I was browsing hither and yon on Teh Intarwebz, and happened upon these lovely creatures (sample below)
…when a random thought occurred to me: does anyone make a pump shotgun with an exposed hammer anymore?
To be sure, there are some examples of the “coach gun” type with exposed hammer(s), e.g. the Rossi side-by-side:
…but I don’t think they make them anymore. CZ does, of course:
…and very pretty the “Hammer Classic” is, too:
But at the moment I’m looking for a pump-action shotgun, not a side-by-side. At the moment, anyway. (When it comes time to get one of these, that CZ is a goner, even if it’s only available in 12ga.)
Here’s the thing. I like exposed hammers on a shotgun. I like to see when the gun is ready to go boom, and there’s no better indicator than a cocked hammer. And in practiced hands, a manual cocking action isn’t that much slower than a semi-auto one, especially when you take the nannyish auto-safety feature into account.
But while the handgun world is replete with guns with hammers standing proud, shotguns seem to have “evolved” completely into the concealed hammer genre.
And they’re all sleek and stuff, but that’s not what I’m looking for.
And who the hell can afford to pay over three grand for an old 1897 Winchester trench gun anymore? (Norinco used to make knock-off copies of the Win 97, but they’re off the table because ugh Chinese government company.)
Incidentally, the top pic is of an affordable 1897, but it’s chambered for 16ga — not in itself a problem, unless you can’t afford / don’t want yet another caliber in Ye Olde Ammoe Locquer.
What I’m looking for, in other words, is a pump-action hammer-exposed shotgun. In 20ga. [thud]
Anyone have any ideas?