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

I have never killed a Buffalo, lion or elephant with an empty rifle and I am always loaded in the chamber in the African bush..I always carry a round in the chamber when actually hunting. You will not get a shot on many ocassions with a round not in the chamber, you will be a stumbling, fumbling, dork trying to load a rifle in a tight spot or on a disapearing animal..ONly on national TV and apparantly the internet can everyone sit and talk and wait and load before they take that broadside perfect shot..Where I hunt its a bit more hectic than that..You have a window of opertunity and you had better take advantage of it...A gun pointed at nobody is a safe gun.

Never loaded in the camp, home, car, or in the saddle scabbard.

common since should be a perfect guide but I see from 42 posts this has not been the case.

Ray, agree mostly with you except "A gun pointed at nobody is a safe gun"... that simply isn't true as Remington concluded forty years ago that 100% safe gun handling is never possible.

I only keep one up the spout when I'm on the trail of something, until then the chamber is empty but then I mostly hunt alone so it's a moot point.

What was the percentage for the "It depends on the situation" camp?

Good question- I don't know. It would be WAY up there, though. Personally, if I'm putting the rifle in a position where it could be mechanically dismembered, like in a scabbard on a horse or climbing up a cliff or something, it will be unchambered. I'm guess that's true of EVERYONE. So I'd say the 'it depends...' camp is virtually everyone, ultimatly.

-jeff

Even a two-year-old can see the problem with this.




Is this dead enough?

Now, let's argue about something else.

Hey, I know, "Jeff, I didn't know Oregon was an island in the Aleutians." (You are west of me, right?)

Guess I better change it to "West of "almost all" of you, Oregon"!

:-)

Happy lookin' kid. I was seeing tons of hares up where we hunted elk this last year. I was really kicking myself for not tossing a .22 or shotgun in with all the other crap I'd brought...

-jeff

Say, south-of-me-Jeff, I thought that BLR was bullet-proof? Sort of a pun there!

You damn cantankerous "westerners"! :-)

Ironbender, I'm talking situations with big force multipliers- like cliffs and 1500-lb horses- where the literal dismemberment of the rifle is a possibility. Not walking round in the woods...

-jeff

How many ways are there to beat a dead horse...

In the right situation and with the right game not only will you not get a shell chambered you�ll be dead. I�m no snack.

I don't know, I'll get back to you when it's good and beat! :-)

-jeff

Beings how I mostly bow hunt for big game, I'd have to go with an "it depends". I usually have an arrow nocked though, but am rarely at full draw

Most of my "gun" big game hunting is done with a shotgun. I rarely go, but when I do, it is usually a drive situation. Most shots are at running deer who are already aware of you and are trying to get the hell out of dodge. Racking a slide on a shotgun makes little difference in time or noise. Most times in this situation, I go cold. Since this type of hunting appeals very little to me, it is very rare that I go.

On the even rarer occasion where I am still hunting with a gun, I am generally hot. Depends a lot on the terrain and conditions. If I am likely to walk up on an unaware deer and I am hunting alone I will carry hot.

At any rate, I rarely gun hunt. The season in OH is a week long, limited to shotguns/muzzle-loaders/revolvers, and generally filled with a bunch of degenerates out blasting at any thing that moves. This is not the type of hunting that I prefer. I can bow hunt for four months at deer that are usually unpressured. I am familiar enough with the property that I hunt that I usually have all the deer named. Gun season here just does not do much for me. Now, before I catch hell for that opinion, I will state that if I could gun hunt the same way that I bow hunt, I would probably prefer that.

BTW Jeff, look how far WEST of you I am.

Ha! Good one...

-jeff

Carry on...

The humor is Priceless........

Yes.

Nuff said,

cur dog

In much of B.C. grizzlies are common. Suprised grizzlies don't take kindly to being suprised. Also, they aren't known for always warning you of their intentions.

An unloaded rifle is, indeed, a stick.

Sticks aren't much good at dissuading charging bears.

I'm positive that becoming part of the "circle of life" - is more romantic as an abstract idea - than it would be when it is happening in real life.

Nice to see this thread still going, and going, and going.....

i keep one in the chamber for the same reason i keep a 45 auto cocked and locked on the nite stand by my bed you might not have time to chamber a round if a nice buck apears and only gives a spilt second to shoot or a armed intruder breaks in your home you better hope you don't have to wast time chambering a round

Yeah, but I'm shootin blanks! So it doesn't really matter.

I'm a very inexperianced hunter, but here is my thoughts on it.
I have three different situations
1st.
If I'm concentrated in my hunt for non-dangerous game, I would always have one in the chamber unless I was climbing something with the safety on.

2nd.
If I'm just lazily wandering the woods content weather i find game or not, I would not have one in the chamber and it would be on safe

3rd.
If I was to hunt in dangerous game areas, I would have my rifle off of safe but an empty chamber. This is because cocking the rifle would be second nature to me where is turning the safety off I would more likely forget. I would instinctively load the chamber. Turning the safety off wouldn't be as instinctive to me.