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

Last edited by Tim Carney; 01/08/14 01:47 PM. Reason: added thought