doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com MF Ideal safety and releasing loaded guns

I know the subject of the MF Ideal safety has come up before, I've yet to see an unqualified endorsement of the ambidextrous buttons on either side of the trigger guard.

My question relates to the original alternative, which seems to be decocking the loaded gun and quickly cocking the gun with the underlever on the flush. There's a somewhat analogous work around with Darnes involving manipulation of the cocking key. To quote a post on G. Gournet's site http://www.gournetusa.com/ideal.htm , "When releasing a loaded gun, the gun is on safety position and can be cocked in a fraction of a second by squeezing the lever with the medium finger while the first is already on the trigger. This is why the first models came out without any safety."

This leaves me wondering where the strikers are when a loaded gun is decocked. Wouldn't they be released into contact with the strikers, just more slowly and gently than when the trigger is pulled? That would seem like carrying a non-rebounding hammer gun with the hammers all the way down. Or am I missing something?

Bill, not sure what the referent of "they" is following "Wouldn't" in your third to last sentence. I surely do not know the answer of how it works. Dustin would be the first one I'd ask, or a smith familiar with them. I did want to pass on an anecdote that may lend a clue, or deepen the mystery: I was on a Kansas late season pheasant hunt, the first outing with the 314. I was shooting reloads in the right barrel, factory in the left. Bird got up, thought I hit it hard, but it coasted a good 500 yards into some heavy cover. Off we went after it, with Cocoa doing a great job of locating it. Bird got up again, classic left to right crosser: swung through and pulled the front trigger. CLICK. kept swinging and pulled the back trigger. ClICK. Bird flew off and I stood open mouthed looking at my host. "Never did like French guns" was all he said. Turns out that in reloading before moving, I had put a reload in the left barrel. The tolerances on the 314 were/are so tight that if not a perfectly crimped mouth and resized base, the rising third bite behind the doll's head would not quite seat flush. This kept the gun from going completely into battery, and there would be the lightest mark on the primers. It felt like the strikers were impeded by friction, as opposed to perhaps a mechanical block like a safety sear, and felt very much the same gentle release that is felt when decocking the gun. So now, whether factory shell or reload, I check that the rising bite is flush with the doll's head. FWIW Mike

I am assembling an Ideal today that I restocked for my wife. I'll check when doing so if the strikers are in contact with the primers when the gun is uncocked.

I don't like the safety at all. It seems like an afterthought. It would be interesting to know if the gun can be carried uncocked and cocked on the flush.

It is possible to decock the Ideal by holding the spur to the stock grip and depressing the triggers.

Slowly returning the spur will let the strikers down on the primers. There is no rebound action in the Ieal. The strikers protrude when in the fired/uncocked position. In effect the pins will be touching the primers.

Personally I would not do it.

Also, squeezing the spur on flush involves compressing three springs, the opening lever spring, plus two main springs. Can it be done quickly enough and leave time to swing on a bird?

Isn't it easier to use the safety or carry the gun open?

Thanks! That's kind of what it looked like to me. A rebounding hammerless firing mechanism would have been very neat, but one can't have everything...

Shotgunlover is right. The pins are lowered into contact with the primers when the gun is uncocked.

Photos of my wife's 20 ga. no. 205

[URLhttp://s785.photobucket.com/user/GreenerSXS/media/20161221_144504_resized.jpg.html?filters[user]=99915731&filters[recent]=1&sort=1&o=0=http://www.jpgbox.com/page/51168_600x400/][/URL]

I would also like to thank Geoffroy Gournet for his help and advice in getting this Ideal up and running. I bought it off gunbroker with a broken stock and bent opening lever and bent sears. Some doofus try to pry off the trigger plate. All is better now.

With 27 1/2 inch barrels and chokes .000/.029 it will be great for birds.

I only use the decocking feature on an empty gun going back in the safe, in lieu of snap caps. Never thought of using it in the field with a loaded gun. Once in a while I get lucky and don't overthink things. Mike