O/U shooting both barrels at the same time??

Bird Dogger · Post by **Bird Dogger** » Mon Mar 14, 2005 12:27 pm

I have a Fausti 12ga. O/U single trigger that I use for clays and bird hunting. While on a pheseant hunt in Iowa I raised on a bird and pulled the trigger and both barels went off turning my bird into a mangled carcass. It happend one other time on that trip. Then I came home and was shooting a round of sporting clays and it did it almost every time I pulled the trigger.

Does anyone have any ideas what this could be. I was just wanting to know if this is something I can fix myself or if I need to take it to the gunsmith??

Dirtysteve · Post by **Dirtysteve** » Mon Mar 14, 2005 1:14 pm

It sounds as if your gun is setting both firing pins by opening the action, which should only set the first.
O/U set the second firing pin by the recoil from the first.
I wouldn't even mess with it myself I would get a gunsmith to look at it.
I've learned the hard way that is best to pay somebody who knows how to fix it then try to fix it yourself.
I usally have to pay somebody to fix the broken gun and to replace the parts that flew across the room from when I took it apart

Bird Dogger · Post by **Bird Dogger** » Mon Mar 14, 2005 1:24 pm

Thanks for the info I did not know the firing pins were set like that. I guess I will have to take it to a gunsmith. Probably a better idea. Thanks again!

Post by **Greg Jennings** » Mon Mar 14, 2005 2:04 pm

Not all double-barreled shotguns use inertial triggers. Many, especially competition shotguns, use mechanical triggers.

I agree with DirtySteve, though, in that it's probably not worth your time to try to fix it yourself.

With that said, I would try stripping the gun down to the action, cleaning the trigger mechanism thoroughly and looking for anything super obvious.

I can't tell you the number of times that I've had a gun go on the blink and repair it by just getting a piece of trash out of the action or similar.

Best regards,

Gregory · Post by **Gregory** » Mon Mar 14, 2005 2:30 pm

What I suspect is hapening is the sear has worn and by firing the gun the jar from the shells recoil trips the sear from the tumblers notch.the tumbler is the hamer that hits the firing pin. Which both hammers cock with the breaking of the barrels. What hapens is the recoil switches and sets the triggers for the next firing and not the firing pin as was suggested above. That's with inertia triggers . With the mechanical type both triggers are set with the opening of the gun. To test which one you have .Open the gun remove the safety pull the trigger , ---make sure the gun is empty---you should be able to fire the barrel that you have the selector on but not be able to fire the second barrel by simply pulling the trigger again . Take the palm of you hand a rap the pad of the stock sharply, the rap shouls have caused the second trigger to engage. pull the trigger again . Now, with a machanical trigger guns, if you were to pull on the trigger one after the other you would have fired both barrells with out having do do anything other than pull on the triggers. Do a test. Again make sure the gun is empty... Set the hammers by breaking the guns barrels open. remove the safety and fire the first barrel.Then rap the gun butt on a carpeted floor smartly . It should trip the second hammer if the sears are worn but not always....
My suggestion is to have a qualified gun smith look at the gun as was already suggested to be on a safe side.
Hope that helps.
Gregory.

Bird Dogger · Post by **Bird Dogger** » Mon Mar 14, 2005 2:52 pm

Gregory,
I did exactly what you had told me to do. When I would break the action open I could a "click" in my trigger mechanism. I assume that is setting the firing pins. Then I when I pulled the triiger, the barrell I selected fired. Then I pulled the trigger again without doing anything to the gun and it fired again. So what does that tell me??

Gregory · Post by **Gregory** » Mon Mar 14, 2005 3:09 pm

The click you heard is not the setting of the firing pins. What you heard was the sear engaging the tumbles knotch. Also you have machanical triggers from what you just discribed. That of course does not make the proublem less important, with the guns doubling. Take the gun apart and pay particular attention around the tumblers knotches (that's the hammers..the knotches on a O/U are on the underside (bottom) to see if there is powder residue or some other dirt matter.clean it as was suggested by Greg. Then try it again with the same brand and type of shell it doubled with. If the cleaning solved the problem than all is well.If not, try firing a different type of a shell (with less dram eqvlt ) from what you were using when it doubled. If the gun does not double with a lighter load than you can be most assured the problem lies what I said in my previous post(worn sears) and it should be fixed imidiatly as I would not trust it .
Gregory.

