Sight picture with a double hammer gun

[oldwood]

When hunting with a double m/l black powder shotgun , one important thing , the shot is fired , and before trying to reload , condition yourself to run ahead of the smoke , to see if your game is visible. If you wait , wounded game could be escaping. Just one thing to add to all the other things black powder hunters might do to improve their luck.

 

[Britsmoothy]

When hunting with a double m/l black powder shotgun , one important thing , the shot is fired , and before trying to reload , condition yourself to run ahead of the smoke , to see if your game is visible. If you wait , wounded game could be escaping. Just one thing to add to all the other things black powder hunters might do to improve their luck.

Yes sometimes you do have to peer around the smoke.
I shot at a woodcock once but lost it in the smoke. I lunged forward to see the bird flying away low and then turning and it let the wind take it for a few hundred yards. Tia, my spaniel then, looked at me and I said, " I think that has a pellet in it Tia, come on* and off we went.
We did indeed find the bird. It was nearly dead when Tia found it.
Don't remember the hammer or cock or pan flash and both eyes were open.

 

[GREENSWLDE]

I never see the hammers on my SxS shooting skeet, my only issue is finding my second clay on doubles through the smoke. I finally bought a vintage Westley Richards and what the seller had pointed out is it has "low level shaped hammers" and I still don't notice a difference to my others. View attachment 170048

Hey Bravo, You really have a ROCKING HORSE there. One of Westley Richard's Dual Service Guns. Made on the "Cusp". Built to fire Pin and Center fire Cartridges.Yours has Had the Original Long hammers changed to C/F only.The model seem to have all been Bar-in-WOOD and Joint-in-Wood.
It could have been One of the later C/F convertions as some were. Which ever, it All looks to be GOOD. Lucky Man !! Wish I still had mine,but we ran out of 14b. cartridges. OLD DOG..

 

[Red Owl]

I think what he was wondering is a bird, maybe a grouse, takes off and you mount the gun and then have to pick up the bird. Do the hammers obstruct your view in getting on target? I think you are looking at a double with the hammers in the "UP" position, resting on the nipples. When the hammers are cocked back, they are closer to the stock, they shouldn't be a problem. Such guns were used for years by excellent shots.

 

[Brokennock]

Regardless of what the target is; clay, flushing grouse, rising quail, crossing pheasant, or flaring duck, and no matter the position of the hammers,,,, the eye still can't focus on the target and the hammers. If one is focusing on the target and mounts the gun, remaining focused on the target, the hammers shouldn't be a factor. If the bird "gets lost" behind the hammer it is because the shooter looked at the hammer and not the bird,,, even for the tiniest fraction of a second.....
Even when I shoot an occluded dot, whether on pistol or rifle, I am target focused and the red dot is just and obscurity in my peripheral vision. I am not focused on it,,, the split second I do,,, I loose the target.

 

[smoothshooter]

The whole point of a shotgun fitting you is so you don't have to aim it prior to firing it.
There is often simply not enough time to do that.
Paradoxically if it doesn't fit and one tries to aim it at a moving target, all it will highlight is the fact that indeed, it does not fit!

I have always had good luck sort of aiming my shotguns.
Just looking over the barrel and ignoring the rib and bead as you fire does not work for most people unless the gun and stock have been custom fitted to the shooter; an expensive proposition.

 

[Britsmoothy]

I have always had good luck sort of aiming my shotguns.
Just looking over the barrel and ignoring the rib and bead as you fire does not work for most people unless the gun and stock have been custom fitted to the shooter; an expensive proposition.

None of my guns are custom fitted to me but I do make them fit me or only buy them that do fit for me.
I don't know what kind of shooting you do friend but you would struggle on some of my shoots.

 

[smoothshooter]

None of my guns are custom fitted to me but I do make them fit me or only buy them that do fit for me.
I don't know what kind of shooting you do friend but you would struggle on some of my shoots.

You may be right about that.

