Lasiocarpa
Active member
Striker down on an empty chamber for me, at least until I think I’m going to have a shot at a critter. Rarely even use the safety.
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Does that same risk assessment apply to shotguns and handguns, in your opinion? Several posters have stated that they treat shotguns different than rifles.Negative outcome from not having a round chambered in a bolt action rifle while moving: missed shot opportunity
Negative outcome from having a round chambered in a bolt action rifle while moving: negligent discharge +/- injury/death, with injury/death risk increasing if it’s multiple people in the field and muzzle flagging is an issue
That’s the risk assessment for me.
Come on now what?Come on now..
Number of big game animals I would have killed but didn’t because I had to take the time to chamber a round: several. Would be dozens except for the fact that I usually remember to chamber one before I start hunting.Number of people who'd still be alive if their hunting party had applied the empty chamber rule: more than zero
Number of big game animals I would have killed but didn't because I had to take the time to chamber a round: zero
Safety is more important than an animal, on a rare occasion, slipping away from hearing a round being chambered.
I can't recall that ever happening though.
I don’t hunt with a shotgun so I can’t speak to that. Pistol is loaded and holstered. Negligent discharge risk in a quality holster in a modern semiauto is very low in my assessment, vs the need to get bullets in a charging grizz.Does that same risk assessment apply to shotguns and handguns, in your opinion? Several posters have stated that they treat shotguns different than rifles.
If you kept your chamber empty while duck hunting you have no chancePurely the game I’m hunting. No way to chamber a semi-auto shotgun as a bird is flushing. Or chamber a shell as ducks are locking into the decoys.
You must be using one of those double drum magazines!Come on now what?
126 deer (coues, whitetail, mule deer, sitka blacktail), 80 elk, 79 pronghorn, 5 bears, 4 wild sheep, 3 moose, 1 oryx, 1 muskox, 1 mountain lion, and 1 mountain goat.
Whatever that adds up to...a few hundred I reckon.
Statistics please. Here in MI it's, not identifying the target, and what's beyond it, thats what the local DNR officers who were at the hunters safety classes mentioned. I don't recall a single accident that wouldn't have happened carrying without a round in the chamber, that I know of locally.The vast majority of hunting accidents wouldn't have occurred if the hunters kept the chamber empty until they were ready to shoot, something to consider.
With shotguns, if it is down in camp the double is broken open, the pump is slide openI carried hot my whole life until a couple of years ago I watched @Big Fin video where he explains why everyone on his crew carries empty, the safety reasons, and how easy and quick it is to chamber a round when you are ready to shoot. I carry hot in far fewer situations now. Mostly for slowly approaching a wounded animal for a follow up shot if it jumps up, or if I am stationary in ambush.
Close-quarter ambush situations, which are very common where I hunt in the Midwest, it is pretty impractical to rack a round when the animal pops out 25 or so yards away and expect it won’t spook. Out west it’s a completely different circumstance.
Carrying empty has yet to cost me a shot I wish I could have taken more quickly. It also helps me exercise more restraint on choosing when to shoot.
Years ago I closed the chamber on a Mossberg 500 and it discharged, safety was on. Another time when pass-shooting waterfowl I had a teen hold my gun while I went to pick up a bird. He was an experienced hunter; I did not imagine there was any problem, except a short moment later more birds flew in tight over us, the kid got excited watching them, fumbled the unfamiliar gun, managed to slip the safety off and pull the trigger, gun went off in the air, but over my head. If he’d shot me I’d likely never know any different, being dead, but it would have ruined the kid’s life.
This thread has me seriously thinking about switching to an o/u for upland hunting. My hunting mentor always carried one broke open until his dogs went on point, for safety. Even surprise flushes he could close the action and shoot extremely fast…faster than I could with the action already closed.
What weapons were those? This whole discussion aside, those are defective firearms that no one should be using at all, regardless of what condition they're carried in.I carry empty. Treat it like it's loaded. I've never missed a shot opportunity because I had to cycle a gun. I've been around a couple accidental discharges in my life. Forget that! Why risk it.
One was literally he picked it up to check it and move it and it went off. I WATCHED it happen. Finger nowhere near the trigger. One hand on the forgrip the other all the way on the buttstock. About 10 inches off the table BOOM! His grandpa kept it loaded 24/7 CaUsE If ThErE AiNt OnE In ThE ChAmBeR It'S UsLeSs! But be careful kids... it's touchy apparently.
The second was when I loaded to shoot and decided not to. I grabbed the bolt to unload it. BOOM! Scared the shit out of me. Nobody believes you that you didn't touch the trigger. Butt stock on my hip. Left hand on the forgrip. Short sleeves. I replaced the trigger and bolt assembly after. They looked fine but yet again, why risk it.