RC;
The undercut notch & thin sear nose of a non-rebounding hammer gun are most often "Much" more delicate than the notch & nose of a rebounder. They would take a fairly hard blow as in a droppped gun, but under those conditions the sear nose(tip) can be broken or the notch sheared out resulting in a discharged gun. This is essentially the same situation for whch it has always been advised to carry a Colt SAA with only 5 chambers loaded & the hammer down on the empty one.
The rebounding hammer guns are inherently safer, which was rhe reason for their development, along with the convience of not having to half-cock prior to opening the gun.
I have carried non-rebounding guns afield, both MLers & breech loaders. When doing so I try to practise extreme caution & if any spot of known precarious footing is encountered I will un-cap the ML & let the hammers down or unload the breech loader, close the gun & let down the hammers.
I do not personally advocate simply opening the gun as in the case of a fall the gun may hit in such a way as to close it & then add the jar of being slammed shut to the jar of falling. Also though realizing others disagree I am throughly convinced in the case of a fall a gun is less likely to be damaged if bolted shut than with the bbls flopping around where the lug may be sprung or worse.
You definitely "Never" want to carry a gun with the hammers in contact with the cap or the firing pin touching the primer.
