Gun Safety Rule 1: Never point a firearm at anything you do not wish to destroy. The best way to determine if it is something you may wish to destroy is to identify it with your binoculars. I, too, have been scoped. I don't like it! It got so bad that I no longer felt safe hunting and gave it up for a while until I found a better location to hunt. My ingrained reaction to someone aiming a gun at me is to shoot the dumb SOB before he can get a shot off at me. Rifle scopes are for accurate shot placement. Binoculars are for target identification. Never confuse the two.

It's easy to say never, but I feel sure that most deer hunters in thick woods use their scopes to check out a group of deer, and are ready to put the crosshairs on the one with the best rack.

If I know for 100% sure it is a deer or elk, I might raise my scoped rifle, but I usually try to judge whether it is legal, etc., with binocs before I raise a rifle. Once I raise my rifle, I have already decided to shoot, given a clear shot. I nver glass motion or sound with a rifle scope. we have all heard the stories of "I didn't see anything, but I got off a couple of sound shots"....

Even if I am 100% sure it is a deer I still check with my binos to make 110% sure it is a deer that I want to shoot before I raise my gun. If it is a deer and it runs off before I get my rifle raised and get a shot so be it. The world won't come to an end and I will live till tomorrow and I won't be any less of a hunter because I didn't kill a deer that day. Until I study a deer with my binos I'm not sure that I want to kill that particular animal so I don't point my firearm at something that I don't want to kill.

I'm with Sourdough... I don't use my scope for scanning the brush or unrecognized objects. I consider the end of my barrel to be a mighty dangerous thing and I never point it at anything other than positively identified game. It scares me to think that people could (and have) pointed their rifles at other hunters this way.

Never. That's what binoculars are for. That "animal" could be a person, and I know I'd sure feel a certain way if I was looking through my binoculars at a guy pointing a gun at me, regardless of whether he was "scoping" me or not.

Yes, an extremely thin line, haste is not a good reason to err against caution.

I'm with most of the guys there. If it's an animal, I'll look it over with the scope. If it's unidentified movement, I won't. In fact, I probably don't want binoculars up, either, because of how thick the brush will tend to be.

NO that is very dangerous i always carry around a pair binoculars.
They have suited me well-Nikon

a red laser pointer shined back at the perp would make him take the scope off you, but who carries one of those in the field?

What a rookie question,,,

My gun is ALWAYS on safety and I am CONSTANTLY checking it. My finger is NEVER anywher close to the trigger when I am scoping the hills. That gun is 100% safe no matter where it is pointed. I have about as much chance of shooting someone accidentally as getting hit by lightning in my church on New Years Day. Usually about the same probability of me even seeing anyone else where I hunt. Most other folks aren't nuts enough to hunt in -30 C. And that's why I choose to hunt in those conditions and in ridiculously remote locations. I DON'T WANT TO SEE ANYONE ELSE.

RES is right. This is a rookie question. Rookies SHOULD NOT be scoping the hillsides because they shouldn't trust themselves yet to safely know what they are doing. But I am not a rookie. I drive with my seatbelt on because I never know when an accident might occur. However, I am comfortable scoping for game because I KNOW an accident IS NOT going to occur!

Several years ago I saw another hunter sitting alone on a ridge five hundred yards awy. I had never seen another hunter in that godforsaken place. Watched him for a bit and he didn't move so I scoped him to make sure he was okay. To my surprise I could see he was scoping me. Ran into the guy (not literally) when driving out that night. We talked about the hunting for a bit and then I sort of apologised for scoping him and explained why. He chuckled and apologised for not thinking of that excuse first. It was a great non-rookie moment.

If I raise my rifle I'm getting ready to shoot something, not figure out what it is.
OH, I gotta go with Sarge on this one. If you say it's OK some kid without your experience is going to do it. We all owe it to each other to maintain the highest, not just a high level of safety in the woods.

i do most of the time, if i see a deer and it is still dark i use the scope to see any horns

if i cant tell what is with the naked eye ..im sure as hell not going to scope it

By the way, non-residents cannot buy an Ontario non-resident hunting license of any sort (including bird or small game) without showing a valid hunting license from their place of residence. Not only that, they must be willing to GIVE THAT LICENSE UP so it can be sent in to MNR. Not just a copy but the original thing! It's not much but at least some effort to ensure that non-residents have SOME hunting background. To obtain a resident hunting license is quite an ordeal. The course is the most extensive I have heard of and the final exam is not easy to pass!

