Do coach guns with exposed hammers have a safety?

[MCMXI]

I'm looking at coach guns for CAS and have narrowed the choices down to Spartan (Remington), Stoeger and CZ. I've been wondering about the advantages/disadvantages of internal hammer box lock actions compared to external hammer actions. Most "break" style shotguns that I've seen/handled (not too many to be honest) with internal hammers have an automatic safety that engages once you close the action. I've only handled a couple of external hammer shotguns and that's going back a few years and I don't recall any safety on those. So how does this all tie into speed? Which is faster to shoot/reload/shoot etc? An external hammer shotgun with no safety or an internal hammer box lock with a safety.

Thanks.

 

[zinj]

The automatic safety reset can be removed; in fact, most target shotguns do not have an auto safety reset.

Anyway, most hammer guns have no safety, the hammers serving that purpose. I haven't had much experience with break action shotguns, but I would assume that the hammer guns are slower to bring into action due to the need to cock both hammers.

 

[Samuel Adams]

But they certainly look mean.

 

[machinisttx]

The auto safety can be disabled pretty easily, but IMO it's not necessary to do so. I haven't shot one very much, but sliding the safety to the off position comes naturally after doing it a few times.

 

[1 old 0311]

I bought a Chinese Coach from www.classicarms.com It is equiped with a manual safety.

 

[toivo]

I bought a Chinese Coach from www.classicarms.[B]com[/B]

I believe you mean www.classicarms.us.

 

[rcmodel]

As the OP noted, not all modern hammer-guns are really hammer-guns.

Some are really box-lock actions with internal hammers & firing pins. The outside "hammers" are just added on for appearance sake.
But they don't fire the primers.

Unless the firing pins are also sticking out in the breeze for the "hammers" to hit them, it really isn't a hammer-gun.
It just looks like one.

As to which is faster, the box-lock or the hammer-gun.
Box-lock by a wide margin.

Unless one of the pseudo-hammer-guns have automatic cocking when opened, the box-lock will beat it because the internal hammers are cocked on opening, and it is ready to fire as soon as you load & close it.

rcmodel

 

[peacemaker45]

for the sake of speed and consistency, most folks disable the auto reset safety on the internal hammer guns. As such, in equally skilled hands, the internal hammer gun is faster by about half a second, over four shots, when the guns start empty and cocked. The differential increases as more shots are added, however.

 

[Steve C]

Hammer guns may not have a manual safety but the hammer is rebounding and if its not cocked they will not fall on the firing pin without the trigger being pulled so their "safety" is passive and doesn't require the shooter to activate it.

 

[MCMXI]

OK ... thanks for the responses. I don't think I want an external hammer shotgun ... I prefer the look of the internal hammer box lock actions and since it's the opinion of most here that they're faster to shoot that makes for an easier decision.

:O)