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

What was it Saddlesore said, less than ONE death in Colorado every year? Gotta be many hundreds of thousands of hunters..... and that one death is going to be due to things other than AD/ND at least some of the time...

If you are gonna sweat odds THAT long, many many places to look before you start hunting with an empty rifle... IMHO.

That attitude is fine except for the ONE PERSON that draws the short straw...


Some years ago a member of my erstwhile hunting party discovered his saftey was for looks only - somewhere along the way it had ceased to be functional, even though it was in the "SAFE" position. The only thing that had prevented an AD was good gun handling (keeping his finger off the trigger) and the grace of god.

I would be willing to bet that most of the adamant "hot carry" types here don't really check their safety's functionallity by pulling the trigger after a round is loaded...

No one, including myself, will ever know how close I came to being the ONE PERSON that year. But I can tell you it was TOO DAMN CLOSE.

You're right Jeff, one death per year is pretty damn good. I'm sure your wife would be consolled knowing that you were the "ONE" and it could so easily have been prevented......

Too many puns to count, I know, but that weren't my intent.

You missed the point of it only taking one.....

You missed it by a huge margin....

You likely will never see/get that.

Why don't you Jeffy, post up Oregon's bow hunting success stats.

Those guys have got to be at their wits end and forever eating tag soup the way you describe it.

So, Wildswalker, the number of tags and the success rate of them will make your position look a little tainted by circumstance, thus, you won't tell us?

Wildswalker: post your state and unit!

(just kidding for Pete's sake... unload the flamethrower...)

If you think that's dumb I suggest you go back an read all your posts.

Maybe someday he'll figure out hunting ain't all about killing.

And waiting for someone to comment about the need to feed their family...

Once again I am guilty. Full mag, empty chamber, safe off to allow a rapid load.

Haven�t carried that way for a while though � not since last Saturday and Sunday, but all day both days. Of course, I haven�t carried since then, either.

Lotta ways to die in this world, and the one you guys are horned up is most certainly one of them.

Again, statistically, you can minimize the risk to yourself and those around you greatly by driving an un-modified vehicle (no lifts), on highway tires (no mud tires), below the speed limit.

I trust you are all doing that? If not, why not?

When I carry CCW it's with one in the chamber, and a pistol with NO traditional safety (Kahr or Glock).

Yipes. The danger. I just peed myself.

Have had to guide more than one individual adamant about carrying hot. The few that got past "No way" got to carry until I looked down their muzzle just one time. None ever made it an hour. The more they claimed perfect muzzle control they less likely they could deliver it.

Actually I trust my own ability perfectly, but there is no way I will be two-faced about it, either. I have had to find out just how fast and well I can shoot with bears coming at me. My abilities were at least adequate.

Jeff - A much more valid hot/cold chamber comparison to driving a vehicle would be someone driving down the road � at any speed � versus the guy having a morning cup of coffee in his kitchen, car keys in pocket.

sure,i like eggs too

No Jeff, you want to argue hunter safety stats and tag allocations, and terrain "difficulty" like it makes your damn case or something.

What you FAIL to realize is that it's a matter of One, YOU, singular and in ultimate control and responsibility of your weapon.

It's what YOU may or may not do, by your own power or by something beyond your control, that affects the outcome of a situation, good or bad.

YOU, an imperfect human being just like the rest of us, toting a mechanical devise otherwise known as a deadly weapon, that might fail without warning, both certainly can be documented as failing without warning and/or explanation.....and relying soley on YOU and IT to make it back home safely.

Since you couldn't find for yourself the root reason to vote AGAINST Obama, for example, we can't realistically expect you to understand this.....as this, like that, requires a little more than seeing things on the surface, or taking things at face value.

I don't give a damn if Oregon may have not had an accidental discharge of a firearm in the last thousand years....the NEXT ONE should never happen.

The fact that YOU advocate, and with childish stupidity, creating a situation that could very well cause ONE (in the statistical sense) to happen (that ALSO could have been easily prevented by YOUR willing action)leaves us cold chamber guys knowing it would be ONE TOO MANY.

We definately would say "toldja so".........

With all your insistant arguing against something that WOULD save your own life during an activity (that these days is really only recreational to most and NOT a matter of life and death survival) it's astounding to us that you would have so little disregard for your wife's future without you....should you shoot yourself in the head.

And don't give me that crap you NEED a deer, you post here on this forum with your cell phone.....let THAT sink in all the way before you knee jerk on it.

To hear you tell about your locale it sounds like you need to be parked in the deep and dark, facing a random opening, rifle at assault battery and pointed in the precise location a deer will be, and ready to blast 'em when the fleeting glimpse presents itself.....I call bullchit. THAT's YOU not being able to Hunt your locale. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know what you'll say, I don't know anything about Oregon. You are still full of chit on it.

Like I asked about before, What do the bow hunters do up there? Do they even bother with the conditions being so terrible and against them? Am betting they just find an easier state to hunt, huh..........

the way i read Sitka deer's post, he trusts his ability just fine.

Calm down.

I agree that an individual is responsible for their firearm.

I disagree, as does about 80% of us, that it needs to be unloaded while hunting, in order for that to be considered "responsible".

It's about that simple, and that it chaps your ass isn't my fault!

Now, your state and unit is completely relevant. I suspect, you are hunting an area with MANY tags, and very high success rates. In an area like that, a guy might make the decision to lose a few deer every year over the noise and motion of chambering a rifle. Or, your terrain and vegetation might be such that it kind of renders that moot; you are killing them from 150 yards away (as you've mentioned). You could probably CLEAN your rifle before taking that shot.

But you are extrapolating THAT into getting sand in your clam and gettin' all preachy about how the rest of us should hunt, or by God we are unsafe and don't belong in the woods! That's your mistake, and it's the part I take issue with. We aren't all hunting the same place, or the same way. In Oregon, we don't run deer with dogs. We don't do drives, that I've heard of anyway. We can't legally feed deer. In Wyoming, it seems that guys drive around glassing from their rig for miles around, then get out and try and put a stalk on a deer. Not much reason for THAT guy to be hunting hot; I'll agree with you!

That's not how it's done here. We get ONE TAG. It is a difficult, low-success rate tag. Not many Oregon blacktail hunters are gonna give up the one chance they MIGHT have on a buck because when they finally did everything right, or else got real real lucky, and there's your legal deer, you still have to be dickin' around loading the dang thing. A deer 20, 30 yards away won't stand for that.

So again, for the sake of fleshing our your side of the debate, give a general description of your state, unit, and the terrain and vegetation you hunt it. No reason not to... or is there?

Oergon bow hunters get a different (better) season, still have low success rates, and bitch plenty. And, I don't face a random opening. If I'm on stand, it's facing a very CAREFULLY CHOSEN opening... which is how I do well.

One last thing. I don't buy red meat. My deer and elk are what we eat for the year as far as that. Do I NEED it? No... but it's important to us, not for financial reasons but for other reasons.

What is your success rate annually on average, Jeff...?

Do y'all wonder if African guides follow up with a cold chamber?

Or, do just the safe/intelligent guides follow up cold?

Quick reply utilized, not directed at Stan_V

No matter how fervently you're moved, you can only say "Amen preacher" for so long... At some point the sermon has to stop. Saved or burnin' at some point you gotta say "Shutup preacher, it's time to go home". This thread is a good ways past that point....

Looking forward to how you would do it differently. (Advice from those who've not been there is always fun. I live considerably closer to SD than you apparently do, but I hardly feel like I'm in a position to second guess what he does.)