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

Walking thru thick stuff, the rifle is at port arms, my trigger finger is along side the trigger guard and my thumb is behind the safety making sure it's in place. If it is super thick and I have to really creep along doubled over, the rifle is pointed ahead as I weave the muzzle thru the brush. My trigger finger and thumb are in the same place however.
I've never understood folks that tell tales about finding their bolts missing or their floor plates open with all the ammo gone, and now their safeties off.

257stew; What kind of a boltaction rifle do you have? When you load a shell in your boltaction's chamber, do you then hold the trigger while gently letting the bolt handle down, then hunt that way? If you do, you are putting the firing pin up against the primer. I don't know of any boltaction rifle in my safe that has a floating firing pin. Again, what kind of rifle do you have that we are talking about here?
Try this: point the rifle in a safe direction and rap smartly on the back end of the firing pin with something that for sure contacts the end of the firing pin itself. Make sure your rifle is pointed in a safe direction, because I know on mine, it will fire.

Do I hunt with a round in the chamber? Naw, I generally aim at them and click.

I suspect all hunt with a round in the chamber at some point, else the obvious point you make MD. But the question is really one of when the round goes in. And I suspect that varies from time to time with every hunter. Many choose to hunt empty-chambered for the most part, while others run things mostly hot. And a great many conditions, not the least of which are terrain, play into what makes sense.

Is it any safer or less safe to sit in a tree stand with one in the spout versus hiking in steep terrain with the rifle slung and both hands busy to maintain balance. (Can a person actually maintain positive muzzle control with the rifle carried across the back on a sling?) And, not every firearm works the same way either. Carrying an exposed hammer weapon which relies on a down hammer as a safety versus a weapon using an always-cocked hammer which is either blocked or the trigger blocked does strike me as being the same deal. (I know very well that a blocked trigger can be potentially very hazardous, yet a simple gun like a lever action Marlin, Winchester, or even and H&R single shot can be carried hot quite safely. I still don't carry an exposed hammer weapon chamber loaded when it is in a scabbard though.)

The real answer to a question like this lies in using judgement. And that judgement must always be alert to the situation just as one must always be alert to keeping the weapon directed safely. Truth is, I load and unload quite often when a weapon is carried in my hands. On the sling or in the scabbard I rarely expose what I consider an extreme risk by not unloading the chamber.

My bolt guns are rugers but maybe we need to know what rifle you are using.The chances of walking with my rifle and having something "rap smartly" on my firing pin is remote, having a gun go of because a safety has somehow failed is far more likely to happen.All kinds of things can happen when you have fatigue ,cold fingers,excitment etc.There is a reason for alot of jobs in this world to have hours of service limitations applied to them as we are only human .I am not saying you are wrong and will go check my rifles out to see if they will do as you say.

With the pressure of the firing pin spring already exerting as much pressure as it does, and the pin of a Ruger will be pressing hard against the cartridge's primer, you don't need to do anything more than bump the rifle to hard to potentially set it off. With all due respect, what you are doing is probably the most dangerous thing anyone has posted in the thread. I'd prefer to run chamber hot, rifle cocked, safety off.

Plus 1 million.........


Simply setting the rifle down to lean against a tree or pickup could potentially set it off.
Scary indeed.

A primed but otherwise empty case in my Ruger77 in 300WM, a 700 in 30-06 and a mauser 25-06 each went off with a rap on the shroud with a rawhide mallet. I could not make them go off by banging on the butt... But I was not hitting them hard enough to damage them and that could easily happen in a real situation...

Well I guess we learn something everyday. Thanks for informing me. From now on I will walk with my rifle "cold" unless I am walking by myself,which I do a lot as still hunting is my favorite way to hunt . Again thank you guys and girls.

why wouldn't you?

if you are that unsafe or around someone who is...

I'd take up golf instead....

to me this question is like asking "do you play golf with a golf ball?"

NO I use a basketball, as it is a lot safer for those around me...and I don't want to hurt anyone..

Klik,

I made the obvious point because this thread has gone on for 73 pages now with no real end in sight--and I couldn't stand it anymore.

I hear crickets....

I hear music and I see a curtain falling... And a hunter learned something about his rifle that may prevent his having an accident.
It's a good day.

Yep, the good ole Rawhide Mallet. It gets lots of use around here come trigger tuning time.

Wow, what an analagy......

I'll take an errant golf ball over a bullet any day thanks. YMV, obviously........

And if you're good enough to know the exact moment you're going to slip, trip, or fall and can maintain perfect muzzle control during same, you're a far better man than any thus listed on this site......

I learned that very tid bit on this site, about 6 month's after I first joined. Sure glad I did.

I hunt cold almost exclusively now, and always when with a partner. Too much at stake not too, and it is far from a hindrance, given a clue and a little coordination. Currently instilling the same practice in my daughters hunting training.

It's an Oregon thing

It doesn't work--I've done tried it a couple times..........

You get that sinking feeling as the bulls butt disappears into the timber.....



Casey

Did somebody revive this thread just for you?....



Casey

Mr. RiverOtter;
I�ve been present on two occasions when shotguns discharged as they were being un-cocked with a live round in the chamber.

The first time was a Russian Baikal single shot and the 2nd time was a Mossberg bolt action. The first time was when I was very young and it happened to me, the 2nd time it happened to another hunter who did it behind me without me knowing it was being done. Both times a safe muzzle direction saved me, but still scared me spitless.

Suffice it to say it is a topic I cover very thoroughly when I teach gun handling in CORE.

When I hunt with anyone else, which unless it�s our daughters is pretty rare, I insist the person I�m with has a cold chamber. In my work I�ve done far too many accident investigations to believe that the vagaries of life will never catch up to me. I�m just not that lucky.

When I hunt down here in the Okanagan, not only is the rifle empty but it�s often slung, as I find I glass better with two hands.

As you know down here, we can bump into whitetail or mule deer, elk, moose, California Bighorn, goats, bears and a few species of range animals too. Since we have gender and on most animals point restrictions as well, one has a bit of identifying to do before proceeding.

If the piece of ear or leg that I�ve spotted turns into a legal animal, I then heat up the chamber and do my best to empty it into the animal. I�ll note that about half the time I hunt with a Number One and the rest of the time a bolt gun of some description. Both actions can be used with about the same amount of elapsed time I believe.

While I�m sure my method has perhaps cost me a deer or two, I can�t really complain too loudly as our red meat seems to come off the mountain for the most part.

I suppose it might be a regional thing as well, but for us here in the mountains with the shin-tangle and such it has been a safe and productive way for us to hunt.

Good luck on all your upcoming hunts and especially those with your daughter. Good on you for taking her out!

Regards,
Dwayne