Treat every gun as if it is loaded (repeat 100 times)...

[Land_Owner]

...keep your finger off the trigger until ready to shoot (repeat 100 times).
...Before cleaning your gun, make absolutely sure that it is unloaded

My college educated daughter was home for the Holidays.  We went duck hunting together Sunday morning.  With college, we don't spend time together and she does not go hunting enough these days. 

After the hunt, and before putting them in the safe, I clean the shotguns.  I uncased and opened the breech of the 12 y.o.'s single shot.  No problem.  I took out my pump shotgun and opened the breech.  No problem.  I took out the 23 y.o.'s (my other) pump shotgun and opened the breech.  BIG PROBLEM. 

A 12-gage, 3-inch, 1-3/8 ounce, number 4 steel, unspent cartridge ejects FROM THE CHAMBER.  I had it pointed directly at the main electric circuit breaker in the Utility Room at the time. 

This gun had been "unloaded" by the daughter, cased in the field, hauled through the boat, PU truck, and house, then uncased (by me) for cleaning, all the while it was loaded.  I was shaken. 

Thank God for the Firearms Safety Rules, which I have repeated again and again to my boys and daughter.  Obviously she needs some "higher education" refresher courses in these rules.

How should I approach this with her?  Outright and accusatory sounds like a poor choice for a learning experience - so that avenue is out.

[dukkillr]

SOP for me in boats blinds or cars is to make sure the action is open.  Then you can see if it's loaded, and even if it is, the gun can't fire.

When I'm guiding or hunting with people I don't know well I approach it by declaring when we're done hunting, "My action's open".  Everyone else sees that and follows suit.  That way they feel like they're being safe on their own accord, and I know the guns are safe without babysitting anyone.

[Land_Owner]

dukkillr,

Very very good suggestion, which starts at the moment of least resistance, and is the beginning of the trip home.

Now the "education" is on me to include that in my breakdown preparations when in the field. 

It meets the KISS test and is both simple and elegant.

Thanks

[sui generis]

Call me anal if you will,

but I prefer the mantra in the form "Every gun *IS* loaded"

the only exception being if I have just opened the action and checked the chamber.

If I set the gun down, or even look away, it is now loaded again.

[Dusty Miller]

Modern science has pretty much proven that when it comes to guns, its much better to be "anal" than to be dead!

[beemanbeme]

I guess in this supposedly enlightened age, chaining her to a wall and lashing her until blood ran down her legs wouldn't be an option.  And you've opted out of loud and accusatory also which worked so well when I was in the Marines.  When I was in Marine Corp boot camp, any minor infraction of rifle care was met with loud and accusatory abuse, blows (I was old corp), and sleeping with your rifle for several days. 
What I would suggest, since she is a girl type child, is take a favorite stuffed animal of hers or a favorite whatever (unbeknowns to her) and put it, the shotgun and her in the truck and go to a safe place.  While she watched (don't tell here what you're gonna do), put the stuffed animal downrange, load the shotgun, and blow the bejesus out of Teddy.  Then calmly tell her, "that's what you could have done to me, sibling, Mom, or some innocent bystander." Then take her home and put the remments of Teddy on her bed or on the shelf, wherever she kept it.  Be unmoved by her tears. 

[Land_Owner]

Conjures up memories of "ET" when the two brothers were "working over" the sister's stuffed animal.  Good visual.  Very dramatic.

[horseman308]

Is this the first time she's ever done something like this? I guess I'd be frank and firm with her . . . "You left a live round in the chamber of your shotgun, even though you told me it was unloaded. Don't ever let it happen again. Ever. It could have killed someone."

Depending on your relationship with her and how much she likes hunting and shooting, doing something that will humiliate her (the teddy bear thing) could just as easily make her decide that it's just not worth doing the hunting thing with dad anymore. Obviously, that's a better alternative than someone getting shot, but she is an adult so talk to her like one.

[beemanbeme]

U R Rong. Humiliating her would be to make her stand in town square with the shotgun chained to her neck and a large sign saying: "I left a live round in the chamber of my shotgun".

Imagine the teddy bear thing as a "firm talk" with visual reinforcement. As said, "a picture is worth a thousand words". And it is strictly between her father and her. If it does turn the young lady off of shooting, it is a risk that has to be taken. Especially when you look at the alternative. "Gee, I forgot", doesn't bring Mom back to life. 

When I was first letting my lads shoot, after a year of tagging after me whilst I preached and ragged at them about safety and proper handling, among the first things they shot were boards and melons and such so they could see just what a bullet or shot could do whilst I preached and ragged at them about the damage a bullet or shot could do. 

