Congratulations on your new "elsie". The 3 position safety was originally used for trap shooters. With the safety in the rear position, when the gun is broke, the safety stays in that position. If you push the safety all the way forward, when you break the gun, the safety comes back to "off". The reasoning behind this was, when trap shooting and you called for a bird and you forgot the safety, you lost that bird and lost a point. So you kept the safety in the rear position. I also have a 20 ga. with the 3 position safety, circa 1927 with proof marks, 28" barrels f/f If you didn't know, your gun has 2 1/2" chambers, and you should be shooting low pressure shells through it, under 8,000 psi.