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

Jeff -

I thought we were talking about hunting weapons used in the pursuit of legal game rather than defensive weapons, so the Glock and Kahr are rather irrelevant in my opinion. That said, a fair number of police have managed to shoot themselves or their coworkers with Glocks, so you have a point. You pull the trigger and they go bang - but only when loaded in the chamber.

As to your contention that fewer people would be shot if we legislated that everyone hunt with a loaded (in the chamber) firearm as opposed to an unloaded (in the chamber again) firearm, it simply defies logic in my opinion.

Take a look at where shooting accidents occur. Many are due to misidentification of the target. In my sample of Google hits I would say MOST rifle related shootings fit in this category. According to Texas, however, shotguns are the most common problem overall, accounting for 55% of shooting accidents while hunting in 2003 - the problem being people don't make sure the shooting lane is clear. That same year 38% of the hunting related shooting accidents involved a rifle, 5% involved a handgun, and 2% involved bow-and-arrow. The report, interstingly, stated that only about 20% of the shooting incidents involved people (shooters) who had taken hunter safety classes.


My google search found far too many instances of misidentified targets to mention, and too many incidents of shotgunners peppering someone else while shooting game, but here are a few other incidents I found:
* a man shot himself with his handgun while climbing over a fence
* a man was shot when his dog stepped on a loaded shotgun in the bed of a truck
* a man shot a friend while putting a rifle in his truck he thought was unloaded
* a man killed his son when a loaded rifle on an ATV slipped and discharged
* a man was shot by his 9 year-old nephew while sitting in a blind (apparently no geese around at the time)
* a youth was shot by an adult with a .22 while hunting (but apparently not while shooting game)
* a man was killed by his own rifle after he dropped it off a 12 foot rock outcropping while switching to his shotgun to shoot a fox
* a man slipped on a wooden ladder attached to a tree stand and shot and killed himself
* a man was killed when a child climbed onto an ATV that had a shotgun strapped to it
* a man dropped his muzzleloader which resulted in it discharging and killing him
* a kid shot his brother while unloading a .22 after having taken shots at game
* and so on.

In each case an unloaded chamber would have prevented mishap, but I was unable to find any case in which an unloaded chamber was involved in an accidental shooting. Go figure.

You posited earlier in this thread that people loading their firearms just prior to shooting might lead to an increase in accidents due to the stress of the moment. I could find no occurance of this happening in my Google search so I submit that while it may happen on occasion it is not as nearly common as incidents that arise from having an already loaded chamber.

The facts are that poor firearm handling technique is common as dirt and accidents happen - which can and often do lead to accidental shootings when a loaded firearm is involved. When unloaded firearms are involved you will still have poor firearms handling techniques and accidents, but at least the accidental shootings are eliminated.