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

I've waited a long time to weigh in on this thread. The level of acrimony on this topic (EVERY time it comes up!) is truly amazing.

Anyway, HG, I hear what you're saying. In the thick stuff we're all in danger of falling down. Each of us has to make an assessment of our individual situation and make the best call he or she can make.

Me, I hunt with a round in the chamber. Always. That's how I was raised and taught to hunt, both rifle and shotgun, and applied later when I began handgun hunting. My father learned to hunt in the Dirty Thirties, when his ability to bring home game for the table was a very real supplement to his family's meagre rations, and a missed opportunity to take game was not just a disappointment, it might mean empty bellies at bedtime. He taught me to be prepared to shoot decisively, and to waste no time in doing so. It's not an unsafe way to hunt. My father and I have walked a lot of hunting miles together, first just the two of us, but later with good friends and eventually my own son and daughter, and we've always hunted "hot". There has never been a problem. Not even close.

I've walked countless miles hunting upland birds with a live round up the spout. I've fallen down with a loaded shotgun at least 25 times. If you hunt birds hard behind flushing dogs as I have for the past 40-odd years, you're gonna fall down. It's tough, physical hunting at times, and I love it. I have fallen backwards over a dog chasing a bitch in heat that some damn fool brought hunting, and got knocked cold. No ND. I've fallen down in thick briars and got scratched to smithereenies. No Nd. I've fallen into a sinkhole with grass grown over it, and had my shotgun fly out of my hands and land hard on the ground. No ND. A tree limb fell on me in a windstorm once, knocking my lever-action rifle out of my hands, and the rifle (loaded and on half-cock) landed with a twig inside the triggerguard. No ND.

How many times have I had an ND while hunting over 40 years with a round in the chamber? Zero.

Why? Because I always have my mechanical safety on, I always watch my muzzle, and I always keep my finger out of the trigger guard 'til it's time to shoot.

The only exception is that when I'm hunting with a single-action sixgun, the hammer is down on an empty chamber.

The statistics say that if you shoot 100,000 rounds, the odds of having an ND are 100%. In my lifetime I have fired, by my closest guess, about 500,000 rounds of ammunition. I've had 3 ND's, which I regard as being ahead of the odds by a bit. I'm not being smug about it, it just is what it is.

ALL of my ND's occurred during administrative handling of the firearm in question. NONE occurred while hunting. None of my ND's caused injury to anyone because even though I "knew" the guns were unloaded, I made sure my muzzle was pointed at a safe backstop when I dropped the hammer.

Elmer Keith once had a visitor in his home who was admiring his No. 5 revolver. He asked Keith if it was loaded. Keith's reply: "Of course it's loaded! Every gun in this house is loaded! 'Empty' guns get people killed!"

I've put in time in a patrol vehicle with an issue sidearm on my hip, and it's always been cocked and locked. I legally carry a concealed firearm every day, and there is always a round up the spout. Carrying a sidearm in Condition Three is lunacy, IMHO.

No offense to those who think otherwise, just thought I'd let the 'Fire know what my experience has been.