Safety

[Crosshairs]

It seems like we don't talk much about the most important thing about our sport and thats safety. So give us any safety tip you can think of please shear were never to old to learn. 
                           Mike
My tip is always handle a gun as if it were loaded!

[JEBert]

Jeff Cooper's Rules of Gun Safety

I: ALL GUNS ARE ALWAYS LOADED
II: NEVER LET THE MUZZLE COVER ANYTHING YOU ARE NOT WILLING TO DESTROY
III: KEEP YOUR FINGER OFF THE TRIGGER UNTIL YOUR SIGHTS ARE ON THE TARGET
IV: BE SURE OF YOUR TARGET AND WHAT IS BEYOND IT

[hotshot]

Prepare a suitable backstop, thats strong enough to stop the pellet but also absorbent enough to stop ricochets.

[DRAGON64]

Jeff Cooper's Rules of Gun Safety

I: ALL GUNS ARE ALWAYS LOADED
II: NEVER LET THE MUZZLE COVER ANYTHING YOU ARE NOT WILLING TO DESTROY
III: KEEP YOUR FINGER OFF THE TRIGGER UNTIL YOUR SIGHTS ARE ON THE TARGET
IV: BE SURE OF YOUR TARGET AND WHAT IS BEYOND IT

A firearm's safety does not lessen or negate Jeff Cooper's Rules of gun safety... always assume that the safety can and will fail without prior notice... I am speaking from experience.

[Dutch Caliber]

Make sure the gun is unloaded and not under pressure during transport!
It may even be illegal to transport it loaded (like where I live )

[Crosshairs]

Never point a gun at anything you don't intend to shoot.
                            Mike

[breakfastchef]

Never point a gun at anything you don't intend to shoot.
                            Mike

This was the first lesson drilled into me by a friend of my father's shortly after I got my first .22. To this day, it remains in my mind when handling any type of firearm.

[arkmaker †]

Seems you guys covered the bases on a loaded firearm, but since we like to tinker as well as clean them up from time to time, I have one.....

Depresureize to air resovior and unload the gun before disassembly or cleaning. Been there done this on my 1377. It had 1 pump in it for storage and I had the urge to start working on the valve. Dumb ass me  Scared the crap out of myself when I went to take the pump arm off. That gave me the clue to reassemble and shoot out the air in the valve.... So please be careful when you go to mod. I was lucky as there wasn't much pressure, but you HPA, Co2 guys really need to pay attention..........Empty everything first, air, gas, spring tension and ammo!! 

Rich

[Crosshairs]

Alcohol and guns dont mix !
                   Mike

[arkmaker †]

Alcohol and guns dont mix !
                   Mike

Good one!

[eric]

shooting glasses without them everything else really doesn't matter 

[NorthStaR]

shooting glasses without them everything else really doesn't matter 

X2!

To add to discussion:

A protective Backstop should absorb shots rather than deflecting them too.
It 'rubs it in' to miss a shot and have it come back to bite you! 

If shooting at home and not alone, WARN EVERYONE your shooting.
I actually put up a small baricade to stop the "ooops I fogrot" walkout scenario.
Depends on your range setup, mine is a hallway and a room! I also shout out like on a golf course!

Shoot a gun thats power is relative to the distance of target and the target itself.
No point shooting a 30FPE gun at 5m to hit paper! 

Shoot in good lighting, unless your practicing for low light shooting I suppose.

Use pellets that suit your target. Steel tips don't punch paper any better, nor does copper coated.

Take note of how many shots you can get from the 'gun-in-use' to avoid damage or unpredictable behaviour.

MOST IMPORTANT: SHOOT WITHIN YOUR LIMITS! 

Mostly common sense solves 99% of these!     

I'm sure theres much more to consider!

All IMHO! 

[Crosshairs]

Great advice NS and eric   
                       Mike

[Crosshairs]

  This is what im talking about dont let a dumb-ass use your gun. http://youtu.be/tmEatEe4FbQ
                                       Mike

[bdb12586]

Yea that might have hurt a little