One in chamber at home?

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miles71

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I'm not talking about carrying at home, I am talking about the "bump in the night" gun. The one you have available if you hear the window break and the dog is going crazy at 3am. Do you store it with one in the chamber?

My thoughts: I got into a little debate with someone today abd while I believe a carry gun should have one in the chamber while carrying, I do not store my home defense pistol like this. I was told by an old wise LEO once and I agree, "you want to be awake enough to chamber a round so you can be awake enough to make a bigger decision once ready to shoot". Some of you may say "but that is precious seconds" and I agree, they are precious seconds used to decide and determine if you are being attacked or your son is just sneaking out to get a snack.

I believe if a bad guy has already gotten to me and I haven't woken up, gotten my pistol out and chambered a round I have bigger issues with my layers of home security.

Curious to hear what you all think. TD
 
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Can you chamber a round without giving yourself away?
 
No children, so every gun is set to go. If I am awake enough to hear the glass break, I am awake enough for the next move.
 
I have and carry all of my guns the same way. Whatever method you use you have to train the same way. In the fog of the night or when the bad guy is feet from you, you will have to do things as you have trained with thousands of repititions. You cannot carry a gun with one in the chamber and your house gun does not. When the shtf are you going to remember if there is a round in where you need it. That hesitation will get you killed. If you are worried about your house gun being loaded, get a lock box.
 
We have a 20 gauge double barrel coach gun with external hammers. It stays loaded but with the hammers down. My 442 stays beside me from room to room. The only time it's unloaded is when I get home and wipe it down and dry fire practice, afterwards it's reloaded.
 
The logic is not sound. If you are in a fog of waking, racking the slide will not clear it to the level of improving cognitive thought. Also, you don't want anything else to detract from what you need to be thinking about now. You need to focus on "should I shoot him" without wasting time with "do I need to rack a round?"

What tlay said makes more sense. Always do it the same. That way you're not caught off guard when muscle memory takes over.
 
There are nine fully loaded handguns in the house right now (including the one on my person. Just the wife and me and she shoots better then I do. Five of them are revolvers and I don't know how you can have them loaded and not ready to shoot on the trigger pull.

If anyone is coming to visit they are all locked up (except for my carry piece).

None of them have a manual safety so the basic manual of arms is the same, pull the trigger and it goes bang. That is how we train and our safety routines take that into account. They are not handled as though they are toys and the trigger is respected at all times.

Ken
 
IMO unnecessary administrative handling is one of the number one causes of NDs.

My carry /work gun gets fully loaded when I clean it on Sunday and stays fully loaded until I either clean it again on Sunday or go to the range on Saturday or have to attend a training session that requires an unloaded gun.

miles71 said:
I was told by an old wise LEO once and I agree, "you want to be awake enough to chamber a round so you can be awake enough to make a bigger decision once ready to shoot". Some of you may say "but that is precious seconds" and I agree, they are precious seconds used to decide and determine if you are being attacked or your son is just sneaking out to get a snack.

I believe if a bad guy has already gotten to me and I haven't woken up, gotten my pistol out and chambered a round I have bigger issues with my layers of home security.
Click to expand...

Issues or not it does happen; I have a friend who woke up in her bedroom one night with the intruder on top of her and had to go from there.

If that happens to me I'm going to be all the awake I need to be to decide whether or not to shoot
 
I get the idea, but I'm not sure racking the slide is much of a cognitive failsafe and it's just as likely to become something you forget (esp. if you carry C1) and gets you into trouble that way.

I think there's a lot more leeway in home C1/C3 decisions versus carry, but I still keep my HD gun ready to go bang when I pull the trigger b/c I want to do things one way and one way only.
 
My HD pistol is in a biometric safe, mag in but nothing in the pipe. I have a small son and while I am confident he can't get to it........

My HD pistol is not my ccw. Once someone sets off my golden retriever alarm I feel I will have time to get to the HD gun and rack the slide. I don't mind them hearing it :)

Once this happens if the bad guys make the decision to come up the steps my wife will have gotten to the big guns and there will need to be a major clean up one it is all done.

