Hey Todd How's it going? You used to fly WART HOGs in the Military? If so I now understand the screen name! That is a lethal flying machine for sure! That mini-gun sure puts out fire power faster than a double rifle but the recoil is about the same! Sort of backs that plane up a little when you letter her go! The wart Hogs are one of my all time favorite War planes!

You are correct no matter which dirrection opening or closing on your 500NE Merkel, or my 470NE Merkel because niether has an auto safety or ejectors so it is posible to hold the triggers back with the top lever in the open position, as I said in my post above!
If a double rifle has an automatic safety this is not posible becasue the top lever pushes the safety to "SAFE" and the safety cannot be pushed to fire position till the action is closed and the top lever snapps to the closed position, so triggers cannot be pulled on opening or closing!

Most of the older double rifles had a buffalo horn "STRICKER PAD" in the case with them, to use with barrels removed from the action. One simply places the Stricker Pad over the stricker holes in the action face and pull the trigger letting the soft horn take the impact of the striker. Then the barrels can be placed on the action without the forend attached till the rifle is closed leaving the rifle un-cocked because the strikers are cocked on opening not closing, while ejector springs are cocked on closeing.

The above is just one more reason not to have an auto safety on a double rifle!