My Sauer Royal 20 ga. action is just a bear to break open and even worse to close after loading.

I'll appologize up front for the butchering of proper gunsmithing lingo and spelling but here goes

The action swings freely without the fore-end attached. I'm pretty sure that excessive ejector spring tension is the reason. Those ejectors will launch a pair of spent hulls about 10 feet up and 20 feet out when opened up briskly. I noticed that the ejectors seemed to bind up in the hole in the barrel flat. So I backed out the stopper screw in the lug and took them out. I noticed that they had become burred up where corners of the milled out area slammed into the stopper screw on ejection. I filed these burrs down, polished the ejector shafts up, lightly greased and re-assembled the ejectors. Now they run smoothly, but the action is still really stiff. I did a light polishing on the ejectors where they contact the breech face to make sure they weren't hanging up there. I disassembled the fore-end to make sure that nothing was hanging up because of improper inletting. The springs look like a pair of rattle snakes folded in half, with barbed heads that contact cam-like thingys that contact the ejector shafts.

What can be done to ease the spring tension?
Am I barking up the wrong tree here?

Have mercy... I'm really only half as stupid as this post sounds.

Elmo

Fools gunsmith where the smart fear to tread!!!

elmo---

I'm rolling around on the floor trying to type!!

Great post!

There's three ways to soften leaf springs. Two are dangerous and one can't be done in that gun, so here's the choices--

1) Change the dimension of the spring. Either thin it in thickness or in width. You better read ALL the way to the end......

2) Change the temper.

They tie together this way...

In order to thin a spring and keep it a usable spring it should be done while annealed (med red, plunge into ashes or lime for a couple hours). Annealing softens the spring back to "ordinary" steel. While soft do the work and re-polish to at least a 600 finish. Then re-heat treat it and try it to see if it works.....

Or not. Usually not. Tempered too hard and it breaks......too soft and it bends.

2) To change the temper you have to raise the spring above the temperature at which it was soaked last time.....and you don't know what that is. It can make for an interesting days work sitting around a lead pot or nitre tank waiting for the parts to come up to temperature.

Nine times out of ten you go to far and the spring suddenly takes a "set". Now you have a spring that's not only too soft, but also bent.

BTW-- the third way is to put in a longer spring. I'll bet there isn't room.

In the mean time, store the gun with the ejector springs compressed.........and be SURE to check on them every few months.

JBelk
Thanks for the reply

Annealing and re-tempering is way out of my league. And you are right about a longer spring not fitting. I do have a motorized extra fine water stone sharpener that I use to sharpen my handmade super nice japanese wood chisels. It rotates like a record player and not like a grinder stone. There's a constant stream of water on the stone to keep any heat from building up and messing with the temper of the tool being sharpened. I wouldn't be able to accurately change the spring thickness, but changing the width would be fairly easy with this machine.

Would this work and not fubar the springs?

My other idea is...

There are little steel blocks that limit the spring expansion travel at the rattlesnake's neck. The bores are at about 25 degrees( + or - a few degrees) of angle to the water table when the ejectors contact the breech face. If those blocks were built up, or the rattlesnake heads were honed down, or the ejector shafts were shortened, the ejectors wouldn't contact the breech face until the bore/water table angle was smaller (let's say 15 or 18 degrees). The stresses on the ejectors and their bearing surfaces would be more linear and less angular to their line of travel. And I could build up a little momentum as I was slamming the action shut after loading.

Would that help? Or would any unforseen problems rear up their ugly little finely tempered rattlesnake heads and bite me in the keester?

Elmo

btt