Every day before I put my EDC into my pocket I check to make sure the gun is loaded and functioning properly. While I realize there are no bullet gremlins that might unload it overnight I still open the cylinder & check. Next I close the cylinder and ensure that it’s correctly indexed. When I was carrying my LCP I’d check to ensure it’s chambered and give the mag a tug. I’ve done this so long I can’t even recall if it was my initial LEO/military training, but wondered if anyone does the same thing or am I just weird?

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Old Cop
LEO (Ret.)

I do on my m&p edc. I'll load it, press check once or twice to make sure it's loaded. Then holster it. Just a ocd thing I have I guess. lol.

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It's called a combination of training and muscle memory! It is always a great habit to get into!

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Judge control not gun control!

I check my laser is functioning, have one in the chamber, and my gun is cocked and locked...every morning. Those gremlins are sneaky.

Same here. Force of habit. Make certain the magazine is seated and one in the chamber. Anytime the sidearm has been out of my control.

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I am a sheep dog!
1601 (ret)

Three point check on my Browning Hi-Power: safety is engaged, magazine is fully seated in place, and the slide is locked in full battery. Only then it goes in the holster.

Revolvers are more grab & go. A quick look to make sure the cylinder is closed & indexed is about it.

Yep, good habit to get into. Cylinder open check or Press checks on semi's became a daily ritual during my day as an LEO. It's also wise to check for those little wooly buggers in the barrel if you pocket carry much.

Sounds like good old common sense to me!

but things like "press checking", "indexing" and "properly seated mags" are probably why you are an "OLD" Cop.

All warriors prepare for battle and that philosophy has served you well.

It's easy to forget about doing something recently, so it's a smart idea to make sure your equipment is the way you think it is. I have heard lots of stories about someone dry firing for practice, then loading the gun. Later, they are going to practice some more and blow a hole in something.
ALWAYS CHECK every time you pick up a gun, or someone hands you one.

My duty gun is always loaded unless I'm cleaning it. If I am not wearing it, it is in my safe, loaded. I press check it every morning before I put it in my holster.

OCD much?

I'm a chronic double, sometimes triple or quadruple checker. 'Specially when it comes to loading/unloading firearms.

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Keep on Chooglin'

My LCP generally stays in its pocket holster.

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Music/Sports/Beer fan

It’s a great practice. My Walther has a loaded chamber indicator and decocker nubbin that I use, and my Beretta Jetfire is checked by making sure the safety is off, popping the barrel to make sure a round is inside, and checking the magazine.

With a gun I have recently carried, I just do a visual check to verify it is loaded.

Interestingly, I think many folks out there would consider this "playing" with your gun because every time you take it out of the holster is another chance for a ND...

I check every gun I touch when I remove it from the safe- either to verify it is empty, or to confirm it is loaded and ready to go.

Yep,Every gun I lay hands on is checked. I have some I've not shot in years. They all are treated as if loaded.

Carrying Snub Revolvers I check for crud, or rust besides checking the ammo. A few quick checks and maybe a drop of oil here or there.

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Two Handguns every day

I check my revolver, or revolvers if it looks to be an especially entertaining day, every morning before I holster it. I also check it and wipe it down at the end of the day. Same for the .32 Keltec I carry as a back up.

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Wheel guns are real guns.

I think being on the job for many years instills this habit. Gun inspections, going into secure areas like docket offices or interview rooms where you are always making the weapon safe for temporary storage, etc.

With my revolvers or semis, every time I holster or pocket them I check them.
A routine I got into before I went on duty.

I shoot and carry moonclipped revolvers pretty much exclusively, and every gun I pick up is checked. Though my carry revolver sits on my bureau at night and I can see at a glance that it is loaded in the morning before I holster it.

Always--- every weapon!!!!!!!!!!

So does my J-frame, but I still give it a visual check now and then just from force of habit. Easy to do with a revolver. I also check to see that there's no pocket lint on or around the trigger--the hammer is enclosed.

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Oh well, what the hell.

