doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Self opener vs assisted self opener

No. It’s idiotic and obvious he’s never operated one. Anyone who’s used that version of the Beesley/Lancaster action knows that statement is misleading and dumb. Stiff to close, yes. You think F. Beesley would design something & patent it and sell it, HAA Thorn (Lancaster) would buy the patent, market it, and promote it if it felt like you were breaking something inside the action everytime you closed it? Nah, me neither. If that was the case it would’ve been a commercial failure, which it wasn’t. Opinions can be ill-informed. If he doesn’t like the gun, because of its designs, aesthetics, etc. I’m ok with that. Just say that, but don’t go poppin off saying something that’s bs.

Stan, there’s so many problems with that article. He describes the gun he’s using as sloppy when open, neither of my examples are like that, I’m not quite sure what he’s talking about. Maybe the gun he was looking at was worn out and completely off the face? The Lancasters mainspring is about the easiest spring to make when it comes to complex spring opening actions. That’s not saying it an easy spring to make!! Compare it to a Purdey mainspring. The Purdey mainspring is much more complex to make. In regards to finding a guy to make one if one breaks….good luck finding a guy to make ANY spring. Nobody wants to do it anymore. My body action gun broke a mainspring about 10 years ago. My good friend made a new one, it cost me $1000. I doubt he’d be excited to make another one. He wouldn’t even attempt to try and make a Purdey mainspring and his guy who used to make them had been deceased for over a decade now.
The one part on the Lancaster that does worry me are the ejectors. Lancasters, especially older ones used Perkes. The springs in the Perkes system are its weakness. Small. Complex. Proprietary design, nothing off the shelf about them. Once they go, I’m not sure who I’d go to for a repair or if my guns would just turn into extractor guns.

This is an “early” type Lancaster mainspring with hook style cocking dog, later versions did away with the hook and went to a simpler “nub”. As you can see, it’s not all that complex, but there is some intricate filing and finish work that’s required. The pictured spring is not finished. This one spring does all of the cocking (it also acts as the cocking limb in the action) and provides the power for the self opener. It’s obviously not as complex as a Purdey mainspring.