doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Automatic safeties

One thing the pump and autoloaders (the later which I personally despise) taught us when young boys was that the safety ain't on until you put it on. I have long ago dismantled the automatic safeties on most of my double guns and made them manually operated. While I trust no safety, at least the one I conscioulsy
operate, has forced a discipline which makes sense. What do you lads think? Auto safeties: love 'em or hate 'em (which I do.) Chopperlump

I grew up shooting a Webley 700 with automatic safety. I was always taught to treat a gun as if it were dangerous - safety on or off.

Since then I have owned and used guns with auto and non-auto safety and hammer guns with rebounding and non-rebounding locks.

Just treat the gun as if it were cocked all the time and periodically do a visual and manual check of the safety, like you periodically check the rear view mirror in your car.

Neither option is inherently safe or unsafe in my opinion, it is about the operator being disciplined in the operation of whatever he is using.

Of course, double rifles frequently have non-auto safeties because it would be pretty dangerous to load, close mount, swing and fire at a charging beastie - only to realise you left the saftey on. Then you are lunch!

My first firearm was a Savage Stevens .410 SxS (now my 18 year old daughter's) and it has the automatic safety. For someone learning to shoot and hunt or who doesn't shoot or hunt very often, I think the automatic safety does add an extra margin of safety. Such shooters can be nervous and shooting pretty exciting. Anything that might help prevent an accidental discharge (confused minds and young hands and fingers shaking) even at the expense of forgetting to take the saftey off and missing a shot (which happened to me more often than I would care to admit), is a good feature. I was more comfortable taking my daughter shooting with me and others knowing that the little .410 shotgun was looking out for all of us!

For clays where the shotgun is kept unloaded until the shot is to be fired I think the automatic safety is a bother. It is also something to go wrong. My Fox Sterlingworth's became jammed in the off position and when it got jammed a second time after I attempted to fix it, I didn't give a second thought to leaving the transfer bar out and "converting" the saftey to manual. Disabling the automatic safety made the Fox a better shotgun. In the field, while it only takes a split second to flip an automatic safety off after a reload, it is an extra thing to do on a moving gun and therefore for both clays and hunting, I prefer the manaul safety.

Doug

It doesn't matter to me if there's one or two triggers, manual or autosafety, pump or auto. I can even use the Browning H safety without screwing up. Go figure. OTOH, I have watched grown men forget to take the safety off repeatedly during a single round of clays. Drives me nuts. These same guys will continue to struggle with the same gun day after day, year after year. I don't get it. Maybe my IQ is too low to have a problem with these things.

Similarly, I do not care whether a field gun has an autosafety. It will be on when it should. If I miss a bird b/c I forgot to take the piece off safe I deserve to be slapped. I will not hunt with anyone who tells me that there's not enough time to take a safety off after a flush. And I tell them to read "The Modern Technique of the Pistol".

Bottom line: I believe that if technique is sound an autosafety is a non-issue.

Here's my own pet peeve: finger on the trigger when calling for a target..........teaching yourself a bad habit I say. No need for this even on station 8.

Sam

...no need for it even on station 8 in a round of International Skeet.

A few guys here go into a blue fury at the mention of an auto safety. I guess I don't understand all the fuss. I've noticed that if you ask the question of a SxS or O/U guy while hunting or shooting at the range, "does that gun have an automatic safety"? that, if they can't answer the question, they will be the guys forgetting to take it off, and muffing shots. Ignorance is correctable, only stupidity is forever.
Have had both designs. I always know where the safety is, even if the gun moved it on after I opened it. Have handed guys open guns to examine, and cringed as they stuck finger on trigger and closed the gun, as they brought it to their shoulder. I don't hunt or shoot with them if they do it again after I point it out.
Best,
Ted

It's hereditary. Be nice to them, they are the deductively challenged.

Hate them! If I never did any shooting except in the hunting field, I'd probably tolerate them. However, I shoot clay targets 1,000:1 over every hunting shot and they are a royal nuisance there and a waster of clay birds. Makers have put them on SxS for ages, probably because it's a "feature" that's easy to incorporate into the double design. Possibly also because of the British habit of having two guns and a loader for driven shoots, the loader passing the loaded gun to the shooter. However, that passing would be even safer with the gun open. It's the first modification I make on any double I intend to keep. It also allows you to let the hammers down without messing with snap caps. Have to wonder how anyone survives tragedy while using a pump, semi-auto or O/U without one?
Respectfully,
"Blue Rage"

I hate them too. My first SXS had a manual safety and it was easy to get used to, the main safety of the gun is between my ears. I have dismantled them on most of my guns.
All too often at the skeet and trap new shooters will call for a target and try to shoot and nothing, the safety was on. I've been seeing this more and more with pumps and autos; not just once but on the next stations as well. It does get frustrating.

Jack K

Does anyone know if you can change a SKB 585 from manual to automatic saftey? My local gunsmith---fairly good but not a break action expert---says no. I would prefer an automatic, the rest of my guns are and I would prefer that this gun be, too. My opinion is you just can't be too safe and I'd prefer screwing up on the clays range to having an accidental discharge in the field. Never had one yet, but never is a VERY long time.

Steve