doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Help for a friend

A good friend of mine is new to fine doubles and recently picked up a nice English box lock. The gun is in good repair and approximately 90yrs old. It is ever so slightly off face but he shoots it very well.

Long story short, he had it at a local gunsmith, with a good reputation but one certainly not earned working on British doubles. The friend wanted a pad ground to replace an older one and that part seemed to go fine. The gunsmith told him he might be able to "tighten up" the gun for him and I told him that was a red flag. I was very worried he would peen the hook and told him to call him immediately and ask him to just do the pad.

Well he chose to just trust the gentleman and thank good he didn't peen the hook, but...he tightend up the forend...so now it feels "tight like new when I open it but it's hard to get the forend off"

So I tried to explain to my friend that this does not do anything to rejoin his fine investment, it just increases the bearing pressure between the reciever and the forend iron along with placing alot of stress on the hook.

I explained that he may have done this by turning a threaded rod with the forend wood off and that it should really be backed off a little to prevent increased wear and possible futher damage to the gun.

The friend is still not believing this gunsmith can do any wrong...am I wrong to be concerned?

No, you are not wrong to be concerned. That's normal for friends.

Some people cannot be convinced of something - anything - unless and until they see the downside their friends warned them about manifest itself. "Your girlfriend likes to get around ...", "That'll blow the engine ...", "That gunsmith doesn't know what he's doing ...". All the kind of advice which friends give for free and which the recipients often value and heed in direct proportion to the amount they paid for it.

You told him. You know more about the subject than he does. If he won't listen, it's on him. And he'll be paying the bill when the time comes. Let him reside in his mistake.

Tim,

It is his gun, his money and in a way his Gunsmith. As a friend tell him what you truly feel about the situation. And as a very good friend if it all ends up in a disaster commiserate with him and under no circumstances say �I told you so�. You will stay friends and in the end a true friendship is worth far more than just money and a not well repaired gun.

IMHO Excellent advice from both Dave and Damascus.

I don't know of any "threaded rod" to turn on a forend. Sounds to me the smith peened (stretched) the arm of the forend lug.

I was hoping this was not the case as well. I only have experience on lower end Spanish Boxlocks and Miroku guns and the pseudo A&D forend releases on one of those if I recalled could be adjusted by a threaded rod behind the button in the forend. That was some years ago but either way I was concerned about the fix being tightening the forend and the gun now being stiff to open.

I appreciate everyones advice and I intend to drop it completely, I am far from an expert on this but know just enough to avoid some pitfalls...and probably fall right in some others!

Years ago I van-pooled into Houston with a fellow who asked me what I thought of an oil prospect located in Israel that he was investing thousands in (he was not rich). When I asked to see the data he told me it was based on biblical prophecy. I told him that I thought he was making a mistake and that it sounded like a scam. He went ballistic and told me I was an atheistic SOB ranting on and on. I told him I believed in God and reminded him that people paid me for the advice that he requested and that I was giving to him for free� so knock it off. He sat in a huff the rest of the ways to Houston. About 3 months later I came across an article in the paper about an oil scam involving drilling oil wells in Israel. I asked him about it and all he could do is get huffy again and tell me to mind my own business, which I was glad to do. What a jerk!

The moral is, sometimes you just can�t help people, they just have to learn the hard way.

Steve

It sounds like whatever was done to the forend, would hold the bbls., away from the breech face, as much as the hook/pin will allow, and allow movement every time the gun fires, battering itself worse than ever.

A forend with a button on the front is not an A&D release. The only function the spring loaded button performs on an Anson release is to bring the locking lug into the slot. Messing with the contact areas of the forend against the lug will bring the barrels away from the action as one poster suggests. To bring the barrels closer to the action, work must be performed on the hook and pin.

A year or so back I posted on this forum that this is exactly what one of those J-Spring forend latches do & was severely lashed (verbally) for my statement. Happy to see a few agreeing, even if the circumstances are a bit different. The barrels should not be pulled away from the breech with additional pressure placed on the hinge joint.