The real danger is in not knowing, or not remembering the gun is loaded. It happened to me once. I hadn't remembered I had left my Hawkins loaded from the previous season. The morning of the first day of the following seaon I popped the first of what was going to be several caps to make sure the bore was dry and BOOM! It was loaded. Naturally, safe gun handling had the gun pointed towards the ground in a safe direction, but it scared the poop out of me. Not to mention what could have happened if I had been careless. From now on I slip a piece of paper taped into a tube with LOADED or CLEAN written on it, onto the barrel of my sidelocks. That way I will always know when I pick up the gun, without a doubt, if it's loaded or not.