If you have access to spent cartridge casings, I think you will find that an M-1 Carbine cartridge casing can be cut down in length and make into a safety cap that fits down over the percussion cap and nipple, so that you can walk with the hammer down on this "Safety", to hold it in place. Tie the casing with a strong nylon string to your trigger guard, and you have a "safety that prevents the gun from firing even in a fall, yet can be removed with no real effort and allowed to drop, and hang from the trigger guard on the string for easy retrieval. I know one man so concerned about noise of the brass casing clanking against the barrel, lockplate, or trigger guard, that he glued thin leather( Chamois cloth from the auto store) around the casing and on its top, to deaden it. The Cap also makes your nipple stay dry in the rain.
I saw on the Dixie Gun Works site that they are offering a commercially made brass "safety similar in design as to what you can make with a hacksaw, and a bit of time.
I would rather my hammer rest on something sturdy, like the web of a brass casing, than on a piece of leather, no matter how thick.
I also have used those soft, pink erasers you buy to put on pencils when that eraser wears down, as a cover over the nipple and percussion cap. I don't think they are particularly safer than the leather pad, however. :hmm:
The main safety issue is MUZZLE CONTROL, and keeping a finger, or your thumb, or whole hand behind the hammer, if its in the half cock notch, and your FINGER OFF THE TRIGGER, as you move through the woods. As long as your hand keeps the hammer from moving rearward, it can't escape the half-cock notch, and fall on the nipple. If your fingers are OFF the trigger, and you have good muzzle control, you can fall and not fire off the gun either.
You don't have to live in Alaska to hunt in up and down country, where the ground is slick. We have ditches here on the flatlands, that are just as steep sided, and just as slippery to negotiate. We have bluffs along the major rivers that rise hundreds of feet above the water, with steep slopes, and all kinds of ways to slip and fall. If you are going to hunt, its Not WHETHER you are going to slip and fall, But WHEN you are going to slip and fall- the next time!
So, a religious devotion to watching where your muzzle points, and where every one else's muzzles point is always appropriate, and appreciated. I once fired an ISPC match ( timed, speed, multiple targets, from multiple locations and barriers), with a State Police officer timing me. When I finished, he told me I could shoot with him any time, as he had never seen anyone else put the manual safety on my guns faster, or get my trigger finger off the trigger faster than I do.
People Notice good safety practices.
They also will notice if you don't use good safety skills, ALL THE TIME.
I had a nationally known firearms training instructor give my group of students the rules for carrying firearms on his range. It was a "HOT RANGE", meaning that no gun was to be holstered unless it was, loaded with a round in the chamber, and a full magazine in the gun, cocked and locked. He then told us that if we ever pointed a gun at him, he would kill us, as he must assume that the gun is loaded, and that the only reason we are pointing a loaded gun at him is to shoot him.
That will sober you up- I promise.
I feel the same way about hunting with partners who are carrying loaded guns, too. I too am a very sober fanatic about gun safety- just like BB's friend.
I don't Trust mechanical safeties. They are "Feel Good " mechanical devices that can fail.
My Eleventh Commandment of Gun Safety has always been:
"YOU ARE THE ONLY SAFETY ON A GUN THAT WORKS".
That trigger finger should be either behind the trigger guard( and therefore blocked from quickly reaching the trigger), OR should be stuck straight forward, along the stock, above the trigger guard and trigger, OR wrapped around the front of the trigger guard, depending on the gun and how long your fingers are.
With the necessity to manually cock an exposed hammer on a gun, there is also plenty of time to get your trigger finger( Index finger) on the trigger at the same time. :hmm: :thumbsup: :shocked2: Watch that muzzle, and make sure that hammer can' move at all, any time, and you won't have a problem even during a fall.
Oh, you need to LEARN how to fall forward, backward, and to both sides, protecting the gun from striking objects and the ground. Use a Broom to practice this in your living room, and then out in the yard, before you even think of risking a firearm( unloaded, of course) in practicing how to fall"Safely". I have slipped, I have fallen, many times, but my training has protected my guns from damage, and from any Accidental Discharge as a result of the fall. Only my "dignity" has been harmed. :grin:
