Hello all, as you can guess, I'm still puttering around with this Meriden 20ga double. I disassembled the lockplate assemblies to clean them up and see what could be done about the warp in the lockplates. They are pretty thin, only about 3/32". During disassembly, I noticed that the mainsprings were different on the two lockplates. One spring measures about .19" thick and the other is about .23" thick. In comparing the thicker spring with one from a 12ga I have, I'm about 100% sure that at some point in time, a 12ga spring was used to replace a lost/broken 20ga spring.
My question has to do with getting the spring to fit properly. There is a post with a recess at the back of the lockplate that is intended to help retain the spring. The thicker spring doesn't fit into the recess properly. What is the possibility that I could file the end of the spring to fit? The filing would take place at the bend in the spring. My gut feeling is that I'll be told that filing will ruin the spring but have to ask anyway.
Thanks
Kirk
