Hammer gun mechanics

[C. Aaron Beck]

I have found that since there is no spring to cock on opening, my hammergun seems to "fall" open. This is rather nice, similar to a self opener id imagine, however, it seems to hit the bottom end a bit hard. metal on metal feeling which makes me cringe and think "off face". The gun is 120 yrs old and is still on face but I have no idea how much service it saw. Am I missing something, worried about nothing, anyone else feel the same way? Oh yeah. the gun sort of sticks at the top of the open cycle. even though the lever is open, the barrels need a little pressure to start opening, this contributes to the bottoming out as the heavy barrels just dont stop till they hit metal...