I just had joy on this topic in another forum (24hrcampfire) and apparently Merkel do recognise the problem and have replacement sears and interrupters (?), and there is a guy from the importers in the US who can make the replacement. Trouble is I'm in Australia but I'll go back to our importers now with the "extra ammo" and see if they can come to the party.

I'm suprised that the 9.3x74R would double, must be a really sentitive front trigger. The 500NE fortunately doesn't have the auto safety - not a good idea for an auto safety on a dangerous game cartridge.