Always treat a gun like it's loaded

[joken]

My best friend passed away in May. He wrote a barely legible note to his wife to leave me his Vanguard 257 wby. He died the next morning. A few months later I asked his wife if she still had his Browning Pump Shotgun and she said she would sell it to me. I removed the gun from his safe, pointed it at the floor, cycled the action, and ejected three shells including the one in the chamber. The base of the round in the chamber was quite rusty and had likely been in there since a Duck Season or two past.

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[Nutty4Guns]

Thanks for not Baldwining the situation.

 

[Ruger Rich]

My best friend passed away in May. He wrote a barely legible note to his wife to leave me his Vanguard 257 wby. He died the next morning. A few months later I asked his wife if she still had his Browning Pump Shotgun and she said she would sell it to me. I removed the gun from his safe, pointed it at the floor, cycled the action, and ejected three shells including the one in the chamber. The base of the round in the chamber was quite rusty and had likely been in there since a Duck Season or two past.

A real life reminder, thanks

 

[orygun]

Sorry about your friend.

Good catch on the shotgun.

 

[Andy54Hawken]

Sorry about your friend's passing.

Mistakes happen....some things in life are more forgiving of mistakes.
Firearms ain't one of those things.

As noted above good catch on the Browning.
Andy

 

[joken]

A real life reminder

A real life reminder, thanks

You said it better than I did, Rich. Thanks

 

[Yarome]

Condolences on the passing of your friend, but it does make perfect sense.
A firearm isn't much good if it isn't loaded and I doubt many folks are so attuned to their time of passing to think to safe all their weapons before crossing into the great hunting grounds.

I wouldn't think that should have come as much of a surprise and rules 1, 2 & 3 aren't the first 3 rules without good reason.

 

[DB is Here]

God speed to your friend. The reminder is one we should all take to heart.

 

[Phred]

"Always treat a gun like it's loaded" I can still hear my Dad telling me that 65 years ago. Times change, rules like that never change.

 

[Capn Jack]

Sorry about your friend, but he may have thought the way I do. Two of the handguns in my safe, just above eye level, are positioned loaded, safety off and grips facing out.

I had someone tell me years ago, "An empty gun is nothing but a pipe, with a piece of wood, or plastic attached to it."

 

[Provincial]

When I was dating my wife, who had been widowed for over eight years, she showed me his gun collection, which was stored in the master bedroom closet. She suggested that I check the guns out, and I discovered that several were loaded. She hadn't touched any of them since before he died.

She grew up around guns, hunted, and is very careful about gun safety. She just didn't have a reason to handle any of the guns that she didn't use herself.

 

[Xmark1]

Those are words to live by.

After a shooting session, when I'm returning my pistols to their cases, I have adopted the habit of pointing the gun in a safe direction and pulling the trigger. Of course, this is after I am sure the gun is not loaded.

Imagine my surprise, last month, when I did this, and my handgun discharged!

This is my first unintended discharge in over fifty years of handling firearms.

You can never, ever, be too careful!

 

[DunRanull]

When I am no more, folks had better check my firearms carefully. We have no kids and few guests, and there are loaded weapons in every room but the jon and kitchen. At one point I was able to stop a vicious assault in our home because of this "policy". Sad that the world is like it is.

 

[joken]

Condolences on the passing of your friend, but it does make perfect sense.
A firearm isn't much good if it isn't loaded and I doubt many folks are so attuned to their time of passing to think to safe all their weapons before crossing into the great hunting grounds.

I wouldn't think that should have come as much of a surprise and rules 1, 2 & 3 aren't the first 3 rules without good

reason.

Those are words to live by.

After a shooting session, when I'm returning my pistols to their cases, I have adopted the habit of pointing the gun in a safe direction and pulling the trigger. Of course, this is after I am sure the gun is not loaded.

Imagine my surprise, last month, when I did this, and my handgun discharged!

This is my first unintended discharge in over fifty years of handling firearms.

You can never, ever, be too careful!

