Salvaging Grandpa’s Old Double

It’s true that expensive guns get the most attention. Because of their intrinsic and historic value, we try to repair and restore them to the best of our abilities. But what about inexpensive doubles? Perhaps those with only sentimental value? There’s an ocean of them out there. These guns were not purchased for their beauty or as an investment. They were the everyday tools of farmers, builders, railway workers, and many others. It’s a pity to discard such a gun, even if it’s damaged to some extent.

The gun used in the preparation of this article is a good example. This Fox Model B, made by Savage-Stevens, was brought into my shop by someone who remembers dry-firing it when he was a child. This play destroyed the standing breech of the gun. Figure 1 shows the problem; the firing-pin channels do not have The standing breech of this Fox Model Bshows the destroyed firing-pin channels.

In this photo, A is the original firing pin, Bis anew firing pin in the making, and Cis the new firing pin after finishing. front walls. The good news is that the rest of the gun was in pretty good condition. Destroyed firing-pin channels are not unusual on older guns. One problem associated with this damage is wobbling firing pins, with off-center strikes on the primers. Another problem is that, during the shot, the primer becomes perforated and explodes into the action through the channel.

Finally, this creates a problem with opening the gun in those instances when it does shoot. In other words, a gun in this condition is surely out of service. Although a damaged standing breech often results in a gun being relegated to the wall above the fireplace, the fix is neither difficult nor expensive. In this article, I’ll describe one way to take care of this problem.

Another way of fixing firing-pin channels is to use removable bushings, which was described in my article "Fixing Factory Misplaced Firing Pins" in the October 02 issue of this magazine. Repairing a Damaged Standing Breech First, we have to understand the reason why the breach became damaged with the original firing pins in order to exclude this problem in the course of the repair. The actual damage has been done by the spring plunger (identified by the number 1 on the firing pin shown in Figure 2-A ).

Repeated pounding of the front wall by this part of the firing pin broke the wall. Actually, this wall of the breech is the only way of stopping the firing pin. Being thin and made of soft metal, the wall cannot withstand this pounding forever. My plan of repair in such cases is to first restore the front wall and then restrict the travel of the firing pin by providing a rim (see number 2 in Figure 2-C).

This rim has a diameter greater than the channel, and stops the firing pin as soon as it reaches the internal surface of the action. The action in that area is massive and

The internal part of the action is shown here with the new firing pin installed. A drill or reamer is used to remove any internal burrs and uneven surfaces in the firing-pin channels. cannot be easily damaged. Figure 3 shows the internal part of the action with the firing pin installed. In this case, the front wall of the breech is not reached by the firing pin and it’s not going to be damaged again.

Obviously, each different action requires a somewhat different approach, but the procedure described here is applicable in many different situations. The method of restoring the standing breech is to provide permanent bushings. Removable bushings could also be installed, but these take much more effort to fit and to provide a means of putting them in and taking them out of the action. Permanent bushings are easier to install by following these steps: 1.

Normalize the firing-pin channels by passing an appropriate drill or reamer all the way through the channel from behind the action as shown in Figure 4. The goal is to remove any internal burrs and uneven surfaces, including debris left from the damaged front wall. Choose a drill or reamer diameter associated with a certain tap. In this particular case, the closest tap was 10×1 mm. Attention should be paid during drilling to maintain the original direction of the channel.

Otherwise, it may become difficult to center the firing-pin strike. Threads are cut in the breech for the new bushings. The breech is shown here after soldering new bushings in and cutting them off. 2. Cut the thread from the front of the breech as shown in Figure 5. The depth of the threaded part is not critical, but it has to be a minimum of about 1/8 inch. Remember that channels are not perpendicular to the breech, therefore the depth of the thread is different for the top and the bottom of the channel.

It’s important to keep the angle of the original channel unchanged. On one previous similar job, I prepared a tap by grinding its front part so that it worked as a pilot. To make the tap with pilot precise enough, I used a grinding attachment on the lathe. (This is not a very popular device, but when you have one many tasks become easier.) 3. Preparing the bushings requires a

A rod is used to test the position of the firing pin holes in the new bushings. The restored standing breech with new firing pins is now ready for final testing. lathe. The most important aspect of this step is to prepare the firing-pinhole so that its position can be corrected later. For this, I assume that the final diameter of the firing-pin nose should be about 7/64 inch and so I drill the hole in the bushing with a 1/16-inch diameter.

Later, this small hole can be expanded to 7/64 in the required direction to bring it to the center of the primer. Actually, the final hole can be as large as 1/8 inch, but shouldn’t be any larger. The only other step in the preparation of the bushings is to cut the threads corre- After minor corrections, the new firing pins strike the primers dead center. sponding to those made in the breech. 4. The next step is to install the bushings into the channels. I prefer to softsolder them.

This way, we don’t have to worry about them unscrewing or moving later on. I make the threaded bushings longer, so that the tails are sticking out of the breech. I then cut the screwdriver slots in the tails for rotating the bushings when the solder melts. Figure 6 shows the breech after soldering the bushings in and cutting the tails off. Finish this step by leveling the bushings flat with the standing breech. 5. Next, check the centering of the new bushings.

For this, I use "dummy" primers and a thin rod that fits snugly into the bushing holes. It’s a good idea to shape one end of the rod as a normal firingpin nose. Empty shells with dummy primers have to be put into the chambers, and the barrels have to be installed on the action. To maintain the correct barrel posicontinued on page 15) tion, it’s necessary to put the bolt back in place and lock the barrels properly. With the rod protruding through the bushing holes, punch it with a hammer from behind the action.

This should leave a clear mark on each primer. Figure 7 shows the result. From this photo, it’s obvious that the firing-pin holes need some correction, which we anticipated anyway. I marked arrows on the shell heads before closing the gun to control the position of the punch. By the way, dummy primers can be produced by keeping normal ones in a jar of WD- 40. I keep a small jar of them, since they’re useful for testing mainsprings and firing pins.

Just remember that if the primers are removed from the jar and allowed to dry, their original explosiveness will return. 6. Correcting the position of the firing-pin hole can be a little tricky. The idea is to expand the hole in the direction of the primer’s center, and then round it with a 7/64-inch drill. The expansion of the hole can be made with around needle file, being careful to maintain the direction of the firing-pin channel.

When the hole is expanded enough to be in the center of the primer, it has to be rounded with a needle file as much as possible first, and then finished with the drill. Making New Firing Pins Figures 2-Band 2-C show unfinished and finished firing pins. Normally, for making firing pins, I use oil hard-

ening drill rods. I also heat treat them. When firing pins are not properly hardened and tempered they can either get riveted or bent. I think the heat-treatment is especially important in cases like this one where the firing pins are not easily accessible, since you have to disassemble the whole gun if a firing pin breaks. Conclusion Finally, the springs can be installed on the firing pins and the gun reassembled. Figure 8 shows the restored breech with the new firing pins.

After the installation is finished, testing with live primers should be done to check the position of the firing-pin strikes. Figure 9 shows the result of the test performed on this gun. Damaged firing-pin holes on the standing breech of a shotgun often render it unusable’even when the rest of the gun is in good condition. With this simple repair, however, such a gun can be returned to the field rather than having to spend the rest of its life as a wallhanger. I