Has any double rifle owners,[ especially those who have owned and used alot of doubles over the years, New and old doubles] ,had a double you loaded while the safety was in the FIRE or SAFE position, and as you closed the action Smartly, had the rifle Fire ?[on its own,no triggers be touched] and do double rifles both Boxlock and Sidelock ,have what would you would say is a more sensitive to shock, Lock Mechanism ? i wondered if the Automatic Safeties fitted to alot of doubles might be to prevent this occurring .

This happens a lot to Old SXS shotguns, so may be the same on SXS rifles, normally a stock problem that messes with the triggers in side, I have fixed 10's of them, look inside & sure enough the wood is touching the trigger bar/bars .

Not saying that this is your problem or fix but, I concur with Sarg, I have a Churchill Regal XXV with a single trigger that I inherited that did the same. My gunsmith put a couple of leather washers between the trigger plate and the stock problem solved.
If you have been carrying your gun a lot perhaps the action needs a good cleaning. It is recommended with most upland field guns (read double shotguns)that they get stripped and cleaned every other year, because of the amount of bird hunting I do in the fall I strip and clean my upland gun every year..
Good Luck

quote:

Originally posted by Zephyr:
Not saying that this is your problem or fix but, I concur with Sarg, I have a Churchill Regal XXV with a single trigger that I inherited that did the same. My gunsmith put a couple of leather washers between the trigger plate and the stock problem solved.
If you have been carrying your gun a lot perhaps the action needs a good cleaning. It is recommended with most upland field guns (read double shotguns)that they get stripped and cleaned every other year, because of the amount of bird hunting I do in the fall I strip and clean my upland gun every year..
Good Luck

Very good advice! The title however of this thread is not "MISS FIRE" but "Accidental Discharge"

Most older doubles, both rifle and shotguns have stocks that have swollen or shrunk over time in the lock area from moisture or drying shrinkage. This is also caused from over tightening the screws that run through the stock at the rear of the of the trigger plate.

All are easy fixes!

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Worn or too shallow or the wrong angle, sears and hammer notches will allow a hammer to fall upon receiving some shock, like dropping or vigorous closing. Safety sears will fix that, but so will correctly hardened and angled, hammer notches and sears.
And that is not a mis-fire. As Mac said, it is an unintended discharge; a far more dangerous occurrence.

An interesting question and answers too. In terms of shotguns that are subject to the firing of thousands and thousands of rounds, probably more than any game gun ever gets to shoot, one would only need to look at guns used for clay target shooting. Without exception no-one has an auto safety and no-one uses the safety even when standing the gun in the rack between shoots. The risk of leaving the safety on and losing a 'bird' ensures safeties are firmly left off.

In my years of clay target shooting I never saw an AD occurring as the gun was closed, not saying it hasn't happened but considering the amount of guns in use on a range and the amount of times they are closed with the safety off if ever there was to be an AD on closing a gun the target range would be the place.

Then again the guns used for clay target are all modern, extremely well made O/U style shotguns and likely the most pampered and cared for of all firearms.

Thanks Gents for the interesting info ,should have Headed it,'' Accidental or unauthorised discharge ''
Cheers