Keith, thanks for bringing me along on the hard felt personal differences on the forum.

Now to the hammer pin issue. In making the new pin I sent the original to Lou and ask him to duplicate it. As I was advised on the directional aspect I asked him to measure this as precisely as possible. The original pin does not have an alignment mark. There is no alignment or measurable difference in the three individual keys. Before contacting Lou I received one (from Gun Parts Co) that was to short to use. As you observe the keys are identical in all dimensions. From this I am skeptical of the idea that the hook key is offset on the centerline.

Now to Dewey's drawing. My cocking hook keyway looks similar to the hammer keyway. Close examination shows metal deformation made by the key itself. The key shows no wear. This tells me the metal in the hook keyway is softer than the hammer pin. Also the wear pattern would suggest that the barrels were closed hard over 100+ years.

I understand that the hammer pin must start it's rotation immediately as the barrels open and drop. Otherwise when the barrels reach their full drop, the hook it's maximum lift, the hammers are not rotated fully. This is the case with my gun.

Dredging up my University industrial arts and geometry converting linear lift to rotational degrees I calculate that it takes only +0.024 of slop in the keyway to keep the hammers from reaching a rotation needed for the hooks to pass the sears and engage. On my gun.

More when I get the repaired hook back from Lou. Thanks for your interest.