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Single Shot Shotguns The single shot shotgun can be smoothed up for hunting or for defense. RK Campbell’s April 2019 article "Coach Gun Smooth Up" did a darn good job covering side-by-side shotguns and is about the same idea on single shots. With practice and carrying two shotshells in the support hand, a shooter can rattle of three good shots quick. I don’t have big hands but can hang onto two 12 gauge shotshells while still controlling the gun well.

Over the years I’ve successfully shot doubles and triples in this manner while bird hunting. Most single shots have exposed hammers and opening the gun doesn’t cock them. This helps the reloading process. Normally, the front of the receiver and the forearm end piece—where the barrel pivots—is a little rough. This area needs polishing. If the gun cocks on opening, I recommend finishing the area with 600 grit wet or dry sand paper. Some guns will be okay with 400 grit here.

If they open and close tight, use 600 grit to finish. Also, the barrel hinge pin in the receiver and hinge pin area should be polished. Be careful as the clearance here is critical when the gun is closed. Use 600 grit and polish the high spots only. A rat tail file or similar wrapped in the sand paper can be used if you’re careful. Clean and lube the polished areas when done, otherwise they seem to want to rust immediately. Complete with a good gun grease (not oil) and use a good oil elsewhere.

Where the barrel locks up on the lock block on closing can bind up there. If a gun opens up on firing, the barrel is not fully locking. It may not do this every time. Note, Winchester Model 370s may open during recoil if shot with a light grip as the opening lever is back on the receiver a little too far. I’ve closely watched the hands of other shooters to notice this. The lock block can give problems on these shotguns but a loose grip is more likely the cause of a gun that opens upon recoil.

On recoil, the lever moves back into the shooter’s thumb and opens the gun. A tight grip fixes this, however, a looser grip can speed up reloading. Regardless, this is not a safety factor. The sides of the lock block and the receiver sides may be all that are needed to smooth up. I’ve found some of the sides of the lock block can catch and hang up on the receiver. Some receivers are rough and a file works well, especially with a lock block polished on the sides.

To better understand how single shots wear on the hinge pin and the surrounding areas of the barrel, let the barrel move forward in the receiver. This makes a gap between the end of the barrel and the breech face. If excessive, it creates headspace problems. This normally also loosens up the barrel lock up. Loose lock up lets the barrel move up and down in the receiver. A good idea is to polish the lock up parts carefully. Normally, a spring moves the lock block into place on the barrel when the gun is closed up.

You will find wear on these parts on older guns or on guns not lubed correctly. Not using a good grease on the hinge pin and hinge pin area is normally the reason for wear here. It only takes a smear of grease to lube. Of course, you want the gun to open easily and close smoothly. And you want the gun to fully lock up when closed. I have had to disassemble a gun two or three times to get it fully lock up before. It’s better to take it apart a few extra times then to create a problem.

It is easy to get carried away on the barrel and lock block surfaces. The lock block should be harder than the barrel and a newer gun is going to be rough but should have better designed angles. Your opening lever may or may not need smoothing. Check this with the barrel opened or off the receiver. Sometimes a little cleaning and gun oil will smooth up the opening lever. If the lever is loose it will cause the lever to bind.

There is a screw inside the receiver on the bottom of the lever on some older guns and it can give you fits to either tighten or loosen. Offset screwdrivers are too tall to fit into the receiver and get to the screw. I have two custom screwdrivers I made for this. I have found one old gun with a removable trigger guard screw and it took along shaft screw driver with the tip ground on the sides of the shaft diameter to reach the bottom of the receiver.

A drop of white Loctite 565 works well as it is high-temp and vibration resistant and, more important here, it cures in confined spaces with an absence of air. I have worked on H&Rand New England Arms push button levers and the teeth sometimes are nicked and the burrs need to be polished off. The goal is for the release to be smooth and not bind. The ejector must work without hanging up and usually needs to addressed. Normally, these parts do not require a high polish, just a cleaning and smoothing.