Guess I'm in the minority on this one. As Jim Malone said in The Untouchables, "Did you check it already? Then leave it alone." The more you "check" your weapon, the more you increase the chance of a malfunction or ND. Press check? Most modern pistols have loaded chamber indicators. Glock and M&P have built their reputations on dependability. You Tube has dozens of videos showing these guns being torture tested and still able to function. I'm pretty sure that's a little more than what your piece goes thru overnight on the night stand.

My carry gun (m&p 9c) is ALWAYS loaded. So I don't check it much. If I do, I look down the loaded chamber indicator (the hole). However, when I'm handling it unloaded when cleaning or dry firing, I'm overly paranoid about checking it clear. Can't tell you how many times I cycle the slide and check the chamber.

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Anything I carry gets checked as I pick it up.

Loaded revolvers usually rattle.
If it rattles, its loaded. If it doesn't rattle it needs another check.

My edc doesn't get unloaded or press checked, I hate the idea of a press check. All you are doing is possibly inducing a malfunction if the gun is not properly in battery. It does look cool on tv though.

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NRA Cert. Inst. IDPA CSO

No joke. If I am dry firing & put the gun down & turn away from it for a couple minutes, I always check it to make sure it is unloaded even though I know it is. It's a really good habit.
The only one that has access to my carry gun is me. I load it, I know it is loaded. This constant idea you need to keep checking your loaded gun is how things can go wrong. Load it, stop fussing with it. Obviously if you unload it daily, then you need a routine to put your edc into ready mode, but once it is loaded, stop messing with it.
In weekly competitions as a CSO, I see all manner of gun loading rituals. I prefer Barny a round into the chamber, full mag, done. No press checking, no pulling the mag back out to check if the round stripped out, blah, blah. Just load it & get ready to go.

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NRA Cert. Inst. IDPA CSO

I open my revolvers to ensure they are loaded before I holster them. This is unnecessary because they are ALWAYS loaded, but I do it anyway.

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CPT, Armor (Ret)
Luke 22:36

I drop the magazine and eject the chambered round every evening before I wipe my Commander down with an oily rag. Then I reload.

In the morning I drop magazine, eject chambered round and wipe down then reload.

Pretty much the same drill when I carry M38 instead of a Colt Commander

I liked a few of those posts but some of them are way off the charts in my opinion, which might not amount to much. But here goes.

If I am carrying my M649 or K frame snubby I CAN DOGGGONE WELL SEE if it is loaded or not. It is not rocket science to spot rounds in the cylinders. I don't have to "deliberately check" - my eyes check whether I ask them to or not. If I took the guns and threw them in my sock drawer and did not carry them for weeks I could still SEE that they were loaded.

Dirt and lint and whatever is a whole different story. Checking for that occasionally is a good practice and if I don't do it that's my error. But with my wheelguns there is NEVER any question if they are loaded or not.

But let's stretch the point. Generally they are in holsters, pocket or belt. Assuming that I stored them that way, LOADED, which is my usual habit with carry guns, there are no gremlins unloading guns in my house. So I do not have to check them. But if I want to I can just back them out a little and VOILA! Visible rounds.

So opening the cylinders and closing the cylinders is just a Hollywood game when it comes to revolvers. WYSIWGT What you see is what you get. Playing with them, checking triggers, etc., to me that's what the inexperienced folks do. I am not being mean; I just have been around these tools so long I know what they are set up to do, how they are set up to do it, and who set it up - ME.

Pistols are different. I don't carry them as frequently so I am a little more focused. It so happens that, presently, most of my guns are still stored with a friend since the fire but I did acquire a Walther CCP 9mm to carry. It has a loaded chamber indicator so I can see and feel instantly that it is loaded. As it is also a carry gun I leave it loaded. Period. I put it away loaded and, since it is accessible, I consider it or either of the other two home defense guns when I am in the house because they are all accessible. I'd prefer to not use the M642 for that role but I know where it is and I know that it is loaded.

HOWEVER - once a gun goes into a "gun rug", into a safe, into anywhere that says it is not "in use" then I put it away UNLOADED and I AGREE - I WILL CHECK IT. Every time. If anyone hands me a gun I check it. Every time. I am not opposed to checking. I just don't see the point of opening cylinders to accomplish what I can see and hear and even feel. They are not toys so I long ago stopped fiddling with handguns or "playing" with them at home.

