By Black Hills Blacky
First of all, just to be safe, I am not
encouraging you to disconnect the automatic safety, or alter your
gun so that it will be in any way, shape or form, unsafe to
operate. Although I have been around guns for a long time, I am
not a gun smith, I am a amateur enthusiast only. I am relating
what I did to my own gun and what you do to yours is your
responsibility. I would like you to further note that these
alterations ( besides using the gun in CAS ) will nullify your
warranty ( whatever that is ). Nuf said.
Tools
1 medium to heavy, long shank screwdriver, for buttstock.
1 regular screw driver for butt plate
1 needlenose pliers
1 small punch 1 small prick punch 1 small hammer 1 drill bit set
1 pencil and a piece of paper
some emery paper or fine (220 ) sand paper, I have a polishing
wheel w/ jewelers rouge also
1 bench grinder, if you don't have one I'm sure you'll find
someone who will.
If you have difficulty removing the retainer plug for the firing
pin and spring, you will need three 5/64th drill bits and a piece
( about 5 inch minimum would be sufficient ) flat bar stock, i.e.
flat piece of steel, 3/4 to 1" wide will work fine. Of
course if you don't want to turn them drill bits by hand have a
drill handy.
O.K. remove the barrel and furniture, you should have only the
important piece left. I'm looking at it from the left side, at
the top, the release lever would have to be pushed away to
disengage the locking bar. For clarification the locking bar is
that piece that, if you look down from the top while moving the
release back and forth, is also moving back and forth just in
front of the breach face. It locks the barrel in place. (
nomenclature strictly my own can't read the manual, too small )
Back to side view, if you look close at the release lever you
will note that it has a shaft that rotates and by a cam system,
pushes the back of the locking bar against a pin with a spring on
it. This pin in turn pushes against the safety mechanism and this
is how, when you open the action, the safety is set. The back
part of that pin is what I ground off. It was restricting the
throw of the release lever and not disengaging the locking bar
enough to allow the gun to be opened easily. Mark the pin about
three sixteenths of an inch BEHIND the part of the frame that
retains the spring. What I did was to, using the needlenose
pliers, grab that pin at the tapered end where it meets the
locking bar, before the spring, and used the side of the frame as
a fulcrum to compress the spring and remove the rod, be careful
not to scratch the edge. I then ground the pin down to the mark.
Doing this allows for more free throw of the release lever
allowing the locking bar to completely disengage itself from the
lug that locks the action. When this pin is ground it will not
engage the safety when the gun is opened, it will however, still
work manually. One other thing I did here was to push the locking
bar rearward to allow me to work the release lever back and forth
while lifting upwards until it was removed from the frame. I then
polished the shaft just to slick it up a little. I also cut two
coils from the spring before replacing all the parts.
The firing pins have a nasty habit of sticking. The smith at
Stoeger told me this was from dry firing but my gun had problems
from new. He also told me, and this makes sense, that the gun
could fire when you slam the breach closed with a pin that sticks
out. This is scary to think about, I think we need to keep a
close eye on these guns. The next thing he told me was to remove
the firing pin and run a drill bit down the hole in the plug that
the pin sticks through. Make sure you use a bit that is snug
only. The pin can be removed from the breech side by using a
punch to lightly tap in one of the three holes surrounding the
pin. These are standard threads so remove by going
counterclockwise. The reason I explain this is because mine was
tight as a cob and would not move. After using all the
suggestions from the wire I contacted the smith at Stoeger to
first, find out if it was reverse threads and second to buy the
tool to remove this plug with the three holes over the pin. Guess
what he told me, Use two 5/64th inch drill bits in the holes and
twist with a screw driver, yep, high tech. THERE IS NO TOOL! Well
if this doesn't work for you, as it didn't work for me, then we
go to the next step. Take a piece of paper and a pencil and push
it over the firing pin, then rub the pencil over the holes to get
a tracing. Place the paper over the flat stock near the end, get
close, prick punch the centers of the holes, this will line you
up and keep the bits from wandering because your going to drill
them through with the 5/64th bits. wiggle the bits in the holes a
bit after you've drilled through. Place all of the bits about
halfway through the stock and then put the back ends of the bits
into the holes in the plug and tap lightly with the hammer until
you are as tight as you can get it down over the holes. If you
can't get to within a 1/2" of the breach face, remove one of
the bits, place back in the drill, and ream the holes out a
little, you can also go about 1/8" inch deeper but be
careful not to go too deep. You can also enlarge the hole in the
flat stock by wiggling the bit in it a little more vigorously,
but I would do this one step at a time. Repeat the process with
the bits in the flat stock and holes and tapping again. Nobody I
have communicated with has indicated that they have had as much
trouble removing this plug as I have and this worked for me, if
it doesn't work for you I'd see a gun smith. The wife can now,
with one hand, push the release and with a snap of the wrist open
the gun ( yes, an uncocked gun ).
Sorry for making this so detailed but I wanted to make myself
plain enough for our pards who have a limited gun or mechanical
background. The nomenclature I used wasn't from the owners
manual, can't read it with my bifocals and magnifying glass so
don't attempt to find the descriptions there. I tried to explain
it the best I could and I still may not have clarified this
enough, someone always has a question but I only believe in dumb
answers not dumb questions so feel free if you think I might be
of more help.
Send Email to Black
Hills Blacky
NOTE; If, after you reassemble the firing pins and they protrude,
you have the firing pin springs in backwards.
Blacky