|
S |
M |
T |
W |
T |
F |
S |
|
|
|
|
1
|
2
|
3
|
4
|
|
5
|
6
|
7
|
8
|
9
|
10
|
11
|
|
12
|
13
|
14
|
15
|
16
|
17
|
18
|
|
19
|
20
|
21
|
22
|
23
|
24
|
25
|
|
26
|
27
|
28
|
29
|
30
|
31
|
|
|
|
Forums10
Topics39,524
Posts562,428
Members14,592
| |
Most Online9,918
Jul 28th, 2025
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jan 2018
Posts: 17 Likes: 1
Boxlock
|
OP
Boxlock
Joined: Jan 2018
Posts: 17 Likes: 1 |
I recently purchased what I hoped would be a nice German drilling, a Carl Stiegele back action hammer gun. As soon as it arrived I noticed that it had a few issues.
1. The top lever is loose, there is hardly any tension on it at all. Push it to the right and it stays there. Push it back to the center and it stays there. The screw holding the trigger assembly to the action is frozen and I stabbed myself pretty badly in the thumb trying to get it off so it will likely be a while before I'm able to get the stock off and assess what is wrong.
My initial thought is that it's maybe a broken or cracked top lever spring? Is the gun still safe to shoot if that's the case, since I can push the lever back to center, or does that need to be fixed first?
2. The left hammer would not hold back and stay cocked. Initially I was afraid that the tumblers might be worn, but on taking out the lock I saw that the sear spring screw was broken. The little bit that screws into the lock plate is still there, but the screw sheared right at the juncture of the screw and the plate, so the sear spring was out of position. My options, best as I can tell, are:
a. Send to a shotgun smith to have a new screw made. I'm assuming this will be very expensive.
b. Try to buy screws from similar shotguns of that era, say L.C. Smith, and see if they work.
c. Try to find screws that small at the hardware store and modify them to fit.
3. In taking the gun apart I found that the tang screw under the trigger guard that holds the top tang to the stock had also sheared. It's actually bent just before the threaded section and the tip is, once again, still in the tang. So I'll need to find a new screw for that too.
For background, this gun came in a lot and this was the primary gun I wanted from the lot. Paid less than $1,000 for the lot, with one of the other guns probably being worth $500-600 at least. The bores are in great shape, stock appears to have quite a bit of oil in the head but no cracks, and the action locks up very tightly, so I definitely want to keep her. But with a new baby and starting to save to buy a house, $500-1000 in repairs just isn't in the cards right now.
Any suggestions?
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: May 2011
Posts: 1,218 Likes: 28
Sidelock
|
|
Sidelock
Joined: May 2011
Posts: 1,218 Likes: 28 |
First, welcome to the site.
Second, welcome to owning a drilling.
Addressing your issues more or less in order:
0. A couple pictures of your gun would have helped. That, and we like to look at guns....
1. Loose top lever. Does the top lever open the action or is your drilling one of those where the top lever is actually the selector between "shotgun" and "rifle"? If the latter, the top lever is not held in place by a spring and it will behave like you describe. If not, then a toplever spring is the first place to look. Yours might, or might not, be a standard size. If it is, you're in luck. If not, some craftsman with a file will have to take a standard size and work it to fit your gun.
2. Getting a new screw for your lock made is the textbook solution, if only because a proper job will include proper steel and hardening (if needed). Trying to substitute a screw from a gun contemporary to yours may, or may not, work. Your gun might be made with metric screws - diameter and threading/pitch - so using an American screw is not likely to fit properly. Not a big issue in a stock or something, but in the lockwork it is a big issue. Safety, you know.
3. Tang screws are not as difficult but, again, diameter and threading/pitch are issues. This, particularly in a back-action (or any hammergun) because they'll help govern alignment and thus function of all the other parts.
All that said, since the bores and lockup are good, the rest is fixable. You're going to have to get the oil out of the stock head anyway, so fixing the rest is something to do. Consider acraglassing the stock head once the oil's out.
Hunting season is closed for some months to come so it's not like you have to get the work done tomorrow. If you were asking me for suggestions, I would:
a. sell the other guns for the $500-600 you think they're worth and put that toward the drilling repairs;
b. spend only paper and throw your spare change into a bin, as a forced means of savings. This can easily add up to $500-600 per year;
c. get used to the idea that your gunsmith is going to be a person you see on a more-or-less regular basis, just like the mechanic for your car, so you want to connect with a good one who has a clue about drillings;
d. stick around here for advice from real experts;
e. learn to reload for the rifle (because just about every rifle caliber in a drilling is obscure, expensive or both);
f. remember that there there are no bargains, especially when it comes to drillings. If you paid less than $1k for a lot including a drilling and some other guns worth $500-600, what does that make the drilling worth?
Again, welcome!
fiery, dependable, occasionally transcendent
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Feb 2012
Posts: 2,525 Likes: 84
Sidelock
|
|
Sidelock
Joined: Feb 2012
Posts: 2,525 Likes: 84 |
Stop buying junk guns and start putting money towards your house fund and college fund for your kid. _______________________ AAPL earnings tomorrow.
