Bolt up instead of safety switch?

[Sika98k]

I once had an ad with a 20 side by side. While quail hunting I reloaded and closed the action and one barrel fired. I couldnt imagine my finger was near the trigger so I tried it again with the same result. Finally figured out that one of the firing pins was stuck in the fire position so it automatically fired when the action was closed. Everyone was safe because it was pointed in a safe condition. I will never allow a firearm to be pointed at me and I will never point one at myself or at another person. I know one person who’s dead and another lost use of his knee from their own firearms. Twice I’ve ended hunts because some idiot couldnt control their muzzle.

This is why when you close a shotgun you bring the stock up to the action not vice versa. This is one of the many points on gun handling mentioned on our shoot.
It happened a week ago, gun went off, blew a nice hole in the ground. Man went home with just the one sock .
Diagnosed as a stuck firing pin.

 

[Longwalker]

For DG, a sling isnt ideal for obvious reasons.

Not obvious to me! During 95% of all hunting, including dangerous game hunting, the hunter is not in the immediate presence of game. In those most desirable other situations, the rifle is much more useful, safe and available when carried in two hands. I also find it quicker, safer, and generally more reasonable to bring my slung rifle to aim than a rifle carried in the ridiculous “Africa carry” position. The myth of a sling getting in the way is just that - a myth. And, QD swivels take care of any remaining objections to the extremely small, but admittedly real risk of a sling somehow interfering with a shot that must be quickly made in self defence.

 

[mark-hunter]

Many clay pigeon ranges, that I have visited, ban using a sling on the gun, on the range. There must be a reason for that.

 

[mikecatt13]

Not obvious to me! During 95% of all hunting, including dangerous game hunting, the hunter is not in the immediate presence of game. In those most desirable other situations, the rifle is much more useful, safe and available when carried in two hands. I also find it quicker, safer, and generally more reasonable to bring my slung rifle to aim than a rifle carried in the ridiculous “Africa carry” position. The myth of a sling getting in the way is just that - a myth. And, QD swivels take care of any remaining objections to the extremely small, but admittedly real risk of a sling somehow interfering with a shot that must be quickly made in self defence.

There is absolutely no way you can get me to carry a gun with a sling on it though brush where it can get hung up, or where a rapid reload is likely needed and a sling can complicate weapons manipulations, in a situation where people's lives may depend on nothing going wrong. No chance. Sling carry is also the most likely for something to go wrong under stress trying to deploy the weapon rapidly in both the aspects of a safety and just not being able to deploy the weapon in time.

I'm interested to test different non-sling carry methods on a legitimate shot timer during my practice. Nothing will beat 2 handed carry, my guess would be trail carry shortly behind, but african carry is not as slow as you would think either.

 

[Nevada Mike]

This is why when you close a shotgun you bring the stock up to the action not vice versa. This is one of the many points on gun handling mentioned on our shoot.
It happened a week ago, gun went off, blew a nice hole in the ground. Man went home with just the one sock .
Diagnosed as a stuck firing pin.

I think that break open shotguns and DRs, while they have many excellent virtues, are more dangerous than bolt rifles. Especially if the bolt gun has a three position safety.

The SxS or O/U shotgun/rifle is SOMETIMES equipped with an intercepting sear that will interrupt the fall of the tumbler (hammer) if the main sear is jarred out of the bent. This means that the gun cannot be fired unless the trigger is pulled. However, the vast majority of shotguns do not have this feature and rely only on a simple trigger locking safety catch. As pointed out in a couple other posts, break open guns can fire on closing and on heavy recoiling rifles firing one barrel may jar loose the hammer on the neighboring barrel resulting in 'doubling'. The design of most single triggers on double guns is often problematic as well and accidental discharges can and do happen.

When bird hunting the danger is multiplied - dogs, hunting partners, fast flushing birds going in various directions and excited hunters swinging shotguns account for a lot of injuries to dogs and people.I do a lot of bird hunting and am very careful about who I hunt with.

Muzzle control is always the ultimate answer to gun safety. Mt father was an NRA shooting and safety instructor. If he ever saw one of us boys handling a gun unsafely, even swinging the muzzle of an 'unloaded' gun across someone he would take the gun away from us and lock it up for 30 days. no excuses accepted. I learned early.

Despite that early training, I had an incident some years ago while hunting quail in the high sage brush of south central Washington. Dog on point, I approached for the flush, not seeing my partner relocate froward and behind some brush ahead of me. Birds flushed, I fired as the birds went out over the top of the brush and peppered the scalp of my friend who was unseen in the line of fire. It was my fault for not knowing exactly where he was when I fired - thought that he was to my right while I approached the point. He knew the dog was on point and I never understood why he moved down the gully behind the brush in front of me. This spooked the hell out of me and re-doubled my concern for safety habits when hunting.

Murphy's Law is always in force.

 

[Clodo Ferreira]

Hello,

I hate an open bolt as a safety measure. I think it is VERY unstable and trouble prone. No good in any hunting situation.
To me there are only two ways to carry a long gun in hunts, depending the exact moment:
-Full magazine and chamber empty.
-Full magazine, loaded chamber AND safety on.

Plus: The muzzle pointing in a TOTALLY SAFE DIRECTION!!

Best!

CF