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

A question to the forum, if you are hunting with a hammer gun do you hunt with the hammers cocked if you have a safety on the stock? If you don't have a safety ?
, do you cock the hammer and fire when the bird is in flight?

Hi, I have a Siace self cocking ejector hammergun with a tang safety. I hunt this gun with the hammers cocked. I treat it like any other hammerless shotgun.

On my other hammerguns (less any safety), I only cock the hammers when I go in for a flush when my GSP's are on point.

Good Luck!

Greg

a search will show this discussed a whole lot, its a popular question.

a picky note- there are no hammerless double guns that I know of- some just have them inside where you can't tell if they are cocked or not ;-)

As GJW says- for me- cocked on the way into the point as I pass the dog- unless the footing is unusually bad - in which case - at the flush.

Many years ago I owned a 20 gauge double branded as Central Arms Co. It was a Stevens model 315 & was a Hammerless being striker fired. This gun was built on patents by G S Lewis of Springfield MA. He had patents #'s 1,086,378 issued Feb 10, 1914 for a coil spring lock & #1,136,247 issued April 20, 1915 for a complete SxS action. there have been a few other striker fired doubles over the years. Not sure, maybe Ted will chime in, but the Darne may be striker fired.
I have never owned a hammer gun with a safety, always cocked at the shot.

thanks - up to now - i only knew of striker fired pistols

Marlin 90

Browning Cynergy

But, it's moot to the discussion.

barrels broken both hammers cocked then close the barrels before mounting the gun and swinging through, same as i do with my more modern guns.

I figure by doing it this way when i am cocking the hammers i am doing so with the barrels open so there is no way for an accidental discharge.

Cocking at the shot i am not a fan of. If you walk with barrels closed and the muzzles pointing up then cocking the hammer ruins my tracking on to the bird as i have small hands i cant easily reach the hammers from the grip. But i suppose its not dangerous in any way.

If you walk with the barrels open then cock and close its going to slow you down so much and if you barrels are open you may as well be cocked as it can't go off with the barrels open.

If you do it the other way around closing the gun then cocking in my opinion that's even worse because you then have a closed gun and your trying to cock both hammers and get onto the bird quickly, seems like a recipe for accidental discharge.

I carry barrels open both hammers cocked then close and swing up through the bird, then the only time the gun is live is when the muzzles are already pointing at the sky. Issue with my way is that on some of my hammer guns they won't open once closed and cocked so occasionally you close and come up on a bird and don't take a shot, and to open the gun again you have to de cock the hammers which can be a pain if your hands are cold. In such a circumstance i generally just rest the gun on my hip with muzzles raised to the sky.

I know in the US you use pointers a lot which changes things a bit because you can anticipate the flush more.

Hi Parker

There has been a lot written about hammer gun etiquette over the years. My personal view is firstly I prefer to use hammer guns with �rebounding locks� rather than �none rebounding� locks, always and with no exceptions the hammers in the safe position down unless you are imminently about to shoot. Firstly I was taught and it was insisted upon if you used a hammer gun what would now be describe as the old Brit etiquette you bring a hammer to full cock at the same time you bring the gun to your shoulder to shoot, you were expected to practice this until you could do it in one easy movement. If you unfortunately missed you partly lowered the gun from your shoulder so the barrels are pointing skyward and brought the other hammer to full cock and then re shouldered the gun for the second shot. Finally if you shouldered the gun with a hammer at full cock and did not shoot you where to let the hammer down as you removed the gun from the shoulder in the same practiced one easy movement.
I still use this hammer gun safety etiquette today and over the years I have found no good reason to change.

Over the years I have mostly shot hammerless guns, but on occasion when i did shoot hammer/s I did it exactly as Damascus describes.
Safeties are there "ONLY" for the un-expected. If nothing unusual ever occurred safeties would not be needed. Many people consider a hammer gun as safe cocked as a hammerless which is always cocked upon loading it as the safety on most hammerless guns lock only the triggers. However "IF" dropped the hammers on a hammerless are exposed only to jar, & are not subject to a direct blow as is a hammerless. The sears & bents on many hammer guns are quite subject to breakage in the case of a heavy blow as in the weight of the gun falling upon the hammer spur.
In this aspect I consider a gun loaded, cocked & open as no safer than one loaded, cocked & locked. When that Un-Expected event occurs the gun may quite well be slammed shut.
Hammer guns with rebounding hammers as a general rule do normally have sturdier notches the non rebounders so are generally not as apt to discharge from a blow to the hammer. I have hunted some with an original muzzle loading double which of course did not have rebounding hammers. i always hunted it loaded. capped & hammers in the safety notch but treated it with extreme care in where I walked with it etc. If I had to pass through a particularly treacherous spot I would uncap it, wipe off the top of the nipples to ensure no priming compound was there, let the hammers down & then re-cap after I got on better ground.

My dear Sir: would it not be more facile to simply acquire the loaded, closed and cocked weapon from your man and shoot the bloody bird?



Archduke Franz Ferdinand shooting with the Duke of Portland on the palatial Welbeck Abbey estate, at Worksop, Nottinghamshire, 23 November 1913. A loader fell while holding two guns and both discharged, just missing the Archduke.