doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Greener Facile Princeps

Was at my gunmaker last week and a client had sent him a Greener FH70 for possible repair. The ejectors were not working and he wasn't sure he wanted to make the repair. I recall from reading somewhere that the ejectors on the Greener Facile princeps are a nightmare to repair and should really be done only by Greener which isn't so simple when you live in Canada. Can anyone share their experience or thoughts on this situation?
The gun is interesting as it has a top safety rather than a side safety and has a single trigger. It also has two sets of barrels and has the original case. It has been restocked and the stocking is nicely done.

Triggers, safeties and ejectors are best only left to a trained smith. Once buggered they are a true nightmare to get right. Often you spend a lot of time just unfixing the fix before you can start the real fix. And in my experience if a Smith has qualms before the job it�s best not to try at all.

Not all of the Facile Princeps actions have the complex ejectors. Many use the Baker ejectors which are housed in the forend and are not particularly complex. The tricky ones are the "self-acting" and "unique" ejectors. Both of these ejectors work off of the mainsprings to effect the ejection. You can identify them by the arrangement of limbs and projections mounted on the front lump of the barrels. I have a G2 from 1899 which has the "self acting" ejectors and thankfully they work just fine. It is an ingenious system by must be tuned like a watch. Very few gunsmiths understand how they work. Did you look at the ejectors?
A picture is worth a thousand words...

There are illustrations in "The Greener Story" and in "The Gun and its Development" of all three ejector styles for reference.

Not all Facile Princeps have ejectors at all. Mine does not. It is an extractor gun (which I tend to prefer).

Mine also has a top tang safety. They may not be the norm, but they are not too uncommon I think.

I had a 16ga DH (indicating Deeley action rather than Facile Princeps) which also had a tang safety.

Something just dawned on me...
If it is indeed an FH 70, than it does not have the above mentioned ejectors with the bad reputation. It should have Baker ejectors in the forend.
If memory serves, the F stands for Facile, the H is for the Baker ejectors and the 70 was the price in Guineas.
Don't have my books here but I'm pretty certain...

If the Smith is nervous, find another smith who has a proven track record, too nice a gun to let it be spoiled. As KY Jon says, if messed up through repair much harder.

I have a top safety FH50, it has the baker ejectors, not the problematic Facile Princip ejectors. I had a Max Fischer 16 with those FP ejectors and could find no one to work on them.

If you post pictures of the the top of the forend people here ID the system on your gun

A site with ejector pictures in order to ID what you have

http://www.hallowellco.com/ejectors_and_extractors.htm

Yes I'm sure the F is for Facile and 70 was the price in guineas way back when. Thought the H was for hammerless but could be wrong.
Does anybody know the price of a Purdey or Boss in the 20's when this gun was made? The 70 was the highest grade of boxlock that Greener made. Not sure of the price for a Greener best sidelock. Interesting to compare prices.
The gun has engraved game scenes and was a very fine gun in its day but it has seen a fair bit of use and has been re-stocked albeit rather well done.
The smith assured me he could make the repairs but he shuddered at the time and cost involved. Apparently the owner is thinking about selling it and probably wants to leave that task to its new owner.
The broken ejectors are in the forend and it appeared that small tips had broken off. I didn't think I should make pics of something that wasn't mine.
I assumed, wrongly, by the looks of replies from others that it had the Facile type of ejectors. Good info to know.
Bill