Getting error when I Send a message to the RaycastHit object

Question

I have created a shooting game, here when I am shooting I have a c# script for damage for enemies.I have Used Raycast to Shoot enemies.if the RaycastHit becomes an enemy, it will be deducted it's health.It works properly.But the thing is, If I shoot objects except enemies it causes an error. I have provided some details about that.this is the script,

public class DamageSMG : MonoBehaviour
{
    public int DamageAmount = 5;
    public float TargetDistance;
    public float AllowedRange = 50;
    public RaycastHit Shot;
    public int Firing;
    void Update()
    {
        if(Input.GetButton("Fire1")){
            if (Physics.Raycast(transform.position, transform.TransformDirection(Vector3.forward),out Shot))
            {
                TargetDistance = Shot.distance;
                if (TargetDistance < AllowedRange)
                {
                    if (Firing == 0)
                    {
                        Deduct();
                    }
                }
            }
        }
    }
    public void Deduct()
    {
        Firing = 1;
        Shot.transform.SendMessage("DeductPoints", DamageAmount);
        StartCoroutine(Wait());

    }
    IEnumerator Wait()
    {
        yield return new WaitForSeconds(0.1f);
        Firing = 0;
    }
}

I am using an machine gun.therefore I have created Script to fire coutinously with 0.1sec break.When I press Fire1 button, The RayCastHit Object is received a message where the method called DeductPoints with the DamageAmount.As this Script my enemies are deduct point 5 by 5 every hit.Then Destroy the object.The Enemy script is this.

using System.Collections;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using UnityEngine;

public class EnemyScript : MonoBehaviour
{
    public int EnemyHealth = 20;
    void DeductPoints(int DamageAmount)
    {
        EnemyHealth -= DamageAmount;
    }

    // Update is called once per frame
    void Update()
    {
        if (EnemyHealth <= 0)
        {
            Destroy(gameObject);
            GlobalScore.GlobalScorecount += 1;
        }

    }

}

But my problem is when I shoot objects except Enemies(Ex: walls),The console gives an error.The error is like this SendMessage DeductPoints has no receiver How can I solve this error or is there any other way of Deducting enemy health with raycast? I can play the game with this error in UnityEngine.but it is not possible to Build the game.Please help me to Solve this..

Answer 1

Have you considered making DeductPoints public, then calling it directly like so:

public void Deduct()
{
    Firing = 1;
    var enemy = Shot.transform.GetComponent<EnemyScript>();
    if(enemy == null)
        return; // Not an enemy! Abort!

    enemy.DeductPoints(DamageAmount);
    StartCoroutine(Wait());
}

This has a number of advantages: calling the method directly saves you the reflection cost of searching for a method called "DeductPoints" on every component of the hit object. It allows you to send more than one argument if you need (like a damage type, or damage-dealer reference), and receive a return value about the result. And it's visible to the IDE and compiler so they can do things like compile-time type checking, or refactoring to rename the method and all references to it automatically.