In NZ, the primary concern about carrying a rifle with a round chambered, and the reason that we have rule #3 of seven golden rules, is the direct attribution of this behaviour to so many lone hunter fatalities in the bush, as well as accidental hunter shoots hunter deaths.
I attended a recent Mountain Safety Council talk, to support one of our local doctors who, as a hunter himself, is making a big effort to try and improve first aid knowledge to assist guys in responding to either their own injuries, or the injuries of others, due to falls and the effects of resultant impacts on the body and ones ability to recover the situation unaided. This has been identified as a significant problem - specifically injuries requiring a tourniquet.
At the end of the discussion a gnarly old Forestry guy from who is on telly here from time to time, gave a gruelling and frankly harrowing and upsetting presentation on fatalities and life changing injuries caused in relatively benign environments where the hunter has shot himself or someone else by carrying a loaded firearm and doing something as easy as tripping over a treeroot. Or, as was the case recently, packing a loaded firearm that the hunter forgot to clear into a case when returning to the car. And the other recent one, where a father shot his son in the back after stumbling on a rock on the trail.
I believe the presentation was requested by my doctor mate and I’ll see if its available for general publication. It really is very impactful and spares no details in just how easy it is to kill yourself or someone else, and how frequent these accidents are in New Zealand and around the world.
Anyway, time to climb down of my soapbox.
I admit to being very very surprised to see that behaviour in Roestalker’s video, and will be commenting on it respectfully but without pulling punches on his channel page.
