The action is extremely tight out of the box and even a little tough to open at first. But it also means the gun requires a bit of breaking in. Break in PeriodĪ word of warning, however: The Hammer Coach has tight tolerances, which is a good thing. It’s the kind of gun that could make someone get into Cowboy Action Shooting, and it’s the exact kind of gun those shooters seek. Something about those side-by-side barrels with the ears of the hammers sitting behind them just brings the scent of worn saddle leather to your nostrils as you squint against a non-existent glare. While it shoots great, the best aspect of this shotgun is the feel and the nostalgia. I’m not saying it happened to me…I’m just sayin’. After all, if you haven’t cocked them-they’re right in your face-but it could happen. You shouldn’t forget the hammers are there and that they need to be cocked. The tang safety means the gun can be carried while hunting with the hammers cocked and the safety on. They also add a couple of steps to the loading and firing process. I will say, the exposed hammers take a tiny bit of getting used to. The gun didn’t do great on clays, but I can attribute that almost entirely to the shooter, not the gun. The turkey loads produced dense and deadly patterns for a gobbler at 25 yards despite the cylinder choke. Plus, those barrels produced solid patterns at, and a bit beyond, typical self-defense distances.Īll eight of the pellets from the 00 Buck rounds landed in the silhouette at 20 yards. Could the barrels be shorter and still be NFA legal? Yeah, but 20 inches is a great length, giving the gun excellent balance and a smooth swing. The Hammer Coach comes with 20-inch cylinder choke barrels, which is right in the middle for coach-gun barrel length. And the #4 Buck rounds make for a solid, light-kicking self-defense load. Those little shells in 8 shot make for a fun range pairing with the Hammer Coach.
I also wished I’d thought to scrounge up some paper-hulled shells to go with it.īut times are tough, so I ran a wide variety of whatever shells I could find through this double-barrel, including a few targets loads, some 2 3/4-inch 00 Buck, a couple of my very precious 3-inch 5 shot Winchester Longbeard XR turkey rounds, and a few boxes of 1 3/4-inch Federal Shorty rounds. When I took it to the range the first time, I found myself wishing I could have pushed through batwing doors with this little time machine of a shotgun. Add the gorgeous color case hardening on the receiver and triggerguard, and this is one fine shotgun, inside and out. Almost all double guns have internal hammer designs, which all serves to make the CZ Hammer Coach even cooler. Today, side-by-side shotguns themselves are fairly uncommon, only made by a handful of companies. Extremely short defensive shotguns, like the Ithaca Auto & Burglar model, were popular until the National Firearms Act in 1934. It was easy to handle and there wasn’t much that could go wrong as long as the ammo was good. A short shotgun was a great all around defensive tool at medium range. Of course, their use wasn’t limited to stagecoaches. They were nimble, simple, hearty, and while they only hold two shots, they were powerful ones. They were most often chambered for 12- or 10-gauge shells and had exposed double hammers and double triggers to match. Val Kilmer wields a coach gun as Doc Holiday in arguably one of the best Wyatt Earp movies, Tombstone (1993). Other times, folks would buy full-size shotguns and cut the barrels down to the desired length. Many considered it short compared to a hunting gun at the time. Many companies would offer their double-barrel models from the factory with 12- to 24-inch barrels. Over the following years, coach guns would be both bought and made by people in all walks of life. The spread from the short barrels also made it much easier to hit moving targets from a bouncing coach. These are short-barreled, side-by-side Ithaca shotguns that were easy to bring to bear and shoot while inside the driver’s box. The company saw fit to arm its messengers with what would become known as messenger guns and coach guns. The Howdah 20-Gauge Double-Barrel Flintlock Pistol Has a Deep History Coach Guns Were the Best Line of Defense
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