Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game empty chamber?

Very well articulated. It would seem that differences in terrain, number of deer, method of hunting, number of hunters together, and on and on, get little thought process in this discussion. Thanks for bringing a cogent thought process to the thread.

I find lifting the bolt (and thus leaving the rifle technically loaded, but out of battery) to be a useful tool if I'm hiking somewhere where it seems, well, desirable to make the gun unfireable without the hassle and noise of fully unchambering the rifle.

Then again, I'm primarily hunting hot, and so just temporarily disabling the weapon.

What do all you empty chamber Ruger #1 shooters do? No bolt to lift.

Or do empty chamber hunters boycott #1s and all other single shots?

Bob,Hunting "out west" is not all open country probably a less than 30 percent in CO. I spent my youth in PA hunting the dense laurel thickets and those have nothing on the scrub oak here.
As you stated, learning the art of still hunting slow and methodially greatly reduces the trips/falls.

I still sincerely believe all this hype about hunting cold is brought on by the basic fear of firearms. I don't hear much about the older generations crying out to carry cold.Most of us carry hot as I believe 95% of the hunters in the U.S. do. Maybe it is all these younger guys being raised by the fear mongering soccer moms who over protcet thier younger ones from just about everything.

I've only hunted with my #1 once, last October for antelope. Depending on the situation I carried it both ways.

If hunting elk or deer things would be little different than when hunting with my levers or bolts - lots of time appropriate for empty carry. Trying to think of an antelope, deer or elk I've taken in the last few years where it would have made a difference and am coming up empty. One obviously has to go hot at some point, just as you do with the others.

saddlesore: Yes I agree....I have hunted those oak brush jungles and PJ forests around Durango a number of times....you had better be on your toes there as well.It is hard to cover all terrain types in a single post,but I treat much western hunting a lot like back east,and hunt mule deer out there a variety of ways, but frequently get very aggressive,and have killed many of my biggest bucks still hunting bedding areas near dense, heavy cover...it is much like whitetail hunting here.

Philosophically on this stuff, I don't know what to say. I was raised on construction sites,around tools and dangerous heavy equipment.People handle this equipment every day. To me, managing a loaded rifle is no different than dealing with a chain saw.....you have to be aware of what's in your hands at all times, and what you are doing.There is a right way and a wrong way...You don't get second chances if you screw up.

I don't know if it's soccer mom's or not.... but I get your drift.It seems many today have gotten away from the older standards of shooting field positions,grabbing an available field rest, using a sling,shooting from the sit and off hand,ie.,the increased use of artificial aids and obsession with group size and long shots has diminished all this.

These drills,not only taught how to hit with a rifle and be precise under stress and unsteady positions,but to also teach what I'll call "gun management"...how to manage a dangerous implement safely,and accurately,with some degree of dexterity and precision.

"Old timers" were taught this stuff...but not today as many have moved away from it or were never taught.I see it all the time...hand some guys a rifle,tell them to drop into a sit,or prone without a bipod,and hit a volley ball at 150-200 yards,within 5-8 seconds, they can't do it.Nor can they get off an accurate shot at the same volley ball,off hand within 100 yards. Because they think all rifle shooting is off sticks and bipods and sand bags....such guys handle and manage a rifle in a detached sort of way,that seems to demonstrate a lack of real familiarity with a dnagerous "tool".

Old timers used to drill this stuff....I would see them at the range,doing nothing but off hand at 100-200 yards.This builds confidence,familiarity,and dexterity(safety) with a rifle.I never see any hunters do it today...only match shooters.

Because it is "work"....far harder than relying on a bipod to hit.The practice adds up to muscle memory,and learning the "rules" about carrying hot,how to do it safely,and knowing when not to, because it is simply not "safe".My read on things.

Generally run cold until an animal is in sight. But a #1 is even easier to open than most bolt guns are, dropping the lever instead of lifting the bolt.



I wonder if that explains, in part, why deer numbers are less? I wonder how many people actually make good the ID of their quarry before 'letting one go'? I've hunted deer enough in the dense forests of northern Minnesota to realize that seeing the antlers on the head of a jumped deer often uses up a significant part of the time one sees them before they're gone.

Changing tactics seems like a preferable way to increase one's chances of success rather than compromising the length or quality of one's future. And that's not saying one might not still choose to hunt hot. Simply that that - at this point in my life anyway- is how I view things.

