exactly Atomakill

...NEVER ...leave a loaded gun leaning up against anything always un load and lay flat !!

Oh trust me......live and learn!!!. Luckily I did live and learn. Won't be making that mistake again.

Teach dog some obedience--and be more careful where you put any loaded gun.

Stories like this always disturb me. What was a loaded gun doing laying in the boat? I am constantly asked by hunters to take them along with me. I usually will find a way out, not because I don't want their company, but because I know my usual partners are safe. If I do find myself hunting with new partners, I constantly monitor their habits. If I see one action I don't like, I speak up. I hope my hunting partners would do the same with me.

Please don't leave loaded guns ( Safety on or not) unattended! This story could be about you.

I have started putting slings on all of my long guns, shotguns included so they are always with me. Sometimes tasks require two hands.

Sad to hear of the accidental death of a hunter at any time under any circumstances, dumb or otherwise. It is good medicine -- although unpleasant and sad -- to hear such stories. Perhaps it will help to keep us on our toes. Indeed, safety and constant attention to the dangers intrinsic to handling firearms should be kept in the front of our minds. I had a lapse of attention this year. I took a small buck late opening day. I had to drag the buck up a steep hill to get him where I could drive my truck to pick him up, pretty tiring. Then I returned back the trail I had taken from my truck, drive around the other side of the hunting property to recover the buck, and drive in to the check-out station. Somewhere along the drive I realized that I had cased my gun while it was still loaded. My practice is to always load my gun while I'm "suiting up" at the back of the truck (suburban with hatch-back door at rear) at the start of the hunt and to unload the gun while "unsuiting" at the end of the hunt. I guess I was tired and distracted when I "unsuited" -- there was another hunter from the lease who was jawing with me when I returned -- "did you shoot? Did you get one? How big? Where'd you get him? etc, etc" which was part of the distraction. At any rate, I'm not sure driving with a loaded but cased gun is illegal in Oklahoma, but it certainly was unnecessary and less safe than unloading the gun.

It's easy to judge or over critizes someone after a bad tragedy has happened. I can say that I too get really pissed-off when I see safety rules being repeatedly broken or repeatedly neglected by certain hunters or shooters.

But, I can't really judge everyone who has an accident. For all we know, they may have practiced every safey precaution perfectly until one day when human error caught up with them and it resulted in tragedy.

One of my hunting friends is someone I consider to be flawless when it comes to gun safety and rules, but the best people are human too. A few years ago we were in his basement when he took out a fine tuned accurized .22-250 he wanted to show me. He took the rifle out of it's locked hard case and opened the action before handing it to me. When he opened the bolt, to our suprise a live round came ejecting out. The magazine still had 3 rounds left in it. He was horrified and even embarrased that he had left this thing loaded after the last coyote shoot that he had done a year prior.

Everything we do in this life has it's risks and dangers. Being extreamly vigilant and competent when it comes to safety greatly minimises these risks. Those little mishaps due to human error where no one gets hurt can only serve as reminders of how bad the situation could have turned out.

OK BUT he obiously did not pull trigger before opening bolt- nor did he have it pointed inappropiately-no damage- if we always treat every gun as if it were loaded we will all live a long happy life--