Hunting with hammers

[Southpaw]

I think 99.9% of responsible hunters and gun owners will adamantly agree there is not a game animal out there that is worth an accidental shot that could hurt or kill someone, yet it still happens and mostly from slim minority of irresponsible or ignorant hunters and gun owners. I don't know the statistics but for shotgunning, quail hunting and turkey hunting have to be most dangerous. I think its rare to see deaths from hunting with shotguns and with all the mandatory hunter safety classes, but still. Quail hunting I can see how things happen so quickly and with people getting excited in the pursuit, but turkey hunting, I will never get that one.

Hammer guns just have a different technique and mindset to operate safely. My first gun that I got when 12 was a 20 ga H&R hammer single shot. Still have that gun, and have not shot it in over, heck I can't remember last time I shot it buts been decades. Probably because of a love hate relationship. The hammer was so stiff when I was a kid I was terrified that when pulling hammer back my thumb would slip and gun would go off. Or, if I pulled hammer back but did not shoot and had to release hammer, my thumb would slip. That model once gun was cocked you could not open action. I spent hours as kid working that hammer back and forth on an empty gun learning to mount the gun and pull hammer back at the same time.