Double D, the camera man is way over behind me and to my left. At no time is a loaded gun ever close to pointing at him. Aware of how lite encore triggers can be, the gun when loaded is pointed to my right. However you are right, everyone should treat any gun as loaded, even if you know it is not loaded. It is a good practice. Thanks for the comment. I weighed the gun on a very accurate scale and found the 600 nitro with scope to weigh 5.78 lbs. Lighter than the 7 1/2 pounds that Bob thought it weighed. Recoil comes out to 194 ft.lbs, at 46 ft/sec.= ALOT !!