I have had so many shotguns that it would be cost-prohibitive to alter the butt stocks or have someone else do it.
Most of my shotgun shooting has always been pass shooting pest species like starlings, crows, pigeons, etc., numbering in the thousands over the years, (sometimes getting between 5 to 20 per shot) so optimum fit was not that critical. Got several thousand more with air rifles and .22 rifles beginning when I was 7 years old.
Used to rabbit and quail hunt some in the 1970’s and 1980’s.
Still shoot the pest species, though.
Got an armadillo with one of my unmentionable guns and a couple of loads of #00 buckshot while chasing it across the front yard a year ago wearing only a tee shirt, underwear, and shoes at about midnight while holding a flashlight in my teeth.
The wife couldn’t decide whether it was funny or disturbing.

 

[nhmoose]

Never see the hammers on game or clays that I break.

When I see the hammers or hammer, I miss. Focus on the target!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Art Caputo]

……………….I don't have any experience with double guns and what I want to know is, when shooting a double barrel smoothbore as you would a shotgun when you are pointing at a moving target (rabbits, birds, clays, etc), do the hammers impede your sight picture? In other words, does having a hammer on both sides of the gun obstruct your field of view or interfere with picking up the target?

No. With a properly fitted shotgun and good form the eyes are focused on the target/game. For fast, close shots, the shotgun is rarely if ever picked up in your vision. With longer distance shots against an open sky(background) , the end of the barrels may appear in the secondary vision, blurred/out of focus, but the eyes and concentration remain on the bird. The instincts take care of making the hit. At 14, I was given my grandfathers Ferlach double/hammer 16ga shotgun which I learned to effectively hit moving game through much trial/error. To this day, approaching six decades later, black or smokeless, hammers or hammerless, the SXS double is my go-to for moving game. Love those hammers!

My Grandfathers 16ga Ferlach(Austria), and my 1878 Purdey Island Lock…..

 

[smoothshooter]

When aiming a flintlock or percussion rifle, the hammer is on strong side or outside of the gun, and like most people I close my weak side eye. I always tell new shooters who are worried about seeing the hammer that if you are practicing good fundamentals and focusing on the front sight post, you won't pay any attention to the hammer. It won't be in the way of your sight picture and it shouldn't distract you when the gun fires. This mostly applies to shooting rifles or smoothbores at a stationary target when you are aiming the rifle, as opposed to pointing a shotgun.

I don't have any experience with double guns and what I want to know is, when shooting a double barrel smoothbore as you would a shotgun when you are pointing at a moving target (rabbits, birds, clays, etc), do the hammers impede your sight picture? In other words, does having a hammer on both sides of the gun obstruct your field of view or interfere with picking up the target?

Shooting with both eyes open I only see ghost images of the hammers.

 

[Jay Templin]

No.
Unlike most people I don't close any of my eyes when shooting.

Heck, I close ALL of mine when shooting and just use the Force to guide me!
Jay

 

[Red Owl]

While not part of the original; question, if you have never mounted a gun with built in cast- you really need to try one. Unbelievable difference.

 

[Lorne Johnson]

I never see the hammers on my SxS shooting skeet, my only issue is finding my second clay on doubles through the smoke. I finally bought a vintage Westley Richards and what the seller had pointed out is it has "low level shaped hammers" and I still don't notice a difference to my others. View attachment 170048

That's a very nice Westley Richards! Hadn't seen one with wood to wood at the break. Beautiful barrels.

 

[GREENSWLDE]

That's a very nice Westley Richards! Hadn't seen one with wood to wood at the break. Beautiful barrels.

Most of that model had Lock bars in the wood and Joints like the one shewn. Top of the range.. The fences on the front of the action would deflect any leaked gases from the shooter as the faces of the hammers were flat with no flash sheilds.
The original hammers would have been tall and long enough to reach over the break-off to hit the pins shewing above the barrels. The breasts of the hammers were made to strike the C/F firing pins
as on the gun in the photo. Find images of Pin Fire Cartridges on GOOg.. OLD DOG.