Stix wrote:The rules in my car are the person behind the rifle audibly volunteers the chamber empty & makes it clear they physically check too...& thats after every encounter/near encounter/car stop/bladder emptying stop/can swap-out/munchies grab/gutting session stop etc...if they are a bit too slow to it, someone else asks & no one is offended, or accidentally shot.
I always make it known im empty every stop if in someone elses car...!
Once i didnt volunteer the rifle safe on purpose when spotlighting in my car & i gave my shooting partner (a young lad) a bit of semi-funny but serious lip for not pulling me up on it...!!
I told him dont be shy because the gun goes off its final...every now & then id randomly ask him if i had one in the chamber to keep him on his toes & by the end of the night he was on the ball. ..he feels comfortable in doing it now with me which is a good thing.
I like keeping keen young learning guys on the ball like that while spotlighting..its dark so they cant see & have to rely on other senses to be aware....they seem to soon get a sense of awareness of the state of the rifle...after a while ill ask them where the bitumen road is, or if the farm house is behind where they/or me are about to take a shot...that usually pulls the genuine guys up a bit & makes them realise there is much more to spotlighting than just hoot'n n toot'n...after just a couple of trips out it starts to become second nature to them.
Your doing the right thing Stix, I to do the same sorts of things, I also talk my way through the shot so to speak, ie I let the other person with me know I've checked the background as I'm looking through the scope at the target to make sure there is no stock etc behind my target and I also let them know when I'm about to take the shot - all good habits to get into I reckon, saves having to deal with a potential life-threatening situation in the end so worth doing.