doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com How Do You Close A SxS

Written in stone for me as a lad- Grandfather prized his machinist's and carpenter's tools- as I do still today- and the rule in the shop was- you never go into another man's tool chest-and he taught me that being a thief was despicable-and the worse kind of a thief was a man who would steal another's tools- and deprive him of earning a living and providing for his family-sounds like you and I had the same kind of "upbringing"- firm-but fair. As far as lifting another man's rifle or shotgun from the gun rack w/o asking permission, even if you have seen others do it- also "Verbotten" in my view- and I left one Gun Club because a obviously ignorant man with his teen-age son were "sighting in" a M-1 carbine- it had a 15 round magazine inserted- the lad fired twice at the 50 yard range- then the weapon jammed- and he turned around with the bolt home, his finger still inside the trigger guard- pointing the muzzle at his dad's bellybutton and said" What's wrong with this gun"? The last time I "hit the dirt" that fast and hard was ATR at Bragg years ago-and the strange thing was- his Dad couldn't see anything wrong- "After all-it can't fire, it's jammed!" Holy Jumpin' Jehosaphat- keep me 1000 miles away from that form of "simplfied suicide"- son-in-law and I were in a Cabela's- gun library-he's a Southpaw (and one great guy) and we were looking at LH Bolt Rifles for deer hunting-(ended up with a Rem 700 in .270Win) and another "customer" picked out a used Marlin lever-pointed it towards us and racked the action-I grabbed the muzzle and lifted it towards the ceiling-told him that just because it was in the store-don't assume it's unloaded-now they have the trigger locks on all the racked guns I understand-sort of an inconvenience to the knowlegable safe gun handlers extant-but that's the price we pay today for what we called in the Service "The 10 Percent Factor"- Thanks for your kind comments- I'd be glad to shoot SC or share a duck blind with you anywhere-anytime (hopefully while Cheney is back in D of C however--RWTF

I have two dbls, one a J P Clabrough (British), the other a J P Sauer (German). Both of these guns are back action sidelocks & have dbl underbolts & a Doll's Head & are over 100 yrs old. The point of these, though is that neither have wear compensating bolts. The bolt notches & the bolts themselves are simply cut on a horizontal plane, paralell with the bbls. Both are on face & lock tight with the top lever centered. The top lever centers whether bbls are on or off & would appear it always did, was made to do so.
"Do You Reckon" that building in wear compensation "Causes" increased wear??
Should this gun have the top lever held back or snapped??
I say snapped because there is no lever latch, the lever returning to center as bbls open. The bolt is cammed back by the rear curve on the forward lug. As the bbls seat firmly against the frame the bolt clears the lug & snaps into the notch with virtually no contact (Friction). If one tried to hold the lever over & ease it down they would also undoubtably relax their hold on the bbls & their weight would put upward pressure on the lug causing friction on the bolt all the way down.
Smoke that one over you lever riders!!

History sure is great- I saw the Holland & Holland videos with a proper British instructor- Ken something- knickers, vest, Peel shoes- the whole magilla- he shot a sidelock and then on SC an American Ruger O/U- and he always had the muzzles pointed down and lifted the up the buttstock/receiver group to close either shotgun. The Brits may drink their beer warm, are lacking a Delta Dental plan in their Socialized Medicare and call their erasers Rubbers- but they developed and practice excellent gunning manners-!!

Or even a "metallurgical" point of view-but let's be specific here Joseph-air hardening, water hardening or oil hardening- pick one and let's "chat about it" Whatsay??

Could I add my 5Cents please?
I think you should never handle anyone's gun without their permission.The owner should hand it to you butt first and open or breech bolt back if a semi.Thereby you can see for yourself it is empty of shells.
'English' 'style' was always muzzles pointed to the ground and lift the butt up to close.This has been modified nowadays in some circles to the following;- Hold the stock by the wrist with the stock against your hip, muzzles pointing to the ground at an angle across your body/legs then using the leverage afforded by the barrel length lift the barrels up toward the action.This has been promoted to assist ladies and children to enable them to close a loaded gun safely in controlled conditions.Hope this helps.
I personally hold the top lever across whilst closing my gun initially, allowing the bolt to bite home freely that last micro -second.
Muzzle awareness is my greatest concern, I do not like to see barrels arcing around me or my friends in an uncontrolled, cavalier manner.