Springfield 315 SxS .410 Shotgun Tuning

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Sharps40

Buckeye
Joined
Apr 15, 2014
Messages
1,018
Picked up the subject shotgun from a Pal. Age wise, its likely 1925 to 1933ish time frame.

Striker fired, reblued and with good bores. Safe to fire and fully functional. A gift for my youngest granddaughter....now both have .410s in their lifetime battery.

Some light work to do now before the hunting season.

Removing the forend reveled a bit of lateral play in the barrels to action, that would be wear on the hinge pin and or pivot point. Additionally, both barrels sat down in contact with the water table and there was vertical play, wear in the bight.

Time to use a simple and repeatable method to tighten both vertical and horizontal play, putting the barrels fully back on face, i.e. rejoining the barrels to the action.

No heat or solder needed, the gun has been reblued and I don't want to either heat discolor the barrels, undo the relay of the ribs or scar the action by replacing the hinge pin.

So, checking the action, a big tell of play before even opening the gun is the 7 o'clock position of the top snap. It should be 6 o'clock or 4 to 5 o'clock when the barrels are joined to the action.

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The pivot point is cleaned, deburred and degreased. A shim is cut and thinned from a 32 HR Magnum case.....

2.5 thousands thick paper took out all the slop but was not enough to move the lever to 4, 5 or 6 o'clock. So, I thinned the shim to 6 thousands thick.

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The pivot point and shim are coated in 3M Black Max, the drill rod in oil, the works is clamped and allowed to set for 20 minutes.

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Upon clean up, the shim fully covers the bearing points of the hinge pivot point. And, it'll stay there till it wears out or till I heat it to ouch temp with a soldering iron tip to break the bond.

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After greasing all contact points with RIG, the first snap shut is about 4 O'clock. Perfect. It'll wear in some more with use and then settle in for proper lock up for many thousands of rounds. All slop is removed, the barrels are no longer touching the water table, the barrel breaches are fully on face and the bite of the top snap is in the desirable right side position. Perfect.

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Sharps40

Buckeye
Joined
Apr 15, 2014
Messages
1,018
Done and ready for service.

First, a small crack reglued and reinforced. It opened up when the stock screw was snugged down and needed to be fixed. Try to get a few more years service out of the original 90odd year old stock. Older crack repairs, likely from the time of the refinish, are holding fine for now. The wood reinforcement pins will be stained and blended out of sight later.

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Now we see, with some cleaning and a bit of grease in the right areas, the top snap is located in the perfect position, 5 o'clock, and should wear for many years keeping the barrels properly joined and the action tightly closed.

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The youngest granddaughter has a bit more growing to do but I doubt much. So, I shortened the stock to a more comfortable for an average Gal of 13". Slightly longer than the Single Shot trimmed for her sister, MuddyGirl27....but then, MuddyGirl27 is a touch shorter and no longer growing tall. Also, the modern plastic buttplate was removed and replaced with a proper antique rubber buttplate. The fit now seems right as rain. It should point well for her. Finally, measuring the muzzles indicates both barrels choked modified.....good enough for small shot, buckshot or perhaps, forster slugs.

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New old stock strikers are located and ordered as spares. No sense passing up on a critical pare of spare parts for such an old shotgun....springs, even sears, are easy enough to make, but the strikers are complexly shaped and I'll be pleased to either have them on hand, or go ahead and install them, keeping the originals as spares.

Of course, I ordered the wrong pins first, thinking it was a 311 so I will have a complete set of New Old Stock Springfield/Fox firing pins, firing pin springs and retention/hammer blocking screws.....ah well, either have to sell the incorrect parts or go find a 311/Fox project to put em in!

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Sharps40

Buckeye
Joined
Apr 15, 2014
Messages
1,018
Its good when a plan comes together. Final work on Sugar Princess's Stevens 315. New Old Stock Firing Pins fitted, properly bent and installed. Time for photos of my littlest Hunter with her fine old Shottie.

But, she's at a sleepover....so, to the work.

