I'm not a gunsmith - but can you modify the internals of a sidelock to accept other guns' parts - springs etc, that weren't made for the specific action? Perhaps by moving pins, etc? In other words can you jury-rig a late 1800's SxS bench-made action to accept others' parts? Hammers I can understand but how about internals? Might this be more viable than trying to recreate a mainspring over a year and a half?
There's the old expression, "if the mountain won't come to Mohammed, then Mohammed must come to the mountain". In otherwords.....if you can't get a mainspring to fit, can you modify the action to accept a different mainspring? (Putting a Mopar 426 carb onto a Ferrari?)
Fortunately, I don't have to ask myself that question. That's because I refuse to put myself in the circumstances that would require me to. There are better options, IMO.
