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Forums10
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Most Online1,131 Jan 21st, 2024
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Joined: Feb 2016
Posts: 148 Likes: 108
Sidelock
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OP
Sidelock
Joined: Feb 2016
Posts: 148 Likes: 108 |
I have three doubles with automatic safeties and one with manual. I enjoy each of them and rarely have a problem remembering which I'm using. The manual safety is especially nice on a Ruffed Grouse covey where I've fired both barrels and I reload quickly and remount for a third shot. A third shot might happen a couple of times a season, but it's nice to be able to do it quickly. The potential need for a quick 3rd or 4th shot is what has me wondering if I need to go with manual on a 20 gauge gun I have coming. Adjusting the gun to one or the other is an easy request at the moment, a decision that can be reversed at a later date if so desired. If I take the gun duck or dove hunting, not having an auto safety, just like other guns I have (semi-auto, over and under), should be more efficient. For quail hunting, an auto safety wouldn't be an issue. I need to let the fellow know today.....
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Joined: Oct 2010
Posts: 969 Likes: 38
Sidelock
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Sidelock
Joined: Oct 2010
Posts: 969 Likes: 38 |
Quail hunting means walking. How much more safe is that with an auto safety as compared to manual?
An open gun when the dogs are not showing any indication of game is probably a lot safer.
The safety blocks the triggers, the gun on "safe" remains cocked and can go off if dropped or knocked hard enough. In short the safety is an illusion of safety.
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Joined: Mar 2011
Posts: 2,978 Likes: 105
Sidelock
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Sidelock
Joined: Mar 2011
Posts: 2,978 Likes: 105 |
I think a safety that only blocks the trigger is safer than no safety at all whether it is little more than an illusion or not. I certainly would NOT condone hunting with no safety switch whatsoever. Some hunters are safer than others. If you have hunted long enough and with enough individuals then you most certainly have inadvertently had a gun pointed at you. I clearly would prefer the safety to be ON in that circumstance even if only blocking the trigger. Intercepting safety Sears block an inadvertent fire should a gun be dropped or otherwise ‘jarred out of bent’. Many guns have an intercepting like mechanism even though not an intercepting sear, per se. A Browning O/U for example, has an extra notch in the tumbler meant to catch the tumbler with the sear IF the trigger has not been pulled and if jarred ‘out of bent’ even though a Browning has no actual intercepting safety sear like that found on 7-pin sidelock guns. Bottom line, a safety is safer than no safety at all imho.
Socialism is almost the worst.
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Joined: Feb 2002
Posts: 14,091 Likes: 192
Sidelock
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Sidelock
Joined: Feb 2002
Posts: 14,091 Likes: 192 |
About 99% of hunters do not know whether their safety blocks the trigger or has an intercepting safety. It is of no consequence. The important thing, the only thing, is that the hunter understand the safety, automatic or non automatic, that is part of his gun. If someone likes an automatic safety, that is fine. As someone who occasionally shoots for money, I find an automatic safety a distraction and possibly a trail of tears. At a box bird shoot, a failure to fire, for any reason, is a lost bird. The same goes for an expensive hunt with few chances to score a kill. I use both types of safety, but prefer the non automatic.
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Joined: Oct 2010
Posts: 969 Likes: 38
Sidelock
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Sidelock
Joined: Oct 2010
Posts: 969 Likes: 38 |
Hammer guns have no safety at all. Rebound hammer guns have a safety notch that stops the tumbler if the trigger is not pressed. Arguably they are safer than boxlocks.
As to guns being inadvertently pointed, that tends to confirm that a gun should only be closed when in active hunting phase, otherwise it is carried open. No trigger blocker can provide the safety of an open gun.
I have observed the behavior of hunters when they arrive on the field. After banging the car doors they open the trunk, take out and assemble their guns, load and chamber, engage the safety, and then they let out the dogs and head for the actual hunting spot. They walk a fair distance with chambered rounds, over rough ground, whilst trying to control dogs and chat to each other. Cannot fathom how their hunting enjoyment would be reduced if during this walking phase they carried an open gun!
Last edited by Shotgunlover; 06/16/21 05:08 AM.
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Joined: Jan 2006
Posts: 15,456 Likes: 86
Sidelock
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Sidelock
Joined: Jan 2006
Posts: 15,456 Likes: 86 |
Quail hunting means walking. How much more safe is that with an auto safety as compared to manual?
An open gun when the dogs are not showing any indication of game is probably a lot safer. Doesn't carrying a gun broken open put undue stress on the hindge pin ? I always thought an automatic safety is what made a SxS and O/Ur the safest guns. Anytime I hunt with someone I keep a close eye on their gun handling. That includes a look at their safety anytime I'm given the chance. You would be surprised how many times you can catch some people with their gun loaded and their safties off. Automatic safeties were and are the best thing since sliced bread.... I look at it this way if you cant check your safety before each shot you're not really a very safe shooter.
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Joined: May 2008
Posts: 8,158 Likes: 114
Sidelock
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Sidelock
Joined: May 2008
Posts: 8,158 Likes: 114 |
My grandfather, uncles and father all taught me, at an early age, that the only safety you can trust when handing a firearm is the one located between your ears. ALL guns are loaded, and are to be treated with this in mind. Growing up, Dad never let me have a BB gun or a cowboy cap pistol-when he was growing up, one of his friends shot another boy in the eye playing cowboys and indians with their Daisy BB guns- thus paying the boy's membership dues in the Cyclops club. Nowadays we have the Hunter Safety program in MI for the lads starting out in the hunting-shooting activities-which is good, but good old common sense is still the best safety- "If a sportsman true you'd be, listen carefully my son to me-NEVER EVER let your gun, pointed be at ANYONE. That it may unloaded be, matters not the lest to me!"" RWTF
"The field is the touchstone of the man"..
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Joined: Feb 2002
Posts: 14,091 Likes: 192
Sidelock
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Sidelock
Joined: Feb 2002
Posts: 14,091 Likes: 192 |
"A look at their safeties anytime I'm given a chance". Give me a break. How about looking at their muzzles?
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Joined: Oct 2010
Posts: 969 Likes: 38
Sidelock
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Sidelock
Joined: Oct 2010
Posts: 969 Likes: 38 |
Open guns stressing the hinge (cross) pin.... target shooters are obliged by the range rules (In Europe at least) to carry their guns open, closing only when ready to call for the clay. Their target guns do not show signs of premature wear.
Gun handling in the field is indicative, yes. Like when a hunter bends to deal with his dog retrieving and does so with a closed gun on safe, the muzzles pointing all over the place, one cartridge still live in the gun.
But he is on "safe" so his buddies are all protected.
More hair raising is the carrying of a cocked, loaded gun on a sling feeling OK because the little button indicates "safe".
Well it aint safe! A fall of a slung A5 killed a man in my area. Inertia is more powerful than we think, it can disengage a sear, and that is why the safety is an illusion.
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Joined: Jan 2006
Posts: 15,456 Likes: 86
Sidelock
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Sidelock
Joined: Jan 2006
Posts: 15,456 Likes: 86 |
"A look at their safeties anytime I'm given a chance". Give me a break. How about looking at their muzzles? That's a given
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