Do you hunt with loaded or empty chamber?

It’s actually mind boggling how many people here don’t trust themselves to handle a gun safely while it’s loaded. I don’t think I’d feel comfortable hunting with someone like this. If you can’t trust yourself, I sure as heck won’t trust you with a gun for the short time it is loaded in your hands.

My gun is loaded during the entire hunt, when legal. I’ve never actually heard of people hunting without one in the chamber until I read it on CGN years back.
 
City Boy said:
As far as a full magazine … well depends what you have; like a Lee Enfield or someactions can load ten rounds and that could be overkill.
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Most hunters I know carry spare ammo of some sort, seems pretty common to have a spare box in their day pack or in a shell holder of some sort.

I look at magazines the same way, it’s where I keep my spare ammo. I usually have a 5rd in my rifle and a 10rd on my belt, currently all my hunting rifles use box mags. I was away for the weekend hunting with a buddy and dropped my rifle hard enough to want to check my zero, it was way off. Glad I had a full 10rd mag plus a couple 5rd chargers of .303 to be able to re zero, closest place to buy .303 was a few hrs away.

If I’m wandering around with a shotgun I’ve got a loaded mag tube and 6 more shells in a velcro card on my belt, maybe another card in a pocket or pouch.
 
Status of carry is context based and depends on the circumstances at the time. Having an unloaded / not chambered firearm is a safety liability in some places that I go. Carrying a loaded, chambered firearm while hunting in the field or in a predator infested area is a far different scenario than someone with weak skills who goes camping with a defender or pretends to hunt one week per year.
 
Walk hunt with a bolt rifle. 2 standard hunting rounds first then a heavy for caliber anti predator round at third in the mag, safety on. ( 06, 2 180s, n a 220) Walk hunt very thick coastal rainforest so never know when a deer might walk out 20 yards in front. Lots of black bear and cougar, a few grizzlies as well.
 
Walk hunt with a bolt rifle. 2 standard hunting rounds first then a heavy for caliber anti predator round at third in the mag, safety on. ( 06, 2 180s, n a 220) Walk hunt very thick coastal rainforest so never know when a deer might walk out 20 yards in front. Lots of black bear and cougar, a few grizzlies as well.
 
Bustercluck said:
I hope you’re joking. This is what your bolt face looks like when you do that. I might try this and bang my butt against a tree to see if i can make it fire.
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No the bolt face does not look like that when closing the bolt and dropping the firing pin while actually closing it. It has a primer against it, so it cannot protrude past that.

The firing pin isn't cocked and has no tension on it.

Banging your butt stock against a tree with a live round in the chamber is the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard.

Better to bang your head against the tree with no guns around........:(
 
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Call me crazy, but I'm pretty sure you can't shoot anything without one in the pipe?
Just teasing kids. Some great responsible answers.
For me it depends on many different variables. But I always fall back to a safe protocol.
Variables include solo/group, rifle type, season/species/predators, geography/terrain, transportation and regs.
Primarily I take a zero risk to the safety of others point of view. Hopefully that will translate to me living longer too.
Cheers
 
empty chamber, full mag (and a spare)

plenty of time to coc the rifle when I see something to shoot

and when hunting from a truck or quad mag is in a easy to reach pocket ;)

and I really don't care what other people are doing, and would find it weird if someone came up to me and opened their bolt to show how safe they are.
 
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canadian hunter312 said:
It’s actually mind boggling how many people here don’t trust themselves to handle a gun safely while it’s loaded. I don’t think I’d feel comfortable hunting with someone like this. If you can’t trust yourself, I sure as heck won’t trust you with a gun for the short time it is loaded in your hands.

My gun is loaded during the entire hunt, when legal. I’ve never actually heard of people hunting without one in the chamber until I read it on CGN years ago
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An unloaded gun is the same as not having a gun.
Rabbit hunting with my eldest grandson, yes, it's loaded.
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Butcherbill said:
Basically from the moment I walk away from my truck till I’m back in sight of the truck my gun is loaded with the safety on, I unload it if I need both hands to do something like climb over/under a fence or some blowdown. Mags are fully loaded.

I hunt primarily solo, when I hunt with other people it’s with the same 2-3 people and we’re all on the same page with safe handling. I’ve spent a lot of time at the range with each of them and we trust each other 100%, I’m left handed they’re all right handed. If we’re walking trails together I always stand on their right, both our respective muzzles face out and away from each other.
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This.^^^
 
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