doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Speed features in doubles

Mike, you are not alone - I have a Henry Atkin Spring Opener that is a pleasure to use. The Atkin use of the Beesley design is very slightly different to the Purdey and reputed to be even smoother. It also uses different ejectors (basically Southgates).

I am not, however sufficiently strong in the hands to use it 'one handed' opening to gain the best advantage from the design.

I took my Purdey out this morning for a round of sporting clays down at Deep River Sporting here in N.C., a friend I was shooting with showed me a trick on closing the gun. After opening and ejecting the shells you simply just lift the butt of the stock while holding the barrels. It was pretty neat trick and made it so much easier to close.
I also have an Atkin spring opener and it closes so much easier than the Purdey does.

Thats what I have always been told, but several years elapsed between one (my only) short use of a borrowed Purdey and having my own Atkin Spring Opener, so I have never really been able to compare for myself. Thank you for confirming this.

But, does the Henry Atkin open as easily as the Purdey opens?? A Holland Royal with its' self-opening mechanism closes much easier than a Purdey but it also doesn't self open as well as a Purdey either.

I can't compare as I don't have a Purdey, but the Atkin opening is smooth and works perfectly with no assistance. The mechanism is basically the same (as the Purdey) with small changes to cam profiles, sizes and angles etc to spread the spring compression more evenly over the whole closure movement.

Check out the Shotgun sections (below the grid) on this site for examples of fast shooting with pumps and SxSs in Cowboy Action Shooting.

http://www.jspublications.net/records/records.html

Notice how fast the pump can be worked, loading one in the chamber for each shot. Also notice how the hammered doubles can be worked almost as fast as hammerless.

SxSs are allowed to have extractors but not ejectors. There are mods done to make the SxSs fast. I can post info here if folks are interested.

Pumps must have external hammer, and I think that limits it to winchester 1897s (and replicas). Or at least that's the only pump you ever see used for CAS.

You can only load a max of 2 shells at a time, so the pumps aren't allowed to load a full mag tube. And you must start the stage with the gun empty.

The pumps are ultimately slightly faster, but as someone mentioned earlier can be a "train wreck" if there's a jam. And the pumps are more expensive to keep running - it's hard on them to use them so rough for so many rounds.

Thecarman,

The modification that intrigues me is the tuning of the hammer gun to make possible the simultaneous cocking of both hammers. The technique I saw with hammers is the left hand coming back after firing the first two shots, cocking both hammers and working the opening lever. Those hammers seem to be "sweetened" in some way. The demonstration was given during the presentation of the Pioneer hammer double, I think.

There are two main mods specific for hammered doubles.

First, only a few guns come with hammers close enough together (spacing over the top of the tang) that you can comfortably cover both hammers at the same time with one hand. So the hammer spurs are heated and bent to be closer together (or some may cut and weld to make the spurs both closer together and longer).

Second, and maybe most importantly, is lighter hammer springs. Lighter for easy cocking, but not so light that primer strikes are not reliable.

For example, my father-in-law's cowboy double is a late model Liberty with no mods. The hammers are too far apart. The springs are so stiff that you need a solid grip on the gun and your whole hand to cock one hammer. There is no way to quickly use this gun as is. We'll modify it eventually.

Most of the guns used in cowboy action shooting are reproductions (not original/vintage), so no hesitation to modify them (like heating or welding hammers) other than that they need to stay within the rule book.

Now, there may be some cowboys with extra large/tough hands who can do this one-handed-hammer-brush to an un-modified gun, but I'm not one of them.

An alternative method is to cock the hammers one at a time. Some variation like: cock right hammer with right thumb after you've worked the lever to open the action, and then cock the left hammer with your left hand after you drop the shells in the chamber, just before closing the breech. (This doesn't work on my father In laws gun because the hammer springs are so stiff.)