How do you close your gun?

Have a debate with some of the guys I shoot with

I close my gun with care to NOT slam the the shut and some of my buddy’s slam there O/U closed and say it dosed hurt a thing

I say it does, has got to be hard on the hinge, no different than a car door I say

What do you guys think? Slam em shut or close em easy?

 

In almost 50 years of shooting I have seen everything from people holding the lever over, closing the gun and then letting it gently return to the closed position to closing the thing so hard it rings like hitting an anvil. Nothing like letting someone shoot your gun for a couple of targets and they SLAM it closed. CRINGE! After they saw my face they usually only did it once.

I guess the "close em easy" method would be the way I do it.

I always held the stock in a fixed stable position, a little downward pressure on the wrist with my right hand and a little upward pressure on the forearm with my left until the lever snapped closed. I always held the gun at a little bit of an angle when I opened it to reload too. That way all the weight wasn't on the hinge pins.

Never liked the, hold the lever over method. Especially when shooting pigeons. If that lever wasn't locked up when I called and the thing didn't go off there was no FTF. The chances of you opening the gun and recocking it before the bird had you beat was slim. Especially on a real driver. Saw it tried a few times but can't remember anyone getting away with it. It was tough enough to kill them as it was without having to think about the gun being closed. Just the way I did it, not saying it is the right and only way.

 

............I also prefer the open and close em easy method.............

I asked Dan Looker about holding the lever open on an MX2000 Perazzi after hearing several folks recommend it. Dan replied, just close the gun and don't worry about it........

I asked Rich Phillips about how hard he recommended to shut a Silver Seitz single barrel while watching him test cock and snap fire guns after servicing them. His reply was just shut it up as snug as you felt you needed to and shoot it, if something broke just bring or send it to him and he would take care of it.................

WL

 

I can’t agree strongly enough!

Wish I could give one o/u to a slammer and another to an easy close guy and give it a few years
and get them back to see the real difference

 

Many years ago Lucio told me to hold the lever over. Good enough for me and locking bars last forever

 

Slamming an O/U shut or slamming a car door shut doesn't hurt the hinges. It may well place additional stress/wear on the latching mechanism, though. I bring my O/U's gently shut as I'm raising the gun to my shoulder. I have more 'mechanical sympathy' than most men, probably.

 

Lawyers have a phrase about discussing/debating issues ad nauseam. "How many angles can you dance on the head of a pin?"
7.5s or 8s?

 

OK - I'd be crazy to know how many angles can you dance on the head of a pin? And would that be measured in degrees or radians?

 

ad nau·se·am
/ad ˈnôzēəm/
adverb
adverb: ad nauseam

1. referring to something that has been done or repeated so often that it has become annoying or tiresome.

Wow, 6 posts and it is already annoying or tiresome.

As I recall, the reply below was number 13 of 26 on the thread on release triggers and letting them go.

"As I recall, Daro Handy not only had a trigger that set at a very high pull, like 10+ pounds, and released at about the normal release pressure or slightly higher, but he also set his trigger with his gun down then mounted it."

7 past the limit?

 

That would depend on which angles your were talking about.. The old 3 hole target angles or the easier 2 hole angles?

And lawyers have all kind of "phrases" they like. Usually it's something like, I get forty percent of whatever you get.

 

Apx 360

 

I don't know Apx. Seems like all those points in a circle are just 360 equal places. I imagine there are sub-angles between each degree. Maybe and many angles as angels, eh?
Room for plenty of discussion.
So how many angles or angels can dance on the head of a pin? Is it different?

 

Flyers, not 6 posts. But dozens and dozens of threads here and there asking this and other burning questions. (Which can of course be looked up with a word search.)
And by the way, 7.5s or 8s? How should you call for the bird? What is the best color of glasses? Ear plugs or headphones? And, who was the best trapshooter ever?

 

I agree with you about the other subjects but this was actually the first post I ever saw on the subject. And I have been here or there since 1998.

I was going to start one with the question,

If I shoot one eyed, which eye should I close?

 

Of course there are sub-angles, so the answer mathematically is infinite, but will they all dance?
Angles have been know to be rather obtuse, and I can imagine them leaving the dance floor altogether.
This is all rather tangential, back to the targets

 

That is so easy. You just try them back and forth and use the one that works best! Unless you have blue eyes of course cuz then you'll need lessons unless you shoot 8's all of the time.

 

With todays use of the cheaper steel based hulls the chances your guns out of battery safety will stop the trigger from firing are higher. Some steel rims are thicker than the brass rims, and they protrude a small amount out of the chamber creating resistance to full and complete closure. When you close the gun slowly, and just let the lever over you don't get the bolt to lock in at full closure. The snap helps drive the bolt angle in there pushing the lug down completely.

Especially if you just had your bolt rebuilt, you should at minimum close the gun and let the bolt do what it was designed to do. There is a reason why trap guns are rebuilable. Just make sure there is a slight film of fresh grease on the wear points at all times, and have your gun serviced when needed. If the bolt is properly fit and the contact is even the bolt won't wear out that much faster, nor will the hing. I am not saying smash it shut, just let the springs do what they are in there for.

 

By the way, shooting steel based hulls will cause more damage and broken parts than slamming your gun closed.

 

I'm pretty much a slammer, then again I never owned a 20 thousand dollar trap gun.

 

Have a friend who I shoot with (obviously) who's got a Huglu O/U and that thing is stiff as hell and it's not dirty or anything it's just stiff. We both slam that thing shut because that's the only way to assure it's locked.

 

Hi Wildcat !

Nice meeting you at the Eustis club a few weeks ago.

I have always taken the lead of Chris Vendel when closing any of my guns.

He holds the opening lever, closes the gun, and releases the lever (or opening button on his Seitz).

He never has a problem, so I followed his practice.

 

You might consider having someone who knows what they're doing fit the forend properly so the gun closes the way it's supposed to. Takes about 30sec to make the fix.
just a thot