got into a little confrontation on my vacation

[bsmith918]

Lemme get this straight - you were shooting a centerfire out to the water on a public/navigable lake? You're lucky you did NOT get arrested, and/or chewed out more by more people, if that's the case. If that's what you were doing, I would have done the same or worse. You ever heard of a ricochet? Just MO. I was once young (meaning under 25) and would have done the same thing at one point, but we all can and must learn when we are doing something stupid - somehow; sorry.

P.S. You did a great job and handled it correctly, once the confrontation started. Just next time, do one even better and don't do the stupid thing that caused the confrontation. Use an earth backstop / burm which is located on your private land, or don't shoot. It's that simple.

Good point. If this was in fact on a navigable lake, I might tend to change my opinion to that of the doctors. If you were shooting on a small flood control lake/pond with no access by anyone else and a very densely wooded area surrounding area, you were ok. It's never a good idea to shoot at water anyway. Which type of waterway was this?

 

[coythtr]

Id climb the fence and proceed to wear his A*# out.

 

[tm8634]

with your family being involved you did good S893...

 

[HMFIC]

Sounds like the guy might have been part of the new Lake Activists Responsibly Demonstrating And Shooting Safety (LARDASS).

Make him show you his badge and ensure he doesn't have a pocketful of french fries.

 

[CASTRATE]

Shooting over a navigable waterway is illegal in most if not all states. Shouldn't be shooting at water anyway.

a friend of mine got hit in the back by a 22 mag that ricocheted off the water. he had the bullet just under the skin for several years, but finally decided to get it removed

 

[larkinmusic]

Is this the lake? http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&rlz=&q=lake+conway+arkansas&um=1&ie=UTF-8&hq=&hnear=Lake+Conway&gl=us&ei=2quzTM_MJIvOngfzjIiUBg&sa=X&oi=geocode_result&ct=image&resnum=1&ved=0CBcQ8gEwAA



I don't think shooting across this lake is very smart. There are a lot of house around it.

 

[jbarnett]

I think you handled it correctly. Probably better than most would have.

 

[dennishoddy]

Shooting over a navigable waterway is illegal in most if not all states. Shouldn't be shooting at water anyway.

This was my first thought when I read the post.
It doesn't even have to be a navigable waterway. Any Corps of Engineer lake has regs about not shooting at water.

 

[ProBusiness]

shooting 'at a long in the lake'. Not a good idea. If i lived around there I would of asked you to stop. You have no control where that bullet might end up, it is not like shooting into dirt. You were being irresponsible in my opinion.

Rules of safe gun handling -
1. always keep your gun unloaded until you are ready to shoot
2. always keep your gun pointed in a safe direction
3. always keep your finger off of the triger until you are ready to shoot
4. always know what is behind what you are shooting at
5. always treat a gun as if it were loaded until you verify otherwise

 

[71buickfreak]

There is a little pond I usually shoot at. I have been known to shoot into it. Never really thought about the richocet thing, only recently read about that. Last time I was out I was shooting some .22 and .223. had a .223 skip about 6 times and pinged some scrap metal. about 30 yards away. probably won't shoot into water like that anymore. I can see where something might get scary.