doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Fox safety

I took apart a friends 16ga that was doing the same thing. I found that the little curled ends of the spring that hold the roller's axle where worn or misshaped.

This caused the axle to slide to one side and release the tension from the spring/roller. The fit of the top tang in the stock kept the pin/roller from coming all the way out. the pin rubbing on the stock made the safety feel tight in normal use.

I did a little reshaping of the end of the spring so the axle and roller stayed in place and the problem went away.

As to the action opening, on the gun I worked on, the top tang had to be pushed way to the right before the safety was set back to safe.

I have a very early 16 ga AE Fox with snap on Sterlingworth type forend. When i shot it top lever would move to right slightly. I changed and shimmed top lever spring,that did not help. Had spring so strong could hardly push top lever over. Changed top rotary bolt,same thing. Forend was extremely hard to remove and later i put a new old stock blade in forend hook,the piece that causes friction to hold forend on tight. Shot gun later and lever did not move and forend is easier to remove. Bobby

That's what I was hinting at in my first post. If the gun is well worn, with the lever to the left and the barrel flats contacting the watertable, they will "bounce" upon firing and the lever will open just enough to actuate the safety rod. Gerald says the gun is tight. But if it has had work done (metal added)on the hook and it was not properly mated to the bolt, there can be a wedge effect that causes the gun to start to open when fired.

Smoke the barrel extension (hook) slot, or color the inside of the hook with blue magic marker. After a few opening/closings, you should see that the bolt is biting only on the top (middle) third of the hook surface. If the bolt is contacting the first (bottom) third of the hook surface, it is not engaging properly.

If you find the lebver is moving per Dennis' suggestion, this could be why.

That's a function of the length of the actuator rod which will vary among guns. Some will move almost instantly.

Note that if the top lever is indeed trying to open on firing, the "Problem" is not with the auto-safety. While removing the parts which cause the auto-safe to function would relieve the "Symptons", this would not "Fix" the problem. From the original post this was what I deduced had been given as advise. Leaving the auto-safe in functioning mode here would be a good indicator as to whether the "Real Problem" had been addressed.

Thanks for all of the help. I will take the gun apart and see. My guess is it is the safety spring.

As I said before, the gun is tight, on face and doesn't look like it has been "repaired". Although the finish is uneven, I don't think it has been shot a lot. I let you guys know what I find.

Jerry

just had this same problem with my CE today... going to take it apart and see what I find... great to see all of the help available here...

Any resolution to this problem? We could further our education with a follow-up.

My 16 ga. Sterlingworth started going on safe when my son was shooting it with Remington Game Loads. First time in 25 years. The game loads seemed particularly hot and recoiled badly. Shot lots of them over the years and maybe they changed the load. Checked everything and finally REVERSED the safety spring. Apparently when Lefever's in N.Y. refinished the gun in the early '80 they assembled the safety with the spring backwards. The little curl at the end of the spring which puts pressure on the roller was facing foreward. Reversed the sring and no more doubling. Although we aren't shooting Rem. Game loads either. He's shooting RST's and has no complaint about recoil.

Hi Jerry,
10 to 1 it is the safety detent spring, as several others have already suggested. If the gun was "opening slightly" so little you can't see it I don't believe that would be enough to reset the safety. If the safety is very easy to move off and on, there's your second important clue that it is the detent spring. Start with the easy and most likely culprit.