Gunsmiths, SxS and ejector problems

[scotslad]

Alright folks

 

Just wondering are SxS ejectors bad to fix if they have ejector probems??

 

At the minute i'm having problems with 2 SxS's both have came back from the same gunsmith (1 has a long story which i'll mention later) 1 a Parker Hale box lock was just a simple main spring had snapped which he replaced both springs and shortly after it has developed an injector problem, sometimes wouldn't eject first barrel now not ejecting at all althou every now and again ejects.

 

The other gun is a Silver Sabel side lock, i bought last march, it had broken part in the forend and the local shop who i bought it off sent it away to his gunsmith, it spent most of last year there (or back and forward a few times) as he could not get it right. The first barrel was not ejecting but would either eject when u moved the barrel or eject after a time delay. I was thinking about putting up with it as it is.

Just took it apart to clean it tonite and the wee part in the fore end was not resetting so ejector sticking out even after gun been closed, (noticed this today while shooting) so it was really ackward to put the fore end back on.

So it needs something done either properly fixed or ejectors disconnected

 

So my question is are SxS's hard/fidely to get the electors working right?? I don't know the gunsmith but to have 2 coming back not right, i'm giving him the benefit of doubt and persuming they can be tricky?

Not sure if i should ask him to send it to a different gunsmith or send it back to him. (the gunshop owner is a decent fella and has said he'll sort me out, so not a complaint about him)

 

Funny thing is my old original SxS never misses a beat, an old boxlock ne, i've had for 30 odd year and still shoots well

 

[bostonmick]

a competent gunsmith should have no problem fixing your guns,i would take it elsewhere as the gun spent all that time with him and still not fixed.

[scotslad]

That was exactly wot i was thinking but just had no idea if they were tricky, and was giving hm the benefit of doubt. I'll speak to the boy in the gunshop and see wot he says for knocking some cash off/paying for the fix (think its cost him a bit already, but not my fualt)

 

Cheers

[matone]

Sounds like the `gunsmith` is just another bodger,sadly there are many at large nowadays.

Competent people are very hard to find and consequently have huge amounts of work in front of them making turnarounds slow.

[JohnfromUK]

Most s/s used an ejector system known as the 'Southgate'. It is very widely used (from Holland and Holland to budget guns), simple and normally gives little or no trouble over many years. Springs do occasionally break and timing can change with wear and tear. However, setting the timing (i.e. to make the ejectors fire at the correct moment so as not to hit the breach and to eject together) can I believe take a little 'knack' and practice. Any competent gunsmith should be able to sort these, and my guess would be that your guns, both of which will be Spanish 'mainstream' (I think Parker Hales were made by Ugartechea?) made will use a Southgate. Virtually all Spanish s/s guns do (I can only think of one exception).

 

Some guns use slightly different ejector designs (Needham, Wem, and others etc) and these are less common (usually found on guns by certain makers (e.g. Boss, Purdey, Dickson) who have adopted that particular pattern), so may take a little more skill.

[TIGHTCHOKE]

All good advice above, time for you to find a new decent Gunsmith!

[Gunman]

Ejectors are quite simple .HA HA . They can also be the worst job to get right . It all comes down to time and although a couple of strokes of a file can often correct a timing problem there can be other factors involved that are not always apparent and not easy to explain in few words which involve the timing of the cocking of the action, wear on the cocking cam or kickers etc. A broken kicker sounds simple enough but to make one from scratch is time consuming as no two gunmaker's used the same sizes and parts are not available . Other problems is that some one else has had a go first often causing more damage than good through over enthusiastic "adjustments" .As said most Production guns use a variant of the Southgate system which are probably the most straight forward , other systems are a whole other ball game .

Rule one of dealing with any ejector problem is spend time really finding out why it does not work before any attempt is made to do any thing else as it is not always the mechanism in the forend that causes the fault .

[scotslad]

Cheers flks for the replies.

 

Must admit i dinae have much of a clue about about it all, but i could imagine as simple as it looks it could be quite tricky and fiddly to get it smack on. Thats why i was giving the 'gunsmith' the benefit of doubt. Think i;ll insist on a different gunsnith, althou to be fair with the sabel he has admitted defeat with it and i think he wil have put a lot of hours into it and stil not got it right, so was going to make it a non ejector

 

I;ve never met him as i just go throu the shop, must admit i had my doubts about his work when its took as long and with the 2nd gun also playing up shortly after, he also blued both the barrels on the guns mentioned and while it looks ok i was surprised by a few things about the finish

 

Gunman funny u should say about it not always being the forend causing the problem, i noticed the 2 moving parts on the butt (apologies for my lack of knowledge of wot the parts are called) that fit into the forend seem to sit at different hieghts? On my 2 other guns they both sit at same level

Edited October 8, 2014 by scotslad

[Paul223]

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