doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Safety

I have been a long time lover of double barrel shotguns, going back to my young teen years when I first shot one. Several years back I purchased a rather clean, tight Husqvarna sidelock hammer gun. The first thing I noticed is a lack of a safety like most boxlock doubles. Is that the most common configuration for a hammergun?

On a hammergun, the hammers are the safety - the gun is �safe� until the hammers are pulled back.

The earliest pinfire and centrefire hammerguns of the 1850s and 1860s had a half-cock position (see my thread below on the pinfire game gun), and the rebounding lock invented in the late 1860s did away with the half-cock on centrefire guns..

In the case of a hammerless boxlock, the hidden hammers are always at full-cock, thereby various mechanical safeties were invented to prevent an accidental discharge. It is probably a bit more complicated than that, but you get the idea!

Just a word of caution, I have lost count of the number of hammer guns fitted with rebounding locks I have inspected where you can push the hammers forward when they in the let down (safe position) enough to contact the strikers, because the safety sear is non existent or worn. In fact the only real gun safety is when the ammunition is in your pocket.

Could not resist posting this again I am sure many of you have seen it, but for those few who may not have it still holds true today.

A FATHER�S ADVICE

If a sportsman true you be.
Listen carefully to me:

Never, never let your gun.
Pointed be at anyone:
That it may unloaded be.
Matters not the least to me.

When a hedge or fence you cross,
Though of time it cause a loss,
From your gun the cartridge take.
For the greater safety�s sake.

If twixt you and neighbouring gun.
Bird may fly, or beast may run,
Let this maxim e�er be thine
Follow not across the line

Stops and beaters oft unseen
Lurk behind some leafy screen:
Calm and steady always be,
Never shoot where you can�t see.

Keep your place and silent be:
Game can hear and game can see:
Don�t be greedy, better spared
Is a pheasant than one shared.

You may kill or you may miss
But at all times think of this:
All the Pheasants ever bread
Won�t repay for one man dead.

.
A Fathers advice.

Written by Mr Mark Beaufoy in 1902. Coombe House, Shaftsbury, Dorset, England. On presenting his eldest son Henry Mark Beaufoy with his first gun.

I really appreciate your poem, Damascus. Thank you.

Some hammer guns were equipped with a grip safety somewhat like what was on a M1911
.45 pistol.

As were the occasional hammerless; a 1931 Smith Ideal 12g SN 135983. The gun was manufactured without a manual safety, the top tang being solid with no slot for a sliding safety. Behind the triggers, a square block was installed upon which pivots a somewhat rudimentary grip safety blocking both triggers until depressed.
I need to ask Dr Jim to check the SN for the factory specs



And the Whitney
https://www.doublegunshop.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=190112

For Steve Helsley; grip safety from a 1872 Powell hammer lifter