A customer brought in a Savage Fox B with the complaint of it not cocking. A quick inspection with buttstock removal revealed that it was indeed cocking normally. However, the right barrel does not fire as the right sear does not release the hammer. With this design, since the right hammer does not rotate forward, the left barrel will then not be able to fire either. The tail of the single trigger contacts the safety lever before the trigger has raised the tail of the right sear high enough to disengage the sear ledge from the full cock notch on the hammer. The sear tail can be levered with a small screwdriver and will release the hammer. Removal of the safety lever allows the trigger to raise the right sear high enough to release the right hammer. I noticed that the right sear tail does not have as much curvature as the left sear. It does not look to be bent, though. Relieving enough metal from the safety lever to allow clearance for the trigger tail would make contact between the two iffy, since the trigger tail is not centered on the safety lever but is off to the side on a thin shoulder that would be ground away. The additional clearance needed for the trigger tail to allow enough movement of the trigger body to release the right hammer is approaching 1/8 inch. When the hammers are cocked, there is only 0.010 to 0.015 inches between the trigger body and the sear tail. Insertion of a feeler gauge between the two still did not add enough spacer to cause hammer release. Anyone ever run into such a scenario? What would be the right area(s) to address? I don’t know from the customer yet, but this gun may have never fired. Thanks much. Don
My note won’t be much help with your problem but is only intended as a heads up for those reading that are not real experienced with the Fox B. I had one given to me by a family member because when the (single) trigger was pulled both barrels would go off every time even after taking it to their gunsmith more than twice. It was felt that it was just a dangerous firearm and therefore given to me. It had been taken to a local shop for a trigger job I’m told.
During my attempt to repair or diagnose the problem I found that one of the sears had been “over adjusted” with a Dremel tool. Not having much experience with this type of shotgun at the time, after disassembling my troubles started. First, I couldn’t find a replacement sear anywhere. Then after thinking I may have repaired the original sear I begin the miserable attempt to reassemble my newly acquired DB Savage shotgun. Short story longer, after weeks of trying (and failing) to compress those two evil main springs with every invention I could muster up, I gave up. Feeling beaten and bummed I decided I’d wasted enough time on it.
I called Mr. Brooks to see if he would take on this ‘mission’. Always good to hear those comforting words of his: ‘Sure, send her on up! Well, it came back repaired by the best. Then many months later I found a short gunsmithing tips video that Ken made showing a simple method, using a screw driver (I think) to pop those babies right in on this and similar model shotguns. Obviously I wasn’t the only one to have gone through this nightmare. I know I saved it somewhere and that it is in this forum website somewhere. If you haven’t worked on these model shotguns, this video and the knowledge it gives us is worth its weight in gold. It will save you from pulling gobs of your hair out and from using words that will surely get you banned from church for a good while. Good luck with your repair and I hope my two cents helps someone.
Question Follow Up
After thinking on it overnight, I ventured to myself that the solution is going to involve decreasing the seemingly excess hammer/sear engagement: either by removing metal at the hammer notch itself OR by adding TIG weld to the underside of the sear tail or the upper surface of the trigger body where it contacts the sear tail and fitting it. I have worked on the Fox and the 311 several times before without a lot of trouble. Have built a mainspring compression tool that works well, and Ken’s method is good too. My original description of the symptoms may have not been clear, but the “tail” of the safety lever that blocks movement of the trigger tail works positively. When the safety button is moved to the FIRE position, the safety lever tail is pivoted completely out of the way of the trigger tail, and the gun can then fire if the right hammer can be released. Hopefully more clearly, the problem is that the trigger tail contacts the convex (probably clearance) portion of the safety lever body (not the tail that prevents movement of the trigger when the safety button is in the SAFE position) before the trigger has raised the sear tail sufficiently to release the hammer.
Furthermore, since the trigger tail contacting the clearance portion of the body of the safety lever appears to serve no purpose, that area of the safety lever could be relieved, possibly in combination with decreasing the sear engagement to allow hammer release. Don
I believe the concave area of the safety lever body can be relieved to help alleviate this problem, Jeff. I need to get a hold of the customer to find out more about the history of this gun. It appears not to have been worked on previously. I also need to find out if it indeed ever did fire the right barrel. If so, what transpired to make it stop functioning. Thanks for the input. I’ll keep you all posted. Don
Answer
How about bending the sear tail down so the nose of the sear doesn’t engage the full cock notch fully? Still engages enough just not too much. The tail will come into contact with the trigger but the front won’t engage the full cock notch fully. This can be done without further disassembly than simply taking the stock off, I believe. I did this on one or more of the telecasts. Ken
Reply
I tried a 0.040″ shim between the trigger and right sear tail during cocking. This allowed the hammer/sear engagement to be decreased slightly, and the right barrel fired with about as much clearance remaining between the trigger tail and the clearance cut on the safety lever as when pulling the trigger to fire the left barrel. So, removed the trigger and added a bit of TIG weld in the appropriate location on the upper surface of the trigger where it contacts the sear tail. Filed and stoned to fit the trigger, and reassembled the trigger, safety components and slide spring. Both barrels now fire correctly with plenty of right hammer/sear engagement remaining. Thanks for input and suggestions. Don
