doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Sterlingworth Temporarily Stopped Firing?

Perplexed. Gun acquired about 6 mns. ago, unmessed with, screws unturned, not sign of much firing. Stripped and cleaned, been doing minor amount of load and pattern testing. Deep firing pin indentations in primers. Today doing further testing, first 3-4 shots both barrels,gun fired with the deep indentations in the primers. THEN neither barrel would fire, hear the distinct drop of the hammers but not the slightest mark on the primers, tried 3-4 times both barrels. Then it started working again with the deep primer indentations. Any ideas what happened?

Did you take the foreend off at any time between firing and not firing? Cocking slide sticking?

Nope. Hammers sound as if they are dropping.

Maybe unbolted just a tiny bit perhaps and the bbls open a few .000.
The top lever may look in the correct position at a glance. But if the front arm of the Fox hammer strikes the cocking slide/foot when it drops before it can go full down, it restricts the hammer from hitting the primer.
You'll still hear the hammer(s) drop, the firing pin tips won't quite reach the primers though,,or will with very little energy left.
Effects both bbls at the same time as there's one cocking slide working both hammers

Close the action smartly and with some authority and the problem goes away in these cases. Again the problem goes away as it came on, effecting both sides at the same time.

It doesn't have to be slammed shut, but you do need the Fox closed all the way for this reason.
Too much clearance in the fired position and they get hard to open.
Check to make sure the toplever isn't bent downward and hitting on the top tang upon closing interfering with complete bolting at times.
They are easily bent w/ your hand or even finger pressure on some and many do hit the tang.

Might not be it,,just a thought.
About the only thing that quickly came to mind that didn't involve obvious broken parts, ect..

The first thought was broken firing pin, but not both barrels. Next thought was as mentioned, gun not opened or closed "smartly with authority", doesn't appear to be any interference. First experience with a FOX.

Possible crud in the firing pin area. I have watched people heavily spray WD 40 down the firing pin holes and wonder why they were getting light dents on shells.

This sounds pretty far out. Why would what you wrote about cause light hits on the primers?

WD-40 turns to a thickened yellow brown shellac if the excess is not wiped away, especially when used repeated.

And that will keep heavy fox hammers driven by heavy main springs from denting the primers some times but primers have normal dents at other times? I can't buy that explanation. See first post for problem statement.

You should certainly be able to tell if the hammers fell by the force required to open (and recock).

Interesting that you fired the second barrel after the first misfired.

I would probably have started investigating after just the first....