No, I say that it's perfectly possible to hunt safely with a round in the chamber.
As I said above, in may be safer by some incremental margin to hunt cold- but then, it might not, too. You prove to me that it's a good idea to have a bunch of yay-hoos frantically chambering their rifles when they see a deer for instance. Now THAT sounds like a mess to me. And here's the clincher. Some small percentage of those yay-hoos will then forget to unchamber, and be walking around thinking they have an empty rifle when they don't. There's another mess for you. Or, those same yay-hoos, after chambering their 30-30 or whatever, will now have to rack ALL the rounds through the rifle to clear it.
Accidents happen with guns. They happen when people manipulate the action, they happen when they think the gun is empty, they happen upon loading and unloading. Those things count as a debit against the increase of safety that might be gained if everyone was compelled to carry cold.
And it wouldn't work for beans where and how I hunt.
And a lot of other guys have said the same things as I just said, several times over. :-)
