Yeah, it's also worth knowing that 5 degrees (sounds like a very small number, right?) is over seven metres at a hundred yards, so you'd need to miss the target seven and a half metres high to miss the backstop in that case. Our own requirements are for at least seven degrees of safe cone of fire too as far as I recall. Still, while the number sounds smaller than it is, on a range, my personal rule is that the bolt isn't closed while the rifle is pointing anywhere other than the target board.

The investigation revealed the range was not constructed according to proper standards and there was a serious gap in the line of protection. The place was an accident waiting to happen. The investigators found holes where other bullets had escaped the rifle range prior to the fatality but had not struck anyone. Had it been constructed properly the fatality probably would not have occurred.

In the US for the most part we have outstanding hunter safety training programs, largely staffed by NRA and other volunteers and/or state agency staff. That training and the teaching of my father is where I learned never, ever take a shot unless I had positively identified the target. Equally important, the safe backstop behind the target. That is why I have never have a problem with appropriate training and licensing programs. If done properly they work.