If I remember correctly Murphy bites the crimped end of the shell to deform it a bit and preventing it from falling out. It doesn't take much to keep them in the chamber. I don't think it's a good idea to deform the brass base. Trigg hunts with his hammerless guns open until the dog goes on point and I follow him around and pick up shells, some from a previous days hunt he had been on. I don't do that; too much 'stuff' falls inside the action-sticks etc-some of which necessitate taking the floorplate off to remove. I would certainly never carry a hammer gun closed and cocked when hunting with others and/or a dog; I don't even do it hunting alone with no dog, but have it loaded, cocked and open until something flushes and try to keep rubbish from getting into the action. It's easy in a preserve situation to carry them open and loaded or even unloaded until the dog goes on point. At our open field preserve up here there are relatively few surprises unless a bird wakes up and runs so it works well to carry a hammer gun loaded, cocked and open. I don't bite my shells ala Murphy when hunting/dog training there. I have also dismantled every Parker I have for cleaning/inspection/repair so I know where the sears are with respect to wear to address the issue George brought up of closing causing a discharge. I've bought hammer guns that came with sears worn/mangled enough to have that be a definite issue. I dismantle every Parker before I ever shoot it, especially around anyone else. Not much of anything more embarrassing or dangerous than an accidental discharge of a shotgun when shooting around others; just once and you will be suspect from then on. Your shooting buddies are likely to buy you a beenie cap with a siren and a rotating red beacon on it....
oops. Didn't read page 2 before writing this. I've not tried the cocking of the hammers when a bird flushes. Sounds like Harry has a lot of experience at that. I did see a nice hammer gun at a shot once that had the hammer ears come over towards the middle of the breech enough that you could bridge them with one thumb. It was very easy to put your right thumb across both and cock it. I liked that a lot. It was a 12ga too, but not a large framed gun.
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