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

Don't get hung up on bears or even DG.

My statement was "Nor is it hard to imagine situations when it might be best to be loaded and cocked with the safety off, especially in DG country." Perhaps I should have left off the "especially in DG country" part.

It seems that at that at some point even you turned the safety on your firearms to the "off" position or you likely wouldn't be posting here - so we are discussing the timing and circumstances of that action, not whether or not such an action is justified or foolish.


As I said, I don't recommend moving around with the safety off but if extreme danger was imminent I wouldn't stand around with the Cross Bolt Safety engaged on my .45-70, nor would I wait until the last possible instant to thumb the hammer back to full cock - too many things could go wrong, including forgetting to disengage the CBS or the thumb slipping off the hammer. At some point the "foolishness" of being fully prepared to fire is exceeded by the "foolishness" of being unprepared.


But as I said, don't get hung up on DG. My guess is that the majority of hunters have, at one time or another, intentionally hunted with a loaded chamber and the safety off. It is called "the shot not taken". In my own case there have been many incidents while varmint hunting (and we all know how dangerous prairie dogs can be) where I have slipped the safety off to take a shot then slipped it back on again without firing. A little slow on my part perhaps, but hardly foolish. When it comes to big game have been multiple instances where I have had game in my sights and was ready to fire, only to slip the safety back on again without doing so. Sometimes I was a little slow, sometimes I just decided not to shoot. I've long lost track of the number of times I've swung on a bird, safety off, only to slip the safety back on without firing a shot. If that makes me a fool, so be it.