I can't believe this happened and I'm just in a mess of emotions, I wouldn't expect my wife to break one of the biggest safety rules, yet she did. I might be overreacting, but no I'm not. It should've never happen period.

We just finished a fun round of sporting clays and we made our way back to the club house where she ran inside and returned the safety glasses, so I was left holding two empty SA shotguns with the bolts open, facing forward, and barrels to the sky. There are skeet fields directly in front of the club house, the one directly in front and to the right had nobody on them, next field over to the left had several older gentleman.

My wife comes out very happy, I hand her her shotgun and as her hand wraps around it hits the bolt release and it slams shut *damn you briley!* She immediately panics knowing with a SA the bolt always needs to be open so people know it's unloaded, so without thinking about the other rules she immediately places the stock on her thigh to rack the bolt back. She is very small so she has to do it that way, and by doing so it causes the barrel to face at a 20* angle.

I immediately noticed the barrel is pointing at a group of men * It might have been a little to the side of them, but it wasn't a safe direction period* I grab the barrel to point it to the sky while she racked the bolt. One of the gentlemen were staring at us through the entire process and after, I felt horrible...I think we should've at least apologized, but I was so embarrassed I just wanted to get the hell out of there. The guy/men didn't yell or say anything to us as it happened or when we walked by.

I feel dead inside, now I think I will just trade our SA's in for O/U's so the whole bolt release thing will never happen and the shotgun will always be open, but that doesn't excuse the flagging.

Just needed to vent. Thanks.

Don't beat yourself up. Learn, analyze, and move on wiser and better prepared. Stuff happens, and that's why Jeff Cooper's four rules of gun safety (the tenants upon which almost all gun safety codes are based) are written the way they are. They're beautiful in their simplicity, clarity and (the important bit here...) redundancy.

http://www.donath.org/Rants/TheFourRules/

The point being, human beings make mistakes, which does not excuse making a mistake, but the four rules provide layers of protection because of redundancy. She covered someone with the muzzle of a gun, but it sounds like the two of you had been exercising good awareness of it's action being open and unloaded, and presumably her finger was not on the trigger. Because of the redundancy, nobody was hurt.

In my opinion, I think you already know the best course of action based on this quote below. An over-under may indeed be a wise choice.

The MOST important things to remember about this: 1) gun was not loaded. The gun can’t fire when it’s unloaded. That’s where accidents become tragedies. 2) trigger wasn’t pulled. Even if it had been, see #1. Everyone makes mistakes. Muzzling is bad, don’t get me wrong but with the other boxes checked, even had she stumbled or the gun had slipped off it’s rack it couldn’t have fired. Good that you’re aware and looking for a foolproof solution though.
Thank God for the care you and she took prior that incident.

Thanks guys, we are feeling a bit better now.