Thanks for the reply... so... that latch is pushed forward along with the top latch worked to open the gun ... is this a "stronger" design than the top latch alone ???
I like guns of this era, & have begun collecting them... ( shooting with light trailboss loads & round balls ) I have a couple "squeezers" but am not partial to shooting them in comparision to some of the other guns without the grip safety... & since I shoot mostly paper with them, I have been looking at old S&W hammer guns, so this model has caught my eye because of the exposed hammer... the extra latch really had me puzzled... thanks...