doublegunshop.com - home Forums Thread Like Summary - 2 guns quit working today

Took my wife and sons shooting and an skb sxs would only fire 1 barrel. Then the weatherby orion started doing the same thing. This is a copy of the old skb O/U action. I took the sxs apart and can see no obvious problem. It looks like a mechanical rather than inertia system and doesn't appear dirty or gunked up. What am I missing? My son said this is the world sending me a message that single triggers are bad. Funny I have been looking for a Win 21.

I have found double triggers to be a much, much better friend.

Best,
Ted

Stan,
Small world, so to speak. The single trigger gun that got the squishy pad was a Beretta Silver Snipe. The Pachmeyer pad hardened up nicely, after 20 years or so, and the gun is back to working as it should.

I did strip and clean it, and refinish the stock with the tung oil varnish Brownell’s used to sell. It was due. But, the pad going hard ended the problem.

Double triggers here, as well, but, the damn cold drives me into gloves late in the bird season, and come the winter months, the Beretta gets out a bit. I still hit my Dad’s favorite WMA for pheasants if there is some ice on the slews, and using his old Beretta brings back good memories.

Best,
Ted

While that is true, Ted, and I agree, I have had the opportunity to help out friends who have bought used O/Us that were having trouble with the single triggers. The ultrasonic cleaner usually straightens out their problems. I would choose double triggers most of the time for myself, but I cannot choose that for my friends who aren't steeped in double triggers to the extent that I am.

Last example was a Beretta Silver Snipe that a friend bought for $100. Two cycles in the ultrasonic cleaner and that gun works like new, now. Out of all my single trigger guns the only one that has ever given me any trigger issues was my old, much used MX8. It was just worn out and a new trigger "group" straightened it out completely. Two LC Smiths with HOTs, a FAIR Verona, a Beretta 687 SPII Sporting, a Yildiz, and a SKB 200E .........none of which have ever hiccuped once. I have never needed to use my ultrasonic for my own single trigger guns, only those of my friends.

double guns should have two triggers. one for each barrel. no selector needed...

even the perverted ones with the barrels soldered on top of each other...

Rather than banging a gun on a desk or on the floor- I just hit the end of the gun with the heel on my hand. That should reset the second Barrel. Hitting the gun on a floor or a desk you could crack the stock so I would be careful about doing that. So good luck.

I remembered about your dad's Silver Snipe the moment I was shown the $100 gun my friend had bought.

Rust has taken over the outside of the barrels and I spent a few minutes removing it for him, then applying some OxphoBlue with swabs to freshen it up a bit. A trip to the ultrasonic put the action back in fine fettle and he now is not ashamed to take it out in public. I'd never had any dealings with the old Silver Snipe guns, so when I saw his it reminded me of you immediately.

While it may be mechanical, I would think this more than likely points to ammo being too light. You mention "gun" here, but your original post says two guns did the same thing. If they both work with snap caps, I think the problem is the ammo. A good cleaning never hurt a gun, but if the ammo is too light, it may never work in the gun. Same problem you see with semi-autos and low pressure rounds. One of the big reason you will never see mass market ammo with really low pressure loads.