Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Handguns Cold Carry

I've never seen the topic posted down here, but I'm wondering how many handgun hunters carry cold? By cold I'm meaning no round in the chamber or under a hammer. That would mean a full magazine in an auto loader is fine, but with an empty chamber, and with a wheel gun no round under the hammer and maybe an empty cylinder chamber on the next one up, or maybe not. Anyway, how do you go in the field?

I'm just gonna assume those who carry concealed do so hot. If not, chime in and set me straight.

Why would you carry cold? I can think of no good reasons.

For handgun hunting for big game, I use a T/C Contender, A Ruger Bisley Blackhawk, and a S&W Model 29. The Contender is carried loaded and hammer un-cocked, of course. Both the revolvers are carried loaded full-up. I see no need for an empty chamber/charge hole under the hammer or the next on up for either of them. I don't hunt with centerfire auto pistols.

Fur CCW, I carry hot.

The replys to your questions ought to be interesting.

Safety is the reason usually put forth by the Alaskan and Western hunters as it concerns rifle carry. Cold carry might be purpose defeating in ccw mode, but for hunting could be as effective as with a rifle, though spooked game when a slide was racked could spoil the fun.

Always hot. As for a revolver, in the old days of Colt Single Action Armies it made sense to carry with an empty chamber under the hammer, but those days are long past. There is no longer any reason (unless you're carrying a SAA or a clone) to carry any revolver with an empty chamber under the hammer.

NEVER carry ANY handgun cold, just plain silly.

Empty chamber on a CCW is a dead man's gun.

If it makes you feel better to carry a revolver on a empty cylinder the only real damage you are doing is cheating yourself out of a round of ammo.

If you carry a semi-auto for self protection with just a loaded magazine just remember that you will be the first to die.

I carry a pistol for self protection and always fully loaded.

Just my opinion.

Dink

You mean, of course, "empty chamber." The cylinder is what rotates the chambers, lining them up, in turn, with the barrel. You modern cops need a revolver primer.

The Israeli' would disagree with you. They often carry with an empty chamber and it doesn't slow them down too much

It's still an unnecessary risk. During extreme stress, you could easily screw it up. Why take the chance? I also notice that in step two they are losing valuable time unnecessarily. A good chunk of one second that could easily mean the difference between life and death.

I have shot along side Israeli soldiers and they do just fine.

The reality is that 99.99% of the time its not a speed draw contest and the most dangerous "delay" occurs as the shooter accesses the situation and decides whether he is going to use deadly force. Bascially folks freeze.

The main argument against carrying cold like that is if one arm is dissabled before the slide is racked back, but again they train around that..

The few times I carried a pistol for "real" we carried Condition 3 and only went to Condition 1 when shooting was imminent. We had no choice in the matter as it was SOP's..

I've hunted tree squirrels occasionaly with Ruger MkII and would not carry holstered hot but its hot if on stand or stalking with gun in hand.

Other wise all other handguns are hot.

I believe it's also SOP in the United States armed forces, short of special elite units.

Assesses

I am usually going to be full of chicken fried steak, gravy, dinner rolls & tea when the need arises for my CCW so "cocked, locked & ready to rock" works for me.

When I was in the Army we carried a .45 with an empty chamber.
If you get yourself in a situation where you get caught with your pants on the ground you probably don't have time to draw your weapon either.
I had a friend who could rack the slide with the pistol in the holster one handed.
It is possible to be carrying cocked and locked and accidentally bump off the safety with some holsters.
My feeling is if you have time to draw you have time to chamber a round. I had to chamber a round once when my partner was searching a vehicle and I had several people face down on the gravel. When you chamber a round with a 1911 at night out in the boondocks peoples eyes can get pretty big all of a sudden!
whelennut

Yeah, I can't see going cold on a ccw either. Criminitly, I'd have to drop my fatback biscuit (with extra fatback) in order to chamber the gun.

Can't see that happening anytime soon.

Besides, I may get shot in my biscuit arm, and then I couldn't rack the action. Where would that get me?


As far as the M29 for hunting, I actually do carry cold chamber on that one. It's never taken me more than two shots to take care of bizness anyway.

In a civillian setting in the U.S.,.. you'll only realize that you need a gun *after* the goblin has already produced one.

You better be quick, your weapon better be quicker, you better have a plan formulated beforehand, and you better hope that the goblin doesn't.

Any defensive handgun I'll be using will require nothing more than a trigger pull for it's first shot.

All the rationalization defending an empty chamber is just that.

No matter what you say, it's still an extra step that you can avoid. Any number of things can happen to make that step go too slowly or not a all.

Since it's not necessary, why test fate? I don't work for the Israeli Army, or the US Army for that matter, so I can carry my gun any way I please, and I'll be damned if I'm going to hand any advantage at all to someone I might need to use it on.



Your logic is backwards here Pete. If the gun is coming out, a CCW holder has already decided deadly force is warranted. But to carry on with your argument, do you want someone who is prone to freezing to have to go through the extra step of making his gun ready to fire? Seems like a bad plan to me.