Merkel has a double safety with common trigger block and a hammer catch, that indeed works. Some fifteen years ago I had a Merkel boxlock shotgun. A winterday I fell on wet ice and dropped the unloaded gun, and broke the stock. I had nothing to do but to put the pieces of the gun in the backpack and go home. At home I examined the the gun, and discovered that the hammers had disengaged in the sears, but were safely caught by the hammer catch. Even if the gun had been loaded, it wouldn't have fired.

Now I am not a Merkel fan, as the gun was clumsy and loved to rust even on dry days, so I sold the gun and haven't missed it a single moment. However, it was a gun from the eighties, the downfall of the communist era.

Other vintage german makers and also Husqvarna had a double safety in most of their boxlocks.

Fritz