Frank,
Thanks again for the compliments and thanks also for all you've done so far as a director, especially the hand you had in Bo-Whoop! I know how much you enjoy shooting and I appreciate the sacrifice.
"Mike told me on Sunday that he started out with his 12 gauge "Anna Nicole" sporting clays gun and came back to the car part way around the course and switched to his 16 gauge gun for the rest of the event."
There's a story here and I'm sure a few others would like to hear the ending.
It started when I was attempting the Bo-Whoop targets ( I think Steve was pulling for me) and I had a "slam-fire"....Big Ann went off when I closed the barrels and blew a divit in Ernie's nice lawn about 15 yds in front of the stand. Scary! (not to mention a little embarassing). I told the gallery I must have laid my finger alongside the trigger as I was closing the gun. Then I told them it was only the second time that had ever happened and that, fortunately, the first time (years ago) was also while shooting targets with the muzzles pointed in a safe direction. It also happend to have been with a Fox, but at the time I didn't connect the two incidents at all. Glad that it was apparently a 1/100,000 occurenece, I put it out of my mind.
On Sunday morning, I had shot about 15 rounds in the main event when my left hammer failed to cock. So I put Ann away and finished with my first target Fox, a 30" 16ga SW. Afterwards, I put on some reading glasses and examined the 12 closer. After opening and closing it a few times, it suddenly cocked! It continued to work for several dry-firings, so I set out to shoot the 5-stand event. About half way through, it malfunctioned again and I finished by sharing Paul Heppner's Parker. Afterwards, while brainstorming the problem with Paul Plunkett, Bill Murphy and others, I told them about the old incident with another Fox in which case I found the little press-fit stud that aligns the safety slide had fallen out and was interfering with the sears. During that discussion, she started working again and then prevailed in a shoot-off against a Parker!
Well, I opened her up today and this is what I found....
It was actually wedged in the inletting cutout between the triggers and safety leg and I had to pry it out with a little difficulty. I love happy endings.
