In the "anything stupid" thread, Pluckit asked Popeandyoungchaser why he had his gun c0cked and the trigger set while sitting in a blind.

It may be interesting to hear what others do when hunting with a sidelock. There are two situations - still hunting and stand sitting.

Here's mine.

Still Hunting: I leave the hammer down on a folded up patch.

Stand Sitting: Same thing - hammer down on a folded up patch.

In both cases, the minute I see any sign of game I pull the trigger back and c0ck the hammer silently. If the gun has a set trigger I don't set it until I'm ready to take the shot.

That sounds a helluva lot safer to me. I only have the one sidelock and haven't hunted with it yet so I am all ears here.

Well just as a correction I asked pluckit the question. LOL Just bustin your balls, semisane. I haven't hunted with a sidelock in a few years, but the way you do it is the way that my Granddad taught me to do it.

So what are you going to do when the biggest deer of your life walks up to you and you didn't here it coming,your hammer on your Hawkins is not pulled back and your set trigger has not been pulled?Now the deer is close and will certainly hear any click of the hammer.But if you avoid that by pulling the trigger back,which by the way doesn't seem all that safe either but I do it,you can not avoid the CLICK of the set trigger when pulled.

I allow him to move past just a little/wait for his attention to be averted, pull the hammer back, BOOOMM! He may hear the "click" from 20 or 30, but probably not any farther than that if there is wind and other interference. By the time he turns his head to look its too late at that range. No need for a set trigger if he is 20 yards away, or even 50. I just never got into the habit of using it, and learned to shoot the gun without it.

Pull that set trigger now and I bet you'll be shooting at a deer on it's heels with it's tail in the air getting the hell out of there.

So don't pull the set trigger, there is no need to at short range.

With the hammer down, if you pull the trigger fully to the rear, ease the hammer back, release the trigger, then slowly release the hammer, there will be no sound. If the deer is so close as to hear the set trigger c0ck use the front trigger only.

I often get things backasswards P&Y. Just ask my wife. (Or is that assbackwards?)

I use that trigger procedure with all my hammer guns, and it works great. I was explaining how I would do it without, since it is "dangerous".