doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com am I doing this right

I place a hardwood dowel down the bore and press it up against the breech,,and dry fire the shotgun to let the hammer spring tension off.
As large of diameter that will fit, and face off the end nice and square. Simple, cheap hardwood dowels from the home improvement store will do. They're usually birch.

A strike onto the wood will take place somewhere on the end, not always in the exact center, so it can be reused many times before facing it off again. Plus you do have the other end to use!
No snap caps left in the chambers to think about.
I usually can't find the things anyway.


Reality is as 2-piper says, you can't write a simple single set of directions that is applicable to all makes & models of double guns.
What ever works best for you and doesn't damage the gun in disassembly or re-assembly.

I never drop the hammers and then disassemble. If the gun has the internal hammers in the fired position you run the risk of bending the cocking rods when you reassemble. In addition if the gun has ejectors you can screw up the timing.

A much easier way to relieve mainsprings on a A&D boxlock is to:
- break the gun open
- pull the triggers
- close the gun while pulling on the triggers (without shells in the chambers of course)
- take the gun apart if needs be.
That's it. No snap caps, no block, no tools required.

It is not guaranteed to work on sidelocks or other actions.

I know people who do this every time they store their gun, but I must say that I don't think that it is any useful.

Best regards,
WC-

WC
It is not a matter of whether the gun is an A&D or not. This can be done on most guns which have manual safeties. I have both a J P Sauer & a J P Clabrough, both sidelocks & both with auto safetis. On both however the lever is not latched open but returns to center when the gun is open. I do understand though that some ejector mechanisms will not allow this method of un-cocking.
In these regards a Lefever is one of the most user friendly guns I know of. These can be taken apart or re-assembled with the hammers cocked or un-cocked whether ejector or extractor. While the lever does latch open as long a the gun has the three position safety (most do) the hammers can be let down by this method & again it matters not if ejector or extractor, at least for the in-frame ejectors which are the most common ejectors found on them.