Shotgun Features

[oneounceload]

So, when you carry your O/U afeild, let's say pheasant hunting. Do you carry it empty and open? Then when a bird flushes you have the quickness to load two shells, close the weapon should, aim and fire?

Damn you must move like lightning

AH, the lack of common sense and intelligence among us - that was not the scenario..but for you....when afIEld (spelling), and pheasant hunting, the shells are in the chamber and the gun is broken open......and yes, it is very easy to close the gun, shoulder it, and fire successfully.....please keep the sarcastic eye-rolling icon for an appropriate moment...thank you for your comments..........

 

[zippy13]

Whoa…I'm not advocating shody gun handling. And I don't assume that a mechanical safety is a substitute for proper safety proceedures.

Good man! Actually, most gun safety issues discussed here are like preaching to the choir. Our discussions are usually about being extra safe. From time to time we get an old hand who's an experienced hunter who's new to organized club shooting (and never visited a gun forum), and s/he's not used to the open gun rule. After a little club time, it all becomes second nature.

With respect to your:

My guns not only don't have auto safeties, the factory safeties have been disabled. IMHO, with O/Us there is no need to have a safety if you practice safe gun handling: gun open = safe and gun closed = gun at battery. Unless you are on station and it's your turn to shoot (or it's in the rack), keep the gun open.

This is the troublesome comment for me. It's like saying 'I'm a safe driver, so I don't need to wear my seatbelt" or the bikers that say "I've been riding for 20 years, I don't need a helmet."

I don't think your comparison to seat belts and helmets is valid. The shotgun sports sanctioning bodies consider the open gun a safe gun. There's nothing in the rules requiring safety devices -- motor sports rules (and common sense) require belts and head gear. If I've never needed/used a safety, which I haven't, in many years of clay target shooting, then it just becomes something that can go wrong (See post #4 about the lost shoot-off because of an active safety).

If it's the disabled safety that bothers you, let me explain: It's not like you switch the gun to safe, but there isn't a safety, so it's not safe when you think it is -- the safety is blocked so you can't slide it on in the first place. With my P-guns, they all have a factory cross drilled hole in the top tang -- you insert a pin in the hole and the safety is instantly blocked. Should you want the safety back, just remove the pin.

To Bernt's
Mechanical safeties are not there to make the gun safer... they are there to compensate for poor gun handling practice only...
I'd like to add: and to make the gun maker's liability carrier happy.

 

[hogdogs]

Yepper, Zipper... That one is paramount to the reason for the Marlin Lever rifles getting a crossbolt safety i am sure...
Brent

 

[Jo6pak]

Zippy
Seems we are looking at the same issue from different angles. I don't dispute the "open is safe" rule on the trap/skeet range. It's easier for other competitor's to see that a action is open and clear. It's obvious from a distance and makes sense on the range.

I'm looking at it from more of a field perspective. If I'm tromping thru brush, and negotiating rough terrian, I want a gun with a safety (not neccessarily an automatic one, but a safety none-the-less) I don't suspect that the little knob or switch on the gun will make me invulnerable to stupidity. I would just like that extra safety net, is you will.

I can see your point of "forgetting" to flick off the safety during competition. But, to me it's a part of my mechanics of shooting.

BTW, I voted for "ejectors w/o auto safeties" in the poll.