Shooting Times & Country Magazine
Serious matters
Why everyone should have a hammergun
Istarted with a hammergun. It was a long time ago, of course, and boys then were not considered responsible enough to muck about with guns that only had an ‘off/on’ switch style of safety catch.
No, indeed. We sat in a pigeon hide with the gun pointing out at a sensible angle — very often it was not even shut at this stage — and only when an identified and shootable quarry hove into view would the order be given to snap the gun shut and cock the hammers. Or, in my case, hammer because I began with a single-barrelled gun.
“A gentleman should not need two shots to kill his dinner,” I was told. Since I was financing my own cartridges with car washing, apple picking and straw carting, I didn’t need telling twice. Ammunition was precious, even if the gun itself was cracked through the hand and heavily bound with copper wire, while any discharged cartridge case had to be extracted with a pair of pliers. I couldn’t have cared less. I was shooting and that was what mattered.
I bought my first hammergun from a local gunsmith who was closing his shop to retire after a lifetime at the bench. There was a sale. The modern stuff went early as the clientele knew a bargain when they saw it. By the time I got there, all that remained were high-end guns with prices way beyond my means, rough-and-ready working guns, elderly boxlocks and a few autos. But at the end of the shelf was a lonely hammergun.
I took it down. It was — it is still — a rotating under-lever 12-bore by EM Reilly with freshly sleeved barrels that were choked full and full awaiting adjustment to a customer’s requirements. It had a slim grip and an unfeasibly lovely best walnut stock.
It cost me a couple of hundred pounds in the 1980s, which was not much and certainly offered a better home for my money than a savings account that was being gnawed at by double-digit inflation. What goes around...
And I have enjoyed huge levels of fun with it since. It is much admired whenever it makes an appearance in the line because it is a lovely example of fine gunmaking and, since it remains fully choked, I have pulled off some dramatic shots with it. But when I discovered blackpowder cartridges, the pleasure meters went off the scale.
“Nothing compares with the ‘BOOM!’ of blackpowder on a frosty morning”
Nothing compares with the ‘BOOM! BOOM!’ of blackpowder on a frosty morning and the accompanying spears of flame and the clouds of fragrant smoke that will leave your neighbours spluttering.
Even today, though, I go through the same ritual I learned in the pigeon hide all those years ago. I stand with the loaded gun open until a proper bird is making progress in my direction. Then the breech is closed and the gun raised to the high port, where the hammers are cocked. If either barrel is not discharged, I will open the gun before easing the hammers, just in case.
Huge fun aside, these safety routines are also a valid reason for having a hammergun in the cupboard and using it from time to time. With its key parts on the outside, a hammergun is a sharp and visible reminder of how easy it can be to discharge a gun inadvertently.
There is only ever one click between you and potential disaster, so strict adherence to the safety fundamentals is key. Every time the Reilly comes out, I am reminded of the myriad words of advice that were dinned into me all those years ago by wise teachers who knew what they were talking about.
And then the fun begins. ‘BOOM!
BOOM!’ It’s unbeatable.
Do you agree with Giles? Let us know via Stletters@futurenet.com
Giles Catchpole is a freelance journalist as well as a keen Shot and angler, and he has written several humorous sporting books