doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Repairing Top Lever that goes left

Here's a simple test, try shimming the barrel hook with a small strip of 20lb printer paper. If the barrel hook moves appreciably to the right, I'd suspect that you need to build up your barrel hook or spindle or both. At any rate, it's a simple test, it won't hurt your gun and it could tell you a lot.
Steve

Two things here I think worthy of note;
1st if the bbl hook (hinge) is worn & the breech end of the bbls have moved forward off face this will allow the bolts to go further forward, moving the lever left.
2nd on the other hand if the hinge is not worn & the bbls are tight on face the lever to the left would likely be from bolt wear. In this case shimming the hook would prevent the bbls fully closing which would bring the lever back some to the right, but this would be a false indication.

Gentlemen , I Think there is some confusion here. The position of the lever has nothing to do with the joint. Many guns that are badly off the face or very loose have lever's that stop at strap center . Other guns that are well on face and tight in the action may have lever's that come past center . Certainly when a gun is rejointed and has had the barrel moved back with an oversize pin then yes the lever when entering the bite will stay to the right,until it has been let in . On an English gun the lever should stop at center when the barrel is off. An ideal bite is that when the gun is closed normally the lever will stop just short of center which with minimal pressure will fully close . Slamming it shut which I do not recommend should close the lever fully.
The only reasons a lever comes past center on any English gun is wear on the lever work and nothing else.

Gunman;
Note the original question here does not state this to be an English gun. My last answer here was bsed on the assumtion it has wear compensating (tapered) bolts. These will in most guns allow the lever to rotate to the left of center for the purpose of wear compensation. In the case of a tapered underbolt if the bbl moves forward off face the bolt will advance by the same distance the bbls have moved, which will allow the lever to rotate left.

On a gun properly on face the bbls should seat against the standing breech leaving a few thousdanths gap between the flats & action flat. Slight hinge wear will allow the bbls to close against the flats which will in the case of compensating bolts cause the lever to rotate slightly further left.

"IF" though the gun is properly on face the bbls should not be brought further to the rear causing the gap between the flats to be increased for the purpose of compensating for bolt wear.

As I said in my last post we have two distinct wear points & these shold be treated individually, though the one can have a slight influence on the other in some cases.

Miller point taken but it dose appear we were talking about a Boss gun. The topic strayed as is common and others had talked about "shimming " etc . The majority of guns that I have worked on all have some facility to have the lever come to a stop .I am not familiar with some of the American made guns to which you were possibly referring . A down side to this method of construction is that when the bolt /bites wear the lever will not travel any further forward so that with continued use the bite wear rate increases and the net effect is that the gun will get progressively looser and will "shoot off the face " .