Is your gun ready?

[LaLongbeard]

Another post about shooting a Gobbler with no choke in the gun got me thinking. I've heard a lot of stories about hunting with unloaded guns, bringing the wrong shells, no choke tube, wrong choke tube, loose magazine cap, no batteries in the super duper glow in the dark site etc .
I realize not everyone spent time in the military but I just can't understand why someone would not check there weapon/gun before leaving the truck.
You can make a habit out of anything. Here's what I do EVERY single time I get my gun from the truck.
1. Before loading I check the choke tube tightness by hand.
2.rack the forend back completely
3. Look at the site ( I shoot a bead but still look)
4.make sure saftey is on 
5. Load the gun.
I never carry any other gauge shells in my vest ever. If I hunt with someone shooting a 20 etc they carry there own shells. Never leave the choke out of your gun if you clean it put it back immediately. No reason to  change it during the season either I mean who shoots skeet during turkey season?
#2 obviously you don't want to noisily rack the gun if a Gobbler is close but you should do a function check at least once a day.  If you have to have the newest battery operated super site you should also carry spare batteries. Not trying to hurt feelings but there's  a thousand things you cannot control when Turkey hunting your firearm is not one of them.

[tomstopper]

Another good idea is to make sure the barrel locking nut is tight. My uncle's friend got hurt one year when I was a kid because his was not tight

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[Bowhuntr73]

Good info! I missed a big gobbler because my battery on scope died!! Now I carry backups and check every so often during the hunt just to be safe.

[BrowningGuy88]

Good list! I've been there and snapped on an empty chamber while having a bead on old Tom! It only happened once and I learned my lesson!

[SD_smith]

I've never been able to figure that out either. In my opinion you can do without everything else, but the gun is the one thing that needs to work. I don't ever check my bead though...you got me on that one.

[Sir-diealot]

Just got the shotgun back on Saturday after getting a scope put on it so I have to go get it sighted in. Picked up a saying that is used in the military last year hope I quote it properly "Two is one and one is none." so I carry a lot of extra knives, some meds that I have to take in various areas and so on.

[kjnengr]

There are people that "care" and there are people that just don't.  However, I'm not sure you can make either one cross over to the other side.

I'm not going to say I have OCD, but I am quite particular about my setup.  Like LaLongbeard, I have a mental checklist that I go through every time the gun gets taken out and loaded. 

Stay safe out there guys.

[LaLongbeard]

There are people that "care" and there are people that just don't.  However, I'm not sure you can make either one cross over to the other side.

No doubt your right ,but how many shoulda coulda stories do people have to read before they put some effort into it?
It was ingrained in the Army and I guarantee if your life depended on it you'd check your gun/weapon. I can honestly say I've never had an empty broken or non functioning firearm when I needed it. 

[Big Jeremy]

I follow the same steps each time I get out of the truck. It doesn't make sense to me that someone wouldn't make for absolute sure that the gun was going to do what it is supposed to do when the moment of truth comes.

I do use a red dot, but I went to one this year that has etched glass, so even if batteries are dead, the sights are still there, kind of like a scope. In fact, I almost prefer it with no illumination.

Regardless of sight type, or any other factor, you should be ready to have the gun fire when you pull the trigger, and not have any issues with seeing the bird, or having your pattern be what you expect it to be.

[soILstrutter]

How many of these issues do you think arise because a person doesn't take the 20 minutes to shoot a round or two at 40 yards on paper before the season?

Maybe I'm just OCD as well. I've been hunting with the same gun for 5 years now, and the same loads for 4, and I still check every year to make sure, for some crazy reason it doesn't pattern differently. For me, that little practice instills a ton of confidence in my shooting ability when it comes time to close the deal.

I think some of the issues such as the ones originally mentioned in  LaLongbeard's original post can be remedied by taking this simple step. Or at least it has helped me with the turkey fever  ?

[aclawrence]

It's such a magical moment when everything comes together and you get to squeeze the trigger. I would hate to squeeze off on an empty chamber. Would be tough to live that one down. Also a side note if two of you are hunting keep your gun ready to shoot in case the other guy screws something up. I took my brother out one time when he was younger and we had the most picture perfect gobbler strutting in the fog. My brother wasn't shooting. I looked over and his barrel was shaking so bad that he couldn't shoot lol. Unfortunately I left my gun sitting on the ground behind me and couldn't get to it.


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[aclawrence]

To clarify his barrel wasn't loose he just had a severe case of turkey fever. I still give him a hard time about that one.


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[bbcoach]

Don't forget to rack that forearm forward hard or hit that ejector handle forward, as well, when loading it.  We talk about forgetting to load our guns but our guns won't fire if we don't rack the slide forward hard or make sure that ejector is all the way forward.  We tend to do this when we load after getting in the woods and are trying to be as quite as possible.

[tree-rat sniper]

On one occasion I forgot ammo on a goose hunt, fortunately it was at a pond 3/4 of a mile down the road from my place (its been 20+ years since my Army days...)!  I'm pretty anal about my turkey gear though, I make sure my gun & back-up gun are ready. I do want to mention that I got stung by the "Benelli-click" once. Near as I can figure, I caught the bolt handle on a branch & it cost me a point blank gobbler...I constantly check the bolt out of habit now.

[30_06]

I can't say I understand the malfunctions/mishaps either. At the beginning of the year I make sure everything is tight, and do a function check. After that it is verifying POA and POI are one and the same. Ammo goes in the same case as the gun (unless flying), and the gun is loaded first thing after getting out of the vehicle. I suppose anything can happen, but I do what I can to minimize issues.