Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game Poll: Do you hunt with a round in the chamber?

I am the same well said guys we always unload for the same reasons but once we step into the woods we have a chambered round.

If I am hunting yes.
If I am in transit to the place I am hunting, no.

Both scenarios can involve being dressed for the occasion, being armed and being in the field, they are not the same.

AGW

I hunt empty chamber.

I won't be hunting with you Jeff.

I always hunt empty. Where I hunt the terrain is typically steep and treacherous and a round in the chamber is a bad accident waiting to happen. It only takes one fall to kill yourself with an accidental discharge.

15 years ago I was hunting Caribou near Ungava Bay and the week prior to our arrival in camp a guy was killed a few miles from camp by an accidental discharge. He was hunting with his buddy and he stumbled into a thicket of some sort and the branches in the thicket tripped the trigger and the gun went off. The guy shot himself in the upper thigh with a 7mm mag and he bled to death because he mangled his femoral artery. His buddy tried to stop the bleeding, but it was a lost cause. Let�s just say everybody in camp was a total mess when we arrived for our hunt. I will never forget the look on those people�s faces!!! After that incident and I have never carried hot since. To each their own, but unless I am possibly the prey, I never carry hot.

You start you post with



Then post.



So you don't "always" hunt empty?

Never hunted in Africa and I don't think I can afford a brown bear hunt. Therefore, it is fair to say I NEVER carry hot. Only time it makes sense to me is if you are chasing something wounded that can eat you or kill you. I don't put elk in that catagory.

So you don't hunt with a round in the chamber,but would do so if you were to hunt dangerous game?Personally,I alway have a round in the chamber when cleaning game in grizzly country,or if I have to leave some of the animal and come back later to pack the rest of it out.

SJ,

You are seriously beginning to look like a complete moron.

What Poot is saying (and it doesn't take a genius to figure it out, despite the fact that you don't get it) is that if the risk of dying from carrying cold outweighs the risk of dying from carrying hot, it probably makes sense to carry hot.

Likewise, while I think it a foolish endeavor to carry hot while hunting, I would never suggest that our buys in Iraq and Afghanistan not carry hot, since there is a real possibility that a split second delay could cost them their lives.

Exactly what I was getting at.I am surprised that you caught on.

So have you decided what the definition of an AD is yet?Since you avoided responding to my other post,perhaps I will repost it here so you can point out why you feel that my definition of an AD is incorrect.

Where are you going with this? Let me try to make this really clear because I am obviously doing a poor job of making my point. The only time I would �even� consider hunting hot is if I was tracking wounded game that is highly dangerous (Cape buffalo, lion, brown bear, etc.). That said, the chances of me going on a brown bear hunt or killing a cape buffalo are pretty slim, therefore, I think it is fair to say I don�t ever run hot.

I have family in Alaska and I spend a fair bit of time in brown bear and grizzly country and I do not carry hot, ever!! I hunt elk in grizzly country in Wyoming every few years and I don�t carry hot, ever!! So what part of that don�t you get????

So if you don't carry hot would you hunt birds with the gun open and when one flushes you load two shells and close the action, shoulder the shotgun and shoot? Or are you saying that game that requires a rapid shot can't be hunted safely? (The VP aside)

I understood you perfectly.Just making the point that given the right circumstances(in your case a wounded and dangerous animal)most people would carry a round in the chamber while hunting.And until you recover the animal you would still be hunting.

____________________________________________________________
_ That sort of sums it up for me..
There's a difference between hiking, trekking, climbing to get into where you will hunt and ........hunting.

When hunting I hardly move perceptably by human terms..know where my next foot is going to be placed, work slow and am ready.
I am not busting thickets where I cannot see anything including my feet in front of me where there is a risk of snakking the rifle or myself..
I don't fall down, don't poop my pants when hunting or jam my rifle muzzle into the mud because I lost footing.
IF the going requires it, the rifle is slung, perhaps unloaded, handed to another ( IF anyone is even along with me) OR I figger out a better route.
More worried about breaking an ankle than shooting myself or another.

I DO wonder that some may take the 'hunting cold' position for safety because they realize they:

Are not in good condition nor agile ..
Are overweight, clumsy..

Hungover..( God forbid but it happens)

That then is a good precaution for such folks..Jim

I hunt em with a sling shot......................

You just describded me to a T I am a fat ass that rides an ATV all day long and I only get off unless I run out of Twinkies............

I think you have it backwards, it is the folks that hike their asses off in steep terrain and go into hell holes looking for game that hunt cold. The possiblity of taking a spill is higher in those circumstances, therefore, it seems more logical to hunt cold. Thats my take anyway.

Poot,
Now I know you are a hunter..tho in different country..and as I have said on this and similar posts:
YOU hunt knowing your own limitations, physical condition, terrain, how fast you need to move etc...so you are safe and come back in one piece.
IF ya need a takedown rifle stowed in the backpack, go for it.

When a hunter hikes his arse off in steep terrain he ain't hunting..unless maybe for goats or sheep.:)

He's GETTING to where he's gonna hunt and the rifle is handled alot differently..Slung up, unloaded, on safe, even laid down at times... whatever..
When you need one or both hands and arms to negotiate the country..the rifle gets slung up and safe.

I hunt like I hunted men and lions and bears and like I still can hunt with a bow.

Slow and deliberate..not like I was busting my arse..

IF I am humping into where I want to hunt( or out) the rifle is unloaded and probably slung.
IF I'm doing a run around on a herd of elk, rifle is safe and slung up..

IF a hunter is falling down and getting tangled up..don't matter IF all he's packing is a slingshot, IMHO, he's in over his head, in the country...picked a poor route, out of condition, poor footwear, fatigued, or maybe all of the above or worse.Jim

Hey guys!

Do you all think I should total this up, just to see what the ratio is, or let it run a while longer before I do that?

It would be my preferance to see this thread be more of a poll than a debate over chambered vs. not, as that fire is raging elsewhere*, but obviously you guys do as you see fit.

* NASA called me and told me they could see the thermal imprint of our little dustup from the moon! :-)

-jeff

I mostly deer hunt from tree stands. I Have the chamber empty to and from the stand but I am definitely going to have a round in the chamber while I'm in the stand.

BTW the reddest (is that a word?) I've ever seen anyones face is the first and last time I have loaned a rifle. I had a boyhood friend up to my place to hunt. We had gotten together again at our 40 year high school reunion and I invited him for whitetail season. I knew he was an avid gun collector and has a world class collection of Colt revolvers. When he showed up he had a pre 64 model 94 Winchester in .32 Special but only had 30-30 ammo. I loaned him a 1903 sporter in 30-06. It is a beautiful little full Mannlicher style rifle put together by the Fajun Custom shop in 1973.

He hunted all morning from a ground blind then we met at noon for lunch. He had the rifle slung over his shoulder and I noticed the safety was off. I told him I sure hoped he didn't have a round chambered because the safety was off.

He told me: "No it is off, see." (pointing to the magazine cutoff)

"That's not the safety!" I blurted out.

I thought he was going to faint! He had carried the rifle all morning loaded with the safety off.

That rifle has a 3lb trigger. How he managed to go that long without a AD is beyond my comprehension.
I'll never loan out another gun.

Yikes, that is scary. That boy is one lucky person!!

ibfestus,
That 'near miss' goes back to the owner of the rifle and the one it was loaned to..
Both probably could have done differently.

First, make certain that anyone who is going to use a firearm is understanding of the way it works.

Second, IF someone hands you a firearm, make sure YOU know how it works..:) Jim

PS: make certain THAT IT DOES WORK and is in proper mechanical condition..:) Jim