Interesting topic David, so I dug out my 1925 vintage Ideal 12-bore HOT Smith, and this was the result of my dry-fire "test". I dry-fired the right barrel; and as you noted the safety slide could not be manually returned to safe after multiple attempts. But if I fired the gun, then slipped my index (trigger) finger behind the trigger and moved it forward slightly, the trigger reset and allowed the safety slide to be manually returned to the safe position.