Most modern pistols and revolvers cock the hammer or striker with the energy provided by the user pulling the trigger. This allows the user to safely store the weapon with a cartridge chambered and the hammer down. Other than pulling the trigger, the user need do nothing to fire the weapon. With rifles and shotguns, this is not so. The striker is cocked when cycling the action. (In the case of the iconic pump-action shotgun, when the slide is pumped.) This takes time and effort that may be unavailable in a defensive situation. Some users get around this by storing the gun with a round chambered, the hammer cocked, and the safety on. ("Cocked and locked" in gun slang.) This practice can result in accidental firing of the gun, and actually happened often enough that carrying pistols in such conditon was banned by most police departments. (The officers aren't allowed to carry their duty weapon like that. It's legal for civillian ccw, it's just dumb.) I propose a shotgun with a double action trigger. This would allow the gun to be stored loaded, with a round in the chamber, and the hammer down. In the event that the weapon is needed it can be picked up and discharged instantly. I picture this as being particularly valuable for law enforcement and home defence, situations where once must be ready to use the weapon when it's not expected.
I realize that firearms are often unpopular here. So think of it as a useful tool for law enforcement and those nice people that live on farms rather than a gun for knocking over convenience stores. (Criminals rarely use longarms anyway. They're too hard to conceal.)-- Madcat, May 07 2007 Better safety (if one is needed) http://www.ozarkgun.../trigger_safety.htmCommonly found on pistols, and should be easily adapted to longarms. [Hunter79764, May 08 2007] Baked http://findarticles...is_6_46/ai_62370194 [plasticspoon, Mar 14 2009] I fail to see how this is safer than "cocked and locked". Either way, the safety is the only thing keeping the gun from going off at the pull of the trigger.-- 5th Earth, May 07 2007 Sounds workable, although I'm pretty sure I wouldn't want one. I can see it being useful, assuming you have a shotgun which is only going to be used for blasting at bad guys at short range and short notice.
Shotguns seldom are designed with an exposed hammer. (Modern shotguns, anyway; with a few exceptions, like the combo gun, or the "drilling".) In use, a shotgun is more likely than other firearms to be exposed to situations where the hammer will snag on things. (It's too big to put in a holster to protect it while you're knocking about in the brush looking for birds, bunnies or bucks; since it's designed for moving targets at close range, it has to be put into play in a big hurry almost without exception.) I'm sure you could create an enclosed DA hammer, but I can think of some potential problems with that as well.-- lurch, May 07 2007 Actually there is no safety on most DA guns. (I wasn't really thinking that there would be one on this either.) The reason that this isn't a remarakably bad idea is that a DA trigger pull is relatively heavy. It won't happen by accident. That's actually how most of the pistols used by police nowadays work, and it's how just about every revolver made in the 20th century works. The reason I'd consider it safer than a safety on a single action is that the hammer doesn't have the energy to set off the cartridge in a DA system, but it does in an SA. I'm also thinking you could leave a shell in the chamber for a long time without wrecking the spring, which I suspect would happen if you left it cocked forever and a day. Last but not least, you could strike the cartridge again if it somehow failed to fire.
I'm curious, what do you see being a problem with an enclosed hammer?-- Madcat, May 07 2007 If it's SA / DA, then enclosing the hammer prevents you from seeing whether it's cocked. More commonly, a hammer enclosure will force you into DA only - losing the flexibility of choice.
// trigger pull is relatively heavy. It won't happen by accident. // Less likely, yes, but by no means impossible. An aunt of mine very nearly lost her life while hunting peafowl in India - her husband dropped a DA revolver, which struck the (uncocked) hammer on a rock. The bullet missed her spine by about 2 inches. (Years back, pre- transfer bar days. That particular accident probably wouldn't have happened with a modern revolver, but the point - which cannot be repeated too often - is that the quickest way to make a gun unsafe is to assume that it's safe.)-- lurch, May 07 2007 I think that a DA shotgun wouldn't fare very well with shooters. Shotguns need top have a decently light trigger pull for most activities, since heavier pull is almost directly related to decreased accuracy (and yes, accuracy is important in shotguns. You can't just point a "scattergun" in a general direction and expect everything in front of it to explode like it does in the movies).
To have selectable fire as far as varying trigger pull is concerned, you would need an exposed hammer, which, as [lurch] pointed out, wouldn't be very desirable on a shotgun. Gunmakers figured that out around 1900.
If you want a safer shotgun, go with a safety located on the trigger or a grip safety, both of which are found on many pistols and wouldn't be hard to fit on a shotgun. The reason this isn't done already is that the accident rate with shotguns is quite low, since they are so much larger and longer than handguns, and most current trigger guard and thumb safeties are well placed enough that more people use them more consistently.-- Hunter79764, May 08 2007 Are you sure those guns you linked are DA? I actually found the Striker 12 doing a search for this, and that apparently is, but I don't really see how open bolt anything could possibly be DA.-- Madcat, May 08 2007 I like this idea, but I do think a grip safety would be a good idea. Most single shots have exposed hammers so that is really not a big deal. I assume this could be used SA or DA.-- saprolite, Mar 03 2009 I vaguely remember an old western movie with a guy that had a rifle modified to do this.-- Spacecoyote, Mar 03 2009 Sorry, I don't get you . If the hammer is DOWN it needs to be pulled BACK before firing. Personally, I'd rather have the safety off, then a quick back and forth of the ole pump handle, an dmr intruder is ready for an introduction to th ejoys of a belly full of #4 buck-- marquisdenet, Mar 13 2009 It's baked. Mossberg 590DA.-- plasticspoon, Mar 14 2009 random, halfbakery