Big Man Guns
The Four Rules, and Why They Are Not Optional
Every handling habit worth having comes out of four sentences. Learn these before anything else.
- Safety
- Fundamentals
Everything that follows on this site assumes these four rules. They are not a formality, and they are not aimed only at firearms — they are the whole of safe handling, and an airgun in a bedroom teaches exactly the same habits as a rifle on a range.
The four
- Treat every gun as loaded until you have personally checked it.
- Never point it at anything you are not willing to destroy.
- Keep your finger off the trigger until your sights are on the target.
- Be certain of what is behind your target.
Why they work
Each rule covers a different failure. The first stops the accident you did not expect; the second stops the one that happens while you are distracted; the third stops the one that happens while you are startled. The fourth stops the one that happens fifty metres away, where you are not.
Habit is what you fall back on when you are tired, hurried or showing off. Those are the three conditions accidents live in.
Turning them into habit
Rules learned by reading fade. Rules learned by repetition do not. Unload before you put a piece away, every time, even when you know it is already empty — the point is not this time, it is the thousandth time.
If you shoot with someone who shoots with someone who skips a rule, say so. That is not rudeness; it is the only thing that keeps a range safe.