doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Lefever guts...an adventure into the unknown..

I was at a friends house yesterday to shoot some clays and try out my Lefever FE 12 bore for the first time, on the first shot, the gun doubled. Some owner of this gun somewhere down the line had the rear trigger pull lightened and tuned to that of a match rifle. Not so much of a good thing when it comes to shotguns. So, we tore the gun down to see how much damage had actually occured and compared the inner workings to that of a non-ejector H, G, and to another FE and GE gun, we also thru a DS in there as well. Its amazing how all the different grades of guns had about the same amount of finish work applied to the guts...almost all of the guns had a crack in the stock somewhere in the head area or on the fragile stock horns that meet up with the back of the receiver. All the parts at a passing glance looked like they could be interechangeable...they're not. In fact, it was amazing at how some of the parts were differnt in each gun, things that look the same on the outside such as safety buttons and the safety shut off screw...triggers, etc. It was amazing looking and studying the simplicity of the inner workings.

Our workbench...we had all the right tools, not a screw was buggered and all guns went back together like they were taken apart...no gun was damaged in the filming of this caper.


non-ejector H grade, hammer cocked


non-ejector H grade with hammers dropped


FE grade with hammers cocked, rh side


FE grade with hammers cocked, LH side...this is the side that doubles, can you see the hammer & sear engagement notch?

I think your sear springs are in upside down on both guns.
Did you get the doubling fixed?
Chris

Hmmm. Thats the way every gun we took apart was...the long end of the spring went to the top, I'll check again to make sure...and yes, we did get the gun quit doubling, we scraped off some dried up crud off the hammer and sear notches and cleaned up some tiny imperfections on the metal with a small file...it doesn't double anymore, but the back trigger is still way too light for my liking.

I think the springs are in correct position.

Short sleeve's in Alaska in MARCH?

Chris is correct. The long end of the sear springs goes on the bottom. A close study of the sear top edge will show where the spring's bend should be, back further. That may well be how you found them but if so, they were assembled wrong previously. BTW, very good pictures. Thank you for sharing them with us.

The inards of a Lefever Automatic Hammerless are simple, but that also implies strength. After seeing that now I really want one and I guess all Lefevers no matter the grade received the same amount of internal polishing of the lock parts.
All the best

Take a look at this photo. See how the spring seats against the sear. It will not slide back and forth this way.

Chris

Thanks Chris, I flipped the springs right ways up on my FE...its unreal how many of these guns we took apart yesterday were set up the way I had my gun set up...I should've taken more pics. Does it really make a difference which way these springs are placed? I understand what your saying about the springs sliding back and forth, but we didn't seem to have that problem yesterday....and I cant tell any difference in function with the springs put in right side up. What gives?

I don't really know if it would cause a problem or not. I would guess that it would change the amount of downward pressure on the sear, especially if the spring is too far forward. Maybe the sear wouldn't engage the hammer competely.
Chris

More detailed photos than those in Elliott. Although I have two Lefevers, I've never had occasion to pull the sideplates so didn't realize exactly what cocked the indicators. The milled ramp on the hammer is quite obvious here as is its function. I believe I can make out the evidence of where the indicator piston has rested against the cocked hammer in the last photo. I hope you didn't do any mix-n-match on these guns; sounds as if custom-fitted parts would squawk a warning if you had.

jack