You're right, huntnow. And if I took up still hunting I'd surely find binocs more useful. They just don't work for the kind of big game hunting I have done during my life. That was the point. No disrespect intended for those who choose to still hunt. I consider myself very, very lucky to have lived the extreme pursuit hunting life. I wish everyone else could be as lucky but reality is what it is. As you said, it's just not feasible for everyone.

Well, I guess if it was such an insanely unsafe practice a lot of folks would be getting accidentally shot as a result of scoping. In my lifetime I have NEVER heard of a single incident where that happened. Not one! And I can assure you there are a LOT of folks in the mountains and plains of Montana and Alaska who choose to scope rather than fiddle with binocs, especially in cold weather. I see hunters doing it all the time. Never thought anything of it. Everyone I grew up hunting with never hesitated to scope a suspected target. But then again none of us ever saw a suspected target wearing red or hunter orange. And we were all taught to scope safely with hand completely away from the trigger guard. I have never seen anyone scoping who wasn't holding the pistol grip with all five fingers. And why shouldn't we? We're using the scope, not the gun. You know, it would be tons more safe if we all had to carry around unloaded guns while walking in the field but I doubt anybody on here is going to go to that extreme. Yet, that's when most of the accidents occur! What's all this fuss about hypothetically "dangerous" situations that never seem to produce any injuries?

No, I don't want anyone pointing a dangerous loaded gun at me unnecessarily. But if I'm dressed properly that's just not going to happen. If somehow I happened to wander out into view of someone who is scoping a hillside within dangerous range, I expect he/she would have his her gun on safe and would drop it immediately. I guess there is a remote possibility that some scoper might have an epileptic seizure and accidentally pull the trigger at the exact moment I happened to instantaneously step out of nowhere in all my glo-orange glory right into the middle of their crosshairs. However, I think there's a greater probability that I'll be crowned Miss America ten years from now when my few remaining inherent good looks and boundless charm will have ALL disappeared into a bottomless sack of wrinkles and crankiness. What I'm trying to say is I wouldn't worry about it if someone scoped me inadvertantly. The chances that they would shoot me are nill and the accident statistics seem to bear that out. I might be irked if someone continued to scope me within a range that is dangerous. Anyone who needs to know "what's going on over there" can pick up the phone or write a letter. Don't point your gun at me in range and on purpose simply cause you're nosey. If you're a mile away, you can scope me all you want, nosey or not. I have better things to do than get upset about a situation that couldn't possibly be dangerous.

I don't advocate scoping. But I don't condemn it either. I do it myself and I do it safely. My dad taught me how to use my scope without a remote possibility of endangering myself or anyone else. He taught me common sense.

I think youre just being obstinate at this point Ontario. "Almost certainly" works most of the time, except when it doesn't. It's a bad practice, no matter how sure you think you are. Dangerous things are fine when necessary, when we have no other alternatives; this is just hunting.

bruisedsausage,
You are saying what I have been preaching for over 40 years in my classes to my students and to my hunting partners and to anyone else who will listen to me. I have seen too many lives ruined, both the victim and the shooter, and they ALL could have been prevented with a second look or better and safer firearm handling. A lot of them told me they thought that it couldn't happen to them it always happened to someone else. Sometimes we think it may be inconvient to practice safe firearm handling or to take that second look but it is also inconvient to be confined to a wheelchair or bed or have someone's death on our mind. Don't worry about sparking outrage maybe it will get everyone thinking about what they are doing while hunting and how they can do it safer.

dbramley,
You asked the question on how do we calm people down so they aren't so trigger happy to positivly identify their target first. The answer is simple. Positivly identify the target with a pair of binos first , take a deep breath and then pick up your rifle and shoot the animal. I don't know why people have a problem with using binos to identifing their target first before pointing their rifle at it. Even in sniper training the spotter identifies the target first before the sniper takes it out or most of the time that is the way it happens and I don't think that our life depends on how quick we kill a game animal unless we are shooting elephants or cape buffalo at close ranges and then ID isn't a problem. As far as I am concerned one of the most important pieces of hunting equipment is a quality pair of binos.