are hammer guns fast becoming the new black?

[MM]

ive noticed people seem to be snapping them up quickly all of a sudden. Another trend?

[matone]

Perhaps more people are recognising what interesting guns they are !

[HDAV]

Not sure always fancied one its having the time and money to get a serviceable one ideally Damascus with 2 1/2 chambers and nitro proof with minimal pitting cast on stock

[bi9johnny]

Believe it or not mate I used to own a baikal hammer gun and it was gorgeous. I remember a gunsmith telling me the barrels and blueing where as good if not better than some English guns he had.

Another one of those " I regret selling that one" moments

 

Atb

John

[welshwarrior]

They look fun and different I learnt with a keepers one and now ( for a few years) wanted my own but it must be nitro and useable

[figgy]

The resurgence in hammer guns is because they are cheaper to buy a good make one compared to sidelocks and best boxlocks.

 

Gun trade has been singing there praises for years as under valued, now folks are listening as more shoot game days and would like to use a nice gun.

 

I would love one myself after shooting a friends a couple seasons ago.

 

Figgy

[rimfire4969]

One day I will buy one and use it on a few driven days. Then when I realise I can't shoot straight with one go back to my under and over and sell it to the next person in line who thinks what a great and romantic gun to shoot a few birds with.

 

This might sound like a grump but rest assured I will still buy one or proberly two in the years to come.

[MM]

I would buy one to shoot pigeons with, im not fussed on when to use. My sbs is a fav for any occasion.

[Fatcatsplat]

Have a chat with Wabbitbosher on here as he has some lovely ones in his box of tricks.

 

I bought a J W Tolley off him about 3 years ago and absolutely love it to death - It's sleeved, so it can take nitro loads and i get to play with a gun that's a century old!!!

[JONAH898]

My old man brought his hammer gun a cupple months ago and now uses it all the time for clay shooting his new semi auto betretta Dosent get a look in anymore lol

[bigrob]

Be careful if you do get one. leaving hammers cocked and forgeting it can be a problem. Also accidentally knocking the hammers against something when it's loaded can cause it to discharge. In my experience you have to handle them very carefully.Rob.

[matone]

Be careful if you do get one. leaving hammers cocked and forgeting it can be a problem. Also accidentally knocking the hammers against something when it's loaded can cause it to discharge. In my experience you have to handle them very carefully.Rob.

In my experience it pays to handle ALL guns carefully,whether they have hammers or hammerless!Both

types can discharge accidentally !

[alfa taf]

Be careful if you do get one. leaving hammers cocked and forgeting it can be a problem. Also accidentally knocking the hammers against something when it's loaded can cause it to discharge. In my experience you have to handle them very carefully.Rob.

When I started shooting , it seems a hundred years ago , I was given a lovely Italian hammer gun , I have forgotten the make , and on my first outing , I did try to put the hammers down by holding the hammer and pulling the wrong trigger.!! I,ll never forget my surprise.!! Fortunately the gun was pointing at the sky.

[bruno22rf]

Just a pointer here in response to a few remarks regarding hammerguns-1st A hammergun IS normally a sidelock by design and 2nd Hitting a hammer and causing it to fall will not,on the majority of guns,cause the gun to fire-most guns are fitted with intercepting sears which prevent the hammer falling all the way unless the trigger is pulles back at the same time.I have 2 hammerguns-a 16g Baikal that I have kept for longer than any other gun that I have owned (and thats a few!) and have just bought a Smokepole s/s for a laugh.Hammerguns seem to have more character then normal guns and there is something almost romantic when you hear the hammers coming to full cock as birds approach

Edited January 1, 2013 by bruno22rf

[JohnfromUK]

1st A hammergun IS normally a sidelock by design and 2nd Hitting a hammer and causing it to fall will not,on the majority of guns,cause the gun to fire-most guns are fitted with intercepting sears which prevent the hammer falling all the way unless the trigger is pulles back at the same time.

 

It is correct that most (virtually all?) hammer guns are sidelocks - and it is also true that many sidelocks are fitted with intercepting safety sears, but as far as I know most (almost all?) hammer gun sidelocks (and quite a number of hammerless sidelocks) are NOT fitted with intercepting safety sears.

 

I have 3 hammer guns, all good grade sidelocks - none has intercepting safety sears. I have 3 (again all good grade) sidelock s/s - of which 2 of the 3 have intercepting safety sears, 1 does not. I have 3 o/u sidelocks, all have intercepting safety sears.

 

You also come across two distinct types of hammer gun lock;

 

Before about 1870ish - all were 'non rebounding' locks - as used on percussion and flint muzzle loaders. These have a distinct 'half cock' position in which the sear is cut deep and the trigger

cannot

be pulled and the gun is unlikely to be 'shaken off' - this is the 'safe' position. The hammer is raised from half cock to full cock only when one is ready to fire (as muzzle loader practice). Such guns are easily identified by the two apparent cocked positions. Breech loaders with this type of lock MUST have the hammers raised to half cock before loading because the hammer rests firmly on the firing pin in the 'down, or fired' position. Such a gun

might

fire on being snapped shut on two fresh cartridges with the hammers left down.

 

Post about 1870ish, rebounding locks came in and were widely adopted very quickly. In this design, the hammers 'rebound' to a sort of half cock position - and hence are only ever

fully

down at the instant of firing. To manually push the hammer to 'down' the trigger must usually be held pulled and the hammer pushed forwards by hand against (light) spring pressure. Such guns (which are the more common type) have only a single obvious (full) cocked position when the hammer is raised. In this position the gun will fire when the trigger is pulled.

