doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Hard Opening Double

An elderly friend has a Churchill 20g SXS that is very hard to open. I have inked the bearing surfaces and then carefully stoned the areas that I see are rubbing but it has not changed anything. Other than shooting thousands of rounds through it which at his age is not practical and I really couldn't afford to, is there something else I should be looking at? Thanks for any comments!

Typically, the forend is fitted very tightly to the frame on new guns, which causes excess friction between the forend and frame knuckle.

The proper way to relieve excess pressure is to file a very small amount of metal off of the back side of the barrel forend lug. This is the contact area that forces the forend back against the frame.

Are we talking a Churchill sidelock? If so, some were even self-openers, I believe. That gun should be sent to an expert gunsmith skilled and knowledgable of English guns. A spring may be broken and binding. Please don't hone or file on this gun unless you know what you are doing. (No offence intended here).

Question:
Ejectors?
Open easy when the ejectors have been set?
I have a Zabala made 28 gauge TriStar Brittany that has
POWERFUL ejector springs and the gun is stiff
Removing these springs made it quite easy to use.
These springs are V-type springs in the forend.

I am assuming you have a Kassnar gun

http://www.gunsamerica.com/952597634/Guns/Shotguns/K-Misc-Shotguns/Kassnar_Churchill.htm

Mike

Is the original poster assuming that Churchill left extra metal in the working parts of the gun that the owners would have to grind away? Maybe this gun should go to someone who knows how to work on them.

New England Custom Guns relocated to Claremont, NH recently. Maybe that is convenient to you.

Sounds like a lower grade import marketed as a Churchill. I'll concede it could be a number of issues, but I l have a cold beer to anyone's nickel that the forend is tight.

Maybe I'm missing something but no-one has suggested that the strikers are hanging up in the primers. This would make it horrible to open and would probably only need the strikers easing back a little.
It doesn't necessarily need to be jamming shut, just very stiff. Look for a smeared primer where the striker is rubbing as the gun begins to open.

Wow- when that fat cigar smokin' whisky drinkin' Limey PM said "This was their finest hour" he wasn't talking about his namesake shotguns and the "Glorious 12th of August" was he- sounds like the story I heard about Limey Thomas Purdey and the backdraft he gave his employees after he sent a matched pair around 1932 to Lord MuckingFutch without the strikers installed (that's firing pins to us Colonials)--If this is a Churchill Premiere, those guns were made to the same standards as Boss, Purdey and those little twin boys from Amsterdam (Holland to the power of two)-- If it is a Kassner/Kassnar knock-off, it's off to the gunsmyths for a tune-up-- whatever is happening ain't right. I have a friend who inherited a Woodward SLE 12 bore game gun (NOT an "ass=isted opener either) and it opens and closes like a bank vault door, regardless if the ejectors have been released or not--a real Steinway!!!

I am speculating that it is a Kassner import. If so, it might be doing the same thing as a low priced Spanish gun I have was doing that I bought new waaaaay back when. Once I fired it, I had to break the gun open over my knee and at times that was even difficult. The firing pins were going to far into the primer and you could see the drag marks on the casing. Out with a fie and I fixed the problem.