doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Shims for loose action

No one has responded to my suggestion of steel laced acra-glass. Thoughts?

Harry Loctite is far from the best Adhesive currently available. I suggest to give the Masterbond USA web site a view. There Supreme 11HT there 2 part Epoxy will leave others in the shade if you want to use glue and no skill.
Also Silver solder temperature red heat is far to high it would destroy the shim. You may as well have the hook welded and have done with it.

Ive heard that during the Big One WW2, bald autmobile tire with holes worn through was still useble by cutting beads off another bald tire and use it as liner inside outer tire,and pumped up tube holds them together

I've had a couple guns, a Fox and an Ithaca field grade guns that had slightly loose actions. I fitted the hooks with steel shim stock from a pump company's machine shop. Cleaned the hooks and applied Loctite 609 or 638 retaining compounds. I only used 1 thousanths (0.001) shims. I worked without having to attend to the extractor for fit.

Just a touch of movement would probably indicate about a thou off the hook. Measuring the face, you might not even get that.

Question is, is it even worth getting the .001 gap tightened? I prefer spray welded fixes when possible.

I guess if you were shooting cases of shells you might wear the hook out on a loose action!

Any looseness at all, with the forend off, is a problem to me, and should be dealt with, IMO. Once looseness is observed, I believe the problem is magnified quickly by continuing to shoot a gun in such condition. I have two guns right now that I have dealt with by shimming the hook. One is a BSS which I use a lot for clays in S X S competition and also for duck hunting with factory 1 1/4 oz. loads. By the time I noticed the BSS was loose it would "accept" a .003" shim and still close, albeit very snugly. The Hollis side lock has been loose for much longer and has never seen anything over 7/8 oz. loads in my keeping, but also accepted the .003" shim with the same resulting snugness.

I will probably have the BSS welded and fixed properly eventually, as it gets used a lot. I'm really just curious as to how long the HVAC tape aluminum shim will last before having it done, and have not decided on a 'smith to do the work anyway. It remains to be seen what I do with the Hollis, a 2 1/2" chambered gun that gets used very, very little. But, one thing is for certain ..........neither will ever be shot again without being tightened, by shim or by proper repair.

SRH

Llittle Creek,
You have a point. Most of my guns only get a few boxes a year put through them. Others may shoot a lot more than me though the same gun.

How many of you would sell a gun with a shim on it? Why not have it fixed correctly and be done with it?

Because the repair might be worth more than the gun?

The article in DGJ, on the subject of Ithaca doubles, noted the gent had purchased the Nitro Special for $25, for express use as a waterfowl gun. As you can imagine, said gun was a ways off "pristine" condition, which, didn't matter to the buyer, for his use. Waterfowling is usually hard use for a gun.

The shim was put in place, and left there for a period of perhaps a decade, using typical hot waterfowl loads of the 1960s. The gun was sold to the next owner, with the shim in place, and next owner had full knowledge of the "repair" and how long it had been used, and how.
It was still being used like that when the article was written. There were a lot of years gone by since the brass shim had been fitted to the hook.
Not every gun needs to have a state of the art repair to it's pin. Many will function just fine for many years with a shim repair, and if the next owner is content to use it the same way, and has knowledge of the shim, what is the hurt?

Best,
Ted

I see no problem with a shim if done properly. I think there is a negative connotation around shim because people use all sorts of things i.e.. paper, aluminum cans, and perhaps try to sell a gun with such a crude repair.

If you get a steel shim, solder it in and check the bearing surfaces of the barrels to receiver I think it is a permanent fix no better or worse than replacing a pin or welding up the hook.

What do you use for a heat source when soldering a shim?