Thank you Kyrie:
This is one of the most comprehensive descriptions I've ever read of the inner workings of the Spanish shotgun imdustry. I hope you will continue to expand upon the above.
Jim
I agree Jim, this is one of the most informative posts I've read. Kyrie--If either Jim or I would break a mainspring for example. Being each Spanish artisan makes his own individual part, could one get a generic Spanish mainspring and hand fit it for our gun?
Thank you, gentlemen – kind words always gratefully accepted :-)
In terms of a generic main spring, I think you have answered yourself with the phrase "each Spanish artisan makes his own". Remember my story about asking for firing pin and bushing blanks to fix a gun, and getting a dozen or so different kinds of bushings.
It isn't that there are no generic main springs; rather it's that there are a number of different generic main springs and you would need the right generic spring for your specific lock. Once you had a generic spring that could be fitted, then there is the problem of fitting the spring. This isn't just "stone it until it can be slipped in place." The spring has to be tuned to the lock so it provides enough force for reliable primer ignition, but not so much force that it starts beating up the firing pin.
I've recently bought some guns from a gun shop in Barcelona, and had them sent to Diego Godoy (master gun maker, and owner of Choy Armas). He will restock them and make me up a spare set of firing pins and main springs. The only spare parts we ever have for a Spanish side lock are the parts we had made for it when we bought it.
In re-reading what I wrote, I've painted a bleaker picture that really exists. If you should ever break a main spring it isn't hopeless. But it does mean sending the gun to some place like New England Custom Gun to have them make and fit the part. Not hopeless, just potentially expensive.
Gentlemen, if this is the kind of Spanish shotgun discussion you enjoy, you should consider joining us over on the Spanish Shotgun Forum; just follow the link in my signature. This kind of discussion is why that forum was created :-)
