This is great! Keep posting pics of these beautiful damascus guns, I can't get enough.. I love the idea of a hammer gun for ducks, as opposed to upland where you are walking around. You see the ducks coming, plenty of time to cock the hammer while sitting in a blind.
I am also really enjoying seeing that others shoot their damascus and even more so when they post photos of their "shooters"! I do hope fellow forum members keep this "virtual gun show" of beloved guns going (too often all we see on the internet and at gun shows are the guns that are for sale).
Interesting how so many of those who shoot these old guns refer to them with such affection. I am new to the hammer gun, and while at first I wasn't to wild about the idea, I have grown to appreciate some of the qualities (perhaps why it did not die out quickly upon the introduction of the hammerless designs). Here are some things I found I liked the very first time I used it-
1. No need for snap caps.
2. The action naturally falls open when the lever is operated for easy reloading.
3. When shooting trap I only need to cock the barrel I am using.
4. The gun is very safe when loaded and not cocked and one can tell at a glance (or touch) if it is ready to fire.
Some things I am not so wild about-
1. The hammers are a bit heavy and much like shooting a single action revolver, there is that extra step to take...cock the hammers.
2. Because there is no external safety (other than the hammers in the uncocked mode) the shotgun can't be "cocked and locked" for hunting (as noted by the quote above).
Another member of the forum told me that a popular technique for hunting with the hammer gun is to load, leave the action open and cock the hammers. Then one simply closes the action when ready to fire. No doubt this was a common practice in the golden days.
My Meriden's action has a feature that appears to have the purpose of preventing an accidental discharge. This feature prohibits the hammer from fully dropping unless the trigger is pulled and kept back (being new the hammer gun, I am not sure if this feature is something they all had). This is along the lines of the intention behind the Glock trigger safety. I am not sure how this works or how reliable it would be to prevent the hammer falling if the shotgun was dropped, however---if it is simply a sear, I suppose the sear could shear. Nonetheless, this leads me to believe that many old timers were comfortable hunting with the guns loaded and cocked and simply followed the rule of keeping the finger out of the trigger guard until it was time to shoot the weapon.
Please keep the photos and stories of damascus shooting going! Today I plan on taking my shotgun out and shooting some patterns on paper and time and other projects permitting, I may even shoot some clays.
Doug