Shotgun Features

[roy reali]

Do you prefer shotguns with extractors or ejectors? Automatic safeties or manual safeties? Why?

[zippy13]

I shoot comp guns, the thing I want least is an auto safety. My guns not only don't have auto safeties, the factory safeties have been disabled. IMHO, with O/Us there is no need to have a safety if you practice safe gun handling: gun open = safe and gun closed = gun at battery. Unless you are on station and it's your turn to shoot (or it's in the rack), keep the gun open.

I can take or leave ejectors on an O/U; but, all of my O/Us came with automatic selective ejectors. Since I reload (and to keep the club neat) my empty hulls go in a belt pouch. Even I'm coordinated enough to put my hand over the breech to catch ejected hulls if the gun is so equipped. And, it might be a little quicker than plucking the hulls out of a gun with extractors only.

[BigJimP]

All of my O/U's ( all Browning Citori models ) have selective or changeable / ejectors - extractors .... so you can set them however you want them. I usually leave them set as ejectors and catch the hulls coming out of the gun - whether I'm on a clay target field or out hunting / because I reload and I don't want to litter.

All of my O/U's have safety switches on them - built into the barrel selector switch ...and I use them when I'm hunting in the field ....but never on a Sporting Clays, Trap or Skeet field. I happen to use the same O/U's as my primary guns for Skeet and Sporting Clays and for bird hunting - Citori XS Skeet models ...( in 12, 20, 28ga and a .410 ) ...depending on what I'm doing / what I'm hunting or shooting...

I would never want a gun that automatically selected to put the safety on every time I opened and closed the gun. I understand the responsibility of safe gun handling / and I want the option to control the setting of the safety or not - depending on the situation.

[zippy13]

All of my O/U's have safety switches on them - built into the barrel selector switch ...and I use them when I'm hunting in the field ....but never on a Sporting Clays, Trap or Skeet field.

My friend, Big Jim, and I are of like minds on safety use on the clays fields. I recall when NSSA Hall-of-Fame member E. Lee Dennis shot his first 100-straight in competition and advanced to the sudden death championship shoot off. At the first station, he loaded his R-3200, called for the targets, made his move, and nothing happened. Someone had switched his safety on; and, in the excitement of the shoot-off, Lee hadn't noticed. A gun on safe isn't considered a mechanical problem that gets you a mulligan, it's operator error. So, Lee was the first man out of the shoot-off without firing a shot. Soon after that I had my safeties blocked.

[oneounceload]

NO auto safeties for me- even my field guns have manual safeties and ejectors

[hogdogs]

I don't know how many of those old singles had extractors and I thought they had a bad spring or gummed up... or maybe they were ejectors with problems...

But I was a pre-teen and didn't know no better...

I do know that the first "gun" I handled that had a "safety" was my Crossman 760 bb gun. I was 12 then.

If I owned a gun with auto safety, it would be dismantled.

I am the safety!
Brent

[.300 Weatherby Mag]

Ejectors and manual safeties.. I grew up with manual safeties, I only have one shotgun that still has a auto safety (can't disable it ) and if I pick up after not shooting it for a while it will bite me on the skeet range.. If I have it in the field, I normally mess it up once, then its fine the rest of the day..

[PJR]

I prefer ejectors on all my guns. For field use I'd rather have an automatic safety, for targets non-automatic.

[Dave McC]

Field gun, ejectors.

Clays gun, extractors.

I do not like auto safeties on anything. Safety is a lot more than a button or slide.

[Doyle]

Manual safety with an extractor. I hate having to bend down to pick up a shell.

[zippy13]

Originally Posted by Dave Mc

Safety is a lot more than a button or slide.

Amen! That needs to be repeated in bold letters:

Safety is a lot more than a button or slide.

[PJR]

I do not like auto safeties on anything. Safety is a lot more than a button or slide.

Agreed. Mechanical safeties are no replacement for proper gun handling. But I like the feature nonetheless in a field gun. Hate it on a clay gun.

[Hawg]

Manual safety with an extractor. I hate having to bend down to pick up a shell.

Likewise.

[Drummer101]

I was shooting clays with a few friends and I was using a gun that was new to me so I asked about the safety and which way it worked. Their were surprised I that first I had to ask and then my reason why, if I am not shooting it the chamber is open and unloaded or it is loaded and pointing at my target.

[Jo6pak]

My Ruger Red Label has auto safety and it doesn't bother me one bit. I just flick it off as I raise the gun to aim. At this point, I only use it for trap and sporting clays. But if I take it afield in the future, I'll have the muscle memory to effectivley use it.

[oneounceload]

if I am not shooting it the chamber is open and unloaded or it is loaded and pointing at my target.

Exactly

[Jo6pak]

So, when you carry your O/U afeild, let's say pheasant hunting. Do you carry it empty and open? Then when a bird flushes you have the quickness to load two shells, close the weapon should, aim and fire?

Damn you must move like lightning

[zippy13]

Damn you must move like lightning

Jo6pak,
Have you ever shot international (low gun - delayed) Skeet? It's for quick shooters younger than me. I suspect an accomplished int'l skeeter could close their gun, mount and fire while you're still fumbling with your Ruger Red Label's auto safety.

