I typically use binoculars but if I forget them I'll scan with my rifle. Just know your surroundings, what's behind where you are scanning, know what your looking at and I keep my finger behind my trigger gaurd so there are no slip ups.

Oh but I do t know anything about hunting because I have an open bolt policy.

So which is it, at this second in your life? Because in a few more seconds you'll flip flop again.

Aaaaand here it is from yesterday, Mister Flip-Flipper.

Not carrying with a loaded chamber is better. Your "open bolt" policy is safe - but stupid for a bunch of other reasons that anyone who actually hunts doesn't need explained to them. It's so stupid/impractical I doubt you really even do it while hunting. My guess is you just made it up in response to being backed in a corner and have to stick with it now.

Let's just say I am always amazed at how much time is spent arguing about the most basic stuff that every 9 year old is taught in their Hunter Education classes. By a bunch of grown men on a hunting forum.

I hunt my own land. I regularly scan with a rifle with it chambered. Some of my shooting lanes are small and the animal will be gone before i could put my binoculars down. If I'm stalking, i wont take binoculars. Some areas are too thick and it's just something else to get tangled up.

Shown below is the result of someone who wasn't as careful when using a scope to identify a target.

I can honestly say that after some 40+ years of hunting, I have never seen another human through a rifle scope. But then, that's probably because I have never used a rifle scope to look for things that I could not clearly identify with the naked eye. IMO, that is the point being debated here, using a scope to locate potential targets that cannot be seen with the eyes alone.

When you use a scope to look into the brush to see something that you cannot see with the naked eye, you've just opened the door to allowing you eyes to play tricks on you. It points to the potential of being overly aggressive to shoot something, which the mind can take and run with. It can be a slippery slope for sure.

This sort of thing happens way more than people are willing to admit.

Lol!

Now I'm a liar and backed in a corner. You live in an alternative reality.

And you're still a flip flopper. The evidence is there for everyone, that lives in the real world to see.

Not four hours ago I sent my 19 year old stepson out clearing brush on the fence line. I placed my AR -15 on the four wheeler rack in case he saw a hog or coyote. Guess what? The bolt was locked open.

I'm just trying to figure what that video has to do with this thread...P_102

No closed bolts allowed in my truck or home (one exception my encore).
I don't walk/wander with chambered rifle either, I even hunt with open OU when upland hunting.
I have bolt open in blind also. Only time I don't have action open is in rain, but then again I don't normally wander in the rain.

I believe in high dollar optics, I normally don't "glass" from my scope, but I'm not going to lie and preach from a false pulpit to the world and say I have never used the zoom on my scope to get a better view or clarification

Only exception would be hunting in dangerous game area, but then again this is Texas and you probably need a loaded 375HH going to the deer blind in case a black panther attacks you. I'm amazed I'm still alive

"Only time I don't have action open is in the rain."

So you hunt walking/backpacking with the action open on your rifle? Just seeking clarification.

Anyone who walks/hunts with the action open on their rifles is doing some weird stuff. Period. I'll just call it silly, since stupid seems to offend. Normal people who know a thing or two simply walk with the bolt closed on an empty chamber and chamber a round when the time comes for shooting (or evaluating for possibly shooting) - meaning game located. Nothing is gained by walking around with an open action vs. an action closed on an unchambered round. Nothing. And much is risked - dirt in the rifleworks, bent/lost bolt, clanging bolt, bolt hanging on something, in a semi-auto bolt catching on something and accidentally slamming shut, and on and on and on.....

Never seen that, never heard of it, never expect to see it.

In a blind, leave the bolt open if you like. It's still silly (but admittedly lower on the silliness scale that walking around with an open bolt).Again, never seen that and don't expect to. Better practice is to chamber a round when settled, use your optics, and raise the rifle to shoot and/or evaluate game when seen. Then simply unchamber the round before you exit the blind.

I'm not an experienced upland game hunter so I'll defer to others on that score. I will say I don't approach Jenny pointed on a bird with my O/U broken open.

I have to agree with you here. The only exception I can think of is an at with a dust cover, but its going to be loud chambering a round.

