Tips on Skeet Target Shooting Safety

Video Transcript

"Hi, my name is Don Snyder, Executive Director of the National Skeet Shooting Association providing some information on skeet shooting on behalf of Expert Village. One of the things we want to talk to in addition is safety. Safety is extremely important in and around firearms. And one of the things that we want to talk about is, primarily first when you're participating in the game of skeet shooting, or for that matter, shooting a shotgun in any endeavor, you must wear eye protection. Eye protection is extremely important to protect your eyes. One of the other things that's absolutely mandatory is hearing protection, and you can have any types of hearing protection. The foamy earplugs are very, very good, you probably also have seen the headset type of hearing protection are also very, very good. But hearing protection is very, very important as well as the eye protection. Firearm safety is also extremely important. And one of the things that we want to show you, this is a semi-automatic shotgun used extensively in skeet shooting, and one of the things that you always want to be sure of is that your muzzle, what we affectionately call the "business end of the shotgun", is pointed in a safe direction. Never point it at anyone, always point it down range. The other part is that the action is always open, so that you can see that it is not loaded. One of the other types of shotguns is a fixed action shotgun, basically there are two types. There's an over and under type of shotgun like shown here, or a side by side fixed action, and in some cases there is a single shot, you don't use that in competitive but you can use it for shooting to hone your skills for hunting on a skeet field. But basically this gun, again, the business end, the muzzle end of the shotgun needs to be kept pointed in a safe direction and the action is always open, always open until you are ready to shoot. Those are two types of shotguns. The other type of shotgun is a pump shotgun, and basically the same thing. The business end of the shotgun, the muzzle end, is always pointed in a safe direction, and the bolt is through the rear indicating that it is unloaded. "