I noticed today, while cleaning my Dickinson after a dove shoot, that it does not have a hold-open feature for the top lever. IOW, the lever returns to center after you open the gun, then when you close it the lever rides over to the right and re-latches itself when the barrels seat.
Many (most) of my other nice doubles have a hold open feature that holds the top lever over to the right until the barrels are closed, at which time a trip is depressed and the top lever returns to center.
What are the advantages of the system that holds the lever to the right? There are more moving parts to it which means more to go wrong and wear out. I can see that the hold-open system may make the barrels a tad easier to close the last little bit, but is there any other reason for it? Most all O/U guns seem to have this hold-open as well. There must be a reason for it to be so prevalent.
