doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DIY Gunsmithing @ doublegunshop.com Dogtooth striker mess-up

A shooting friend of mine owns a troublesome Thomas Evans SxS 12g. He has experienced difficulty with opening after firing the right barrel. At the club my friend took a file to the striker, but it still would drag on the primer rim. So he asked me to give it a last stroke or two. Big mistake on my part! Of course it no longer drags but it also no longer sets of the primer. Now I own the problem. Question? Can the striker be repaired using the original dogtooth? Do I need to source an orphan dogtooth for this TE? And, yes, there was a little voice in my head that cried out 'don't touch it ' which I ignored.

The original hammer and integral pin can be built up, depending upon how the earlier repair was done, Micro or laser welding might be the way to go.

As to the firing pin drag, the length of the striker certainly matters but so does the radius of the tip and the engagement of the cocking dog on the hammer. As you are getting close to final length a good measuring tool like a depth mic or even jus a dial mic will help keep track of your progress. A standard mill type file is more aggressive than I like for a job such as this.

Good luck!

Thanks. The right barrel and striker geometry has been a trouble spot on this T. Evans from the start. Earlier gunsmith work determined that the headspace on the right was not correct and needed adjustment. This was done and would discharge but drag. My friend has strength issues so opening was difficult. On reflection I suspect the cocking dawg is worn causing slow lift of the hammer.

A simple thing to do to see if there is wear and you can see how far the bbls must open before the hammer starts rearward in a cocking motion:

Make sure the gun is empty
Dryfire one bbl.
W/O opening or unlocking the gun hold it horizontal in front of you.
Now unlatch the top lever while holding the gun closed.

With the top lever unlatched, now slowly let the bbl's come open by gravity.

They will drop open to a point where the cocking linkage starts to rotate the hammer out of the cocked position.
When any wear/looseness in that linkage is taken up,,that gravity opening of the bbls will come to a stop.
Hold the gun in that condition and notice how far the bbls have rotated from the locked position.

That amt of opening is how much tfired FP will drag on a fired case before the hammer is starting its cocking rotation.

It can be quite a bit in some older guns. Some more on one side than the other.
Very small amt can sometimes be tolerated and not really noticed by some shooters.
Other times even a small amt is very noticable.

Some shooters hope to bypass any wear and use the hardest primer they can find in reloading.
That can improve things and sometimes eliminate the hard opening feel.
Remington primers are often said to be the hardest cup primer. The idea is to limit how far into the fired primer the FP imbeds itself.
It does work for some guns.
It can fix the strongarm opening issue for some, but does not fix the mechanics of what the problem inside can be.