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which you manually open and close to a top lever gun. My questions is if the top lever spring wasn't there would the gun stay closed?

Isn’t the more important question- does it become a self-opener on firing?

Seasons Greetings!

I had an L.C. Smith 12 bore that had a broken top lever spring. When fired the action would open to the point that you could see the top edge of the shells. So, in that case the action stayed closed until fired, but then became a self-opener. It may have been held closed by the broken spring still creating some tension. The lever wasn't sloppy but the spring was defintely broken.

That is as they say the million dollar question .
And the answer is yes, or , no .

It will depend on so many factors , type of gun , type of lever work , condition of gun ,etc.

O/U's with low bites such as Browning's and Winchester's , can come open when the bites are worn even with good lever springs .

SxS's with barrel extension's , cross bolts for example are less likely to providing they do not solely rely on the extension for bolting.

Gunman, I thank you for that one simple statement, "O/Us with low bites such as Brownings and Winchesters can come open even with good lever springs".

It explains what I have seem over the last 25 years as I have come into contact with more people shooting Brownings at sporting clays, obviously putting many more rounds through them than they ever would hunting. I have seen so many that came open at firing the first barrel that it became very obvious to me that the Brownings would not hold up to nearly as many shots as some other makes. I've even seen young guys shooting them with rubber bands looped around the back end of the top lever and stretched around and under the wrist, to help prevent it.

I have been ostracized on here, and other boards, for mentioning this, but it's only what I've seen. Now I understand more about why this occurs. Thank you, and Merry CHRISTmas.

Its all to do with the way the bites ware .Put another way its lack of maintenance . This is why gunsmiths recommend periodic servicing of guns , frequently being able to pick up these potential problems before they cause trouble .Fairly simple job building up the bolt re-cutting the bearing faces and checking clearances between barrel wings and action ,but people do put off these things .

Bottom biting O/U's all makes can be prone to this , although I have known centre biting guns like Beretta's, have a similar problem due to looseness and excessive ware on the bite .

I have seen it in one Beretta also, gunman. But, it had been shot a lot, a real lot.