doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Colt Hammergun Main spring

I have a Colt SXS hammer gun which is missing the main spring. Does anyone on the board know of one that I can purchase or copy from a drawing? Thank you in advance

I probably used the wrong name for the spring. I am looking for information on the spring that holds tension of the lever that opens the action. It fits into the rear of the action and also presses against the face of the stock.

Have you look at the Numrich gun parts web site? And Jack First? You might place a post on the Colt Collectors web site.

Good luck

Numrich is out of stock

https://www.gunpartscorp.com/gun-manufacturer/colt/shotguns-colt/1878-hammer-dbl-bbl

The one from the other side should be a mirror image of the missing one.

I can't believe it has been 17 years? I hope you are well.
You must be retired by now?
Any way, even though it's only a search for a part, I'm glad you popped back in.

Wow 17 years. How the time passes. I follow the board a lot but never think I can contribute.I am getting on in years and hope one of my daughters takes an interest in double guns. While many of my friends have retired I enjoy going to work most days and since my daughters are young, (15 and 8) I think there is value in them seeing my contribute. Probably an old fashioned idea..

The nomenclature for that spring is simply “top lever spring”. Do you have a picture & dimensions of the broken or missing spring? If you have that, a new spring can probably be fabricated. I don’t think that spring would be especially complex. There’s a couple of gunsmiths in the west that could fab a simple top lever spring fairly quickly, you’re looking at probably $300 to $500 for a new top lever spring.

Lou Rotelli in Connecticut could make your spring, his number is 203-788-4920

I have had some luck making a spring or two in he past and will give this a try. Determining the shape and size will be the challenge. If I have some luck I will post a photo.

I've had to make some top lever springs for Syracuse Lefevers. That seems to be a relatively common malady with them. Gun parts dealers seldom have them because they get bought quickly by guys who need one. My theory is that possibly the company either made or purchased a fairly large quantity of them that were either hardened and drawn incorrectly, or they used a type of steel that wasn't suitable for the job. I've never had a broken Lefever hammer spring, so my theory about the top lever springs seems plausible.

In every one that I've encountered, the broken peices were present inside the gun when I disassembled it.. So it was a pretty simple matter to match the two broken pieces to get the correct dimensions to make a replacement. There is a great deal of information on the internet, and in the atchives here, on how to make a simple vee spring. But as with all gun repairs, people who don't have the proper tools, knowledge, materials, and patience to do a job without causing further damage will be money ahead to pay a professional.