doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com BSS Sporter Question

I have had my 20g Browning BSS Sporter over 25 years. I never felt much need to push the button over on the single trigger so the left barrel fires first. I bought the gun slightly used and it did not have the button on the barrel selector lever, so switching back and forth is not so easy. When I recently cleaned the gun I switched the lever over to the left barrel, and realized that after I fired the left side, the right side would not fire unless I switched the lever back to the right. That did'nt seem right to me, but I would appreciate anyone telling me if it is working properly or not. Thanks, Dan

Dan,
This is not correct. The second barrel should fire upon pulling the trigger regardless of which is selected to fire first. I'd pull the stock and clean the trigger assembly thoroughly with a spray cleaner like a automotive brake cleaner or gunscrubber. Don't get any on the wood.

Thanks Chuck, that makes sense. I never have had the stock off. Is that tricky? Dan

Dan,
It's simple to take off the stock. You'll need an extra long flat blade screwdriver of mid/large size blade, a well fitting screwdriver for the triggerguard screws, and one for the buttplate screws.

Remove the barrels.

Pull the screws that hold the triggerguard, grab the loop portion of the triggerguard and lift the tang from the stock inletting and rotate counterclockwise 90 degrees, lift it from the reciever.

Remove the screws from the buttplate and the buttplate. Use a flashlight to identify the orientation of the screw slot in the bottom of the recess up in the stock from the butt end. Put the long screwdriver in and loosen the screw a turn or two and give the screwdriver a rap on the end with the palm of your hand to push it out of the stock a bit. You should see a little gap between the stock and the reciever now. Loosen the screw all the way until it will drop out, being careful not to drop the reciever. Pull the reciever from the stock.

Reverse the procedure to reinstall.

It's really important to have well fitting screwdrivers. You may have to grind some commerical type screwdrivers to fit or buy the gunsmithing set from Brownells or other gunsmith tool sources.

Thank you again, Chuck, that sounds like something I can do. I do have a set of gun screwdrivers and I have taken a couple stocks off before that were attached that way. And thanks for the picture; I guess you've been through this once or twice before. Dan

Make sure when you put the screwdriver into the stock bolt, that you have it in the screw slot, and not jammed between the stock and screw. A buddy of mine made that mistake, and when he reefed on the screwdriver, he split the stock. Ouch!

Its working fine if you were just dry fireing....

The BSS trigger is a mechanically switched trigger. It does not require any inertia to switch to the other barrel. It does have an inertia weight that you can see in the picture I posted. This weight is to block the trigger during the recoil phase to prevent inadvertant discharging from the finger hitting the trigger at the back of the recoiling movement of the gun. Commonly called an "inertia blocked trigger". So, it is not working correctly if you can't fire the second barrel when dry firing.

BTW, the term "inertia blocked trigger" is a misnomer for the BSS trigger. The inertia weight will pull the transfer bar out of the path of the trigger and not allow transfer of movement of the sear. So, it's really "inertia decoupled".

I have large screwdriver I use for through stock bolts. When I remove a screw I usually find some sort of bushing that will fit the stock hole and put it over the driver bit about an inch from the end. Rubber faucet washers work well. In a pinch you can wrap the shank with tape until it fits the hole. This keeps from letting the blade get off center, wedged between the screw and stock and breaking the stock when you "reef" on it.

Thanks for that word Chuck, new one for my gunsmithing dictionary.