Chambers Lock Service

Just thought I'd share my lock service experience with everyone.

I had an issue with my Golden Age for the Lancaster where the fly would stick and not allow the sear to enter the half-cock notch. The sear would just ride over the fly and go straight back to the full-cock position. If I got the sear close to the fly, and rocked the hammer back and forth over the fly, eventually I could get it to push the fly out of the way and enter half-cock. I figured the fly was just a tad short, and a simple replacement fly would solve the problem.

So, I e-mailed Jim Chambers and told him what was going on. He said best thing to do was to send the lock in and let him fix it and send it back, because sometimes the fly can be tricky. No problem.

So, I finally got around to mailing the lock to him on Monday via USPS Priority Mail (costs about $4, but worth it).

I got home from work yesterday (Friday) and there was a Priority Mail box from Chambers. Priority Mail usually takes a couple of days, (Chambers is only a couple of hours away by car from me), so I figure he just about got the box, opened it, fixed the issue, and turned around and mailed it back to me on the same day.

The lock works great now, of course. Amazing service! Just thought I would share. Most of you probably already have had experiences like this... and I know he turned around the Golden Age lock just as quick when I sent back the Deluxe Siler, but that didn't require repair, just a swap.

Kudos to the Chambers family. They rock. :redthumb:

Quick build update: I have all three ramrod pipes inletted, and I have the muzzle cap on. I now need to finish getting the gaps out of the buttplate fit, get the toeplate and trigger guard installed, install the vent liner and do the patchbox. It'll just be finish work from then on out.

 

[Johnny Tremain]

I have a modified Chamber's Late Katland.
I am marveled at how fast, and smooth it operates.
Jim you da man!

 

[thomas]

Yes,that Jim Chamber's is a class act!

Thomas :imo:

 

[Zonie]

Chambers is a great company no doubt about it, but before some of you folks swamp him with "defective locks", you might want to read my thoughts on sears and flys.
I know many of you already know these things, but they bear repeating.

Locks which are made for use with set triggers have a small device built into the tumbler of the lock. This tiny part is commenly called the "fly".
The tumbler is the rotating part, with the half cock and full cock notches cut into it. The hammer is attached directly to the tumbler.

The main purpose of the "fly" is to block off access to the half cock notch by the nose, or end of the sear as it releases from the full cock position. This way, when you pull the trigger and the sear releases from the full cock notch, it won't accidently fall into the half cock notch as the tumbler rotates past it.

The fly is movable so it can swing out of the way of the sear nose when the gun is being cocked from the hammer down position. This allows the nose of the sear to fall into the half cock notch.
Note that this only occures when the hammer is being cocked from the fired position, not when the hammer is falling from the full cocked position.

I have known folks who when cocking the hammer to put it in the half cocked position raised the hammer too far past the half cock. Then when they lowered the hammer to engage the half cock notch, it just kept on going back down to the fired position. They thought the lock was defective. It was not. It was doing exactly what it is supposed to do.

When raising the hammer from the fired position, listen for the "click". When you hear it, then slowly lower the hammer and it will be in the half cock position.

This brings up the subject of a gun being at full cock with the pan primed or a cap on the nipple and the owner wanting to lower the hammer to the half cock position.
The safest way of course it to open the frizzen and blow the powder out of the pan, or remove the cap from the nipple before doing this.
That method usually doesn't fit into the shooters mind. All he wants is to remove the gun from the full cocked position.

If you want to leave the gun primed and reengage the half cock notch you must carefully lower the hammer to a position lower than the half cocked position and then carefully raise the hammer back up until you hear the "click" of the sear nose entering the half cock notch. Then carefully lower the hammer until it stops at half cock.
Be prepared for unusual happenings like the sear nose not really being in the half cock notch. These things do sometimes happen, like the lock in the original post up above.

Happy Shooting!

 

Good point to bring up Zonie... I hadn't considered that folks might think their lock was broken when they were simply doing something wrong.

For the record, I knew I had a fly problem because I was cocking the hammer with the lock out of the gun and watching the sear slide right past the fly without even trying to move it out of the way when going from bottom to half-cock. When I first noticed it, and played with it and got it working again, I even thought that maybe it was just a fluke and didn't worry about it for a while. Then, I was able to recreate the problem: if I got the fly out of the way, it would go in and out of half-cock all day, but if I took it to full cock and dropped the hammer, it would stick again. That's when I contacted Jim and worked out sending the lock back for repair.

So yes folks, please make sure you're operating the lock properly and are not confused on its proper operation before you go sending it in for repair. It always helps to remove the lock and watch the internals as you function the lock to see what's going on. Plus, you'll learn how they work if you do that enough. :redthumb: