doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Back On Face Help

The peening of the water table to tighten the locking surfaces would tend to change the angle of the barrels to the standing breach and thus make the gap you describe. I believe that you have a lot of work in front of you. First weld all peen marks, dress them back and then put the gun on face and restore the locking surfaces. What is the value of the gun, this is an extensive-expensive repair!
bill

I have been slowly working my way throught "fixing" an off-face Husqvarna from 1890, drawing on lots of advice and information from folks here.

I too found there was a visible gap at top of breech but not at bottom. On closer inspection, this was because gun was closing on extractor, which was about 0,002 inches higher than end of barrels. I filed extractor face down till it was just missing touching breech face. Now I can see no light at all between end of barrels and breech face. Gun now closes with that nice "bank vault" klunk, with a 0,005 soft metal shim on hook.

This gun has no evidence of anything so drastic as preening locking lugs. Actually, the lockup is nice and tight with 0,005 inch shim on hook -- full lockup on back locking lug and sides of locking lugs lightly touch sides of holes they fit into.

Have no idea how long extractor has been higher than back end of barrels. Gun has been used lots and some well done repairs are obvious.

Niklas

Griz,
Anything made by man in my view can be repaired by man.It is just a question of time and money.Time is all your own, you can invest as much as you would care to.Money may be the problem.
If that Colt was mine I would strip it right down and then mic the slot in the water table and the locking lugs on the barrel, check their relevant disposition, weld up all the visible peening marks and dress back the lugs and water table to become flat and square, then carefully file and fit using a smoke lamp when and where necessary until I had the desired relationship between the mating parts.It will be worth it at the end and you will be so proud with the acquired skill that you will obtain.Good luck.
All of us are only an email away.
Please note NEVER try to assess if a gun is on the face or not with extractors or ejectors fitted.You want only the mating parts, breech face and barrels to interact with each other.

Why would properly fitting extractors or ejectors interfer? If they are so poorly fitted as to cause difficulty in assessing if gun is off-face and by how much, is not there a problem with them that might be contributing to or be cause of gun getting off face?

Niklas

Hi Griz
About five years ago I tried center punching the hook on an extremely off-face 12 gauge Crescent hammer gun I'd purchased. It put the gun back on face until I shot a round of trap with it, half-ways through the gun was just as shakey as ever. Believe it or not I got the "repair" idea from a gun repair manual. The problem is, all it does is raise the metal along the edge of the bearing surface, leaving no support in the middle. After questioning the board, and getting a mild hand slap from Russ Ruppel, I finally had the hook tig welded and then I hand refitted the hook using a fine toothed file and emery cloth, it really wasn't that hard to do.
AS far as the puch pricks along the water table, that was probably an attempt to tighten up the fit where it locks and tighten up any sideplay wear along the lug. I really doubt that it lifted up the metal enough to make much of a difference, especially if the guns been shot much since it was done.
Steve

As it happens, Steve Bertram is on his way over here to chase some late season roosters. I'll prod him to check out the post/pics and comment..8 degrees , should make for fast walking..

Of course,also remember off face can be the wear of the pin and hook OR the locking bolt. I have put 3-4 back on face recently that simply required the locking bolt to be TIG'd and refiled to fit and the pin and hook were fine.

As promised, I asked Steve Bertram, Gunsmith Extraordinare, to consider the problem. Here he is contemplating the solution! (Too cold to hunt)