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Carry-a-Kimber wrote:

longhorn_92 wrote: 3.Keep the action open and the gun unloaded until you are ready to use it.

So should I wait until I draw my 1911 to pop in a mag and chamber a round??
Should I wait until a quail is in flight to thow a shell in my shotgun??
I don't know how a whitetail would react if I loaded a round and closed the bolt on my Rem 700 while he was standing 150 yards away.

The way the NRA explains this rule is that when you strap on your gun to carry, you are then using it. When you begin hunting, you are then using your gun. Basically, it is either being used or it is being stored.

george wrote:I'd never get any shooting done, if I had to remember all of those rules.

I suspect what george meant is that every list of "the" rules is just another way of describing the behaviors that we all should demonstrate. Whenever I see a reference to "rule number three," I wonder "whose rule number three?" And lists of rules often overgeneralize/oversimplify:

"Keep the action open and the gun unloaded until you are ready to use it" - I do not store my guns with the slide locked back and the recoil spring compressed.
"Never pass a firearm to another person, or accept a firearm from another person, until the cylinder or action is open and you've personally checked that the weapon is completely unloaded." - Ever clear a jam for another shooter?
"Every gun is loaded.. everytime all the time" - How do you disassemble and clean a loaded gun?

Rule lists can also be unnecessarily specific and long, attempting to identify everything a person could possibly do that is unsafe.

Of course, such safety rules are important for learning and reemphasizing safe behavior. But I think george's point is that he's not likely to be reciting that list verbatim, even if he does follow its intent.
Whether you sum it up in four rules or twenty, success is measured not by memorizing the words but by demonstrating the behaviors.