doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Baker Paragon Assembly Issues

Hi
I’m having difficulties assembling my Baker Paragon. When I look at the receiver there’s a cocking rod on the bottom of the receiver, and whether the hammers are cocked or uncocked the bar lays flat at the bottom of the receiver. When I try to assemble it, the barrels go on OK but when I try to put on the forearm, the cocking lever that is on the barrels won’t go underneath the cocking bar at the bottom of the receiver and jams up. It seems to me on my other shotguns that when the hammers are cocked the cocking bar in the receiver is in an upright position, not flat on the bottom of the receiver, and so the cocking arm on the barrel doesn’t go underneath the cocking bar in the receiver and it’s impossible to put on the forearm in that situation I’m wondering if I’m doing something wrong trying to assemble it or do I have a problem somewhere mechanically with the gun? It seems to me that it’s the cocking bar at the bottom of the receiver is not functioning properly.

Going from memory, I believe there is a spring in the barrel lump that supposed to keep the cocking rod extended out toward muzzle and when you put forend on it pushes under the the bar/dog. Hopefully the rod in barrel lump is not backwards or upside down. Someone with a baker in hand should send you some pics soon.

The spring is in the lump. I took the rod out cleaned it then put it back in in all the ways it would fit. None worked. It seems there is only 1 property way of inserting it into the the lump

Pics of the receiver and barrel lump. The rod in the lump is slightly bend down towards the barrels and wondering if this might be the issue. Reluctant to try straighten it out not knowing if I should clamp it in a vice and gently tap it straight or heat it and then straighten it.

Tamid, you must have the lump cocking arm in incorrectly. If you continue to have problems, email me at darylh1942@gmail.com

Illustration of the A cocking bolt and B cocking lever



Cocking bolt appears to be straight



Has the bolt been repaired?

The protrusion at the forward end of the barrel lump appears to be bent downward, as you have noted. I don't know the correct name for the part.

It may have gotten bent by attempting to reassemble the gun while it was uncocked. Sometimes with Bakers, it may help to hold the top lever firmly to the right while installing the barrels. But it will need to be cocked.

If that piece is bent down, it may be unable to engage the cocking hook in the lump recess. I seem to recall that piece is spring loaded, and is pushed to the rear when you install the forend. But it's been awhile since I shot any of my Bakers.

Drew,

I was assuming the cocking bolt was bent judging from the horizontal line off the top of the lug and the horizontal line off the cocking bolt. When I had the bolt out it did not seem to be bent and there is no indication the bolt has been repaired.

Assembling the gun in the past has always been a bit troublesome. To get around it I have broke the action open slightly when putting on the forearm but this time it just binds. Seems like the cocking bolt hits the cocking lever head on instead of going under it.

I no longer have a Baker, but possibly someone would be kind enough to remove their cocking bolt and carefully measure its length.
The bolt may have been replaced at some point.
Is the breech end slightly angled?
Another example

If your cocking bolt is positioned properly, sometimes in double reassembly one needs to push the extractor or ejectors forward from the barrel breech before trying to install the barrels. If your problem is after installing the barrels, you must be sure the forend pushes the cocking bolt forward before trying to snap on the forend.

Maybe it's just the pic,,but the cocking rod in the bbl lump (OP's pic) looks to have a shorter extension than the one in the DH pic.
Plus the tip is squared off on the OP's where the DH pic shows a slight 1/2 radius rounding to the tip.
Picture angle perhaps. I don't have one here to measure.
Or maybe it's been shortened and reworked a bit and is causing the problem.

Sorry not to have replied to this thread for a week. I was out-of-town and gun was unavailable till now. I took more pics to show length and there is a bevel on the end facing the cocking bolt.

Anyone collecting serial numbers on Bakers?

I have a Baker Paragon and the cocking rod is shaped like yours but is 2 5/16 inches long. It is straight, no bend.

A Baker B grade measures 2 9/32".

Based on what I'm seeing and reading, I suspect the issue isn't with the cocking bolt but related to the cocking lever instead. I'd have to pull out some of my Bakers and double check, but I'm sure at least one of mine has a shorter cocking bolt similar to what Tamid's pictures show. And although it does appear that his cocking bolt angles toward the barrels when disassembled, it doesn't look like the bolt itself is bent in his follow-up images. Those images also show that the end of the bolt that engages the cocking lever is radiused as it should be and I'm pretty sure the Baker I have with the shorter cocking bolt is also "squared off" on the barrel end, but again I need to take a look. The bolt in Tamid's follow-up pictures also looks to be fairly parallel with the bottom surface of the lug when it's pushed back into its assembled position, but it's hard to tell for sure.

So if it's not the cocking bolt, then could the cocking lever be "sagging" into a position that is causing it to align with the radiused end of the cocking bolt during assembly? I guess I've never pulled one of my Baker actions apart to the point where I accessed the cocking lever bits and pieces. Is there a spring that holds the cocking lever up off of the floor of the cavity in the action? If so, could that have broken or gotten dislodged?

I'll dig out a few of my Bakers this weekend and see what things look like on the one I'm pretty sure is close to what I see in Tamid's pictures.

By looking at a few paragons and A grade Bakers I can see my cocking lever is not shaped properly to easily go under the cocking rod. Once the barrels are attached what I have done is taken a small wood dowel and pushed the cocking lever under the cocking rod and then all works fine. I suppose what I must do is attempt to reshape the cocking lever so it doesn't bind up against the cocking rod.