A few days ago I had a conversation with Matt from the Bright Idea Outdoors Weblog. In the course of the conversation, he told me that he'd been showing the Gunslinger to some friends. Matt said the comment he?d gotten most often was that using the Gunslinger looked like a lot of work. I told Matt I?d heard similar things from people when they were first introduced to the product. Matt subsequently wrote a blog post asking if safety could be too much work. It's a great post, and it definitely got me thinking. The result is today's post.

Whenever I speak with people about the Gunslinger, any questions or concerns I hear usually fall into three broad categories. The first is cost. The second is time. The third can generally be boiled down into "nothing will happen to me". Each of these items could, and perhaps will someday, take up an entire post but, for today, I thought I'd try and briefly address each issue.

Issue 1: Cost : There's no getting around the fact that a Gunslinger will cost more than a piece of parachute cord or twine or whatever it is that hunters use. When, however, you balance the cost against what the Gunslinger does and what it can prevent, it seems cheap at twice the price. First, the Gunslinger secures the gun through the entire hunting process, not just when you?re raising and lowering it from the stand. At any time, should the gun (or bow) drop or fall, you have complete control over it. The Gunslinger ensures the gun falls barrel down, and keeps it from hitting the ground. When you factor in the cost of replacing or repairing your gun if it was damaged by impact with the ground and the potential costs you could face if you were injured trying to catch the gun, or by a discharge when the gun hit the ground, and you?ll see the Gunslinger really doesn?t cost much at all.

Issue 2: Time:  Yes, the Gunslinger will take a bit more time to set up than a rope or parachute cord, but the time is a difference of 30 seconds versus a minute or so. Each Gunslinger comes with complete instructions for use. The instructions have diagrams and pictures to make sure you are using your Gunslinger correctly. We also have a video that shows how the Gunslinger works. Using a Gunslinger may involve a bit more work, but it won?t increase your preparation time noticeably, and it could help prevent a much more costly and time consuming accident. Again, when you factor in the hunting time that could be wasted replacing or repairing a damaged gun or recovering from an injury, the small amount of time it takes to set up a Gunslinger doesn?t seem like very much time at all.

Issue 3: It Won't Happen to Me - People carry insurance for a lot of reasons. We have health insurance, and home owners insurance and car insurance, even though odds are our home won?t ever be damaged, we'll never be in a bad car accident and we'll never have a catastrophic health crisis. It's true, you may never drop you gun. It may never be damaged beyond repair when it hits the ground. You may never fall from your stand trying to retrieve a falling gun, and you may never be hit by discharge. Odds are that none of those things will ever happen to you. Despite the odds, the fact remains that these kinds of accidents do happen. We carry insurance to protect ourselves against events that have the potential to cause great damage, both physical and financial, if they do happen. The Gunslinger is simply an inexpensive piece of insurance that helps protect you against hunting accidents.

In the end, the only one who can decide if the Gunslinger is worth your cost and time is you. People roll the dice and take a chance all the time, and sometimes they win. It?s your life, your health and your gun. When you add up the value of all those things, which goes far beyond mere money, the cost of a Gunslinger really doesn?t seem like all that much at all.

Tags: Hunter Safety Hunting Safety Accessories GunTriever