Hammer moves/creeps

[Gonetocamp]

This issue was discussed somewhere but I cannot find where. Lyman GPR Flintlock. When pulling only the front trigger, the hammer will move/creep forward prior to falling. How do I remove the hammer movement/creep?

 

[Artificer]

I am not sure what I learned on Military Locks applies here, but if it does.....this means instead of the full **** notch being perpendicular to the center of the tumbler like it should be, the full **** notch angles a bit forward on your tumbler. IF this is true, it also means it can slip off full **** too easily.

The "fix" is to re-cut the full **** notch so it is perpendicular and if necessary, re-harden and temper it.

Gus

 

[Artificer]

Sorry, I should also have mentioned if the nose of the sear breaks off or mashes down (wasn't hardened correctly), this can happen as well. It is usually fairly easy to see a damaged sear nose when the lock is taken out of the rifle.

Gus

 

[M. De Land]

Can you pull the lock and post a Macro shot of the innards on the forum?
Might be able to see the problem.

 

[Gonetocamp]

M.D and Artificer,

My technological abilities ended with cassette tapes and flip phones, regrettably I cannot post a picture of the lock innards. However, I will continue to examine the workings of the trigger/sear/hammer - prior to doing any alterations.

 

[Tom Compton]

Use the set trigger.

 

[Artificer]

OK, found some illustrations that may help you.

When you take the lock off the rifle, does it have coil springs in it like the illustration on the bottom left of the drawing below? http://rmcsports.com/flint.gif

If so, the following parts and numbers are germane to the discussion:

Tumbler 54
Fly 53
Sear 51

These parts are more clearly seen in the bottom right illustration of the link above, because the Bridle 49 that normally covers these parts is removed to show the parts better.

The Tumbler in the following illustration is a military lock and does not have a cut out for the fly or the fly itself. However, it still shows what I meant about the full **** notch should be perpendicular to the center of the tumbler as shown in Figure 2 and Figure 2.1 as "normal." What may be going on in your lock is shown in Figure 2.1 as "line A" where the full **** notch was either not cut right or is damaged. When the full **** notch is angled forward as in "line A," then the hammer will slip forward as you pull the trigger. http://www.nwtskirmisher.com/graphics/sub/articles/locks-fig2.gif

Now let's go back to the bottom right illustration in the following link: http://rmcsports.com/flint.gif

Here you can see how the Tumbler is cut out and the Fly is installed. The purpose of the Fly is to help ensure the sear nose does not bump against the half **** notch when using your set trigger. However, when a Tumbler is cut for a Fly, there is not near as much metal that is contacting the Sear Nose. So if that part of the Tumbler is not hardened/annealed correctly OR is damaged, this will also cause the hammer to slip forward as you pull the trigger.

Also and this can be VERY hard to see with the bridle and fly in place in your lock, what sometimes happens is the Sear Nose gets dinged, broken or buggered up where it contacts the solid part of the Tumbler Full **** Notch. It can be very difficult to see this until/unless you disassemble the lock and look under the fly to see this part of the sear nose. This can also lead to the problem you are experiencing.

What I have not thought to ask was, "Have you taken the Lock out of the rifle before and tightened the Internal Lock Screws Tighter?" This will often cause problems in locks because when the lock screws are tightened too much, they wind up binding up the moving parts in the lock.

Hope this helps.

Gus

 

[Artificer]

Use the set trigger.

With sincere respect, I do not advise this when a hammer is slipping as the OP mentioned. There is the very real likelihood that internal parts are damaged and until/unless they are corrected or replaced - continuing to fire the gun will cause even more problems - including the hammer will soon not be able to hold on full **** safely.

Gus

 

[Gonetocamp]

Artificer, my lock does have the coil spring. Thank you for illustrations. I have had the lock out and I have tightened all screws exposed on the underside of the lock. I have not taken the bridle off (been afraid to). I will back off tension on the screws to see if that may be the problem. If necessary, I will remove the bridle to check for other issues.

 

[Artificer]

Good plan.

I forgot to mention last night when I wrote the above post, that IF the Fly 53 was not quite long enough at the proper edge or if it was damaged, then that would still allow the Sear Nose to hit the half **** notch as the tumbler swung around. This would also cause damage to the sear nose and could cause the hammer to slip forward as you pull the trigger.

I am afraid that it has been almost 40 years since I disassembled a Coil Spring Lock, so I can not assist you in doing disassembly/assembly of your lock. However, I'm sure others on the forum will be able to assist you with the best way/s to do it.

Best wishes on getting your lock's problem/s corrected.

Gus