Well, make up your mind. First, you chide us over carrying a SAA with five rounds, citing lever-action rifles...then you agree that when you don't actually have a need to keep a chambered round in a lever gun that the chamber is empty...and then when somebody agrees that it's your choice to carry a SAA on the quarter cock with a live round under the hammer if you want to take that chance aka "Roll the Dice"...you back up and say that you always teach safety first.
So...which is it? You can't have it both ways.
Like I said in a previous post, I mis-spoke, I shouldn't have chided those who choose to carry on an empty chamber. That was wrong of me.
Now pay attention:
Example: When I go to the pasture to checking calving heifers which are prone to be preyed upon by coyotes, which I've been doing now for a couple of weeks, I grab the '92 Rossi out of the rack to take with me. It's chamber is empty because I don't need it loaded in the house. As soon as I clear the house and am outside I lever a round in the chamber and lower the hammer to the half-cock, safety position...whatever you choose to call it. The rifle stays in that condition as long as I'm outside checking cattle, etc.
(Those who carry single action semi-autos such as a 1911 will recognize this as being closely akin to "Condition Two"...hint, hint) When I'm finished and go back in the house, I remove the cartridge from the chamber and return it to the magazine. Get it now? I don't feel I need a round in the chamber in the house, but do when I'm outside.Ditto when I'm hunting. When the rifle is in my hands, it's loaded and the hammer on the safety notch.
On the other hand, my wife and I keep a pair of Uberti .357's handy for home defense, one for she and one for I. They're both loaded with six and on the safety notch as that's a choice we made together.
Now stay with me here....
My reference to teaching safety was in regards to handling firearms safely, i.e.- keeping them strapped securely in a holster, not dropping them, etc. rather than rely solely on transfer bars and empty chambers.
It's been pretty much accepted for 140 years that carrying a true SAA with an empty chamber under the hammer is the safest way to do it. i.e. There was a very good reason that Ruger went to the transfer bar system over 40 years ago.
Then why do/did manufacturers such as Colt, USFA, Uberti, et al forego the use of transfer bars? Heck, if it was that big of a deal, these manufacturers would bore the cylinders of their revolvers with five chambers and one dummy chamber on which the hammer could be lowered.
If you want to go against conventional wisdom and carry it with six, that's your choice. Roll the dice.
If I'm on the range, and intend to immediately step to the line with the gun, I'll load 6. If the gun is going into a holster or is stored loaded...like the Cimarron Thunderer on top of my refrigerator...there's gonna be an empty chamber. That's my choice.
How I load and carry firearms is a choice, just as handling and carrying them safely is. My day job is an extremely safety sensitive one and we're taught that safety is not an accident, or as you put it, a roll of the dice. Rather it's a conscious, day to day choice. It's been my experience over 40 or so years of carrying and handling firearms that done so with safety at the front of the thought process makes accidents far, far less likely. And so far in those 40 or so years of competitive shooting, tromping through the woods in search of game, climbing up and down mountains and even carrying firearms horseback, I've never come close to dropping a firearm or having any mishap that could cause an AD.
35W