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: May 2011
Posts: 1,197 Likes: 55
Sidelock
|
|
Sidelock
Joined: May 2011
Posts: 1,197 Likes: 55 |
Replacing some of the screws may not be that difficult. If you have means to measure the screw pitch, OD and length you may be able to contact a gunsmith who specializes in repair of older guns and see if he has something on hand or can make one for you. The problem may be that the pitch is not of today's standards and accurately measuring the pitch could be a problem. As a suggestion, use what you would put in a college fund to buy up all the old guns you can now and use them till your kid is ready for college. Then give them to him to either become a gunsmith or sell and get an education 
Nothing is foolproof to a sufficiently talented fool.
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Feb 2008
Posts: 11,792 Likes: 674
Sidelock
|
|
Sidelock
Joined: Feb 2008
Posts: 11,792 Likes: 674 |
You actually can have it all... a house, college for the kids, and junk guns.
Yours sounds very fixable, but there are two paths. One involves paying a pro to do your gunsmithing, and the other is fixing it yourself. Stabbing yourself with a screwdriver is not the greatest start, but there is a lot of info in the archives here including techniques for removing frozen screws without butchering either yourself or your gun. On the flip side is the thought that you might enjoy buying and fixing old guns and end up spending thousands on tools. Or you could be one of those bubbas who messes up decent guns by using the wrong techniques and materials.
Either way, you have come to the right place to either find good information or good gunsmiths. But if a guy called Jagermeister offers his opinion, just remember that you are a beginner who actually owns a drilling, and he is one of those internet fakes who doesn't own one lousy double shotgun. And that is much sadder than poking a hole in your thumb.
Take your time. Learn all you can. Check out the gunsmithing sub forum to help you decide how best to proceed. If you fix your own gun and someone can tell it was repaired... then you didn't do a good job.
Voting for anti-gun Democrats is dumber than giving treats to a dog that shits on a Persian Rug
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Mar 2010
Posts: 125
Sidelock
|
|
Sidelock
Joined: Mar 2010
Posts: 125 |
I don't know much about drillings, but it might be a good idea to have someone who actually has experience look very closely at your barrels. Something broke those screws, and I'll bet it was way too much gunpowder.
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Nov 2002
Posts: 9,409 Likes: 4
Sidelock
|
|
Sidelock
Joined: Nov 2002
Posts: 9,409 Likes: 4 |
Welcome Dave Webers wonderful forum. Don't listen to Dzadu Keith he is bitter nasty guy. Let me walk you through nice benchmark Suhl Drilling. This is well regarded DDR Fortuna though JP Sauer 3000, 3500, Merkel 90K and 95K are also good choices when looking for affordable drillings. Sample gun is Guns International 100977819. It's in real nice original shape with very good caliber rifle barrel and usable 4x scope proly with #4 Euro reticle. Nice gun. What are the are it's shortcomings? Sharp metal points of scalloped frame and tang making inletting more challenging as well as making wood more prone to hairline splitting. More modern drillings do not have sharp points and come with mounts accepting modern scopes from Zeiss, Kahles, Swarovski, Nickel AG, Schmidt and Bender. Ooops, Dziadu I smell shit.  I think your septic is leaking or needs pumping.
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jan 2018
Posts: 17 Likes: 1
Boxlock
|
|
OP
Boxlock
Joined: Jan 2018
Posts: 17 Likes: 1 |
First, welcome to the site.
Second, welcome to owning a drilling.
Addressing your issues more or less in order:
0. A couple pictures of your gun would have helped. That, and we like to look at guns....
1. Loose top lever. Does the top lever open the action or is your drilling one of those where the top lever is actually the selector between "shotgun" and "rifle"? If the latter, the top lever is not held in place by a spring and it will behave like you describe. If not, then a toplever spring is the first place to look. Yours might, or might not, be a standard size. If it is, you're in luck. If not, some craftsman with a file will have to take a standard size and work it to fit your gun.
2. Getting a new screw for your lock made is the textbook solution, if only because a proper job will include proper steel and hardening (if needed). Trying to substitute a screw from a gun contemporary to yours may, or may not, work. Your gun might be made with metric screws - diameter and threading/pitch - so using an American screw is not likely to fit properly. Not a big issue in a stock or something, but in the lockwork it is a big issue. Safety, you know.
3. Tang screws are not as difficult but, again, diameter and threading/pitch are issues. This, particularly in a back-action (or any hammergun) because they'll help govern alignment and thus function of all the other parts.
All that said, since the bores and lockup are good, the rest is fixable. You're going to have to get the oil out of the stock head anyway, so fixing the rest is something to do. Consider acraglassing the stock head once the oil's out.
Hunting season is closed for some months to come so it's not like you have to get the work done tomorrow. If you were asking me for suggestions, I would:
a. sell the other guns for the $500-600 you think they're worth and put that toward the drilling repairs;
b. spend only paper and throw your spare change into a bin, as a forced means of savings. This can easily add up to $500-600 per year;
c. get used to the idea that your gunsmith is going to be a person you see on a more-or-less regular basis, just like the mechanic for your car, so you want to connect with a good one who has a clue about drillings;
d. stick around here for advice from real experts;
e. learn to reload for the rifle (because just about every rifle caliber in a drilling is obscure, expensive or both);
f. remember that there there are no bargains, especially when it comes to drillings. If you paid less than $1k for a lot including a drilling and some other guns worth $500-600, what does that make the drilling worth?
