Thanks Steve, I didn't see your post before my last reply. Sounds like it might be a normal function of these particular older guns...unless Brian suggests otherwise. Lol

I personally am a little confused as to what we are even talking about in this thread and to what the perceived issue may be.

Simply put... When you push the top lever over and open the breech, it should then be held open by the trip assembly. When you close the breech, the top lever should be tripped back to the closed position automatically.

Any other operation than this means something is not working correctly.

Sorry for the confusion Brian, and not to belabor a trivial issue but what you describe is precisely how my Fox 20 ga Sterly operates. My Parker however, and it sounds like a few others if the responses in this thread are any indication, will allow for the barrels to open without the lever being fully pushed to the locking position. In which case the lever can return to the closed position and not allow the barrels to close unless the lever is pushed over to the locked position. At that point, the lever will snap back to the closed position normally upon closing the barrels.

It is just likely the fact that the bolt clears the barrel lug a little bit before the trip engages the bolt. Thus the barrels being able to be opened and the lever not being held open. This is really a moot point since in order to do this, you are moving the lever so slowly to be able to notice this little bit of of a timing issue. Under normal operation, the lever is quickly opened to its fullest travel and the breech opened, so the trip catches as intended.

You're exactly right. In fact, I only noticed this for the first time when I was showing the gun to a friend the other day and he very carefully opened the barrels and then was not able to snap them shut. Just thought it odd that I couldn't replicate the issue with the Fox. Thanks for your insight.

One nice feature, either intended or not intended, of the top lever returning to center is that when carrying the gun in a break down case the top lever is not sticking out like a sore thumb and subject to damage.

Steve, if you hold the lever to the right and depress the trip tab you can release the lever and it will return to center.

Ah, very good point.

A trivial fact, but some German guns had top levers that did not lock in the open position. So, with the gun open, when you would lift the barrels to close the action, the lever would actually move on its own. (The locking "bar" that engaged/locked the lumps on the bottom of the barrels had a wedge shape that would move the locking bar, and the top lever merely moved along with it.)

Spanish guns are the same way. Along with others. The barrel lug acts as a cam on some guns that hold the lever open and allows it to close when the breech is closed.