Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Rifle Hunting Safety Question

Bingo!

You didn't get it. He wouldn't have to his chamber was hot so he fired at the birds or buck when he first saw them.

Exactly. You stand there looking for an opening. On quail, they do like to get a mesquite between you and them and you may TRY
to move to the side in weeds to get a shot. Needless to say I dont hunt with those who cant walk and chew gum. If a person cant keep his muzzle away from me or my dog they get to hunt with a camera.

FWIW, my history of carrying hot has changed. I grew up hunting thickets with a round in the chamber and safety on. Never had a problem, though I fell off of a low cliff one time, rolling and sliding down a rock chute, and in hindsight, could have shot myself as I cradled the carbine to protect it. Teenager with first rifle.

In adulthood I changed to carrying with chamber empty when walking with another person and on rough ground even when alone. That cost me a big 4x4 mule deer that jumped in front of a friend and I as we traversed cliffs and rock slide. I squeezed on an empty chamber, out of earlier habit from carrying hot.

But reading posts here at the campfire confirmed my decision years ago to carry an empty chamber. The exception is when on most calling stands, especially for cats. My preference is to set up in thick stuff which tend to very close shots. My major concern is that switching from hot to empty chamber may cause me to forget when it is hot, so I methodically check.

I have noticed that the shorter the rifle, the easier it is to point the muzzle at yourself. My little Mohawk 600 points at my lower calf if I hold it by the pistol grip and let it hang down.

Merely musings.

Me too. Reading the incident reports, especially the ones involving family members is sobering.

"Long gun safety" would be more accurate. I grew up with shotguns, and .22lr rifles mostly. Every kid starts off at 12 and carried a wooden gun. You had to treat it as real at all times, and you carried it for the season. You learned to cross fences, creeks, climb ravines, and trees, while always treating it as a real gun. At 13, you got the Savage model 24 .22lr/.410 o/u. And it was your gun until you either out grew it, or another hunter came of age.
You could help hunt earlier, as a beater, dog or cleaner, and learned about cleaning game much earlier, but guns were only on the shooting range before that. I took deer with a bow before I was allowed to carry a gun.
We were trained from the ground up that every gun was loaded and dangerous, until we proved it ourselves, that it was safe and empty. A safety is used at all times, except when taking the actual shot, and all guns in the field are loaded and dangerous, so take them seriously. A gun was only unloaded at the truck, or if you needed to climb something. At which point the gun was unloaded, checked, and slung on your back. Or pulled up after you on a line muzzle down. (I Still carry a line for this).
Guns were never to be pointed at anything you did not intend to kill. If you shot it, you cleaned it. My father laughed pretty hard, when my brother broke that rule, and shot a road sign. I told him "alright, now let me see you clean it, and prepare it for cooking!" Anyone caught looking around with a scope would have been spanked, and gun removed to the truck. (You would still participate, but as a child, not a man.)
All guns were and are hot, and muzzle control is never a question, it is an absolute.
In recorded history of the family, there has never been an accidental discharge while hunting, and hunting has been part of every generation.
I'm not worried about being on smokepole's "dumbass" list for hunting hot. It's the way I was raised, and what I'm used to.

Myself, Kellory. Lots of guys that conceal/carry have hot guns point at them quite a bit. My kimber solo carry is one.

Do most carry a concealed weapon with a clear chamber?

I ponder that myself. I will not use a shoulder hoster that points backwards (at someone else). I DID carry a revolver on a cold chamber, but that gun has been replaced with a semi-auto 9mil.
There is no difference in response time with a revolver with a cold chamber, but it does change the response time and potential for failure with a semi-auto. Since I am new to concealed carry, this has been on my mind. I will carry hot, safety on. I know some prefer no safety, but I will practice drawing safety on.

LOL, who did I call a dumbass for hunting hot? Why don't you go back through this thread and point it out.

Dumbass.

Anytime someone disagrees with you, they're a dumass. Been on the receiving end a few times now. If you chose to be a jerk, that's your business, and easily ignored.

Still hunt hot. Common sense often does come into play and cold chamber rules take affect.

Not so. There are lots of people on here who disagree with me all the time, and they don't get the dumbass tag. What makes someone a dumbass is doing what you just did--taking what someone else has said, twisting it around, and ascribing things to the other person that were never said. Like you did when you said I called someone a dumbass for hunting hot. I challenged you to show me where I did that. I'm still waiting.




Not surprising.





Yes, that is my business but apparently, it's not that easily ignored. But please try.

[quote=rockinbbarStrange how you and I and jag, and many others have lived this long, and not even shot anyone, huh? [/quote]

My hunters ed instructor ... never mind how many decades ago ... told me the only way we REALLY treat every gun as if it is loaded is if every gun really is loaded. That has proven correct in my experience. I've had two "incidents" in my life. One came with a gun I had just "unloaded" but lost track of the count of shells I'd removed, then handled it more roughly than I would ever have handled a gun known to be loaded. BOOM. One came with a used gun I purchased from a private party, got it home, didn't know how to operate it, and made a bad guess that it couldn't possibly have a loaded chamber. I'd already unloaded the tube magazine. The only thing I could figure was the action was blocked from cycling because the (internal) hammer was down on an empty chamber. I had a bullet hole in my wall for a long time as a reminder.

Anyways, things have always gone right when I followed that hunter's safety instructor's rules, the only failures I've had were when I didn't or when applying the rule was outside my control.

Regarding carrying hot ... when he and I hunted together later, the person at the front of the line carried hot, the rest carried cold. Carrying hot, in the front of the line, the muzzle stayed forward. Carrying cold, following, the muzzle always stayed to the rear. The very WORST firearms safety violations I've ever seen, field or range, were from military or ex military people. They seemed to assume all guns we always empty except when they were deliberately firing. I've never been "swept" by so many muzzles as when shooting around military / ex-military shooters. Cops are almost, but not quite, as bad.

Nobody is perfect, though. About 7-8 years ago, after a long time away, I went out to help that ex instructor, about 75 years old at that time, retrieve a deer from the woods. He'd left his rifle leaning against a tree. When I picked it up, there was a live round in the chamber and the safety was off. He adamantly denied leaving it in that state. (I guess a bear must have done it, bears do that all the time, right?)

Tom

I hunt with a "cold" chamber....always have. That's how I was taught.

As for the looking around with a rifle scope....get some binos and a spotter. I have been "scoped" before, and it didn't end well for the [bleep] that did it....

I couldn't disagree more. First, based on the principle that muzzle control is not something anyone can afford to let up on, even if the firearm is unloaded. It's not hard to get into the habit of treating every firearm as if it were loaded, and it's a habit everyone needs to get into. It's easy to treat a gun that you know to be loaded as loaded. The trick is when you know it's unloaded.

The way we teach that is with our replica firearms. We have a set with all the common actions, all the correct parts, and blaze orange stocks so they're unmistakable. But they're inoperable, no firing pins. We pull those out and tell the class that even though the firearms are inoperable, can't be loaded, and can't be fired, we're still going to control the muzzles at all times because that's not something you turn on or off, based on whether it's loaded or not. That's what "treat every gun as if it were loaded" means, They get it. And when they handle the guns, even the ones who've never shot before do a good job with the muzzle.

Second, based on the principle that the overall goal of "treating every firearm as if it were loaded" is safety, i.e., not shooting someone or yourself. If the overall goal is safety, there is no safer firearm than a cold one. No matter the muzzle control. Or no matter how "safe" the hunter is, as your instructor proved to you.