16ga.com ~ View topic - What Happens Internally When Top Lever Drifs Left?

Joined: 22 Jan 2015 Posts: 345

I understand that one should generally close the action of a boxlock/sidelock as easy as reasonable to reduce wear and tear which otherwise would eventually lead to the top lever drifting to left of center when action is locked.

My question is...what's going on inside the action that permits the top lever to drift so? What components are being effected to cause this and how?

There is simply a wearing of the parts that allow the gun to close. It can either be internal with the cam and rod pulling the locking bolt back out of the port on the underside of the barrel or the lug itself gets worn down from it's factory made shape. While slowly closing the action by holding the lever to the right while closing the gun is nice to do, the wear will still happen, just over a longer period of time. And you miss the bird that rises as you are slowly closing the gun.

In polite company, when one is looking at the break open action gun owned by a friend, one takes the time to operate the lever rightward and slowly close the gun. Then letting the lever to move to its place. The owner will consider you a fine person for doing that.

Grouse, quail, woodcock and their ilk will also think of you as a fine person for letting them fly away without getting their feathers ruffled.

Ya takes yer cherse.

Joined: 22 Jan 2015 Posts: 345

Thanks Doggai, believe me, I won't be applying that extra soft touch when the action starts Smile

I imagine the guys lucky enough to hunt driven birds and hand off one of a pair to the reloader doesen't expect his $60K matched double to be delayed in getting reloaded either!

*Last edited by Doggai on Fri Feb 27, 2015 12:44 pm; edited 1 time in total*

Further to your question about slow dancing the closing of a break open gun. In a driven shoot handing off the 60K one of a pair guns is like a fast dance with 3 participants. There's the gun (the shooting guest), the handler and the loader all working together.

In high bird numbers driven shoots, with a lot of birds expected. there are two people behind and to the sides of the owner of those guns. One is standing at the shooter's left (or right depending on the hand off side) who takes the fired gun, opens and ejects the fired hulls and behind the back of the shooter, hands the open gun to the loader - who is, at the same time placing the other piece into the hand of the gun, takes the unloaded weapon in his/her left hand, and drops the new shells into the chambers and snaps the gun closed if the shooting is hot and heavy.

The loader holds the gun up with the grip about level with the shooter's elbow and places it in his hand as the shooter passing the fired gun with his left hand and reaching at the same time with his right hand to accept the gun from the loader. The shooter never takes his eye off the shooting field as birds are approaching and It's like watching a ballet where everyone does his/her part of the dance.

If it is a slow shoot, few driven birds coming over the "gun's" head, the loader will only have two shells for the reload, then the loader will do the slow dance of closing the gun. In fast action, the loader may have several loads between the fingers with the thumb and forefinger holding the first shell to go into the left chamber and the index and middle finger holding the second round to go into the right chamber.

Member Joined: 25 Jun 2008 Posts: 1863 Location: Wisconsin

I have never before given though to etiquette of closing someone else's gun, because I have never cared how someone closes mine. I'm going to try to remember such things though.

Reno

Gently closing another person's side by side, over/under or any other design with a premeditation of listening for the sound of a good condition mechanism is not only good etiquette, it represents to the owner that you respect his ownership of the gun and you will not contribute to it's inevitable wear on the mechanism. You may even influence the future handling of the gun by the owner by commenting on how well the gun sounds when being closed.

I once knew a judge of horse shows and she gave me the two lines that impressed every horse owner no matter how poorly the horse performed.

1. It has a wonderful top line.

2. It has very intelligent eyes.

Joined: 22 Jan 2015 Posts: 345

I've never been witness to one of these events so can only imagine the ebb and flow of such shooting, but I would expect it to be quite an adrenaline rush for all participants.

Curiously, I recently heard from someone addressing my original question here, who stated that it is a proven fact that closing a break-open action by easing the top lever back causes advanced wear to the action due to the lock system not fully seating. I myself do not hold the lever back or ride it to closure when I'm going easy, I simply don't slam the bbls shut. I expect one can go to extremes at both ends of the spectrum and have less than desirable results over the long haul.