doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Decocking a DT sxs

My gunsmith showed me a way to decock a DT sxs by pulling the triggers back as the gun is closed. He said most European DT sxs can be decocked this way and it works on my Verney-Carron boxlock.

Anyone else come across this - or is it an old parlor trick that I just missed out on?

Syracuse Lefevers also have this feature.

Can be done on most any that do not have an auto-set safety.

You are holding the sears out of engagement from the hammers.
As you close the gun, the hammers follow back down on the cocking linkage past the sears to the fired/down position.

This gun has a manual safety, as do many Continental guns - which I guess explains his European gun comment.

Even with an automatic safety it can be done on any gun on which the top lever does not latch over. Many guns using the Purdey style double under bolt allow the lever to return to center when the gun is open. The lever is then cammed back right by the rear surface of the front lug camming the bolt back as the gun is closed. This will include a lot of European guns. It seems that top levers with a catch are mostly an American thing. I have heard, though I am not certain which ones, that some Ejector guns should not have the hammers lowered in this fashion. It doesn't hurt a Lefever with in frame ejectors, can't say about the ones with forend ejectors.

It can't be done on my Uggy, which does have an automatic safety and does not have a lever that latches over.
The safety is being pushed on at opening and there is no way to pull the triggers with the safety on.
I prefer the Darne method-close action, pull triggers, put gun away. No snap caps or other kludge needed.

Best,
Ted

The old Remington Arms Co. catalogues describe opening the gun, pushing the automatic safety off, holding the triggers back and snaping the gun shut as the way to store the gun decocked. It works on the seven Remingtons I own.

It can be done with an auto safety.

It's been my experience any American made gun with a rib extension;..break open; use any object to push down on the lever release plunger while holding lever over; then let lever come back or you can let it snap back when the plunger is pushed; move safety to fire position; pull triggers with gun open; close gun. Feels like the gun almost has an assisted closer when closing. Lefevers barrels will almost close themselves; so will my 20 ga. Stevens.

On the guns I mentioned on which the top lever returns to center when opened I simply assumed that everyone would realize that if the gun had an automatic safety it would be necessary to push it OFF safe. You then pull the triggers just enough to clear the sears & release them as the gun closes the hammers drop, the top lever is cammed over to the right re-setting the safety
& when it closes the lever snaps back to center bolting the gun, no device necessary to trip the lever. What Patriot describes works virtually the same except you do have to have some object to stick inside the rib cut in the frame to release the trip. On a Lefever with the 3-position safety you just pull the triggers & close the gun, nothing else required, I have done all of the above for years. (Never Owned an Uggie so can't speak for them). I had a 20ga Ithaca Flues once that if you were real careful you could release the bolts just a hair before the latch caught the lever so it would return to center without tooling allowing the hammers to be eased down.

I drop a 3" section of 1/2" solid brass rod down the barrel and, holding it vertical, snap the hammer. The brass absorbs the blow of the firing pin without risking any damage. Slide it out and repeat on the other barrel. Takes 15 seconds at most.