Jeff - IMHO the "ultimate unchambered" is a firearm that truly has an enmpty chamber, not one that is mistakenly believed to be empty. People get carelss around guns, loaded or unloaded.
There is indeed a potential for problems when chambering or unchambering a round, which is just one reason I often leave my firearms with an empty chamber until a loaded chamber is actually needed or I believe that the need will soon be forthcoming. Your comment about "CLASSIC empty-chamber" scenarios demonstrates one of the fallacies of your argument that people might be safer if they hunted with loaded chambers - if people loaded up every chance they got only to unload again in such situations, then reloaded again after the situation has passed, often repeating this cycle several times thoughout the day, there would be many more opportunities for people to get injured during the load/unload processes.
I understand that many hunting situations are not conducive to loading a firearm's chamber immediately before taking a shot. That's one reason I don't make any claims that everyone should hunt with an unloaded chamber, nor do I always hunt that way myself.
Unfortunately, as I said, poor gun handling is common as dirt. Unloaded chambers are the only antidote that has 100% success.
Coyote Hunter - NRA Patriot Life, NRA Whittington Center Life, GOA, DAD - and I VOTE!
No, I'm not a Ruger bigot - just an unabashed fan of their revolvers, M77's and #1's.
