When Handing Someone You Gun...........

Do you leave the action open or closed? I was taught that before handing someone a gun you open the action, make sure it is unloaded and hand the gun over with the action still open. So many gun stores do a visual check to see if a gun is loaded but then close the action. Most of the time I refuse to take the gun from them unless the action is open.

I hand it to them action open.
If someone hands me one , the first thing I do is take the magazine out ( if it has one ) , then open the action and physically look in the chamber.

Open action, cylinder swung out, never a magazine inserted, and I hand it to them so they can SEE the chamber is empty before they even touch the firearm. Just like my elders taught me.
If someone tries to hand me a firearm with the action closed, I make them open it, or I walk away.

I prefer to have an open action, locked back slide, or pulled lever handed to me. It shows me that the person doing so is safety conscious. But I also know many people who are very cautious & even check a firearm before handing it over don't do it. As such I don't get upset or give them grief.
And heck, in a gun shop, or at a gun show, or such, often an employee may not know HOW to open the odd or unusual firearm to check it. Especially a much younger person.
When my youngest son went to a gun show for the first time,, at age 7, he wanted to handle & look at a LOT of firearms. Without me having to remind him, he would always ask the owner before picking one up. Then he'd pick it up trying to always point it in a safe direction, while he would attempt to check it for "clear." If he didn't know how to operate it,, (after trying to figure it out on his own,) he'd look at me and ask, "How do I check it?" I would then step in & demonstrate it, and allow him to do it himself.
Not a single refusal or complaint by the dealers at the show,, but several compliments by them about his gun handling.
Now,, both boys are in their mid 40's,, and no matter what,, they always check a firearm even if they see me or anyone else do so. Action open or not.

But by always checking it,, no matter how it was presented,, shows that I'm as safe as I can be.

As mentioned already and as per proper Mil procedure. Remove mag, open action, personally check for rnd in chamber, hand to person with action open and receiving party checks for rnd in chamber. It's that simple and most safe.

Always action open.

Not only there but shooting skeet or trap. The shooters on the line didn't like my BPS (bottom eject) shotgun because despite the forearm being in the rearward position they couldn't SEE it open and empty.

Always open if I give it to someone. If someone hands me one closed I just point it in a safe direction and check it
myself. Refusing to take it if not open seems like sort of just being a jerk about it, I'm going to recheck it anyway.
Exception is shooting with someone I know, might hand them something to try loaded while telling them "it's loaded"
or "it's hot".

I didn't say I refuse to take a firearm and walk away if it's not open, only if the owner or seller refuses to open it before I take it from him or her.
Can't do business or feel safe around folks like that.
Some of them do think I'm being a jerk and I don't really care.

Actually, in my opinion, it depends. 98% of the time, with action open. Now go to a nice gunstore that has very high end firearms, say a factory engraved Colt 1911 from the mid 1920's. Maybe it has been stored in a case, and never been handled other than to wipe it down. Racking back the slide, removing the magazine on something like that would probably be frowned on. A pristine Colt SAA...putting on half-cock, opening the loading gate and turning the cylinder to check may cause a turn ring to start to form. Commemorative firearms are usually not cocked, magazine removed, cylinder turned, etc. I once had the opportunity to handle a Holland & Holland Royal Grade 577 NE double rifle....price tag was $175,000. Trust me, handled it with cotton gloves, and wouldn't have even thought about opening it. Again, not being argumentative, but there are different scenarios.

I've noticed that in gun stores too, where they check and then close the action.

Is this because, perhaps, they don't want someone using the slide release to close the action on a semiautomatic, (vs pulling back on the bolt) or swinging the cylinder closed on a revolver, like some movies?

And in gun stores, if they check and then hand me the gun, I do check again.

A lot of times, I walk into a gun shop and I just see guns laying there, with their actions and cylinders all closed in the glass display cases, and I just get so darn mad, I just leave...

OMCHamlin said:

A lot of times, I walk into a gun shop and I just see guns laying there, with their actions and cylinders all closed in the glass display cases, and I just get so darn mad, I just leave...

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So you leave the actions open when you store firearms not easily handled. Most of those cases are probably locked these days.

I was always taught action open. If handed to me closed I will point the firearm in a safe direction, barrel down (in most cases) and open the action to check for myself. When I hand it back the action is open and in the vast majority of the time, when I hand it back in this manner, the clerk never even checks it before closing the action. I have scolded, a good many times, a clerk that does the DA revolver "flip" to close it and have on occasion brought that action to the gun sales managers attention (and have even gotten a few blank stares from them as I explain).

I have zero problems with the gun store employee checking the chamber, closing the action then handing it to me. I then check the chamber myself. I see no problems with that as long as the muzzle is always pointed in a safe direction.

I noticed at my local shops the clerk/owner will open the action, check for rounds, then close the action before handing it to a prospective customer. Their point is, and weel taken, that some folks will slam the ctiaon closed with possible damage to the gun. Especially double action revolvers.

Bob Wright

Jeepnik said:

So you leave the actions open when you store firearms not easily handled. Most of those cases are probably locked these days.

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Gosh darn it, I sure DO! Heck, all my guns are actually completely disassembled and in zip lock bags! Can't be too careful...

I do keep my guns in one safe, ammo in another safe, and the keys are in another safe, with that key on my key ring.
I have a 10 year old.

Years ago a friend asked to see my 1911, He got annoyed when I withdrew the gun from the holster dropped the mag out and cleared the chambered round and locked the slide back and handed it to him. He said, " I can be trusted with a loaded gun" and I replied, "the rule is never hand someone a loaded gun" unless you are on a range and its pointed downrange, or a similar setting where the firearm is pointed in a safe direction.

I don't have a problem either way...now if someone hands me a gun and has not checked it first to see if it is unloaded, that tells me something.
I explain in a class I help with that it is proper when someone hands you a gun even if they have checked it for you to also check it first thing.
There is no insult in that and actually, at least in my opinion, shows them you know how to handle a gun.

The Gun has to be pointed in a safe direction,
as long as that's done I don't care how it's
handed to me.

From the moment the gun is shared my eyes
do not leave it. Once in my hands whether
the other person checked it first or not, the
gun will be appropriately safety checked
by me.