4th of July Shoot Video

[kalipsocs]

I actually forgot about this video until tonight. This is of my neighbor and me having some fun shooting in West Texas. I wish I would have been better with catching more footage as we shot all the guns in the opening photo, but its still decent. Mostly AK fun. Anyway hope you guys enjoy and if you like and are registered with youtube, rate the vid! Thanks

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kkXrOl4TxFM

[Rokyudai]

looks like you had fun. It's kind of y'all to share.

[shootthesheet]

That is how people get shot by "accident". I did that kind of shooting, without a backstop, when I was young too so know I am not bashing you. I regret doing it now and thank God I did not end up hurting someone. This is a bad place to shoot because you have nothing to stop the rounds. If you shoot at the incorrect angle into the water the bullet will exit the water and continue. Shooting into the ground is no better as the bullet will do the same. I even noticed it was near a road where a car passed by going the direction the guns were being fired.

My suggestion is that you find a place with a good backstop of earth. Never, never, never fire any gun, especially a rifle, without one. If I recall there is a thread about a person getting shot and killed by a .22 being fired in this same manner. For your own good and the good of a possible victim of that carelessness, find a better place to shoot. I don't think you could live with killing someone because you wanted to do some shooting. Have fun but be safe.

[kalipsocs]

That is how people get shot by "accident". I did that kind of shooting, without a backstop, when I was young too so know I am not bashing you. I regret doing it now and thank God I did not end up hurting someone. This is a bad place to shoot because you have nothing to stop the rounds. If you shoot at the incorrect angle into the water the bullet will exit the water and continue. Shooting into the ground is no better as the bullet will do the same. I even noticed it was near a road where a car passed by going the direction the guns were being fired.

My suggestion is that you find a place with a good backstop of earth. Never, never, never fire any gun, especially a rifle, without one. If I recall there is a thread about a person getting shot and killed by a .22 being fired in this same manner. For your own good and the good of a possible victim of that carelessness, find a better place to shoot. I don't think you could live with killing someone because you wanted to do some shooting. Have fun but be safe.

The two areas shown in the video were places all had agreed on. Don't let the vid fool you....the water splashing up was from it being on the edge of the tank....I made SURE that everyone shot into that area of thick mud and not the water for the ricochet reason. That is also why you saw me pause when the car passed. We always hold fire while cars are passing either way. Trust me when I say that I personally made sure that everyone was following the 4 basic rules of firearm safety as well as a handful of others based on the locale as well as my own personal desire not to be shot. We had to chastise some kids after we arrived that were there due to them not having very much respect for guns and being generally unsafe. You see someone firing into the water while I was shooting into the mud, and that was these 2 kids I speak of....believe me there was a LONG talk after that! But the whole point of going out there is to do things we can't do at a gun range (rapid fire, drills, etc). So anyway....I know you are looking out, and I am not saying this defensively because I even noted to the friend in the video that the angles we shot don't look the best from a safety standard. But there was no shooting across roads, no ricochets to note, and 90% of that days shooting was done with about a 10 ft. elevation of dirt behind it (where the man in the UT jersey unloads my fathers AK) which isn't well defined in some of the shots. 2 ex military, 1 LEO, and 4 lifetime shooters there on that day....we were nothing if but safe (minus mentioned kids problem) I promise you

[jimlongley]

I made SURE that everyone shot into that area of thick mud and not the water for the ricochet reason.

Don't fool yourself, that mud is as much or more of a ricochet hazard than the water. A whole bunch of years ago, about 1967, my girlfriend, her father, sister, her boyfriend, and a couple of others were shooting at "targets of opportunity" (beer and soda cans and such) on the edge of my girlfriend's father's man made pond on his very remote farm.

The pond from our angle on the east side was backed by a hill a couple of hundred feet high immeditely on the west shore, so we were confident that we were shooting safely, then someone noticed that every once in a while the "volunteer" wheat on the hillside moved funny when we shot into the mud and water along the edge.

We suspended shooting for a while and wandered up the hill to where the motion had been seen and found some of the straws of wheat cut off and tipped over and further up the slope furrows cut by the ricochets. Now these were probably less than one hindred feet from where our shots were hitting, but it was a pretty good indication that our rounds not only were exiting the pond but they were doing it at a pretty steep angle and carrying a good bit of energy. And those were only the ones we found, and they were scattered across a broad expanse indicating that the directions they were going were pretty random and wide.

[kalipsocs]

Well I won't argue over the internet about our form. This is certainly not the first time for such events, first documented and there were more than usual in attendance. Blatant safety issues were properly addressed, everyone is home safe, and we had fun. FWIW, the .50 BMG mentioned in another post will need a dedicated and more heavy duty backstop/range set-up so future outings and subsequent videos will be from there. Other than that, don't believe everything you see. I know I am not an expert and appreciate you guys looking out, but the last thing I want is a guilty conscience or to be dead and will assure that. That being said, just enjoy the video and call me a dummy if you see someone walking in my line of fire or me looking down the barrel for that jam.....good luck finding that video

[shootthesheet]

It is up to you of course. I just hope you can find some place that is better. Even a small hill or creek bank that you can shoot into would be so much better. Stay safe and have fun.