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

Long thread and I don't know if it's been asked in a while but..... How do the cold carry folks hunt with a muzzleloader?

Do they view that type of arm inherently more dangerous? I'm not being facecious.. I'd like an answer.

Both my #11 percussion cap inline and flinter would be difficult to get ready without at least taking my eyes off the game.

I believe the guys when they say they can "hunt" cold but to me it's more of a personal preference, this from a person who worked in industrial safety for 10 years, prevention, investigation and reporting.

Where is the poll? I hunt with one ready to go and the safety on.

JO has all the numbers.........

I'd like to hear what the final tally is myself. I'd venture at least 80% hunt hot, just not curious enough to wade thru 117 pages of votes to find out the answer.

A capping tool hung around the neck makes capping my .50�s a pretty quick proposition. There have been times when I�ve loaded powder and bullet, capped the nipple and still got a shot off. Still, I tend to hunt hot more with my muzzlestuffers than with the centerfires.

Is ignorance bliss?

When I've formally taught hunter safety classes to youth, it's always been kids who've grown up around and have already been using guns whom I've instructed. Most of them recognize a "safe" rifle or shotgun. So one of the first things I do it show them my 870 and ask them to inspect the safety to make sure the shotgun cannot fire. After examining and affirming that it is safe to handle, I grab the barrel and thump the butt on the floor whereupon the hammer disengages, firing the primed-only shell which was previously placed in the chamber. It gets their attention. The point is to teach the fact that no safety should be counted on. Secondly, it is a point from which one can teach the idea that there is very little to prevent a firearm's sear from disengaging - and all it takes is the smallest particle of ordinary debris common to the outdoors to make the usually adequate sear engagement no longer safe.

I'm sure those who don't have an awareness and appreciation for their guns' mechanisms probably traipse along with greater confidence in their infallibility. That is the precise reason I almost never engage a safety.

If you "can" take the safer route, you are dense not to.

This from a person who makes a living teaching wildlife management and hunting practise to forestry students and guides in Germany and Alaska.

Translation of the last sentence - whenever I work whereever, my counterparts and I are handling rifles. I cringe at the thought of all those chambers hot...

Did you rig it or is this a defect? I've known several trap shooters who get trigger jobs on their 870s. The sear engegement is considerable, and with so many of these around; they're everywhere, a problem like this whoud get noticed.
Is this one of the reasons for trigger locks?
There have been several posts from people who had guns w/o sufficient sear engagement...guns that 'just went off' upon releasing the safety.
What do you consider the proper trigger pull?
Bill

Remington finally changed their trigger design a while back due to a M700 design flaw that was known since the 60�s. The problem was that some rifles could fire on the release of the safety. The number of rifles affected varied by model but I think it was about 1% for normal M700s and near 50% for M600�s or whatever they called them.

Remington knew of the problem and preferred to pay off lawsuits rather than fix the design. Only recently (a few years back) did they issue a recall. Most of the affected rifles have not been modified and probably never will be.

Sounds to me like a good reason to go cold until actually ready to shoot.

Thanks for the reply... the point of my comment was a reference to 870 shotguns by another.
Still, what is a correct trigger pull?
Bill

yes.

is that for real?

I pulled the trigger section out and rigged it. It was apparent in studying it that the smallest piece of crud, even a bit of rust, could easily cause a potential problem. So I rigged the problem to demonstrate how small the line is that we walk when trusting the mechanism.

Since that time, I know at least one young man who took a shotgun blast at close range. Fortunately it was a richochet so the brunt of the energy was somewhat diminished and he survived.

I still have and use the shotgun I used years ago in making the demonstration. It keep it clean. It has never failed. I very rarely use a safety; I never trust them.

amazing a subject as stupid as this, can make 118 pages and still counting..

Just play some with your settings. Could make it more pages or less.

The issue remains same.

Coyote Hunter
If you do a search here on 700 triggers, the Walker trigger, whatever, you can likely find details of the cases involved and much more than you want to read.

But a couple points; there was never a recall, several changes were made over time including using beefier trigger weight springs, the trigger change was not related to any civil action or defect in the Walker trigger, the primary case cited was a MT woman that shot her son on the other side of a horse trailer with a rifle that could not be made to fail again.

The most dangerous aspect of that trigger was the Bubba that got inside it...
art

Put me down as hunting hot, safety on, finger always outside the trigger housing until ready to shoot, and always very conscious as to where my muzzle is pointing. I will go cold when crossing fence lines, in rough terrain, and while bringing my rifle up to my tree stand.

Can you explain how to cycle the bolt on a club?

Or a pipe?

Considering the ramifications - the possibility of people being saved from injury or much worse as a result of this thread - I for one hardly think this is a "stupid subject". In act, I would rank the subject matter as one of the more important ones being discussed anywhere on this web site.