The hard hammer springs must be a carryover from flintlock days when the hammer was extra heavy, laden with the flint, and had to overcome friction with the frizzen to fire.
I would disagree with this point on several levels. First off, since few shotgun manufacturers also built flintlock guns, there would be nothing for them to carry over from flintlock days. Poor design is poor design. Then there is the totally incorrect notion of a flintlock "hammer" or cock being extra heavy. A few may be pretty stout on flintlock military muskets, but not so on most hunting guns. I doubt if any of mine are any heavier than the average percussion or breechloading hammer, including the weight of the flint and leather. They are typically quite graceful. The springs are not mushy, but not overly heavy either. I'd say that speed and inertia is more responsible for kicking the frizzen open than an overly powerful mainspring. Too much mass in the cock is only going to contribute to a slower lock time, and that was largely engineered out of quality flintlocks long before they were replaced by percussion systems. The difference in lock time between a good and properly loaded flintlock and a breechloader is mere milliseconds. If I notice any delay, I know I have done something wrong. When hunting, the gun is brought to full cock as it is brought to the shoulder, just as most here are doing with their hammer guns. Of course, some are easier to cock both hammers at once than others, but that has nothing to do with their flintlock ancestry. Practice and individual technique probably has a lot to do with it too. Personally, I can't imagine much difference in speed or safety by carrying a cocked and open gun, and trying to quickly close it and get it to my shoulder versus smoothly bringing the gun up as you cock one or both hammers.
