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When do you chamber a round while hunting?

When do you chamber a round while hunting?

  • A. No round in the chamber until you are ready to take a shot.

    Votes: 111 27.9%
  • B. Round chambered, safety on while hunting.

    Votes: 275 69.1%
  • C. Round chambered firing pin disengaged. If you hold the trigger down while chambering a round

    Votes: 12 3.0%

  • Total voters
    398
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I don't believe he's said one way or the other if that was condition B or C. I'm going to leave it with this because I think it bears repeating:



That's all I've got, let it sway who it may.

I think we both agree option A is by far the safest. My rifles won't fire in option C by dropping the gun on the buttstock or on its side. I have tried that and it didn't work. So for me, if there is a need to hike with a round in the chamber is it safer for me to cock the gun and rely on the safety not getting knocked off and the trigger hit...unlikely? Sure, but it happens. Watch the facebook video. Or I can run it in option C and the only way it will go off after decocking is to take a muzzle first dive into something (don't know this for certain, and I am skeptical - I haven't tested the muzzle first impact, but since I haven't disproved it, lets assume a significant muzzle first impact could cause a discharge). I'll personally take C every time. Trigger can get yanked on all day long and it won't fire.

For the idiot who doesn't clear his gun before he takes it in the home, C would also be a better habit so kids or dogs can't knock the safety off and pull the trigger.

Having said that, After this thread and that facebook video I will probably continue to hunt with option A and teach my son option A is the only way to go as well.
 
Like I said. My biggest gripe about option C is it is noisy, and not much faster than starting with an empty chamber. Most modern guns are pretty safe to carry hot with the safety on. I only use what I'm calling option D when with someone, or where I might trip, I will raise the bolt. This is really more for the piece of mind of my companion, and to plant a safety seed in his mind for my own piece of mind. This is important to me especially if I haven't hunted with him or her allot.

I am not sure it is much more noisy than flipping safety. It is quite a bit less noisy than chambering a round and running the bolt the entire cycle. When the gun cocks there is a click, but when you flip a safety there is also a little noise.
 
Deer here will run at a click if about 150yds or closer if no wind. Metallic click really sets them off. I use two fingers to ease the safety off noiseless. You can also lower a bolt without making a sound. Habit?? Both me and my girls have spooked deer flipping a safety.
 
I tend to hunt larger size caribou and elk and I have found the safest thing to is have a trigger lock that hold the bolt extractor closed on a spent round or empty chamber.

As long as the trigger lock is togged it is a lugged pivot hitting the rifle with a hammer is not going to change the lug configuration when locked. That does mean wearing wick away layer on the hands a soft cotton or wool glove and then a leather glove laced behind the wrists. Then you have to pause when you think you see movement. Un-sling the rifle, put the magazine in, verify that you are certain it is the game animal you want to shoot, unlock the trigger lock while looking down the scope, jack up the bolt, and then use the noise of the bolt locking forward on a round. Usually the caribou are far enough away to spook but not enough to run. With their head up and ears fully rotating, the neck is much better of a target.


As far a bear I would carry a handgun on a thigh rig and slap in a ten round clip and walk two rounds into the ground in front of it and the rest as it got closer and hope that deterred it enough until the rifle could be brought to focus on the throat. Then again avoiding strong smells like Cologne / perfume, musk / sweat, beer or cigerates, then they do not tend to notice hunters. It does mean dry cleaning your clothing if you smoke and showering with lemon grass, or carrying something that triggers a panic reaction into the woods. wolves, hogs, varmits hunt by sound primarily scaring them away is a simply recording wood being cut up with an axe sloshing some water on it and sucking it up with a wet vac. bears that is smell mostly if you are smaller and smell like an animal or a forest fire you get attacked. It is more part of situation awareness than hunting. If the animal can not smell you because you use lavender and fluoride to remove decaying matter and not cover it up with lotion, you tend to smell more like a tree, zinc oxide like life guards wear works for sun protection.
 
There is one certainty in all this. If the MUZZLE never covers something you don't want DEAD none of this discussion matters. I used to dove hunt a lot with a Perazzi that didn't even have a safety. Enjoyed hunting with that old target gun too!
 
Headspace=opportunity to move. There is quite a little room from the rim to the extractor when measures on many designs.

Headspace is from the bolt face to the datum point on the chamber. The base of the cartridge to bolt face is always constant Unless your extractor is missing or out of specification.
 
Headspace is from the bolt face to the datum point on the chamber. The base of the cartridge to bolt face is always constant Unless your extractor is missing or out of specification.
You have both the firing pin, and an ejector plunger (if equipped) holding the cartridge against the extractor. The cartridge is slightly off the bolt face. This is where he is coming from.
 
Headspace is from the bolt face to the datum point on the chamber. The base of the cartridge to bolt face is always constant Unless your extractor is missing or out of specification.
The extractor does not hold the case at all till primary extraction unless you have a grossly over sized case. Headspace is your wiggle room.
 
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