Keep the comments coming, TD
 
I am constantly amazed by the number of people who think that they will "remember" to chamber a round in such a stressful situation. Unless there is some compelling reason for leaving the chamber empty I don't see the sense in it. There will be enough things on your mind without unnecessarily adding one more.
 
"IMO unnecessary administrative handling is one of the number one causes of NDs."
I'm with Smoke on this one. Don't add unnecessary steps to your routine, especially if they're steps that, if you get distracted and forget them, can leave you unprepared to use your firearm... or worse, cause an AD. Lock it up at home if there's the slightest chance that a family member or visitor can inadvertently handle it without your permission - but lock it up loaded the way you carry it.
 
kwselke said:
My two hidden revolvers are fully loaded. The 870 has a full magazine and an empty chamber. Yes the racking of a round in the 870 may give away my position... but I'll take the chance.
Click to expand...

Shotgun is a different kettle of fish.
 
tlay said:
I have and carry all of my guns the same way. Whatever method you use you have to train the same way. In the fog of the night or when the bad guy is feet from you, you will have to do things as you have trained with thousands of repititions. You cannot carry a gun with one in the chamber and your house gun does not. When the shtf are you going to remember if there is a round in where you need it. That hesitation will get you killed. If you are worried about your house gun being loaded, get a lock box.
Click to expand...

Couldn't agree more.
I use a Fort Knox pistol box safe that uses a simplex lock. Fast entry, no electronics to worry about or thumb print reader.
 
Disagree. You picked 2 complete opposites. He's either outside and gour dog is going nuts or he's in your room and its a little to late. What about the middle? He's outside your room and you have a split second to react. Or he's in your room and you manage for a second to over power him and can quickly grab your gun with the one free hand. Or in a panic forget to chamber a round? What if the round jams because you rode the slide back? Or just because, as it sometimes happens, even at the range.

There are a lot of possibilities. You should be awake enough not to be blindly blasting away. Otherwise locked and loaded and ready to grab and go. There is no point in adding extra steps into an already stressful situation

Sent from my SCH-I545 using Tapatalk 2
 
jdh said:
Can you chamber a round without giving yourself away?
Click to expand...
More to the point, can you chamber a round while fighting somebody in a darkened bedroom any more easily than you could while fighting somebody on a dark street?

For me the answer is "no".

My Norinco M1911 ALWAYS has a round in the chamber, whether I'm carrying it or it's at home for self-defense.
 
Nothing in the chamber of my P2000.....I weighed the odds and mistakenly leaving the safe open and having one of my kids grab it is more likely in my Condo than a break in.....and yes, I teach them gun safety and they know not to touch it...but you know kids....
 
bluegrassarms said:
I get the idea, but I'm not sure racking the slide is much of a cognitive failsafe and it's just as likely to become something you forget (esp. if you carry C1) and gets you into trouble that way.

I think there's a lot more leeway in home C1/C3 decisions versus carry, but I still keep my HD gun ready to go bang when I pull the trigger b/c I want to do things one way and one way only.
Click to expand...

My HD is a 12 ga and racking that has a sobering effect on just about anyone.
 
gdauth said:
My HD is a 12 ga and racking that has a sobering effect on just about anyone.
Click to expand...

Thats actually been disproven. It 1) lets everyone know where you are at 2) lets them know where to start shooting. 3) lets them know how much ammo you have. 4) you ASSUME the perp knows what that sound is 5) you ASSUME he heard it from across the house and possibly several floors.

Now, your avg opportunist will probably leave hearing that noise. Even if he doesn't know what it is he knows someone is up and around. However, how do you know who's down there? If he's on something? how many are there? Could be a deaf crackhead for all you know

No warnings.

Sent from my SCH-I545 using Tapatalk 2
 
gdauth said:
My HD is a 12 ga and racking that has a sobering effect on just about anyone.
Click to expand...


That is one of the oldest myths in the book.

It's also a good way to end up with a feed jam when you need the gun the most
 
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