Quote:

---

Quote:

---

Interesting read but has anyone out there had a firing pin break in a bolt or any other action. Dan

---

Likely not. But wasn't that the reason for development of double rifles? - the internals are duplicated so that you could have failure of one without affecting the other. I wonder whether this was just being ultra-conservative or whether early firearms had a reliability issue? (I don't think so though.) Having the second shot available quickly would also have been a bonus. Maybe bolt gun reliability (feeding?) was a reason for development of the double gun?

---

The development of the double, the shotgun earlier than the rifled gun, was more likely to do with reliability of the cap and powder ignition for black powder and also for the early cartridge rounds. Back in the World Wars misfires and hangfires were not uncommon and the old African hunters wrote of miss-fires etc, Taylor stating he only ever bought his ammo in sealed tins and trusted the British ammo most for reliability of ignition. IMO the double, with its twin locks, was likely developed more for giving the hunter a chance of at least one ignition of his charge or cartridge rather than any consideration of the gun breaking down mechanically.

In my experience over many years of using and repairing firearms the double shotguns suffered broken leaf springs (hammers and top leaver) and firing pins more than any other guns I ever worked on. In fact judging by the stocks of springs and pins usually maintained by retailers and gunsmiths for doubles it was obviously a common theme. Whether this applies to the expensive bespoke double rifle which should have been made with best steel and care I don't know, and maybe the fact that shotguns will fire vastly more rounds than a double rifle possibly accounts for the statistics of broken springs and pins.

I never came across complete failure of coil springs used in bolt actions, on the odd occasion a weakening firing pin spring gave lighter strikes resulting in a misfire every now and again, a warning to get the spring replaced, but this was rare.

Post Extras