Hunting · 9 min
Firearms and hunter safety
Why this matters
'Firearms' and 'hunting safety' are two of the five named subjects, and they are the two where a guide's failure is unrecoverable. You are responsible for people carrying loaded firearms in your company, some of whom you met that morning.
By the end of this lesson you will be able to
- State the primary rules of firearm safety and apply them to a guided hunt
- Define and manage a zone of fire for a party
- Manage the hazards that actually injure hunters, above all tree stands
The primary rules
- Treat every firearm as if it is loaded. Always, including the one you just checked
- Control the muzzle. Point it in a safe direction at all times, and know where "safe" is in the terrain you are standing in
- Finger off the trigger and outside the guard until the sights are on the target and you have decided to shoot
- Be sure of your target and what is beyond it. The one that kills people. A bullet that misses, or passes through, keeps going
Add for guided work: identify positively before the gun comes up, never use a riflescope to identify anything, and unload before crossing an obstacle, entering a vehicle or a blind, or handing the firearm to anyone.
Zones of fire
A zone of fire is the arc a hunter may safely shoot into, and for a party moving together it is assigned before you set off.
- Walking abreast, each hunter takes roughly a 45-degree arc directly in front of them, and never swings on a bird or animal that crosses into a neighbour's zone
- Zones do not overlap, and nobody shoots at ground level toward another hunter, ever
- In a blind or a boat, seats and arcs are assigned before loading, and everyone stays seated
- Announce and confirm: "you take right, I take left". Silence is not agreement
- The classic fatal scenario is swinging on a low crossing bird. Discipline about it is the guide's job and it is the thing to brief hardest
Blaze orange and pink
When hunting deer or bear with a firearm, New York requires a minimum of 250 square inches of solid fluorescent orange or fluorescent pink worn above the waist and visible from all directions, or a patterned garment at least half orange or pink, or a hat with at least half of it in those colours visible from all directions. There are exceptions in the current guide; read them rather than assume them.
Professionally, wear it and require it on every guided hunt regardless. It costs nothing and there is no version of a hunting accident you would rather have had.
Tree stands, the actual leading cause of injury
More hunters are hurt falling from stands than by firearms.
- A full-body harness, worn and attached, from the moment your feet leave the ground until they are back on it. A lifeline lets you stay connected during the climb, which is when most falls happen
- Inspect the stand and the straps every season. Straps rot in the weather and a stand left up all year is a stand you cannot trust
- Three points of contact climbing. Never climb with a firearm or bow in hand: haul it up unloaded on a rope once you are secured
- Tell somebody where the stand is and when you will be down
- Carry a knife or a strap cutter within reach in case you end up suspended, and know that suspension trauma is a real and fast danger
The rest of the safety picture
- Hearing and eyes. Muzzle blast damages hearing permanently. Electronic muffs let you hear the woods and cut the shot
- Cold and wet. Sitting still in November is the most efficient hypothermia machine in hunting. Unit 7 applies, and it applies to the client sitting quietly forty yards away who has stopped saying anything
- Alcohol. Never, at any point, in any quantity, on a day involving firearms. Make it a written condition of booking
- Cardiac events. Middle-aged, unfit, cold, excited, dragging a deer uphill. Know your evacuation plan before the shot, not after
From the field
Two clients walking a hedgerow for pheasant. Before you start you stop, point, and assign: he takes everything right of the hedge, she takes everything left, neither swings across the line, and nobody shoots low. Then a bird crosses low and left, and the client on the right does not shoot. That briefing is the whole reason.
This lesson is part of the NYS Licensed Guide Exam course. Open it in the course to answer the retrieval checks that go with it, track what you have read, and quiz the whole unit. Lessons, quizzes and the glossary are free.