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Posted: 5/23/2009 2:08:14 PM EDT
| When walking around with your 870 slung, is it ok for a shell to be chambered? I heard the 870s have this thing where if a shell is chambered, and you, say, bumped the gun or buttstock into something with a light to moderate amount of force, it would cause the weapon to fire because of a thin safety mechanism holding the hammer back? I own an 870 Express but only keep the mag tube loaded until it's shootin' time so I wasn't sure about this. |
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Well Hendricks, I suppose that *could* work... seems like a lotta work. I trust my 870, but muzzle awareness first and always. Just take caution in the woods OP. Never point it at your head, please! I had a kid in my high school decapitated deer hunting when he had the trigger catch on a twig. Sure was a sad day to go to the wake...
Muzzle discipline first. No questions asked. |
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Well Hendricks, I suppose that *could* work... seems like a lotta work. Really? Instead of pulling the trigger you hit it with the rubber mallet.  You remember my patterning thread? At an "official" range, it took 3 hours. I'm sure at my parents' farm it'd have been 15 minutes, but it was a big deal there waiting for the range to go cold |
I've never heard this before but I've always kept a shell in the chamber and the saftey in the SAFE position, and never had any prolems. I've had them bouncing around in duck boats and even dropped to the ground when I got into a yellow jacket nest squireel huntin. 
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Well Hendricks, I suppose that *could* work... seems like a lotta work. Really? Instead of pulling the trigger you hit it with the rubber mallet. You remember my patterning thread? At an "official" range, it took 3 hours. I'm sure at my parents' farm it'd have been 15 minutes, but it was a big deal there waiting for the range to go cold My range is ether a few feet off the front porch, or a 10 min ride to town. Sorry to hear your range is so far away 
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This hypothesis probably stems from how the sear's edge on the hammer is only about .05 of an inch. However, you shouldn't worry about it since the trigger and sear release will not move at all if the safety is engaged. You're getting warmer. I remember the sear being the center point of this issue. I wish I could remember where the hell I heard it from. Carrying the 870 on SAFE, and with a shell chambered, wouldn't be a problem....i hope them zombies give me a second to switch off the safety so I can shoot at them.
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While the sear could break and allow the hammer to fall, the hammer hook could break and allow the hammer to fall, or dropping the gun could allow the firing pin to move far enough (via inertia) to strike the primer any of these scenarios are very unlikely to happen with a properly maintained 870.
Could it happen? Of course it could....from a statistical perspective you cannot prove that something will not happen - only that it is unlikely to occur. Bottom line is be cautious of messing with the sear / hammer engagement, don't lighten or remove the firing pin spring and above all KEEP THE MUZZLE POINTED IN A SAFE DIRECTION |
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While the sear could break and allow the hammer to fall, the hammer hook could break and allow the hammer to fall, or dropping the gun could allow the firing pin to move far enough (via inertia) to strike the primer any of these scenarios are very unlikely to happen with a properly maintained 870. Could it happen? Of course it could....from a statistical perspective you cannot prove that something will not happen - only that it is unlikely to occur. Bottom line is be cautious of messing with the sear / hammer engagement, don't lighten or remove the firing pin spring and above all KEEP THE MUZZLE POINTED IN A SAFE DIRECTION You pay a price for a short crisp trigger; in that the sear engagement is quite small on the 870. However, just because you have a small amount of sear engagement between the hammer and the trigger doesn't mean its unsafe. The only way the sear is released is if the trigger moves, and if the safety is engaged it will not move one bit. |
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Yall just keep this in mind (a line from the KY Hunter Ed course I teach for the kids):
"The SAFETY is a mechanical device - and like any device it could malfunction. It is not a substitute for safe gun handling"  I'm now gonna go shoot a few hundred rounds, see yall later
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