I have followed this post with dismay. This is a landowners perspective, coming from a guy who leases out A big chunk of low fence private ground in texas, where some of the biggest deer in the region are taken each year. I have been to the banquet in Austin to accept the lonestar land Steward award. (Google it if you don't know what it is). I only shared that personal information so I would not be taken as a crackpot, but a guy that has seen hunters at their best and worst..
For most landowners the hunting is small potatoes in the profitability of our land. We lease it to share the resource with other sportsmen especially the youth who are the future. Usually the monetary goal is to simply cover the property taxes, and it is a general PITA. A landowners number one concern when leasing out the hunting rights is liability. Countless times I have seen hunters engage in unsafe actions and find a way to rationalize what they want to do, to make it ok. In my eyes the experienced hunter shoulders the moral obligation to set the right example for the young and inexperienced. Scanning the woods for game with a scoped rifle is not a safe practice. Come on guys you already know that. Closer evaluation of a game animal is pretty standard stuff. Having a rifle pointed at my son and me, or getting a call that some slack jawed redneck has pointed a rifle at a nearby neighbor, or an experienced hunter has accidentally shot another hunter is bad, and unfortunately part of what a landowner letting hunters on his property deals with. After further investigation the guys always have something to say like "I thought it would be ok if I was careful".
If you can't tell what you are looking at with the naked eye, use binoculars. If it's too far for binoculars use a spotting scope. If you don't have a spotting scope get one, or get close enough to see what you are looking at BY SOME OTHER MEANS THAN POINTING A WEAPON AT IT.
The decisions some upstanding and otherwise reasonable grown men rationalize, in the name of pursuing game at times leaves me shaking my head. Hunters putting at risk the surrounding hunters, the landowners property, family, employees, and neighbors is the kind of thing that cause landowners to cease granting hunting access on their property.
Sorry about the tirade. This thread hit a nerve.

Yelp handle is up.. in not saying you have to do that but yes that's how I and my wife hunt. My kids will be taught same thing. You walk up to shooting range or clay box with closed bolt?

I think it actually funny that "you" "have" to walk around with a loaded rifle. For a guy running his mouth about optics I find it really funny. Guess you hunt kick'em up style in the mountains...lol

last time I did have a rifle tag (over 10 years ago) and not an Archery tag, yes my rifle was strapped to my pack w/bolt handle up. I don't load my bolt rifles until I'm about to shoot. Only Exception is a blown opportunity but even then if I got to go far I'll clear chamber.

Fact you are mocking other on how they choose to up their level of safeness is pretty pathetic even for you.

But then again you don't get to take you wife to her fathers grave every year. A father that was taken early from this world via a hunting accident.

So again yes my chamber is empty and open on bolt rifles. I use to pull bolt out of my rifles and set them on the truck dash until I left it in another truck.

I think some of the problem we are having on this topic is because we four groups. Land owners who lease, land owners hunting their own land, hunters on leases, and hunters on public land. There is no one fits all solution for this. What works one place may not work on the other's place. However we try to shove our solution down another's throat because we believe our way is the only way.

As usual, very hard to follow.

I don't know where you get I walk with a loaded rifle. All I have ever said is just the opposite. Your reading comprehension worries me sometimes. Unless you are just making up straw men again to knock down.

Safeness is what this thread is about. In case you haven't looked, I'm on the safety side of the ledger.

I will say if the hunting accident in your family leads to what many might call "overkill" - I can understand that. Under such circumstances anyone could.

The judge has spoken, all hail the judge, of every safety and hunting technique there is in existence.

Same guy that accused me of taking too much time to chamber a round, walks around with a closed bolt on an empty chamber. So he has to make twice the amount of muscle movement to chamber a round, than an open bolt guy. Open, back, forward, lock is faster than forward lock.

Still living in an alternate reality from the rest of us. And still spouting hypocritical nonsense, believing no one can see what he wrote only a day ago.

Keep going NP. It's entertaining watching you continue to shoot your own foot.

And there's the proof of that

I voted yes because it is safe to look through your scope while hunting, when this mess started. The only time I require an open bolt or any specific safety rules is when coyote hunting. We only have one rifle and one shooter sitting in the calling rig when coyote hunting for fun. The rule is keep the bolt open on a chambered round and don't shoot until the target is clearly identified. This rule is in place because there is a lot of drinking involved when we are coyote hunting at night on some 100K acre places.

If safety is all that matters then there is no such thing as over kill, and you wouldn't be mocking those for practicing open bolt policies. Extending gun and clay range policies to the field isn't overkill.

I don't hold others to same standards as myself or think differently of them, but I'm not scared to explain to others why I have an open bolt policy if they ask,

The field presents different situations than the static situation of the range. I get that some apparently aren't aware of that. If I didn't get it before, I certainly do now. It's apparent many haven't spent much real time hunting as I read this thread.

Field situations can be adapted to with both absolute safety and hunting in mind. It ain't hard. And it doesn't require walking around with open bolts - or a rangemaster with a bullhorn either.

Real hunting meaning spending tons of money to have a guide get you on a sheep in the mountains? Thats not hunting thats following a hunter that knows how to hunt and then taking a shot once he gets you on the sheep because you couldn't do it yourself.

Dodge, being shown to be a hypocrite.

Big shocker!

The evidence will stand that you talk from both sides of your mouth. Nothing new under the sun.

Did you know that court rooms have court reporters? You may want to look into that, since you clearly believe everyone else has a much lower IQ than you, and obviously are not intelligent enough to read your very words, no one day ago, that contradict today's stance.

I once though you were a pretty good guy, but no one can put on an act forever. Hypocrite.