doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Fox L barrel not cocking

I'm much of the way through restocking a fox...I had the blank fully let in and had checked function (I thought), and had the shape down to the point I was going to assemble it and check fit on a pattern board before final sanding/finishing. You know the rest of the story...I put it together to find that the right barrel functions fine, while the left barrel is not working...I believe it is not cocking, so hammer is lowering as the action is closed. All the parts appear to have plenty of space around them, and all the action screws are timed so they match the former stock. I thought maybe I had buggered something in working on it, so I reassembled on the old stock, and it works flawlessly. In comparing the two, the right barrel trigger pull (the only one I can compare) feels a bit lighter in the new stock.

Possible culprits? What's next?

The first thing I would do is take the action off of either stock it is currently on examine two areas. First check the hammers and sears for possible worn or broken surfaces, then be sure that the sear spring is fully contacting both sears (maybe one is bent and not putting pressure down?). Also, if the sear spring screw is a little loose it will not hold the sears, so be sure its tight. If everything is ok with those, I would then assemble it without a stock so you can see it work. Then put the barrels and forend on and test its function to be sure that you know nothing mechanically is wrong. This lets you see how everything should line up and usually reinforces the fact that you have wood interference. After doing this, compare the two stocks as close as you can. If you dont spot any possible wood interference issues right away, take some light gun grease or stock inletting black and cover your trigger plate, action and the back of your hammers. Then assemble the gun as you would normally on the new stock, test for function, then take it apart and see where you have contact. Often times you will inlet without things like the hammers (maybe the head of the stock isnt letting it fully cock back enough?)safety, triggers, sears, etc, so you can easily forget to make room for them. Hope this helps and good luck!

Suspect some binding/interference with the trigger returns. While opening, put your finger behind the trigger and apply a little forward pressure to see if you can get the hammer to engage the sear notch. Perhaps the triggers are rubbing on the sides of the slot in the wood. Apart from one broken tip on a cocking lever, I've had 4 other instances of hairset triggers or complete failure to cock. All of those 4 were due to something interfering with the trigger return....wood chips, unburned powder, etc.

Channing and Mike, thanks very much. It was wood at the head of the stock interfering with the hammer. 5 minutes with a chisel and all functions flawlessly.
Thanks!