When I was about 8 years old, I was out Grey Digger hunting with an old 1906 Winchester .22. I knew the magazine capacity and for some fool reason, I was keeping track of how many shots I had taken. I knew the rifle was empty because I had counted my shots. I casually pointed the rifle down and pulled the trigger, missing my foot by a couple of inches. I may have been counting because that's all the ammo I had.

 

[orygun]

Condolences on the passing of your friend, but it does make perfect sense.
A firearm isn't much good if it isn't loaded and I doubt many folks are so attuned to their time of passing to think to safe all their weapons before crossing into the great hunting grounds.

I wouldn't think that should have come as much of a surprise and rules 1, 2 & 3 aren't the first 3 rules without good reason.

When I was dating my wife, who had been widowed for over eight years, she showed me his gun collection, which was stored in the master bedroom closet. She suggested that I check the guns out, and I discovered that several were loaded. She hadn't touched any of them since before he died.

She grew up around guns, hunted, and is very careful about gun safety. She just didn't have a reason to handle any of the guns that she didn't use herself.

Before my old boss passed away (cancer) he told his wife to ask me about "disposing" of the guns he had, knowing that she wouldn't get screwed over, but he didn't think to make sure they were all clear. Fortunately his wife called another relative who knew firearms to come make sure they were all clear before anyone else touched them. Some were loaded, some not. At least she had the brains to have them checked before she and her grandson cased them.

 

[Paolung]

I treat guns "as if" they are loaded because mine often are. Most of my handguns, my shotgun, and a few of my rifles stay loaded around the home.

I definitely prefer the "as if they are loaded" verbiage to some of the language variants I've seen such as "all gun are always loaded" (which of course is not factually true).

It reminds me of a term I ran into a few years back which I found very helpful: a "metaphorical truth"; which is to say, not a literal truth, but rather something that, should we behave as though it were true, we fare better off than if we behave as though it were false.

 

[Mikej]

I have the habit of checking chambers deeply ingrained in me. The wife too. Any time I open the safe and pull a gun out, finger purposely off the trigger. And chamber check more than a couple/or more times during handling up until the last time before it goes back in the safe.

My old dad never did anything with his guns, that I remember. Antiques hanging above the mantle in the basement and a couple/three hand guns in a metal cabinet down there. He gave them all to me a couple years before he passed in Dec 2010. After he passed I'd found out he kept a loaded Winchester Model 12 in the coat closet by the front door. I never though of dad being afraid of anything. But I guess as their semi rural neighborhood changed over the years. And they'd been scammed by some chick pretending to need the phone to call for help and instead swiped his wallet from the table when they let her in out of the cold. Who knows what else? He must of thought he was safer that way. When mom had said I needed to take the model 12 too I found it was loaded with on in the chamber. (Shudder!)
As far as I know he hadn't regularly handled firearms since shooting his one deer around 1950-55.

 

[Yarome]

Fortunately his wife called another relative who knew firearms to come make sure they were all clear before anyone else touched them. Some were loaded, some not. At least she had the brains to have them checked before she and her grandson cased them.

Obviously, he thought she was one of the better ones, too... or he wouldn't have hung on to her.

Even for someone that isn't versed in firearm safety rules, it does lend to common sense to assume that a firearm owner is going to have at least one locked and loaded in the event of a SD situation.

That goes toward the more widespread universal rule of, "when unsure of something potentially dangerous, keep your fingers in your pockets".

Good on her for reaching out.

 

[Yarome]

I never though of dad being afraid of anything.

Well... yeah. Because worse comes to worst... he had a model 12 right there in the closet.

A readily available firearm negates a lot of fears.

 

[Mikej]

Well... yeah. Because worse comes to worst... he had a model 12 right there in the closet.

A readily available firearm negates a lot of fears.

The thing is, dad was failing, mentally. He wasn't showing signs of Alzheimer's. No anger, seeing things, living the past. I'm 99.9 % sure he hadn't shot since, or shortly after, I was born. And mom was starting with dementia when dad passed in 2010.