doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Repro Doll's Head Failure

Had an unusual one the other day. 28 ga. Repro that has been shot a great deal over many years. The small dovetail plate at the back of the doll's head ripped out on the right side (makes sense). Not the plate that failed, but the lip on the barrel extension itself.
I'd always thought this was a poor way to retain the ejectors in the gun. Pocket watch parts doing punch-press work. But I've never seen such a failure before or even heard of one. Is this common in high volume Parkers?
Looks like a challenging TIG weld will be the only practical repair. Anybody else experienced this?

I have seen two such failures, interestingly enough on old original Parker Guns. The repair is a real pain= - both a white knuckle job in terms of skill and accessibility to the damaged area (the tiny groove the ejector stop plate sits in at the end of the extension) as well as assuring that excessive heat is avoided to the rest of the rear stem of the rib. These are nasty ones! KBM

Did the retaining screw sustain any damage, i.e. bent, pulled threads, etc.?

No, the dovetail plate was out on one side and just partially slipped over the headless screw. Fortunately it was noticed before the gun was closed which would have resulted in more damage.

Am I to understand that one possible repair would be to hammer the plate back in place, dress it with a file, and hit the area with a tiny TIG weld, dress it again, and hope for "no more problems"? Of course, it's not my gun, but I've often wondered why the plate is so thin and the attachment is so fragile. I would have designed a more massive structure.

I read somewhere that snapping the gun without snapcaps would allow the split ejectors to come back too fast and hard and damage the dollshead plate. Bobby

One would expect that would contribute to the breakage of the retainer plate or it screw and/or dovetail.

In my mind that would constitute abuse to more than the ejectors.
This particular gun has never been snapped empty or on caps. My practice when easing the springs is to disassemble the gun for cleaning or casing and catch the pins on the face of a small nylon mallet. The ejectors are not involved. This one got where it is solely by ejecting fired cases, albeit lots of them.
I don't think I will consider a repair the will render the ejectors permanently captive. One of these days I'll screw up the courage to TIG build the damaged area and refit it. With careful heat sinking there's no reason that shouldn't work without much trouble.

What do you plan to do in the meantime for a temporary repair to get the gun working again? Does it involve cold peening of the offending parts and reinstalling the plate and screw? Filling the barrels with cold water should be enough heat sinking to work with heat on the end of the dolls head.

No temp repair contemplated. I think that would make matters worse. I'll try to accomplish a complete restoration. Heck, it only lasted 20 years the first time around. I still think it's a lousy design though.