As the 19th century ended, the shooting world was winding up 100 years of change. In 1800, muzzle loading flintlocks had ruled the field. Then in 1839, percussion guns took over, followed by breech loaders and then centerfire hammerguns. By 1885, these hammerguns were out and self-cocking, hammerless doubles were in.
While the new hammerless guns had their benefits, hammerguns had two advantages that were tough to beat. First, exposed hammers make it easy to see if a gun is cocked and ready to fire. Second, cocked hammers can be dropped, decocking the gun and returning it to a “safe” state.
So some people raised on hammerguns must have looked at the new, “hammerless” models with suspicion. To overcome their apprehensions, some makers added cocked indicators to their hammerless guns. A few makers even came up with ways to uncock there guns. But, W. & C. Scott may be the only maker to ever come up with a way to do it all, and you can see their solution in this gun. This is the gun and it’s an 8 gauge that Scott called THE COMBINATION. Lewis Drake had this gun a while ago. Like a lot of his stuff, this gun looks like it was in very original condition.
