hard to open after a few rounds?

[7ach]

Last weekend was my first time shooting my Sterlingworth and probably the first time its been shot in the last 40 years. I gave it a nice wipe down with my hoppes 9 silicone cloth and will be cleaning out the barrels later this week. I have two questions for the fox enthusiasts here and hopefully someone can point me in the right direction.

1st should I follow the disassembly instructions on the homepage to remove the stock and give the action a good soak in mineral oils to clean out any accumulate gunk that has gathered in the last 100 years? Or would it be better to leave it as and avoid any risk of unintentional damage.

2nd question: While shooting this weekend I notice after a while(say 50 rounds) the gun became harder to open. The leaver moved as normal, but it was hard to open without a little extra force. Side note, It was only hard to open after it was shot. Once opened I could reopen and close it with new rounds without any issues. I gave the hinge pin a little oil but after a few more shots and it still remaining difficult, I decided to give it a rest and switch to another. When returning to the sterlingworth after it had cooled down, it seemed back to normal but then after a few more(say 10 rounds) it became "sticky" again. I took a look at where the forarm pivots past the frame and it looks to be roughed up a bit and might have a bur or two(see pic). I was wondering if I took a fine grade file and used a very light touch, I could smooth it out. Would this fix my problem or is this unrelated? Is thats a good idea or a bad idea. I know the obvious answer would be to take it to a gunsmith but cant help think this is a small and easy fix that I could do myself if I used extreme caution.

[SmithShady]

Hi 7ach,

Saw the post of your Sterlingworth Pin Gun in the other forum, very nice and hard to find in such good condition. To answer your first question, if it were my gun and not showing any problems that would require removing the stock to fix, I would leave it just as it is. I would avoid disassembly at all costs, especially if the screws have never been turned. I can't see the screw heads in any of your pictures, but I wouldn't risk damaging them if you don't have too.

As for the second issue of the gun not opening up, I'll make a guess and say it could be the ammunition you are using. With the Fox design, the firing pins (which are on the ends of the hammers) protrude through the holes in the face once the gun is fired. When the action is opened to remove the spent shells, the hammers cock back and the firing pins retract. With spent shells in the chambers, during the act of opening the breach, the pins can "drag" through the spent primer causing the gun to feel hard to open. Cheaper ammunition and their primers aren't made of soft brass anymore, and are known to cause issues in these old Fox guns. I've just recently started reloading for my Foxes, and thanks to some of the more knowledgeable folks on this site, I was cautioned to use specific primers in my reloads for this very reason. I also understand that this can be an issue on some Fox guns, and not on others, so it's not a hard and fast rule. In some cases the opening is so difficult, you end up having to break the gun open across your knee, which is not a stress I would put over and over on a gun this old. If you do plan to shoot this gun frequently, I would recommend some low pressure shells like RST's, which are more expensive than 12ga rounds from Walmart, but help to reduce the pressures you're subjecting the barrels too, and also produce less recoil. A light coating of grease on the hinge would also be recommended. Other members may have better advice than me, but switching ammo is an inexpensive way to test this, especially before you start taking a file to the metal.

Mike

[jolly bill]

7ach,

Mike/Smith Shady has some good thoughts on ammo.

And I think that small spot where the frame is a little rough has nothing to do with your problem.

Using some fired shells with the spent primers still in place, try firing one barrel at a time to see if one or both barrels are contributing to the problem.

It might be the cocking slide on the end of the fore end iron is not contacting the toe of the hammers to begin lifting the hammers up and the firing pins out of the way just as soon as you open the barrels. With either hammer down, the cocking slide should be contacting the under side of the hammer toe to lift up the hammer as soon as you start opening the barrel. The firing pin and hammer are one piece by the way.

See what happens and let us know.

Jolly

[eightbore]

Read the thread titled "Primers".

[7ach]

Interesting, I was using remington 2 3/4" shells. I'll look into low pressure ones for next time and try one barrel at a time. Is there another possible causes other then the pins?

[Twice Barrel]

Nothing really that will cause the gun to be hard to open.

[7ach]

***update***
I went trap shooting the other week and had no issues at all. I was using the same remington target loads.

One idea I had was that the slower rate of shooting(one shot and then waiting my turn before the next) kept the gun cool. When I was shooting previously and had the issues, we were shooting a lot more rounds in a shorter amount of time, and the gun would get noticeably hot.

Could the heat have expanded either the pins or the pin holes to the point of sticking?

Has any other fox owners had similar experiences? Or am I way off on this theory?

[Jay]

Shooting 2 1/2" RSTs only, I had a similar "hard to open after firing "issue with my SW 16. After a thorough strip and clean, it opens the way it should.