IMHO, there's a disadvantage to the auto setting safety -- it promotes carrying a closed gun. Where a double is safe and can be quickly closed and mounted, the RRL has that additional step of having to release the safety. Consequently, shooters choose to carry closed with the safety engaged. This may work fine for RRL owners, but what about the other guy? I'm much more comfortable not having a closed O/Us aimed in my direction safety engaged or not.

I suspect the RRL doesn't have an auto safety because their marketing department thought it would sell guns, but because their legal department required it. To me, the auto safety may be appropriate when training youngsters, but not after that.

The RRL gives shooters the choice, which is more than most guns. Which ever you choose, as long as you don't point your closed U/O in my direction, we'll get along just fine.

Oh, in my younger days, I carried my O/U open over my shoulder, barrels forward, just to give the birds a better chance.

[Jo6pak]

IMHO, there's a disadvantage to the auto setting safety -- it promotes carrying a closed gun..... I'm much more comfortable not having a closed O/Us aimed in my direction safety engaged or not

Whoa...I'm not advocating shody gun handling. And I don't assume that a mechanical safety is a substitute for proper safety proceedures.

My guns not only don't have auto safeties, the factory safeties have been disabled. IMHO, with O/Us there is no need to have a safety if you practice safe gun handling: gun open = safe and gun closed = gun at battery. Unless you are on station and it's your turn to shoot (or it's in the rack), keep the gun open.

This is the troublesome comment for me. It's like saying 'I'm a safe driver, so I don't need to wear my seatbelt" or the bikers that say "I've been riding for 20 years, I don't need a helmet."


I'm not really a fan of "auto-safeties" like my RRL has. I'm just saying that it doens't bother me. It's automatic to flick the switch just before I sweeze the trigger. I do it with all my other firearms, why not my O/U?

[hogdogs]

If I buy a modern Marlin Lever gun, I will out the crossbolt and replace it with the "dummy screw" modification...

Revolvers, break action shotguns and lever action rifles do not need a mechanical safety...

Mechanical safeties are not there to make the gun safer... they are there to compensate for poor gun handling practice only...

Brent

[oneounceload]

So, when you carry your O/U afeild, let's say pheasant hunting. Do you carry it empty and open? Then when a bird flushes you have the quickness to load two shells, close the weapon should, aim and fire?

Damn you must move like lightning

AH, the lack of common sense and intelligence among us - that was not the scenario..but for you....when afIEld (spelling), and pheasant hunting, the shells are in the chamber and the gun is broken open......and yes, it is very easy to close the gun, shoulder it, and fire successfully.....please keep the sarcastic eye-rolling icon for an appropriate moment...thank you for your comments..........

[zippy13]

Originally Posted by Jo6pac

Whoa…I'm not advocating shody gun handling. And I don't assume that a mechanical safety is a substitute for proper safety proceedures.

Good man! Actually, most gun safety issues discussed here are like preaching to the choir. Our discussions are usually about being extra safe. From time to time we get an old hand who's an experienced hunter who's new to organized club shooting (and never visited a gun forum), and s/he's not used to the open gun rule. After a little club time, it all becomes second nature.

With respect to your:

This is the troublesome comment for me. It's like saying 'I'm a safe driver, so I don't need to wear my seatbelt" or the bikers that say "I've been riding for 20 years, I don't need a helmet."

I don't think your comparison to seat belts and helmets is valid. The shotgun sports sanctioning bodies consider the open gun a safe gun. There's nothing in the rules requiring safety devices -- motor sports rules (and common sense) require belts and head gear. If I've never needed/used a safety, which I haven't, in many years of clay target shooting, then it just becomes something that can go wrong (See post #4 about the lost shoot-off because of an active safety).

If it's the disabled safety that bothers you, let me explain: It's not like you switch the gun to safe, but there isn't a safety, so it's not safe when you think it is -- the safety is blocked so you can't slide it on in the first place. With my P-guns, they all have a factory cross drilled hole in the top tang -- you insert a pin in the hole and the safety is instantly blocked. Should you want the safety back, just remove the pin.

To Bernt's
Mechanical safeties are not there to make the gun safer... they are there to compensate for poor gun handling practice only...
I'd like to add: and to make the gun maker's liability carrier happy.

[hogdogs]

Yepper, Zipper... That one is paramount to the reason for the Marlin Lever rifles getting a crossbolt safety i am sure...
Brent

[Jo6pak]

Zippy
Seems we are looking at the same issue from different angles. I don't dispute the "open is safe" rule on the trap/skeet range. It's easier for other competitor's to see that a action is open and clear. It's obvious from a distance and makes sense on the range.

I'm looking at it from more of a field perspective. If I'm tromping thru brush, and negotiating rough terrian, I want a gun with a safety (not neccessarily an automatic one, but a safety none-the-less) I don't suspect that the little knob or switch on the gun will make me invulnerable to stupidity. I would just like that extra safety net, is you will.

I can see your point of "forgetting" to flick off the safety during competition. But, to me it's a part of my mechanics of shooting.

BTW, I voted for "ejectors w/o auto safeties" in the poll.