doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Rookie Question

Agree with Geo here. A hammergun in good condition, especially if it has rebounding locks, carried closed, hammers in safety notch is as safe as any other in this scenario. Also agree you would only get one shot, but given those conditions that is about all one can realistically expect, regardless of their choice of gun. Far, Far Too much emphasis has been placed on "FirePower" for sporting guns over the years. I recall in one GunDigest some years back, I believe it eas Ken Waters, had been asked by the editor, probably John Amber at the time, to hunt "Exclusively" with Farmer type single barrel shotguns for one season & then do a follow-up article on the results.
Essentially his conclusion was; he loved his fine doubles too much to replace them with the lowly single, "But", his game brought to bag was very little changed from a normal year & his ratio of game to shots fired was one of the best he could recall.

Single barrels can be fun and quite effective. However, assuming we're talking game birds here, there are some species that are more likely than others to require a 2nd hit to bring them down, or to anchor them if they hit the ground running and you're dogless. For that reason, for example, I would not hunt pheasants with a single barrel gun. I'm not a waterfowler, but I'd think waterfowl in general might be another category where a 2nd (or more) shot would come in quite handy.

Larry;
I bought my first double in 1954 (55 yrs ago) & have used a single very little since. While I would have to agree with you in principle, I will also have to say, human nature being as it is, one is just as apt, if not more so, to have a cripple down with an empty gun with a gun holding more than one shell as they are with a single. While I have no statistics, it would not surprise me at all to find that the more shells a gun holds the higher the odds of this occuring would be. I have known hunters who did use a single who carried another shell between two fingers of their forward hand & could execute a very rapid reload. This would however likely delay one just enough to make them aware of a cripple needing attention, more-so than if that next shot were immediately available upon seeing feathers fly & bird "Start" toward the ground. I am not planning upon taking up a single nor on a crusade to get others to do so. If for whatever reason though were compelled to do so, I would not see it as big of a handicap as many would.