As an engineer myself, I agree with your engineer friend. As a restorer of double guns and maker of springs, I can add this. I see many guns that have been sitting unused
and left cocked for decades. When I remove the parts, clean and then reassemble, the springs are just as good as when they were made over 100 years ago in most cases.
Also consider this, most people at the turn of the century didn't use their guns any where near as often as we do today, with clay shooting and all, I would wager most were all kept in the
cocked position, when put away.
Exactly. And if one is familiar with taking apart actions, you’ll understand that the springs are ALWAYS under some tension regardless if they’re compressed from being cocked, or at “rest” after being fired. This is why you need to compress springs when you remove them from the action. On boxlocks, the mainsprings are compressed even with the hammers/tumblers in the fired position. They need to be compressed to remove the hammers/tumblers, if there was zero tension, the hammers would just fall out when you remove the hammer wire!!! Same with the mainsprings on a hammergun/sidelock. These springs are never not under some sort of tension. Same goes for top lever springs, you compress them to put them in or take them out of their slot, and they are never not under tension.
I’m curious if most people who have ejector guns know that when they use snap caps to lower the tumblers that their ejector springs remained cocked and if they also release the tension on the ejector springs manually and then recock them before assembling the gun?
