Grouse guns

[StubTwist]

Originally Posted by Ronald Scott

A friend of mine just bought a Parker hammer gun -- his first. We shot some black powder loads out of it on the skeet field. It was a lot of fun. We got to talking about hunting with a hammer gun. I assume you carry them with hammer's uncocked and when a bird flushes you cock and shoot one barrel at a time. Is that right? Or is it possible to cock bother barrels as you bring up the gun?

I'm sure it takes a lot of practice.

I witnessed this only once. New Years Shoot in NH years ago. Austin Hogan did this with his hammer gun. Skeet station eight. Called for a double, low house first and overhead from high house. Hammer gun uncocked, mounted low gun. Called pull, cocked both hammers and he smashed them both.

[Dean Romig]

Originally Posted by Austin J Hawthorne Jr.

If the terrain permits, I prefer hammers cocked with the action open. Fast shots seem easier that way.

This is the way I hunt a hammer gun too. It’s by far the safest way to hunt with a hammer gun.





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[Dean Romig]

Originally Posted by Frank Cronin

I'm sure it takes a lot of practice.

I witnessed this only once. New Years Shoot in NH years ago. Austin Hogan did this with his hammer gun. Skeet station eight. Called for a double, low house first and overhead from high house. Hammer gun uncocked, mounted low gun. Called pull, cocked both hammers and he smashed them both.

I’ll have to check the mainspring tension on the locks of the gun he was shooting that day. As I recall it was the 2-frame Grade 0 twelve gauge with the Vulcan Steel barrels.
Austin left that gun to the PGCA and dubbed it the “Editors Gun” and I will pass it along to the next editor of Parker Pages. It is a really nice shooting gun.

I have never been able to cock my hammers on the rise of a flushing bird or clay in time to get off a decent shot... hence my reasoning in having both hammers cocked and the action open while hunting. I think it’s a bit unsafe to be quickly trying to cock hammers against stubborn mainsprings.... What happens when you mess up ? And all that unnecessary cocking and releasing the hammers again and again on barrels remaining unfired is, in my mind, just asking for a slip up.





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[Brett Hoop]

C.O.B.

I have attended a series of your lectures on Acquisition & Justification of Double guns. I know you could easily work it out

Because the Chairman keeps plenty of birds for the Boys, and finding they prefer you to kill one with regularity I can see a hammer gun getting some practice. As for a hammer 28ga, and the fact that I am not allergic to upgrades that’s a phone call to another Uncle, a bit of pleading and hand wringing, but has been done before.

Why must you put these thoughts in my head

[OH Osthaus]

Originally Posted by Rich Anderson

Heff I have no idea how you can manage a 32 inch gun in the grouse coverts my max is 28 and sometimes that's more barrel length than I care for.

The only hunting I can manage with a hammer gun are quail. I've tried it always alone and just can't manage it comfortably. For those that do my hats off to you. Brett I think your next 28 should be a hammer gun,

Gary the Dickson sounds like a dream gun. I don't hunt doves so I can't help you th gundere but if I did a grade 1 32inch 16ga hammer gun would be a top pick for me.

i have had a couple of upland hammer guns that i could cock both hammers as i raised the gun, i hunteud grouse and woodcock for years with that 30" Wm Moore & Grey i had listed here some time ago.

i will admit to having some trouble cocking both on my Parker 10, that one has very strong springs

[C.O.B.]

I gave the method of open gun and hammers cocked a go a couple of times but mostly just lost the shells that were in the gun

[Dean Romig]

Austin Hogan that New Years Day at Major Waldron's in New Hampshire with his hammer gun.

Well, that didn't work...
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[Ron Scott]

Probably a really dumb question but those of you who carry gun closed and hammers down, how do you cock both barrels at the same time? You must have a really long thumb -- or do you somehow reach back with the other hand, kind of like they do with a six gun on a fast draw in spaghetti westerns?

[OH Osthaus]

Originally Posted by Ronald Scott

Probably a really dumb question but those of you who carry gun closed and hammers down, how do you cock both barrels at the same time? You must have a really long thumb -- or do you somehow reach back with the other hand, kind of like they do with a six gun on a fast draw in spaghetti westerns?

i carry it with my thumb across the top of the action, web of the hand against the frame, barrels up - i can pull both hammers back as I rotate the gun into position

[terc]

When I hunt with a hammer gun I cheat. It has a safety.