Posted by Ron Fankhauser on January 18, 2007, 12:49 pm
Hi,
I have a 20 gauge LC Smith FW that was in pretty rough shape when I bought it. I had a lot of fun cleaning it up (rust blued barrels, refinished stock, new top lever spring, etc)and now it is a fairly nice looking gun and great to hunt with. It still has several problems that I have not be able to fix. One problem seems to have developed recently. When I fire the gun (either barrel) the action will partially break open. Not all the way but just a little bit. The gun seems to be fairly tight and on face. I am not using heavy loads. Generally, 7/8 oz 1150 fps game loads. Not sure if this could have contributed to the problem but I did have to replace one cocking arm in the process of fixing up this gun. As mentioned earlier one of the other problems the gun has is that the right ejector only works after both barrels have been shot. Does not work if just the right barrel has been shot. And occasionally the right lock does not cock if gun is not opened fully. I'd really appreciate any suggestions on how to troubleshoot these issues.
I read the posts on this site on a daily basis and there is a lot of great help and information available here. Thanks in advance.