T58;
There are essentially 4 cocking methods of the Automatic Hammerless. First one following the manual side cocker was the rod cocker. This one has cocking cams extending through the knuckle joint which are depressed by the forend with rods running back through the bar to push the hammers back. This action was made with a both a thumb push opener & the side-pivot top lever. Locking bolt is vrtically mounted & pivots at the bottom, entering notch in doll's head from rear. Action was revised under patent of 1890 to use two hooks for cocking. This one is often described as the "Two fish Hook" model. In this action one hook hinges under the bbls & the other in the frame with the two hooks mating with one another. I believe a few of the earlier ones of this version still used the side pivot lever, but shortly the center pivot was developed with the locking bolt being an extension of the lever & enterine the rib notch from the side. Next progression was the small hook guns, which used a single hook pivoted in the frame & engaging a pin through the bbl lug for cocking. Interestingly while this system went into use in the mid 1890, it is covered by the 1907 patent. This hook was soon replaced by the large hook which was very similar but added the extractor cam atop the cocking hook.
If you look at the views of the early one you can see several of the adjustments which were dropped over time. On the early ones a screw through top tang bore on the top of the locking bolt so bolt could be tightened by turning down this screw. with the change in bolting this occured automatically by having the bolt wedge shaped & allowing the lever to go around to the left. Early guns had a split bbl lug, visable in bottom pic, with a tapered screw which could be tightened to spread the lug taking up side wear. The two little screws in bottom of frame were turned up against thew bottom leaf of the main spring to act as "Rebounders". Early guns had an adjustment in the forend to keep it snug against the knuckle. I the beginning all grades had the sear adjustment screws, but at some point this was eliminated on grades below E. I have two Q grades which both have this feature, highest SN'd one is in 29K range. The vast majority of my hunting with a Lefever has been done with a large hook model, but I really do like those rod cockers, only problem is only one I have is a 10lb 10ga, which ain't much of a quail & rabbit gun.
