Why You Should Keep Your Finger Off the Trigger Until Ready to Fire

[JBP]

Was at the range this afternoon waiting for a lane to open up and I observed one of the shooters firing a lever action rifle and seeming to be having a problem chambering new rounds. At this range if you fire sitting at the bench you fire through a four sided foam encased wooden box to reduce the noise level. To make a long story short he was chambering another round with his finger on the trigger & it went through the top of the box, a sandbag that was sitting on top of the box, and into the foam enclosed ceiling just missing one of the cease fire lights. Thank goodness the only thing hurt was the man's feelings at his mistake. He cleaned up all of the sand from the ruptured bag and called it a day. All the range officer could do was shake his head and toss the ruined sandbag,

 

[Hawkeye755]

Too true. I had a friend a number of years ago have a similar "incident". We were out hunting in the woods. we were standing on a frozen creek talking about heading back in. He had a lever action .30-.30 pointed safely up. He lowered in to point at the ground. About ten seconds after he did this his gun discharged putting a hole about an inch away from his foot. Apparently he had forgotten that the hammer was back and put his finger on the trigger when he lowered it. Scared the s#!t out of all of us. Him the most I think.

Important lesson learned.