I think the original poster was questioning if a shooter of that day used both barrels in part to keep just one from heating up. Most of the top shots seem to have beaver tail or large splinter fore ends and those who don't can often clearly be seen to be wearing a leather glove on the hand which comes into contact with the metal of the barrels.
If those shooters were anything like those of today you might find some very interesting habits. One major Skeet shooter loads AA shells so the AA on the shell is horizontal. Another has lucky shoes. A trap shooter I know always goes out with 28 shells in his bag. No more, no less. Or the Sporting clay champion who I watched blink nine times on every station to "clear his eyes". Methodical and obsessive are terms which comes to mind when I think of most top shooters. Doing it exactly the same way over and over again.