New Old Stock firing/striker pins. How do we know? Three items....the bag says so. The pins are two piece, a later factory replacement pin that cut down on tip breakage. And the big tell....they have cut of lines at the tips. As is they are too long. Grind em back to the cut mark, round the nose and they should allow the majority of actions to open freely, no snag.

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Top to bottom old right, old left (neither well bent and binding in the holes in the receiver, plus ground way short over the years) and then NOS right, NOS left.....(yet to be fitted or ground or bent to fit.

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Same order but the NOS firing pins are now bent for a freesliding fit and the tips have about 1/2 of the recommended metal ground off and rounded over. It too two tries to get them the right length and guess what? The factory cut line was exactly where I ended up.....a length that protrudes but does not catch on the extractors as the barrel tilts out of battery.

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Here assembled, the tips just a touch too long, see the factory cut marks on the pins....? I wound up cutting to that length, rounding over, stoning smooth and .... perfect open and close!

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The vertical pin in the bottom tang helps support the mainspring bracket. I thinned it slightly as the NOS right barrel striker would drag on it and not "fire". Once the vertical pin was relieved, perfect function of the pair of NOS strikers forward and back.

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Everything tested.....tripping the top snap places the triggers on safe.....breaking the action retracts the strikers and they catch properly in the sears. The Right barrel trigger is slightly heavier than the left but both feel fine when snapping the gun from the shoulder. Good to hook!

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Well, lets see....$40 delivered for two new old stock strikers. Free shim for the action. Free antique rubber buttplate. 4 hours work. At $50/hr for semi-sober labor, I figger a $250 charge would be a cheep gunsmith.......all the more reason to learn to do it yerownself.

Now.....I gotta find some 410 shells and test fire it so I don't have to eat my words!
 

Sharps40

Buckeye
Joined
Apr 15, 2014
Messages
1,018
Time to finish this one up.

The NOS firing pins were a bit long and bound on opening the action, so they were shortened slightly more for a better fit while at the camp....

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Also, as noted, the original pins were one piece and the NOS replacement pins were two piece. Upon firing several rounds of skeet, the right side NOS firing pin parted ways with its spring mount disabling the right barrel of the gun. Good to find this out now. So the old pins were refurbished and the fit adjusted for smooth operation and reinstalled.

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In the meantime, the NOS pins were soldered with Hi Force 44. Melts and flows at 450 and after tinning the parts and a wash with acid flux, the solder flowed into place and all the way thru following the flame.....the bases of the case hardened NOS Pins were clamped in vice grips as a heat sink and also the sear notches placed in a pan of water......the file sings across the hardened skin after the solder repair so no worries. Regular tin copper solder holds at about 8000 psi tensile. Hi Force 44 holds at 25000 psi tinsile...I rather doubt these spare pins will ever come apart again.

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So, for now, the refitted and fully functional firing pins are in place and will remain so until they fail. The repaired NOS pins, also fitted and ready for installation, will be heavily greased, slipped into a plastic bag and stored in the draw bolt hole of the 90 year old gun. If they ever break again, its a simple matter to immediately repair the gun in camp with a set of screwdrivers and a pin punch and then back out in the hunting fields. In any event, what better place to store fitted and rare spare parts for a 90 year old shottie than right inside the gun its self. I'll insert a note that the spares are fitted and ready in case I forget or for whenever someone else has the gun up for fixin many long years from now.
 

SATCOM

Blackhawk
Joined
Oct 10, 2002
Messages
823
Location
Augusta, Georgia
sharps40,

Great job again.

It appears that the firing pins are bent left and right? They are installed at an upward angle? They end up centered on the bore?

Why would new firing pins need to be cut to length and bent to the correct angle?

My knowledge of firing pins is limited to Ruger single actions, so I ask.

What do you and your grand daughters hunt with .410?

SATCOM
 

Sharps40

Buckeye
Joined
Apr 15, 2014
Messages
1,018
Yes. Firing pins on these are made straight and long. Then bent to the angled channels and shortened to proper protrusion.

Hunting with the 410 includes clayes, small game, turkey, and deer as well as home defense.
 
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