doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Hammer gun advice...

Amen...pass the plate

Heck I thought some of the other posters were getting all teary eYed

Add my welcome to the Board, Jim.

Steve has made a fine case for walking up with the hammers uncocked. In fact, with many hammer guns you can ONLY cock one hammer at a time so his lowering the gun to cock the second barrel makes a virtue of necessity.

I totally agree that walking up on a bird with barrels open makes little sense. But, I do like to have both hammers cocked when birds flush. And, you can find hammer guns that are made so that you can cock both hammers with a sweep of your thumb.

Note, 'tho, that if you don't get hammers fully back you risk one or both slipping forward and causing that barrel to fire -- unless you have intercepting sears which may be hard to find in hammer guns.

Regards, Tim

A good idea when buying and hunting with a rebounding locks hammer gun is to check the condition of the rebound system. It often goes out of order unadvertingly to the gun owner - the gun keeps shooting OK, it just isn't safe any more, but you will never know it until you have an accidental discharge. Remove the barrels, press a piece of soft wood (a hexagonsal pencil works fine), draw the hammer to just a fraction from where it cocks and let it fall without pressing the trigger. The goal of the rebound system is to catch the hammer from striking the primer; if you see an imprint of the firing pin on the pencil, the system is out of order and the gun would have gone bang if there were a live round in the chamber. Have it fixed, don't tempt fate. On non-rebounding locks the same test shows if the half-cock sear is strong enough to catch the hammer and don't let it go bang.

I shot my 1878 Purdey pigeon hammer gun last weekend at sporting and love it. I have it for sale on Gunsinternational by the way.

my opinion only -

The biggest pitfall is the barrels- its rare to find them without some pitting, and if they are shiny I get real worried about how much and with what skill they were honed or back bored with. Have a way to get the walls measured and make safe walls an inspection condition.

wood condition and fit is next, some British guns don't have that much drop.

on face issues would be next, not too bad to fix correctly.


I have had new spurs welded to broken hammers on a gun I liked everything else on, cost more than the gun, but there was room in the end value.

every issue resolution adds cost, finding an issue free 140 year old gun is not easy

sometimes you get lucky and find it all

I think Diggory; if he's reading this, ought to consider a book devoted to hammer guns similar to his work on box locks. Thankfully, on this side of the pond there are still plenty about at prices that would seem quite moderate to many on this forum. Ones to maybe look at are those made for live pigeon shooting as they often have 2 3/4" chambers and are good all rounders. Hammer guns were made well up to the second world war here so good steel barrelled nitro proof ones with 2 3/4" chambers can be found. Good luck in your search. You will be quite taken with their graceful lines. Lagopus.....

I received Diggory Hadoke's Vintage Guns book for Christmas,

a great read and a lot of information for those who like these old pieces.

Okay so am I correct in my understanding that rebounding hammers once dropped automatically rebound to a half cocked position and non rebounding hammers need to be cocked back to that position after they are dropped?
In addition to safety issues what are the pros and cons of either type?
Jim

Rebounding hammers rebound back to the position where the sear rests in the safety bent, there is no half cock as such. This safety notch also prevents accidental discharges and should be checked for function.

In my experience the most likely problems (and I had them all one time or other) special to hammers guns are worn and defaced firing pins and their springs, stock cracks under the locks, corrosion damage to the locks, and about half the hammer guns will not open when the right hand hammer is cocked, which can be a disadvantage in certain situations. Cheap hammer guns tend to be hard to cock and this is expensive to fix.

The best buys, in my opinion, are round bodied peninsula back action rebounding hammer doubles. They are the simplest, most rugged and often the best balanced and they are easy to fix too. Over the years I had to learn to make firing pins, repair stocks, and even put a couple back on face with minimal equipment, and if I could do it, anyone can do it. The other advantage of hammer guns is the because they are simple, and easy to service and repair they seem to survive better than self cocking doubles so you can find a really good buy..

My current project is a Cogswell 410 weighing 1.9 kilos, that would be 4.4 lbs, and it shoulders fast. That is a fun double to handle.

Good post! I tried to use a cute little 1890 20-bore backaction rebounding hammergun for ruffed grouse and found that I couldn't safely cock both hammers fast enough to be effective. Am I reading here that non-rebounders might be the answer?