The big 4 works for all guns...when followed like it is religion. Many gunowners should not have a round in the chamber, or a gun
mike r
Safe gun handling is paramount.
Your primary safety is between your ears.
Agree with both of your sentiments and have practiced such my whole life. Yes I have carried rifles and shotguns with rounds chambered, but sparingly and always depending on the situation.
Beyond religiously following the big four rules, Each firearm type has its own quirks with respect to safety. Load five in a Colt SAA for example. Many shotguns don't lock the firing pins, for another. I am not familiar with doubles beyond a few years of regular trap and skeet with a Beretta double. Hence the question about best practice with respect to that action type.
If you can't handle a loaded firearm with the safety on safely you shouldn't be out hunting period or carrying a firearm period. Philthygeezer you should stay home and do what your wife tells you to do instead of being on a forum with men. Or did your spouse direct you to ask this question ?... mb
Ok, notwithstanding that I agree in part with your first sentence, I'll play:
This attitude is exactly one of the ones that produces negligent discharges. I've watched this kind of dumb in the field both privately and professionally, and it still raises the hackles on my neck. The biggest idiot I've ever met in my life with respect to handling firearms said, "...of course I know how to handle a pump shotgun, I'm a man...". I wouldn't let that moron anywhere near a shotgun after that. He'd never handled a firearm, but figured his tallywhacker was all the training he needed.
If invited out with you I would probably stay home for my own safety. Humility breeds safe handling, not the mouth-breather arrogance you just put in writing. I know many women on a pistol team that would probably shoot rings around you, and more safely.
Is that the response you were fishing for? Perhaps I read your post wrong and if so, then I apologize.
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A very good friend and hunting buddy had two NDs in a row with a pump shotgun while we were scooching through brush together. Fortunately he was in the front both times (the second time in front on purpose). He carried it one-handed with round in chamber and kept inadvertently wiping the safety off. Trigger would either catch on twigs or he hit it somehow. He blamed the gun and complained that he didn't know how he kept wiping the safety off. I told him empty chamber or I would beat him senseless with the gun.
At 19 years old I could nail five pop cans in four seconds with a Winchester pump. When on walkabout in grizzly country, I carried magazine full and hammer down on an empty chamber with safety off. IMO that is the right way to carry a pump if you're not dialed in and tracking hares or trying to flush grouse. People aren't perfect and this may save you when you're frozen, tired and stupid at the end of a long day of exploring.
