When do you chamber a round while hunting?

It doesn't dent your primer because it's pushing the firing pin back against the spring pressure. It's still resting against the primer though. But you would need an tremendous amount of jolt to bring the firing pin back far enough to have the pressure needed to set the primer off. It's not good practice though.

therifleman556 said:

depends entirely on how fast you lower the bolt handle.

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I feel like this is the first time I've been helpful on this forum in a long time. Haha. It feels good.

I Never pack a rifle with one in the chamber, way too easy to have a brush, twig, or clothing knock the safety off.
Just happened to my buddy, we were stalking some elk in heavy bush, he chambered one, had the safety on and after 20min we backtracked and were gonna go around to intercept the elk, he looked down and cursed, his safety had gotten knocked off and he had been carrying a loaded rifle without realizing.
So it's always A and instead of using safety I'll leave the bolt open and close when I'm ready to shoot

300whisper said:

I never decock on a loaded round, so I wouldn't know the actual speed of a firing pin being decocked. I also don't know the speed required to fully puncture a primer. It must be significant, though, because I'm sure we have all seen light primer strikes that clearly dent the primer but do not set it off.

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You can decock on an empty chamber - doesn't have to be a round in to see how fast the firing pin falls. You can audibly hear it and see it...

Bolt guns, safety engaged, round chambered.

Lever/hammer, round chambered, hammer at half cock/safety notch.

Dropping a rifle on the pad is going the opposite direction you would need to fire it, dropping on the muzzle could drive the pin forward, again it would take a hit.
Dropping the pin on a loaded round you've full filled all but one requirement to fire, and you don't have any more safeties for that. To pack a rifle like that is litterally say to heck with all available safeties. I've played things dangerous when it was only my issue but now with kids and fire arms it just seems ignorant and tempting fate to not use the available safeties both by just not loading till ready and when loaded all available safeties are used.

Always one in the boom pipe.

On horseback- one in the bang chamber, bolt handle disengaged and secured in the up position.

Leverguns are a different game.

Sidearm always loaded, one in the go tube regardless of action. 1911 carried in condition one most of the time, otherwise it's a striker fired pistol or large revolver.

bigngreen said:

Dropping a rifle on the pad is going the opposite direction you would need to fire it, dropping on the muzzle could drive the pin forward, again it would take a hit.
Dropping the pin on a loaded round you've full filled all but one requirement to fire, and you don't have any more safeties for that. To pack a rifle like that is litterally say to heck with all available safeties. I've played things dangerous when it was only my issue but now with kids and fire arms it just seems ignorant and tempting fate to not use the available safeties both by just not loading till ready and when loaded all available safeties are used.

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So, I would have to slam it down muzzle first really hard in order for it to fire? You can't accidently fire it by touching the trigger.

Seems safer than gambling on a safety to stay engaged while you are hiking around.

FIGJAM said:

You can decock on an empty chamber - doesn't have to be a round in to see how fast the firing pin falls. You can audibly hear it and see it...

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Yeah I forgot about that. I do that all the time. Lol thanks.

FIGJAM said:

So, I would have to slam it down muzzle first really hard in order for it to fire? You can't accidently fire it by touching the trigger.

Seems safer than gambling on a safety to stay engaged while you are hiking around.

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Not really, if your pin is resting on the primer your ready to light, no failure needed other than a fall or a hit. With the safety you have to have a major malfunction and pull the trigger to fire, there is some redundancy to the safety, there is none if the pin is resting in a fire possition on a primer.
The safest is nothing in the pipe, second is a three position safety on the bolt that machanically locks the pin then you have three possition sear blocking then two positions which I have seen have issues in Rems when removing the safety and firing but removing the safety happens with proper controlled procedure to round goes into the dirt not someone.

bigngreen said:

Not really, if your pin is resting on the primer your ready to light, no failure needed other than a fall or a hit. With the safety you have to have a major malfunction and pull the trigger to fire, there is some redundancy to the safety, there is none if the pin is resting in a fire possition on a primer.
The safest is nothing in the pipe, second is a three position safety on the bolt that machanically locks the pin then you have three possition sear blocking then two positions which I have seen have issues in Rems when removing the safety and firing but removing the safety happens with proper controlled procedure to round goes into the dirt not someone.

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You can't say it will take a hard hit to the muzzle to cause it to fire and then make a statement like this that implies it would take a fall or a hit and it could easily discharge. I am 100% agreeable that nothing in the chamber is the safest way to hunt. Safeties get knocked off or people forget to put them on. I have never seen an accidental discharge with the firing pin disengaged. You can dislike the method all you want, but to argue one in the pipe and the safety on is safer is a stretch.

I would love to hear from somebody who has actually had an accidental discharge either disengaging the firing pin on a bolt action or while the firing pin was already disengaged.

How many people have thought their safeties were on and then realized they were not, because it was either bumped off or you forgot to put it on? I don't expect anybody to admit this on here, but my guess it is more common that most of us realize...

Also, if I have to ram the muzzle into the ground to cause a AD, the ground is a pretty safe place for the muzzle to be pointing.

FIGJAM said:

When my bro in law showed me how to do this I thought he was ******* crazy...when we came back from hunting that day, I sat there and banged the buttstock on the ground, hard, trying to get the round to fire and it wouldnt. You are acting like it is a small bump away from firing and that is just ******** - its not true.

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Don't ask the question, or pose the scenario, if you can't accept answers. You can't handle the truth? Or you don't come to learn anything? If you already "knew best", why bother asking?

Theres a fine line between ignorance and being a fool!!

Did we beat the "C" out of this post yet? Do what we will, but further discussion/argument seems futile. The bottom line and I am sure we all agree is that SAFETY is paramount and risks should never be taken no matter how small. I am out of here.