Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Hunting with a round in the chamber with outside hammer guns?

I took several spills with loaded firearms. First priority is always keep the muzzle pointed is a safe direction. It should be a natural reaction. If you get in a situtation where there is a good chance you will take a spill unload it, with a partner , hand it off. The best way to avoid a accident is to just pay attention.

You guys hunting birds with open doubles are hunting different birds than I hunt. If nothing else, I'd get too much debris into the clockworks of my Citori if I hunted grouse with it open like that.

The folding BLR hammer is a brilliantly safe design for an open-hammer gun. Even IF something somehow got between the scope and the rifle and hit the hammer and knocked it off half-cock, the hammer covers and protects the firing pin. By my (non-MechE) analysis, for it to fails gets into the shear strength of the large steel pivot pins and the receiver itself.