Yeah, a #1 is easy to open and close but you can't run around with it open and a cartridge in the magazine waiting to be injected when you slam the block home. I suppose you guys that hunt with cold chambered #1s carry a cartridge in your teeth and spit it into the chamber just as you are bringing the lever back and the block up.

I'm not a jump-shooter, but I also don't want to be fumbling around in my pockets for a cartridge when I have an animal that I want to take.

It is interesting to see the extreme positions taken.

Bob, couple of questions here.

1) You said you are carrying cold when others are around, so when you team up with another hunter to double team a deer are you cold?

2) What tactics are you using to double team deer? (Maybe this is a topic for a different thread)

edited to add comment to #2 question

Wayne

With respect to each and ever one posting on this subject, what I find most interesting is the amount of ridicule from both sides of the issue.

I read this the first time it came around and I changed much of my carry from hot to cold because of a physical change in my abilities. That is not to say that after hiking cold into a clearcut and finding a place to stand I would not go hot. Just as I would do if I was calling varmints.

But that is just me. If some want to carry hot and do so in a safe manor that is fine and I would never base my decision to hunt or not to hunt with them on their carry decisions. But from reading this it seems like some would not hunt with me because of my decisions. It appears to me to be another "My way or no way" thing. Guess I will never figure out that attitude.

Klik: No...that is not why deer numbers are less.We have rocky infertile soil here,and habitat not suited to sustaining large deer populations;relatively little agriculture, sever winters, and limite yarding areas.

All tactics "work" here....the further north you get,the less enticing a stand becomes.....woods are big,remote,deer density very low,and travel patterns unpredictable. I have seen the guys who stand hunt there, usually they are outfitted, afraid of the woods.Stands help guides keep track of hunters....most could not kill a deer down on their own two feet anyway.

Tracking and still hunting are eastern traditions..They work.There is no need for a change of tactics,except maybe among those who don't know how to do it, anyway.

Believe me, the woods are not littered with hunters who shoot themselves back here.

I am afraid of getting hurt by lots of stuff....but "I'm" not one of them

Klikitarik,



This is perhaps at odds with some of our hunters, but when I see a deer I don't look it over before bringing up the rifle. I recently I have been using either a 4 1/2-30X50 or 4-16X40 to hunt with. Either would be set on its lowest magnification. Even if a deer gets up so close it fills the scope I have no trouble getting on it and verifying whether it is a spike, doe or legal buck in that first second or two.

But may what some of the others have posted is correct: They don't practice. Dry-fire practice works. You get to hear the click and see where the crosshair is when you "fire".

ScottF - would you not be even more amazed were there LESS ridicule? After all, this is 24hr where ridicule and insult is the currency of the day. Or maybe you were surprised that there is not MORE?

18 and counting....

roundoak: 98% of the time, I hunt alone.

Some guys do hunt in tandem,to doubleteam....and this is more a controlled "push",not really a drive at all, but recognizes that deer evading one hunter may swing into another.Deer don't always run straight away, but will circle back,downwind, if disturbed.They like to keep tabs on their pursuers,and determine if they are a threat.

Ringman yes, we make an ID of the deer....we HAVE to, since mostly you hunt on a bucks only tag....personally, even if licensed, I don't shoot does.But yes this does make the process all the more difficult;and holding fire until you are certain of what you are shooting at,is common....If you can't tell the differences between a big northern buck and and an illegal doe, you likely should not be out there anyway.

It seems funny to me that so many regard still hunters/trackers as guys floundering through the woods flailing "sound shots",or wailing away at flags.Undoubtedly some of this goes on, but the notion that such hunting is regarded by some as an unsafe practice is amusing.

I jumped a large buck and breeding doe off a hardwood ridge one day at noon..I saw him but had no shot...I went after them down into a swamp....out on the other side, the doe went out from some dense firs,and I snapped the rifle up on her,but saw what she was,so immediately swung my head to the right, in time to see the buck swallowd up again in cover...

I saw him once more that day, after tracking him another mile or so....he gave me the slip,running low to the ground, tail tucked,and I had no shot.it was no problem telling what he was...a very good 10 point that would easily dress over 200 pounds.

It was an hour before dark and I had about 2 1/2 miles back to the truck....C'est la vie....

28 pages on my screen

14 here.

You maroons have your preferences set wrong!

Works for me, just like the way I carry my firearms while hunting.

It is page 20 for me. I will get my preferences changed immediately after posting this.

I am in enough hot water for my sometime cold sometimes hot stance. Don't need to get slammed for my preferences too.