You may find metal chips in the ejector housing in the parts along with burrs and nicks. A pig tail on the end of the coil spring is more common on the older guns. I use a needle nose pliers and bend the pig tail out of the spring. The spring can have a kink or bend and needs to be carefully straightened. Take a small light and look into the ejector housing. Sometimes you’ll find nicks, burrs, chips, etc. Needle files will be needed to clean this up as ejector parts need to be smooth.

The chamber should be polished such that an empty hull practically flies out of the gun when opened and a shotshell drops right in. With old guns, even a chamber marked as 2 3/4" may be undersized for modern plastic hulls. Check the chamber for actual size as a tooshort chamber is like shooting proof loads. Along forcing cone reduces felt recoil some and pro-

vides a more even pattern. There is some question regarding polishing the bore and what effect this has on recoil. I use along forcing cone reamer to lengthen short chambers. Making a 2 3/4 into a 3-inch chamber is not always a given regarding safety. Most single shots have plenty of metal but not all of them do. The feel of cutting a forcing cone will vary among barrels. I’ve yet to encounter a chrome-lined bore on afield gun while trap guns often have them and would be a no-no for lengthening the forcing cone.

I make my own simple chamber polishing tools that also address forcing cones of varying length and the bore. Starting with a hard wood dowel that fits in the bore, cut off about two inches and center drill a hole that fits onto a mild steel rod. Use a hack saw to cut a slot across the front end just over an inch deep. Cut about an inch-wide strip of sand paper and place into the slot with the grit on the outside, folded around the tool’s head in opposite directions as the tool is turned.

I use a hand drill to turn it with a lubricant such as WD-40 in the chamber. This creates a black slurry in the bore which aids the polishing process. It also makes a mess, so I do this outside. Start with 320 grit and work to 600 grit for a very nice finish. Single shot chambers can be rough and this helps greatly. If you have a choke tube, polish it and the bore in the barrel together. Turn the tool in the direction of tightening the choke or it will unscrew. Do not polish the choke tube threads.

I use paper towel as a patch and push through the bore to clean it. Oil the bore when done, clean the choke tube and threads, and use anti-seize lubricant on the choke threads. On some H&Rand New England Arms single shots, the stocks are made wrong. Upon firing, the stock hits the shooter’s face hard. This area forward of the stock needs to be reshaped or tapered forward so as to help the stock move away from the shooter’s face during recoil.

This will take around a quarter inch of material off and should not end with a straight line but a taper that blends into the rest of the stock. Refinish as normal when done shaping. I once found a nearly-new shotgun in a pawn shop listed at less than half its value when new. I could tell that shotgun was there because of this stock shape issue without even asking. Single shots are light (one reason I like them) but recoil is a factor, more so when shooting three-inch magnums.

Keep the stock shape in mind, install a recoil pad as needed, and realize heavy kicking rounds can not be speed loaded. Daniel P. Horn Wolsey, SD Sixty Years Of Testing Guns Ray Ordorica released his autobiography covering his career as a professional editor, gun writer, novelist, photographer, wood-worker, pilot, machinist, engraver, and musician, including his experience testing firearms for at least sixty years. His path to becoming a world-class gun writer was pretty well off the beaten track.

Sixty Years Of Testing Guns is the story of Ray’s journey. Extractor I am look for an extractor for a Remington Model 721 in a .270 bolt action. I have exhausted all of my search options. Jerry Spadorcio Jerry’s Gunsmithing From Sergey Lyalko and Mark Hollensen. This extractor does not have to be specific for the cartridge the rifle is chambered in. It will also fit a number of Remington 700 rifles.

The extractor may need some small adjustments to work but it will fit a .270 and is available from Brownells (bit.ly/2Rgpd GH). The first place to check is with David Snoap at dpsnoapjr@yahoo. com. He used to be a Remington Factory representative and has an inventory of Remington parts. We don’t have a phone number but emailing him revealed he was able to supply a needed part for a 742 worked on last year. The second place to check is Kelsey at Gunsmith’s Inc. in Jacksonville, FL GunsmithsInc.com).

She might have one. AG