Breech Face and Ejectors

[John L]

I’m sure over the years this question has been asked and answered. I’ve searched the members forum and the collectors association webpage and have struck out. I’ve also looked at countless of pictures on guns international for other foxes and seldomly do they show pictures of the breach face. It would seem that most of my fox shotguns show wear on the beach face where the injectors come in contact with it when closing the gun. Overtime, it would seem this would create a great an issue. But imagine it’s also a real possibility that the injectors on my guns just need better timing. Any thoughts on the matter? Here are some pics… THANKS!

[Foxnut]

John,
First let me say as most on the forum know I am not a technical/mechanical minded individual. I’ll leave that up to others to address. However, while you will see some wear from the drag/slide of the ejectors on gun it appears that yours (from the pics) may be excessive. Have you checked to ensure that your ejector guide pins are correctly aligned and not dislodged or broken off? That is an easy first step to verify. I have a 16 gauge gun that is in the shop now for that repair. Brett

[John L]

Thanks. I will check. I played around with it some more and from the looks of it the ejectors definitely “re-cock” from closing against the breech face. Im not the most mechanical but I can’t see any other way that they reset.

[vaturkey]

Thanks. I will check. I played around with it some more and from the looks of it the ejectors definitely “re-cock” from closing against the breech face. Im not the most mechanical but I can’t see any other way that they reset.

Both ejector guide pins intact?

[Silvers]

I don't think a missing guide pin(s) has anything to do with it. Yes the ejectors are under heavy spring pressure and they re-cock when the fired/opened gun is closed. I can't quite discern it from your pics but it looks like a New Britain Fox and if so the frame machining is done with modern high tech tooling and the breech faces are super straight and smooth. That in turn makes for greater surface area to press against the ejectors - and thus more prominent visible brightness - as compared to a vintage Ejector Fox with a somewhat rougher surface finish. Surface finish is actually measured with sophisticated equipment as "root mean square roughness" or RMS in metal machining terminology, which is a super microscopic check of the peaks and valleys of the surface.

In sum, I think that's normal for a very smooth breech face and whether a New Britain or a vintage Fox, it's very unlikely that wear from the ejectors will compromise the breech faces to any extent.
For those who regularly shoot Ejector Foxes, after cleaning the gun I do think it's good to rub a finger with a tiny drop of grease as used on the hinge pin etc across the breech faces to minimize wear. frank

[John L]

Great eye! The one is a CSMC. It would make sense to use some grease. Thanks all!

[Researcher]

I'd say most ejector doubles look like that after any significant amount of use. My Fox-Sterlingworth Ejector Skeet & Upland Game Gun that has digested tens of thousands of rounds in the years since I retired certainly does as do my Model 21 Skeet Guns. I certainly don't worry about it.

[Stan Hillis]

I agree with Frank, including on the grease. There are four places on mine that get grease, with a few more bearing surfaces with lighter load that receive oil. The knuckle/forend iron contact gets grease, along with the ejector faces. Also, the "loop surface" where the rotary hook engages the rib extension, and the rear of the barrel lug where the forend iron bears. Oiled locations include: ejector guide pins and stems, top lever spindle, ejector sears and springs, forend latch and a few others (like trigger assembly and hammer pins) that only receive oil when reassembling the gun.

It doesn't take much lubrication to keep a double running smoothly, but they are very important.

[John L]

I did double check and the guide pins are intact and the ejectors are in good shape. Thanks all!

[fox-admin]

Here is picture of my CSMC Fox 20ga after many thousands of rounds, same wear pattern. I bought this gun in the late 90's. It's been all over the Western US, Canada, Argentina 3 times and taken a bunch of preserve birds.