponsor an introduction to waterfowling course for women Aug. 21, and an introduction to waterfowling course for youth, ages 9 to 17, on Aug. 28. Youth participants need to first complete a state-approved hunter education course.
Any adults who are versed in firearms handling or waterfowl hunting and would like to help with these classes are welcome to inquire. For more information or to register, you can contact me at 252-0071.
Steve Meyer has been a central peninsula resident since 1971 and is an avid hunter, fisherman and trapper. He can be reached at oldduckhunter@gci.net.
The Mouth of The Kenai 