I do not own either of these shotguns, but strictly from what I have read-- The Purdey was available with a self-opener or assisted opening feature- spring loaded trips that when you fired each or both barrels, and moved the top lever over to open the gun, "assisted" the opening of the breech and to then allow the shells to be ejected- when you re-loaded and then closed the gun, you were moving the leverage of the barrels on the fulcrum (hinge pin) against the re-cocking spring pressure of both the tripped ejectors and also the "assist" Jack O'Connor discusses this in some detail in his 1965 "The Shotgun Book" in his chapter on the English guns as on page 35.
Easy-opening- a Winchester M21 and I believe the Ruger O/U series have some for of opening design- I have read that when you examine a M21 for the first time and open it, it may seem "loose"- That comes from the book "Good Guns Again" by Stephen Bodio 1994- page 43. I do not know how far into the production run that was- and if the M21's today made by Galazan have that design or not.
Hope this helps a bit!!
Last edited by Run With The Fox; 04/03/12 08:33 AM.