YMMV

No offense meant to anyone.

With my J frame I can generally look at the back of the cylinder to see if it is loaded. I can also tell by picking it up. It is always holstered.

With a pistol, when I drop the mag I cycle the action several times. Otherwise it stays loaded until I decide to switch out the mag. It is also always holstered.

That's it.

Nope. I ccw a Glock 19 pretty regularly and it lives in a kydex IWB holster.

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Some Might Say.

I'm surprised at a lot of these answers. Usually when I recommend doing a chamber check, mag check before putting it in the holster, I get pooh poohed by a lot of people. I'm very glad to hear that many of us do it.

The question for me is, why not do it? It costs nothing.

One thing to be sure to do in this process is to tug on the mag if you have one. I've seen more than one person fail to completely insert a mag.

No you can't. You can see if there are casings in the chambers, but you can't tell if they've been fired or not.

True story...
A guy I know went to the range and fired a few cylinders through his carry revolver, but not much. When he finished his last 6 rounds, he got distracted by talking to someone. Because he had only fired 18 or 24 rounds, he didn't clean it after that session. He then carried that gun every day for the next week. Every day he checked to make sure it was loaded by glancing at the gap in the back of the cylinder.

The next Saturday he and I went to the range to do a little practice. As we both usually do, we went to fire the first couple of rounds with the ammo we carry with us. Imagine his surprise when he got a click instead of a bang with that first pull of the trigger.

Yeah, he thought he had reloaded it after the last 6 rounds the week previously. He swore, he had reloaded it. Alas, the lack of bang don't lie. He carried that gun for a week thinking he was prepared when in reality he was not.


Now, I'm sure this would never happen to anyone here, but you might know people to whom this could happen. Like it or not, complacency gets us all sooner or later. The best way to combat that is to do a chamber check, mag check prior to holstering the gun. It's the only way to be 100% sure you're loaded.

Yes, Old Cop, you're not alone, I do it every time. I'm OK with y'all calling me OCD because of it.

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Freedom isn't free.

My primary carry is a pinned and recessed Smith & Wesson Model 65-1. I check all my revolvers before I holster them, even the ones that are not P&R.

YMMV, too.

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CPT, Armor (Ret)
Luke 22:36

Well you cannot fix stupid. If you shoot your chosen carry gun, ya kinda want to make sure it is reloaded or empty after. Putting a revo away with spent cases in it, well, I don't really know what to say.
I previously stated why loading & then checking isn't a good idea. You can induce a failure, either mag not reseated properly or the slide out of battery. So load it, yep tug on the mag to make sure it is locked, but if you Barny a round, you know it is in the chamber. Then full mag or downloaded 1 mag, tug, done. KISS, usually works best for everything in life.

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NRA Cert. Inst. IDPA CSO

HAHAHA!!!!!!!!!! Rastoff, I love you! You are right! Except for the fact that any gun I take to the range to shoot leaves the range unloaded, ALWAYS, I can see how that could happen.

Elm Creek does have a point:

Recessed cylinders WOULD MOST ASSUREDLY make it harder to tell visually if the gun is loaded or not.

Still, while I understand being super diligent about checking to see if your carry gun is loaded or not it's a very personal diligence. I am super diligent about never unloading my carry guns (ignoring range time) so until and unless I get stupid I am unconcerned about the subject. But it is definitely an interesting discussion to see what others do.

Like ISCS Yoda, everything that goes into my big safe goes in to that safe unloaded. That's my established habit. I will pocket carry a J Frame and I do not need it 24/7. If I'm going to use it, I take it out, load it, holster it, check myself in the mirror and then go on about my business. Same thing if it comes out to do duty as a nightstand gun...except for the mirror thing, don't need to check for printing in my PJs.

any gun other then my carry I would check to see if loaded as all should on a gun that is not theirs ..

My carry pistol I don't as no gremlin has unloaded it over night on the bed side table where I laid it before sleeping .. I don't believe a press check is needed on a carry pistol carried every day !! Any un necessary handling could be / is an invite to a accidental discharge !!

My carry gun stays loaded until I purposely unload it, so no, I do not press check it. Unknowns and unfamiliar guns, yes.