Again, welcome! Thank you! Here's a quick picture of the drilling. I just put everything back together quickly but left the screws out.  Sorry for the poor clarity, the lens on my phone is cracked and I'm waiting on a replacement to get here. 1. The lever opens the action. The selector is on the tang, as in this photo.  I'm still trying to get that screw off the bottom of the action, but when I push the lever to the right I can see what I think may be the top lever spring underneath the lever, and it doesn't appear to move at all with the lever. 2. I was thinking of going the hardware store route just to see if the threads were inch, as I know Mausers are and I was hoping that a gun this old might have been made on British tooling. That way I at least know what thread pitch I would need a gunsmith to make and I'm only out a few bucks starting out. The sear spring screw will be difficult to figure out because I only have about three threads on the broken-off part, but it's such a small screw that there's only one or two sizes they even make that small. The tang screw might be a little easier. I'm a little hesitant to get the oil out of the stock because the last time I did that on a Husqvarna hammer gun it exposed (or maybe caused due to drying out) a whole web of cracks in the head. a. I was definitely planning on selling two of the other guns, they're of no interest to me. c. Finding a gunsmith will be difficult, as they basically don't exist in the DC area. I fully expect to have to ship this thing out if it needs to be worked on. e. I already load for 30 other calibers plus some shotshell, so I'm looking forward to reloading for this one. Looks like probably 9.3x72R or possibly 9.3x70R, have to take a chamber cast to make sure.
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jul 2012
Posts: 4,942 Likes: 344
Sidelock
|
|
Sidelock
Joined: Jul 2012
Posts: 4,942 Likes: 344 |
pomofo,
Dave in Maine's thought about the top lever possibly being the barrel selector is something to check out. If it is, one of your problems goes away. Photos would likely have made it possible for us to know the answer. Also photos of the markings, including the proof marks( under the barrels) would give a lot of other information. If you can't work on guns yourself, you need to befriend an old gunsmith. I don't mean a gunsmith that works mostly on "black guns and long range rifles", but one that repairs old guns and possibly has old guns set aside for parts, from which he may be able find the screws you need. An alternative is a gunsmith that can ID and make the needed screws. The first step is to post photos, which will allow a better definition of the problems. In the meantime, if any of the parts /screws are broken, save the pieces. To check if the top lever is the selector, move it and watch the rear sight and/or right hand hammer( if a hammer gun). If the rear sight raises or lowers, or if a block moves beside the hammer, then it is the selector. Also, if it is the selector, there would be another way to open the gun; under lever, side lever, or one under the forearm that swings to the side.
Mike
pomofo,
It looks like we were writing at the same time, I can see the top lever is not the selector. I am of the opinion that the "Hardware store" route will do no good(Mauser screws are inch, but a hardware store won't have any 1/4"-22 screws either). If you can't find a local gunsmith, I'm sure there are some in Va. Another idea would be a "Home shop machinist or model maker as they are generally familiar with small and metric screws. New England Custom Guns and gunsmiths that advertise in the Trade Directory of WAIDMANNSHEIL( one of the publications of the German Gun Collectors Assn.) can likely help you.
Mike
Last edited by Der Ami; 01/31/18 05:31 PM.
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Feb 2008
Posts: 11,792 Likes: 674
Sidelock
|
|
Sidelock
Joined: Feb 2008
Posts: 11,792 Likes: 674 |
Welcome Dave Webers wonderful forum. Don't listen to Dzadu Keith he is bitter nasty guy. Ooops, Dziadu I smell shit. I think your septic is leaking or needs pumping. What makes you think I am a bitter nasty guy Jagermeister? You seem to really have a problem with the truth. You don't have any actual experience with the drillings you suggested, and you still don't own even one cheap double. You are heavily invested in providing useless information that no one needs or wants. This thread wasn't a request for which drilling he should buy. It was questions about how he should proceed with a gun he actually bought that needs several repairs. Did you hear that? He actually bought it. He didn't merely put it on Layaway and then back out of the deal after lying to us and telling us all about his new gun. Do you remember telling us how effective the recoil pad was on the short barreled model 870 pump that you never actually took possession of? In the past, you could pretend to be a double gun expert. Thanks to me, people will see you as a pathetic tire-kicking gun shop drooler who also thinks it is intelligent to vote for the same politicians who work to take away our gun rights So you think you smell shit??? I'm not at all surprised, because you are so full of it your eyes are brown. Have a nice day loser. P.S. - I Googled "dziado" and it appears that is a somewhat derogatory Pollak term for Old Man. That's funny because according to the date you told us that you registered for Selective Service, and also told us that you would have refused any call to be drafted... you must be at least 15 years older than me. Nice move Mr. Bowels!
Voting for anti-gun Democrats is dumber than giving treats to a dog that shits on a Persian Rug
|
|
|
|
|
