doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Have a question about my old shotgun.

The way I always closed it was, I would hold the thumb lever over to the right instead of letting it close, then I would close the gun gently ( it didn't take much),and finally I would push the lever back to the center to lock it. Would that be the correct way?

The correct way is to just close it and don't monkey with the lever.

As Joe said just close the gun smoothly, not slammed, & let the lever snap home, this is why they're called "Snap Action" & the way they were designed to be closed. The Ithaca built NS was Ithaca's first entry after the development of the new "Super X" shells in the early 20's & was designed for them. One properly cared for & used only occasionally with heavy loads as you state, will outlast you.
An option for the Crescent is to simply shim the hook until it closes tight. Various substances have been used for this purpose including feeler stock, aluminum can, even paper. It can be glued in place or simply stuck with a light coat of grease while gun is assembled. In this case it may fall out when gun is disambled & have to be put back, but will stay put as long as gun is together. If you reload you can find 1¼oz loads at less than 1200 fps, say around 1150, which with a proper size shot will work great & not put near as much stress on the gun as full blown Express loads in excess of 1300fps.

Not long ago I picked up virtually unused 1950 vintage Beretta 424 extractor for just over $600. Purdey double under bites with Greener X-bolt, needless to say perfectly suitable for 2&3/4" Nitro Mags. Lowest grade Beretta SxS is still better then lot of clunkers out there. Ejectors only add about $250+/-50 to the tag so why pay big bucks for Winchester 23 or BSS BLE.

Well, I'm going to go try and shim up that Crescent then if that works I'll work up a lighter load for it. On a Nitro special or any other gun, The only time I would be shooting a heavy load would be to pattern it,then after that only if a turkey walks in front of me.Thanks.

Another question, do you really need to shoot that heavy of a load? Many of these old shotguns shoot a pretty tight pattern anyhow.

I've got it shimmed up and back on face. I'm going to take it to Papaw and he can make a more permanent shim for it. I shot the heavier loads because I want a kill to be humane. In the end what I will do is, put the Crescent in semi-retirement, I'm still going to enjoy it, but will get another primary shot gun to take up the slack. On the new one I'm going to look around at all of your suggestions and get what I can find in the best shape. Thanks everyone for the replies and advice.

TJP you are making an assumption that heavy loads work better because they are heavier. That usually just isn't true. Try some of the lighter loads of shot and see how they pattern in your gun on the turkey target before deciding you need heavy loads. Often the light load will throw better patterns. Many shooters mistakenly think having more shot automatically gives them better killing patterns or that higher velocities or both are necessary. I found my guns all shoot better patterns with the normal loads which in 12ga would be between 1oz and 1 1/4 oz at 1150 to 1200 fps.

I'll look at a lighter load then. Thanks.

jack haugh might charge a little more than the gun is worth!