V-Cuts in Top Tang

[Paul Ehlers]

FYI as a follow-up on another thread.

Awhile back there was a post & discussion about a factory non-safety live bird gun. In this post there were some pictures of the underside of the top tang that had a couple of V-Notch cuts going across the tang. The question arose if these cuts were factory or not and what the use would be for them.

Recently I took a couple of pictures of a Repro. single trigger gun and it has these same notches cut in the top tang. In the pictures you can see these notches are used for the safety slide spring on a single trigger safety. Double trigger guns use a different safety notch arrangement.

Another place to see the V-notches on a single trigger gun is in the Parker story volume one page 142.

http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q139/frbrit/IMG_0277.jpg

http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q139/frbrit/IMG_0275.jpg

All the best,

Paul

[Dean Romig]

Thanks Paul. The difference I thought interesting was that the "V" cuts on the one gun in question was that the cuts were filed in a nearly right angle V where all of the cuts I have seen were milled into the metal with a rotary cutting tool even different from those in your pictures.

[Patrick Lien]

Here are three actions. The left is a 1 frame in the 50K range 2 trigger gun. The middle is a 2 frame 213k range 2 trigger gun. The right is a 2 frame 208K Miller single trigger gun. My theory is the notches changed from the left example to the right examples as part of the Parker evolution. Both of the fully notched actions are above 200K and also have the same top lever spring as the repro in the previous picture.

I think Dean's observation that the live bird gun had very straight V cuts is interesting. Perhaps this is how they were first cut and since there was no safety installed then these V cuts were not finished by the fitter?

Patrick

[Dean Romig]

That's a very good possibility Patrick. Thanks for the examples.

[Dave Suponski]

What do you suppose the rectangular hole in the safety spring was used for? Thank you gent's for the great pictures.

[calvin humburg]

Maybe its for the auto on safe when you open the gun. Just a guess never had one apart yet seems if that was the case there should be some wear in the hole somewhere.

[Paul Ehlers]

What do you suppose the rectangular hole in the safety spring was used for? Thank you gent's for the great pictures.

The rectangle hole in the safety spring interacts/ interfaces with a tendon on the safety cam for the single trigger safety. This tendon fits into the slot and when you move the safety slide back & forth it toggles a piece that locks the trigger down preventing it from being pulled.

It's hard to see because of being out of focus, but in the second picture of the repro. the trigger mechanism is sitting behind the action and you can see the tendon at the very top of the mechanism that fits into this hole.

[Paul Ehlers]

Thanks Paul. The difference I thought interesting was that the "V" cuts on the one gun in question was that the cuts were filed in a nearly right angle V where all of the cuts I have seen were milled into the metal with a rotary cutting tool even different from those in your pictures.

Dean,

You are very observant! The picture of the V-notchs on the gun in the original post are cut as more as a "V" rather than the radiused "U" of the repro.

My guess it was a design evolution that morphed from V to U over time or possibly the actioneer would file these to more of the U as he custom fit the safety for smooth operation. The gun shown on page 142 of TPS seems to be more of the V type cut.

Here's a link to the original post.

http://parkerguns.org/forums/showthread.php?t=4296&page=2

[Dave Suponski]

Thank you for the explanation Paul..