I'm on the fence about whether you should unload your gun when crossing or lay it down to cross the fence (sorry I couldn't resist ).

But I would like to make a point that if you have a dog with you, you should never ever lay your loaded gun down to do something else. I am amazed at the number of accidents I read about where a hunter was shot when his dog stepped on the gun and the gun went off.

I didn't pick up a gun until well into my thirties. This stuff is not instinctive to me and I have to work hard to keep my mind where it should be. Early in my hunting years, I was deer hunting on a relative's farm. A coyote ran by and I raised my gun and flipped off my safety. I lost view of the coyote in some brush and just kind of sat there with my gun up, safety off waiting to see if the coyote would reappear. I heard a noise and out stepped a person about 150 yards up the ridge from me kind of near where I last saw the coyote. I wasn't aiming at the noise and I never had my finger on the trigger, but the gun was pointed in that general direction with the safety off. I about had a heart attack when I thought about what could have happened. Lesson learned!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (And I really did see a coyote. I talked to that other person up the ridge and he had seen it too.)