When one bird is worth thousands of dollars, few serious competitors are willing to take the chance.
"IF" the gun is on safe until on its way to the shoulder it absolutely matters not how it was put there.
This thus applies only when a person is firing a string of shots Without the gun ever being placed in the safe configuration. I have absolutely no problem with this under proper conditions, but this is not the type of shooting I do. The only "Worth" to a bird I might shoot is whatever food value it has. I have seen dedicated trap guns which had no safety at all, no problem here either. I do shoot other types of guns which do not have auto safeties with no problems. My first "Shotgunning" occurred about 65 years ago with a single barrel hammer gun. About 61 years ago I acquired my first double, a hammerless which did have an auto safety. Every Hammerless double I have owned from that day to this except one has had an auto safety. I have never seen a viable reason for de-activating a single one of them. That one exception I still have but do not use, NOT because of the safety but because I do not trust its barrels.
Totally agree, Miller. I was not referring to you as one of those who are so adamant about having automatic safeties.
And, refreshingly, I agree with Ted that I, also, do not understand "hatred" for one way or the other. If a man cannot teach himself to manage a manual safety, I'm the first to say he needs to use an automatic one. I have to admit to some level of frustration though, with clays shooters who cannot remember to push their safety off before calling for a bird. Then, oftentimes, they expect to get that bird/pair over with no "Os" resulting from it. That is not a gun malfunction, that is a brain malfunction.
SRH