Bird Dogger · Post by **Bird Dogger** » Mon Mar 14, 2005 4:40 pm

I am going to try that and I will let you know more later! Thanks a lot everyone!

By the way Gregory, what part of SE Indiana are you from? I was born and raised in Hanover/Madison.

Gregory · Post by **Gregory** » Mon Mar 14, 2005 6:18 pm

You're welcome.

In live in Aurora about 60 miles up river from Madison.
Let us all know how things paned out with the gun.
Best.Gregory

Post by **Ayres** » Tue Mar 15, 2005 1:33 am

Bird Dogger wrote:By the way Gregory, what part of SE Indiana are you from? I was born and raised in Hanover/Madison.

My sister teaches in Hanover and my brother-in-law is a police officer in Madison. It's beautiful down there.

Ya'll know that Woody Boyd (Cheers bartender) was from Hanover?

Gregory · Post by **Gregory** » Tue Mar 15, 2005 9:02 am

I read somewhere were he was from IN ,didn't know he was from Hanover.

The wife drags me down River to Madison on a yearly basis.She likes the Annual Artie Fartie

going ons, Madison is noted for.

G.

Bird Dogger · Post by **Bird Dogger** » Tue Mar 15, 2005 11:06 am

Ayres,
Does your sister teach High School or at the College. I went to High School at Southwestern High School in Hanover. Oh, by the way, Woody Harrilson went to Hanover college. My Grandma was a cook there and he would always call her granny! He would always mention something about Hanover on the Cheers Show. Pretty well known for a one "bird dog" town. haha! We will have to start a forum on here about Hanover....seems everyone knows where it is located on the map. haha!

Anyway, Gregory....I haven't broken my gun down yet. I will let you know when I do and what I find out. I have been going through the book to figure how to tear it down.

Gregory · Post by **Gregory** » Tue Mar 15, 2005 1:16 pm

When ever you get started make sure you have the correct screw driver blade for the screw's slot. Other wise there's a good chance you'll end up buggering the screws.
Take your time and every thing will turn out alright.

G

Bird Dogger · Post by **Bird Dogger** » Fri Mar 18, 2005 4:41 pm

Gregory,
I tore the gun down and cleaned it all up. I was bird hunting in December with this gun in several inches of snow. Some old cull stray dog came out to where me and my wirehair were hunting and the other dog tried to attack my wirehair. I unloaded my gun and took off running to them and was going to use my 12ga O/U as a beating tool to get that dog off of my wirehair. He was only 5 months old at the time, a light snack for this ol' stray. In the attempt, I fell into the snow disloacting my shoulder. My wirehair came out unharmed but my gun lay in the snow for about an hour while I tried to put my shoulder back in socket. Then it laid in the truck all night without being cleaned while i was in the hospital. When I broke it down it had some surface rust and dirt in the selector housing. I cleaned all that of and polished it real good with some Rem Oil. Seems to be working like a champ.

In closing, I ended up with a broken humerous bone in my shoulder, torn labrum, and a torn rotator cuff. I had to have surgery on Feb. 10th to get this all repaired. Doc asked me how this happened and I told him I was trying to save my bird dog. He said, "I have been doing this SH@% for 34 years and this is the first time I have ever had anyone do this kind of damage trying to save a hunting dog!" HAHA!

Thanks for all your help G! I really appreciate it!

Gregory · Post by **Gregory** » Sat Mar 19, 2005 4:56 am

B D.

Good to hear everything is back in working order, and the pup survived the attack.

Now you know how to take the gun a part for little cleaning and oiling from time to time. Shoot it straight.
G.