doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Looseness in a Daly/Sauer

I have a Sauer/Daly 16ga SxS built around 1904 that has a slight clicking noise when you shake it and was wondering what the options are.

It will close very tightly on a piece of notepad paper placed between a barrel and the breech face, and that is enough to stop the clicking/looseness. It will not close on two pieces of paper. It has the rattle with or without the forend being in place. Placing a single sliver of paper on the forward part of the watertable and closing the gun also solves the problem (won't close if the piece of paper is at the rear of the water table).

Ignoring the obvious solution of walking around with the notepad paper in place I was wondering what others experience were with this.

Steve, it needs to be put back on face, in other words, either the hook or the hinge pin have worn to the point there is looseness between the barrels and the action face. A well qualified gunsmith can put it right by welding up the hook and refitting it or by installing a new hinge pin of a larger size. There is no other quality fix available. Continued shooting without fixing it will only result in a worsening situation.

Thanks Joe, welding up the hook may be the best option of the two. While the hinge pin just has simple engraving on it, I'm thinking replacing it would be pretty expensive. It's a lower end gun and I don't want to sink too much money at this point.

Steve, I have always opted for having the hook welded. A short term solution can be to fit a .003 or .004 shim to the hook/pin. Some folks here just cut a sliver out of a beer can and wrap it around the pin. Better to just gut up and have it repaired properly.

Joe, I'll follow up on the welding option. I just watched a video of the late Jack Rowe on Youtube where he used a hammer on a barrel hook. He obviously knew what he was doing but I think I'll find someone to do the welding option.

Steve F - since you're in N. Georgia, you might want to call Bill Schwarz in Ellijay and see if he can do it. Very affordable and a lot of experience with doubles.

Steve,
The hinge pin likely has threaded covers over it, that are engraved. You might be able to rotate the pin and take half the play out( the half coming from the pin). To remove it all, the best way is to have a larger pin installed and refit the barrels.
Mike

Thanks Mike, sounds like another option.

Before you do any repair make certain it is actually off face. Could be the locking bolt has worn. This could cause the click as well as being off face. I have a Sauer sidelock from about this same time frame made for VL&D as their Knock-About gun. On this gun the locking bolt is not compensating but lever always stops at center. The bolting surface is parallel to the flats so any wear at all in the bolting surfaces would cause the barrels not to be bolted tightly. Notepad paper is often about .003" thick & will compress a bit. You may not be off face. See if the bbls will actually contact the breech with nothing between them. If so your wear is likely in the bolting.

That was the case, the barrels were not really off face. I took the gun up to Bill Schwarz in Ellijay, he's about a 90 minute drive from my house. Bill did the repair very quickly, I took it in Mon morning. and he had it ready Fri afternoon. The action is tight and very smooth now.