Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Loaded rifles....

show up in the strangest places. Anyone ever had one of your rifles load itself after years of sitting in the back of the rack?

I never keep any loaded weapons around except for one shotgun and one handgun in the house. But today, while showing my nephew a few candidates for his new deer rifle, he racked the bolt a couple of times on a .270 and out flies a shell. Now, it wasn't in the chamber before he worked the bolt a few times and there was no real danger because safe gun handling was being practiced, but I was a little shaken, then mad at myself.

I honestly don't know the last time that rifle was used and I really don't know how it was loaded. Well...I guess I know I left it with a few in the magazine but I don't know why or how.

So, I know I'm preaching to the choir, but I'll reiterate the old axiom to treat every gun as if it is loaded because it just may be.

Yup----just happened. Shotgun.

I keep several loaded: the home defense pistols and shotguns, the .223 for coyotes that visit my dog kennel, the .22 rimfires (my 10-22 and my wife's little lever action) for jackrabbits in the yard, and a Model 94 .32 Special, just in case it might be needed. Every time I take a firearm from the gun safe, I make sure that it's empty--both chamber and magazine, before I even turn around.

I'm surprised when I find one that's not loaded.

Well, it doesn't really matter how you keep them, as long as you are consistent. The problems start when you start surprising yourself.

All guns are always loaded - didn't anyone ever tell you that?

yep


and ime hard to go very wrong operating off that assumption

Well, that's the way I treat them, hence no accident today. But, I still don't like to see a shell come out of somewhere I didn't think it was.

I remember learning that in gun saftey class given at the VFW building in Minneapolis near lake Calhoun in 1967. I was 11 years old. Thats the one thing I do not abide in hunting partners/ companions.. Unsafe handling of firearms.

can't blame you Joe, no one likes surprises concerning firearms and chainsaws.

and don't get the wrong impression that folks are scolding you, safe firearm is a discipline, you practiced it today and even with the surprise avoided the nasty by doing so.


like ALL of us, you just need to work on your mental discipline a bit from time to time, the surprise should come that it IS unloaded regardless of what we think we remember doing when last storing the piece.

we're mostly gunnies around here and reminding each other and being brave enough to share our surprises with one another is a good thing imo.


yes Virginia and all of the bedwetters out there that inhabit our country firearms are tools of death. Responsible men handle them, hopefully regularly, cause lord knows irresponsible men are gonna have them.

we're better served by reminding each other of the "surprises" that await.


I for one appreciate you sharing yours joe, as I want to avoid surprises personally, I've two boys I'm endeavoring to teach to be men.


a man that can't/won't handle firearms and be comfortable in their use, is not a full man imo.

we don't want to be Bubba's, we want to be responsible citizens that are armed and proficient in their use.

your post served a vital function in that respect imo, and I thank you for sharing it with us.

Well them youngsters will never forget that lesson. Play safe. Have a good day. LOL

You know the real crime? After showing the boy a lovely Model 70, a beautiful Husqvarna Mauser, and a couple of other nice Mausers that he could use, he picked a boring old Weatherby Vanguard 30-06 I had been trying to give away or trade for a year or two already.

So, rather than him spending his money on a Wal-Mart rifle, I made him an indefinite loan of the Weatherby and showed him a decent scope to buy and he is going to start deer hunting with me this year.

Good pick.LOL

well, at least he won't have to worry about uglying up the Vanguard....Weatherby takes care of that for you at the factory.


scary incident....I had one of those a couple of years ago. Not as bad as an AD, but it still gets you really focused on Rule 1 doesn't it?

I have heard of many muzzle loaders that were found to be loaded even though they hadn's been fired in over a hundred years.

Several years ago, a friend found an old, rusty bolt action shotgun in some bushes on the side of the road.

I asked him if it was loaded and he said it could't be, because of it's condition, had probably been lying there for years, and anyway, the bolt was rusted shut.

Keeping it pointed in a safe direction, we oiled and beat on the bolt until it finally opened. Guess what? a 12 gage shell popped out.

I didn't think of it then, but we could have run a cleaning rod down the barrel and measured the barrel length, inside and out.

We figured the police had been chasing some hoodlum and they threw it out of the car before they were stopped.

Likewise at Casa Lee.

Mighta been a crook . But ------ if I had a bolt action shotgun , it would be a candidate for throw away .[Unless it was loaded and a bear was comin' ]

I think the crime is handing someone a rifle without first checking it your self. One should hand over a rifle etc with the action open.

To not do that especially with a lad is a sin.

Agreed Scott, I always clear any firearm before is pass it to someone else and again when I get it back.

I agree 100 percent.
Paul B.