Am I screwed?

[tom in nc]

I am attemting to make my Belgium made double barrel that I bought a couple of days ago, as a wallhanger, into a shooter. After a good inspection everything looked good but both locks are missing. I found a pair of locks on Ebay, also very reasonable (cheap) and have them on the way. The locks are complete, except no cocks/hammers, and probably no screws. A buddy that knows, and has actually built several guns, just told me that I can probably find, or make, the cocks/hammers but the screws that retain them onto the square shaft of the tumbler might be a problem. He says the thread pitch & size are often an odd, impossible size to find. How true is that? Am I worrying now about a non-issue?

 

[tom in nc]

Sorry, I just realized that I asked this question last night in on of my earlier threads.

 

[Loyalist Dave]

I am attemting to make my Belgium made double barrel that I bought a couple of days ago, as a wallhanger, into a shooter. After a good inspection everything looked good but both locks are missing. I found a pair of locks on Ebay, also very reasonable (cheap) and have them on the way. The locks are complete, except no cocks/hammers, and probably no screws. A buddy that knows, and has actually built several guns, just told me that I can probably find, or make, the cocks/hammers but the screws that retain them onto the square shaft ight be a problem. He says the thread pitch & size are often an odd, impossible size to find. How true is that? Am I worrying now about a non-issue?

It is what it is and nothing happens until it happens. The Belgians were pretty well known for making excellent shotguns, so it's likely they used some sort of standard pitch/threads. It might be European so metric, but it won't be custom to your gun only. You have a pretty good chance of eventually having a working SxS.

Of course, when finished ..., we need photos!

Signed,
Loyalist Dave,
President of The Living Vicariously Society, LTD

 

[stank]

Just re tap them to a common size a little bigger than original. I did that on a double 20.

 

[IanH]

Anything can be fixed with a sufficiently equipped machine shop.

 

[MSW]

Just re tap them to a common size a little bigger than original. I did that on a double 20.

why didn't i think of that? and i hold myself out as a smart guy ... shown what i know ...

 

[rich pierce]

why didn't i think of that? and i hold myself out as a smart guy ... shown what i know ...

Trying to re-tap a hardened tumbler is an outstanding opportunity to break a tap in the hole. It must be annealed first. Then re-hardened and tempered.