90 MANUAL FOR YOUNG SPORTSMEN. 
must never, under any possible circumstances, be let down, 
much less carried down, on the caps. This is the more to 
be observed, because it is by far the most common, and 
commonly conceived to be the safest, way of carrying a 
gun. I do not think I ever saw a countryman carry his 
gun otherwise, until indoctrinated with much labor into 
doing so. 
It is infinitely the most dangerous way in which a gun 
can possibly be carried, for these reasons: First, any 
blow on the back of the striker, while it is down, will ex- 
plode the cap and discharge the gun, as may easily happen 
from a fall on a stone or on hard ground, without either 
raising the hammer or touching the trigger. Secondly, a 
branch or brier catching the hook of the striker, drawing 
it back any where short of the half-cock catch, and then 
releasing it—as it will do twice out of three times—will 
infallibly fire the gun. 
At half-cock, in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred, 
the same brier or branch will bring the striker to full- 
cock, and then no harm is done. In the hundredth instance 
the piece would be fired. 
From personal experience I may say that I have, 
probably, in the course of my shooting, had my locks full- 
cocked from half-cock, from fifty to one hundred times— 
fired from half-cock never. 
At full-cock, a gun can be discharged only by a branch 
or brier catching the trigger; then it must invariably be 
discharged. No catch of the striker can do any mischief. 
Consequently, the comparative safety stands thus; 
There are two accidents, by which the locks with the 
