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Old November 28, 2018, 06:20 PM   #13
jmr40
Senior Member
 
Join Date: June 15, 2008
Location: Georgia
Posts: 10,792
This has been out there for a while and been HOTLY debated on some other forums. There is no simple answer and there are 2 different debates. Hot or cold chambers in rifles, and hot or cold chambers in handguns.

Where I live the custom is to carry rifles and shotguns with a chambered round. But in many places the custom is to keep the chamber unloaded until game is spotted and a shot is imminent. If you're on a guided hunt in many places the guide will refuse to hunt with you if you insist on a loaded chamber.

I've been a hunter safety instructor since 1986 and the IHEA does not suggest cold chambers as a rule. They do teach that the chamber should be cold if crossing rugged terrain, crossing ditches, fences, or entering a stand or vehicle. In many places the terrain is rugged enough to justify cold chambers more often than not. And I understand a guides reluctance to walk around with an unknown, untested hunter following him with a hot chamber.

I've been on one guided hunt and the guide had no problem with hot chambers. But this was in the desert in New Mexico. Not on a steep, snow covered rocky slope at 10,000' up in the Rockies. I've done that too on a DIY elk hunt and my chamber was cold in several places where the footing was questionable.

Handguns are different. If the gun is in a secure holster I believe in hot chambers. But there are times where guns are stored, or carried with no holster and I don't necessarily like them chambered. Especially guns with no traditional external safety like a Glock.

In this case the guide made several mistakes that cost him his life. I have no issue with his choice in handguns. That would be, in fact is the same choice I've made. But in this case the gun should have been with him and a round should have been chambered. Odds are very, very good he'd be alive today if he had.

Quote:
But if I am in Grizzly country I want my guides "grizzly emergency gun" to be a rifle starting with at least a couple 3's if not a 4 or a shotgun.
I might be mistaken, but believe they were archery hunting and the guides handgun did start with a 4.

I think this is relevant and needs to be shared. ANY handgun is far more effective than most of us have been taught. There are 37 instances profiled here where people used handguns to defend themselves from both black and grizzly bear. All but one was successful and that was because the person was thought to have missed with all shots. The 44 magnum was the most commonly used cartridge, but the 9mm, 40 S&W, 10mm, and 45 ACP combined for more bear stops than 44.

https://www.ammoland.com/2018/02/def...#axzz5Ucf4zGTb
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