 

I have a non rebounding hammer gun - and they need considerable care in use, as it is not intuitive to half cock the gun before closing. Once in use, its not such a problem, because after firing, the hammers hold the firing pin firmly against the fired primer, so must be raised before the gun can be opened.

 

There is a good article here:

 

http://www.shootinggazette.co.uk/shootfeatures/535703/Hammer_guns_an_introductory_guide_and_celebration.html

Edited January 1, 2013 by JohnfromUK

[bruno22rf]

Very informative johnfromUK0 I guess the easiest way to tell is to simply push the hammer(s) with your thumb and see if they push the firing pin all the way to the breech face.I have 2 hammerguns at the moment-A 16g Baikal and a Chimbo .410 ,both are budget guns yet both are fitted with intercepting sears so its not a price thing!! I have not come across many guns that are not fitted with intercepting sears and I believe that the vast majority of all guns over the last 30-40 years are fitted with them?

[wabbitbosher]

Just to add

 

Hammergunsssssss Ubber ubber yum yum !!!

 

Split into Bar action , where the lock is part of the action (attached to it) and its main spring is in the Bar of the Gun and the cheaper (not always the case) Back action guns where the lock appears seperate from the action and its workings are to the rear of it , hence Back action

 

And of course the Bar in wood which without getting too complicated is like a cross between the two "ish" well not really but there isnt many about and i'm Rubbish at putting it into words

but the stock wood comes right up to the Forend and the Bar is set into it

 

I've had almost Hundreds of them and still have a personal collection of errrrrrrrrrr a Few (the wife is looking over my shoulder)

 

Damascus guns float my boat and i've saved a few from destruction and sold them on here ( You know who you are and i wont Dob you in to your Wives) and kept a Errrrrrr Few !

 

All the rebounding lock hammerguns i've ever seen have had "intercepting sears" if thats what you call them (i'll look it up in one of my Bibles and correct my self if i'm wrong)

 

You know you want one

 

All Hammerguns (as long as they are looked after and kept in proof) are as safe as the Chap behind the triggers !!!!!

[JohnfromUK]

Bruno22rf, thats very interesting.Presumably both your guns are (relatively) recent?

My 3 hammer guns are;

• William Powell best quality, made 1871, bar action rebounding locks, no intercepting safety
  
• Charles Maleham (made by W&C Scott), back action rebounding locks, no intercepting safety, date about 1880
  
• James Adsett, bar action non rebounding locks, no intercepting safety, date believed 1869
  

 

The sidelock without intercepting safety is an AyA Senior, made circa 1983, This has Purdey/Beesley type locks, with fully bolted sears (the safety catch bolts the sears through levers on the lock plate, not the triggers), but perhaps surprisingly as it was AyA's top model and AyA sidelocks normally have intercepting safety, this model has no intercepting safety, having the safety catch act on the sears instead. I have no idea why this was done, as the complexity (and hence cost) would be similar.

[MM]

arrrrrrggghhhhhh!! i can feel a present to myself coming on hahaha

[rimfire4969]

arrrrrrggghhhhhh!! i can feel a present to myself coming on hahaha

Me too, I am seeing a friend at the weekend, I have been trying to talk him into selling his Monk hammer gun. Hopefully this weekend I might succeed.

[JohnfromUK]

Having tried to find when intercepting safeties were introduced, I did find this;

In 1879 the Joseph Vernon Needham and George Hinton patent No. 706 (no. 225994 of 1880 in the USA) which was bought by (W&C) Scott covered an intercepting sear or safety block which prevented movement of the tumbler unless the trigger was pulled.

I also have reference to a Scott & Baker back action from 1878 with intercepting safety, so it seems likely it came into use circa late 1870s.

Rebounding locks came in (Stanton's Patent) from 1867, though there was earlier an patent by Powell & Bardell in 1866 according to this article

http://www.shootingtimes.co.uk/features/125060/Reviving_the_trend_for_hammerguns.html

which has some good information.

[Blackpowder]

Great fun hammer guns, my Army and Navy 12 bore "K" quality probably means keeper was my only gun for over 30 years, was seduced by a T Wild hammer gun which I now regret selling to make way for a W R Pape boxlock. As someone has said any gun is only as safe as the person holding it, some discipline, dry practice and solo shooting makes sense before taking to the field in company. Is there a trend back to s x s ? I seem to have seen more illustrations of them in use in the magazines persued over the holiday period.

 

 

Blackpowder

[loomer]

There are some real bargains out there at the moment if you hunt about a bit.

 

Getting my barrels back from next week, after sending them to be reblued, then it gets put back together.

 

They are just different, and much more elegant than most other guns. Always a good talking point on the shooting ground too.

[Cumbrian]

I recently purchased a hammergun, having overcome doubts about their safety (expressed some time ago on this forum, I have to admit) and finally seduced by its looks and workmanship. The first shotgun I fired was my late grandfather's hammergun - now deactivated and only a basic ironmonger's piece even when new - so I have always looked affectionately on the species. My new gun was made in the early 1870s by W.Tanton of Ashford, Kent, who made so few guns that he did not give them serial numbers but who obviously valued quality. For example, the engraving is exquisitely delicate and the hammers out of the ordinary. More important perhaps, the gun is tight, recently nitro proofed, and thoroughly usable. I daresay many could describe their hammerguns in similar terms. What staggers me is that something made 140 years ago, though quite well used, still functions perfectly, whilst its wood and Damascus barrels look almost new.

[JohnfromUK]

What staggers me is that something made 140 years ago, though quite well used, still functions perfectly, whilst its wood and Damascus barrels look almost new.

Just how I feel. I have a William Powell in a similar condition, though the other two hammer guns I have are now sleeved.