I'm with George on this one all the way. Also might mention there are differenced of importance between a Colt SAA & a double hammergun. A dropped Colt is apt to fall butt down giving the hammer a good likelyhood of being struck with the muzzle pointing "UP" at you. Also the sear notches on the Colt are extremely delicate. The long double is much less apt to land in a position which would result in the sear being broken & firing the gun & at least in the case of most re-bounding locks it would take a tremendously harder blow to fire it. One always has to consider the "Worst Possible ScenairoThe bl lug twisted or " apt to be encountered. Situations of terrain can be encountered while hunting in which it is simply "Dangerous" to navigate with a loaded gun. With any break open gun single or double, hammered or hammerless I would open the gun; remove the shell/shells; & reclose the gun before proceding. Sure in case of an accident the bbl may be dented, the stock scratched, chipped or even broken, most of these are re-pairable. The bbl lug twisted, broken or dislodged is much more complicated. Even on good terrain it is possible to trip or slip on some unseen object & fall. In this case an open gun may well "Close". I would much prefer to have a loaded & bolted gun bouncing around with the hammers down than cocked.
The choice to me is plain, when carrying a hammer gun in a situation where I feel I might "Use" it, it will be loaded, bolted & hammers "Down" untill ready to fire. Sure there may be situations where in effect I have a Single, but if unwilling to accept that I would simply use another gun. I don't think there are many of us here who are strictly limited to having only the one gun to use.