[dukkillr]

Depending on your relationship with her and how much she likes hunting and shooting, doing something that will humiliate her (the teddy bear thing) could just as easily make her decide that it's just not worth doing the hunting thing with dad anymore. Obviously, that's a better alternative than someone getting shot, but she is an adult so talk to her like one.

I agree, especially about treating her like an adult.  Gun safety is serious, but it doesn't mean you need to be a jerk.  No human will ever finish life without making a mistake.

[beemanbeme]

Oh, so it's a jerk I am now.  I don't think either of you are giving gun safety the weight it deserves. It's not a sometime thing. And what you lightly refer to as a mistake as if it's a parking ticket or putting the coloureds in with the whites can be a little more dire than that. As I said, excuse me doesn't bring Mom back.
 You seem to be so done up with some PC crap about hurting a young lady's feeling, who didn't act in a very adult manner for that matter, that you have lost sight of that fact. And one of you said "she might decide to not shoot with her father". Just how much more manipulative can you get? If she shoots to gain an advantage with her father, that's the sort of response you would expect from her.  If she shoots because she enjoys the sport, she'll look at it as a learning experience. As a sidebar: If she's an adult, what's her old man doing cleaning her shotgun?
Maybe if there were more of us jerks, there would be less young people walking around holding their pants up with one hand with hunks of metal stuck thru their tongues and noses.

[LEO]

With out knowing the background of how this young lady was trained or the situation that lead up to the gun being put in the case with a round in the chamber, I would suggest that you tell her that she left a round in the chamber and that in the future she needs to visually and physically inspect the magazine, the chamber and the shell lifter to insure that there is no round left in the shotgun.  A technique to use in the future to insure that this doesn't happen again is to develop a habit of clearing the gun and then having a hunting partner double check it to insure that it is clear.  I believe that safe gun handling is critical but making her feel like an idiot will not accomplish anymore than pointing out her error assuming this is not a reoccurring problem if at 23 she can not realize how this is a problem with out shouting, I don't really think she needs to be handling a gun at all.  Remember for an accident to have occurred three other gun handling errors would  have had to occurred, 1 point the firearm at something you didn't intend to shoot , 2 putting your finger on the trigger before you were ready to shoot, and three failing to treat every gun as if it were loaded until you have personally confirmed that it wasn't.   I doubt that there is a person on here who at some point in their shooting past has not made a gun handling blunder, that doesn't make it alright but just remember we are all human and sometimes we make mistakes. 

[beemanbeme]

No, loud and accusatory have been ruled out as options. As well as flogging.  One would think, however, at 23, one would be so imbued with the tenets of gun safety that it would be automatic.
Unless, of course, one came late to the sport. 

[Land_Owner]

Got to chime in now. 

beeman...dukkillr was NOT referring to you as a "jerk".  It was a rhetorical comment NOT pointed at you.  If pointed at anyone, it was at ME and I don't believe that of him for one second.

To the Board, my daughter and I had an adult telephone conversation about the incident.  She recounted firing one shot, pump reloading one time, leaving one additional round in the magazine.  She did not remember placing the additional shell into the magazine to replace the fired round.  When unloading, she safed the trigger, released two rounds, closed the action, and cased the shotgun.

From this incident we immediately instituted dukkillr's KISS recommendation of "Action's Open" and a visual inspection.  She is back at college and does not hunt with us regularly.  It was OUR combined mistake.  She has not been to Hunter Safety training like the boys.  My bad.  When she is available, I will take her.  It is on me.

Safety and concern for safety are paramount.  We live and we learn.  All is well that ends well.

[corbanzo]

A buddy of mine did this with a revolver of mine...  so I took out a lead slug from the reloading bench, and threw it at him about as hard as i could.  he was like, what the hell was that for? 

I showed him the cylinder of the gun... At least it wasn't coming from here...

"oh, sorry...."

I'm not saying you should throw lead at your daughter.. but it got the point across.

[Maplicito]

I had an uncomfortable shotgun situation.  I went skeet shooting with 2 roommates.  One is a bit developmentally disabled, but high functioning enough that if he chose to be responsible, he should be fine to take shooting.  While we were walking out in the field, the one turned to say something to me, and turned the gun on me when he turned.  My other roommate smacked him in the backside of the head, so he turned the other way, and once again pointed it at me.  He's capable of better - but his consequence is I will never got shooting with him again.  I'm not a big fan of having loaded shotguns pointed at my belly, and he lost his first and second chances right there.