364 On Gun Accidents, 



Experience has painfully taught us that a common percussion-gun, 

 when loaded, can hardly ever be considered perfectly safe from ex- 

 ploding, in whatever way it is carried or wherever it is placed. As to 

 carrying the hammer down upon the cap, I would just as soon see 

 the gun at full-cock, for about nine-tenths of the casualties which I 

 have witnessed have arisen from the hammer being slightly 

 elevated and then falling down again upon the cap. This is in a 

 great measure prevented by a plan I have seen adopted in many of 

 Rigby's guns — and I dare say those of other makers — which is, 

 where the sear has three catches into the tumbler, the first one 

 when the cock is scarcely raised one-eighth of an inch from the 

 nipple. Were this plan generally adopted, I am certain one-half 

 of the accidents which have arisen from percussion-guns would 

 have been avoided. I notice that this is the plan adopted with 

 foreign makers pretty generally, and I really believe that on this 

 account we do not hear of accidents arising from guns in any 

 country so frequently as in England. Were I a father, and about 

 to put a muzzle-loading percussion-gun into the hands of my son, 

 the lock should be on this principle and no other 5 and he should 

 be taught as his first lesson in\ariably to carry his gun with the 

 hammer at rest just off the nipple. In such a position it is next to 

 impossible for an accident to happen unless the locks break inside ^ 

 for if the hammer is suddenly and accidentally drawn back (unless 

 the trigger is pressed at the same time), it must either come up to 

 half-cock, or the sear will fall again into the third notch of the 

 tumbler instead of allowing the hammer to fall on the cap 3 and 

 even if the hammer of such a lock is suddenly drawn back when 

 resting on the nipple, the chances are that it will certainly come 

 back so far as to allow the sear to fall into the lowest notch, and 

 the hammer will not strike on to the cap. 



Even at half-cock — which we must all acknowledge is the safest 

 way of carrying a common percussion-gun, the risk of explosion is 

 not altogether avoided J for we all know that very often a slight 

 blow will explode a cap, and I suppose (although I never knew a 

 case in point) that if the sear were to suddenly snap, through any 



