I like to carry all of my break open guns, broken open, even in the field. I was taught this by my father, who explained to me that he once shot the pant leg off of a guy walking in front of him when he was carrying his SxS closed and (He thought.)on safe.
I don't close the gun until the birds are up. Then I have to mess with the safety, since all of my guns have automatic safeties. So I hate them.
I was also taught to shoot trap holding the gun out front and not mounted. They did this when my dad was a kid and when I shot trap with his buddies, many years ago, all of them held their guns down somewhere near their waist when they called for the bird. They didn't mount their guns until the clay bird was in the air.
I wish we still did this, since it is better hunting practice. I guess the rule changed in the 30's sometime. I still do sometimes, but the other shooters look at me like I'm nuts.
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