doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Stelingworth Lever ?

I was looking at a 20 ga Phili Sterlingworth today. All original but with pad added to the original length stock. Barrels with no dents or pits but some streaking that should clean up. Wood shows age but no cracks. Blue is in good shape 95% plus on the 28" barrels. Case in protected areas only. Screws are good.

The lever is well right of center and the gun locks up tight but it will release the barrels before the lever is locked open. It then springs back to 'center' and prevents the action from closing without the lever being 'properly' locked to the right. What causes this? Is it fixable? Is it really even a problem?

Price is a steepish $1900.

Might be the little spring under the plate on the bottom of the gun. There is a large screw head that has a small coil spring under it that holds the lever open. A smith can make you a coil spring to remidy this and it should be good to go.

Regards, Gordon

Missing lever trip or spring or both. Yes. No. Remove the bolt from the center of trigger plate. Anything fall out? No. Can you push anything out by inserting a punch, nail, paperclip thru the extension slot topside (have to push the lever right to get the rotary bolt out of the slot)? IF you push out a small wedge-ended piston with a hollow base but no spring, you're home free as you need a light-gauge spring which will fit in the base of the piston and can be trimmed to length. If nothing falls out, you need both trip and spring and will have to find someone who's parting out a Fox and buy or borrow from another gun and fabricate.

jack

my 1914 sterlingworth had the wedge edged thingy and the spring but still would not keep the lever open....turns out the wedge thingy was edge worn so Dennis Potter made me a new one....has been fine since..

Too much.

Nuf Said.

That's the asking price. What would you say it's worth?

HMMM I have a Savage sterlingworth 20 ga. that by the sounds of this it does the same thing, which I thought was normal if you didnt lock open .I have a 12 Phil.gun that doesnt lock to the right but will close.

The "thingy" is called a "trip" and as Rabbit said the trip and/or its spring are missing, or the trip is worn. Just so you know, the small frame trip is different than the 12 gauge version. 12 gauge trips are hard enough to find; small gauge is going to be tough. If you buy the gun you'll probably hve to get one made by reference to another smallbore trip.

IMO, that price for the gun is a little steep in the condition you described. Silvers

They sell for that. Point out the "issue" (which isn't a big deal) and offer less if you'd like. He'll accept, counter or tell you to hit the road.

It would probably fly off the rack at 1500. Whatever you pay beyond that just determines how long you'll have to keep it to build equity. Pay 1700, I'll bet you can get your money back with 10% interest in 5 years. They aren't making those any more, ya know.

It's not like it's priced through the roof. If I wanted it, I'd buy it, enjoy it a few years and happily sell it for a couple hundred less than I paid, thinking my entertainment money had been well spent.

Thank you all for you information and advice. I'm looking for a good condition shooter, free of significant flaws, at a fair price. I don't want to be ripped off but my purchases are not 'investments' (although it would be nice if they appreciated).

Essentially, I've bought or inherited a bunch of guns and have developed a sense of what I desire in a firearm. It led me here some time ago. I'd like to collect and shoot a couple of fine, high-grade American small bore guns. In order to determine my path I've set about collecting one each of the "American classic" double guns in the same 20 ga 28" configuration. When I decide what I like best I plan to upgrade to a finer example of the same.