doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Accidental Discharge

Let me post what I think is the scenario that caused the accidental discharge. I have taken the gun apart and looked at the internals.
Like I said the gun has about 3000 rounds through it and the action is still quite "stiff". The shotgun has been setting for the last 5 years due to my illness.
When I started using it again I never properly oiled the gun. In using the top barrel only I never fully opened the action. The un-oiled hinge pin and the stiffness of the action contributed to the action not being fully opened. The "recocking" or the resetting of the hammer/sear is accomplished in the very last part of opening the action. In effect I was never fully resetting the sear. As I shot more and more the hammer finally worked it'sway off off the sear and caused the AD.
I will take a primered only round and place it in the bottom barrel for the next couple times I use the gun. That way I will know if the primer is struck off goes the gun to a smith.

I have my doubts.

If you cocked one barrel, you cocked them both.

I was in a local gunshop today and just before closing (for the Christmas break) a guy came in and asked if they could fix his gun, it was firing the bottom barrel now and again when he closed it.
The gunsmith was off and his father who was running the shop told him to drop it in after the break, I was chomping at the bit but I thought it'd be a bit cheeky to offer to take the job on.
I know this isn't any help to you but I thought it may not be such an unusual problem. I'm beginning to regret not saying anything now, I'm intrigued as to what causes this potentially dangerous problem.

Only if they are perfectly timed together, not always guaranteed to be the case. This would be quite easy to check starting with both hammers down open the gun very slowly & see if you can cock one hammer without cocking the other.

All kinds of things to look for...bottom line is that someone knowledgeable needs to look inside.

Miller is absolutely right. Just because both barrels goes down does not mean both locks cock. Each side has it's own cocking mechanism.

I bought a S x S several years ago and found that it was not recocking the left barrel every time. An adjustment had to be made to the cocking mechanism. It can happen to most any doublegun, and is no indicator of overall quality, IMO.

This is a job for a good doublegun smith.

SRH

I was shooting a "new" Parker repro 16ga last weekend and noticed both barrels did not always cock. The right barrel sometimes was not cocked when I pulled the trigger. I wondered about it at the time. I started breaking the gun to full open and it seemed to stop the problem. But I'm not sure.

With my hearing aids on highest amplification even I can hear the minute difference in cocking times for some guns.

Jay

Old congealed oil and grease can slow down the movement of internal parts, thus now allowing timely engagement or allowing partial engagement between sears and tumblers.

My Browning OU presented this problem. THe maddening thing is that once the sun was up and the action warmed, causing the oil to thin out the problem went away.

A good degreasing and careful inspection of parts should reveal the problem. Since this is an action not maintained for 5 years it seems that the cause could well be the build up of old lube and perhaps corrosion along with weakened springs.