I've been the subject of such a Garda chat recently. To be honest, some of it is common sense and some of it is really more scaremongering. Basic common sense is the best approach here, as Ezri spoke about above. Some technical tricks, like the GPS geotag removal deeks mentioned is useful - but that's mostly for hunters (any photo taken on a range will show you're on a range; given that ranges openly advertise their locations and have to do so for new members - and given that those locations are public domain knowledge via planning applications anyway; well a geotag there isn't going to cause harm).

Personally, I've been "decloaked", so to speak, on the net for over a decade now (I was a PRO with the NTSA originally and at the time, it was necessary - and once you're out there, that's pretty much that). But that doesn't mean you can't be secure - there's fairly few people who actually know where I live (though lots of folks think they know the address, they're out by a ways); we've always had the policy on this site of not posting exact addresses or phone numbers and trying to keep things reasonably fuzzy when you look for the fine details; and most posters here think that people who'd publish a shooter's address would be behaving reprehensibly anyway.

But there's two main things to keep in mind, at least in my opinion after a decade of doing this:

• Physical, real-world common sense should always be the first priority. Forget anonymising your facebook account, if you forget to lock your front door and turn on your house alarm when you leave, then you're basicly after fitting a steel door to a grass hut.
• Our sport will die if we all hide in a dark room and conceal ourselves from view. We need a balance between reasonable common-sense security precautions and the PR needs of our sports. Without visible people in the sport, newbies have no-one to look up to or deeds to aspire to, and without that... well, the average age in the sport when I started was listed in a parlimentary question as being in the late 40s, and it wasn't decreasing. If that never changes, we might as well give up on every court case, every FCP meeting, every dream or hope we have in sport, right here and now, and save ourselves all the time, money and grief.

And lastly, a postscript - there are no secrets in Ireland, not really. Everything comes out sooner or later. It's something to keep in mind when you think about things like this - if your security depends on secrecy, then you have no security.

Sparks wrote: »

Personally, I've been "decloaked", so to speak, on the net for over a decade now.

Not realty helped when you put yourself and Mrs Sparks up here on the wedding video clp:D Two years ago.?

Maybe this goes without saying but when I'm out I always take the bolt out of my rifle and take the barrel off my shotgun and store them in a completely different place. Takes two seconds but if someone were to break in they'd have to do a helluva lot of looking. And why steal a bolt-less or barrel-less gun... If they have the skill or inclination to manufacture either, chances are they don't need to break into my house.

Oh and hey Sparks, long time no see! Can remember my first time shooting, you were supervising me on the old .22! Seems like so long ago...:D

LeonIRL2 wrote: »

Oh and hey Sparks, long time no see! Can remember my first time shooting, you were supervising me on the old .22! Seems like so long ago...:D

It probably was!
Good to see you're still sticking with it!