doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Is only shooting one barrel a problem?

If I only shoot the right barrel of my Iver Johnson Supertrap am I putting unnecessary strain on the gun?

If it will take 50,000 rounds to notice I won't worry about it.

Bushmaster:
The answers to your questions are:
No.
Don't worry.

Best, Kensal

Bushmaster I never heard of any testing but I agree winth Kensal.

Best,

Mike

Each opening-closing cycle causes a small amount of wear to the jointing (you could acutally wear a gun off-face without ever firing it). Each barrel firing causes a small amount of wear to the jointing and to the respective lock.. So, you will experience opening-closing wear and right side wear each time you fire the gun. However, not firing the left barrel does not cause some kind of wear imbalance. Your ritht lock will show more wear to levers and springs than the left, however.

I have no idea what the actual figures would be but in my experience a good game shot fires their right barrel much more frequently than the left (I certainly do and I would not consider myself a particularly good shot!). If one assumes that this was also the case in the heyday of shooting at the turn of the century, a restorer like myself would expect to see a lot of guns with the right hand lock work 'shot out' or the jointing twisted. One doesn't so I think you can continue to shoot the right barrel more often than the left with impunity. Yes, there will be a wear imbalance but I doubt you will notice it in your life time!

Only difference I ever actually noticed was on sidelock hammerguns, breechloaders and muzzleloaders. As Toby said, the right barrel is usually fired much more than the left. This is manifest in a weakened spring on the right lock after many years of use. Boxlocks should be subject to the same thing but, since opening the action is what (usually) cocks the hammers, you don't feel the difference in the strength of the two springs as easily as with external hammers which are cocked individually by hand.

I have cut a piece off a wooden clothespin and wedged it between the leaves on the right lock spring to strengthen it enough to make it reliably ignite the cap on original muzzleloaders. Shabby fix, but it works, and if done properly it stays in place. I guess it's no worse than shimming the hook with feeler gauge and loctite.

Stan

It would seem to me the main concern here would be from the uneven heating of the bbls if one bbl only were fired continously in a rapid sequence, such as trap singles. Whether or not doing this frequently would put enough strain on the solder joints binding the ribs to the bbls to eventually loosen them I simply don't know.

In most game situations if birds were flying over in such rapid succession it would simply seem prudent to fire both bbls before reloading.

I've shot a hell of a lot of singles trap with an O/U Beretta.

Just this year, I finally broke the lower hammer. This is a known weak spot with this design, and it was expected - eventually. 50,000 targets or thereabouts.

Admittedly this is a target shotgun, but inspection showed no wear anyplace I could see without major disassembly. The replaceable bolt pins and shoulders are still a long way from needing replacing. There is zero visible wear on the trunions or barrel pivot points.

I'm guessing your average well made double should not mind frequent use, and I agree that most wear is caused by lack of clean lube on the hinge pin.