The common automatic trig,ger safety such as is described above caused great annoyance from the fact that at any time, and especially when firing rapidly. one was very apt to forget to push up the safety and lose his shot thereby, which brought down unlimited wrath on the safety that was altogether too safe. Some remedied this by removing the safety entirely, and soon the manufacturer en deavored to meet the demand by supplying- a safety that was rendered independ ent, that is, thrown out of automatic action by the turning of a screw or a third notch in the safety slide. Here we had "confusion worse confounded,- the shooter sometimes having his safety automatic and sometimes independent, and the more he changed it about the more confused Ile became. The chances were that some day he thoug,ht it was automatic and on safe when really it was independent, and the thing went off unexpectedly and perhaps some one got hurt. In the majority of cases the safety was soon turned into the independent notch and left there, de feating the object of the automatic safety, and in some guns rendering the safety entirely useless. When in the field and momentarily expecting a bird to rise, the gun must be carried cocked and the safety up, or the shooter stood no show. At such times the gun is carried in front at a "ready,- and the only way the trigger could be accidentally pulled is by some object, such as a brush, entering the trig ger guard. -Whenever there is any danger of this, one will instinctively place his hand around the guard in such a way as to prevent it. When not expecting, a shot, and still not wishing to unload the g,mn, the triggers may be blocked and re leased a.c.,rain quite as easily and quickly with an independent as with an automatic safety.
While for years manufacturers had racked their brains for the best method of blocking the triggers, they had totally ignored the danger in the only other di rection, that is, from jarring off. No gun had any protection in this respect un til the introduction of the Now Baker IlaninicrIcss. The makers of this gun had
evidently watched the development of the hammerless very closely, and profiting by what experience had proved to be the mistakes of their competitors, overcame the difficulty by their ingenious automatic firing,-pin safety. This automatically blocks the hammers so that they cannot fire the until the safeties are automat ically withdrawn by the act of pulling the triggers. No matter by what means or with what force the hammers mig,ht strike the firing-pin blocks, the gun cannot be discharged unless the triggers are pulled. Thus danger of accidental discharge is in one way absolutely prevented by automatically blocking the hammers, and when the triggers are also blocked by using the independent trigger safety, the gun is as safe as any gun will ever be with powder, in it. In fact it seems impos sible that it could be accidentally discharged. On account of the danger of jar ring off, sportsmen have been afraid to order, and manufacturers did not like to put out guns with light trigger pull, a quality essential to good shooting with some and desired by many others.
As a matter of quicker or more convenient reference, the most prominent Amer- ! ican arms are herewith presented tinder alphabetical arrangement. The reader can make comparisons and draw his own conclusions. The author refrains from an expression of opinion or indorsement of any special guns, cartridges, etc.; for that would be treading upon dangerous ground and possibly elicit protests and contradictions. However, under FARROW ARMS, the author's ideas are set forth at some length. His ideas as to requirements for the best military or sporting arms have been acquired by actual experience in the field in Oregon, Idaho and Montana, where for many years lie commanded Indian scouts, served with his command through numerous Indian campaigns, and extensively hunted game of all varieties.