Thanks for the answers and replies. I will say this about my reaction to the initial comments: maybe I was just having a bad day and was overly sensitive. Enough said.

It may well be the top lever, the sear, or any one of a dozen sources.This gun is solid, and will make a decent short range gun for hunting with dogs. I will put some $ into fixing her metal and "elbow grease" into the stock checkering and finish- possibly even re-wooding her. She will be a labor of love.

I will let you know how she responds once I can post pics of her.

I have the same thing in a GHE, louder with right barrel. This gun was cleaned up by DelGrecco years and years ago and seen little use since then. It is not the toplever. It does sound like it could be a spring.

Some time ago I had a 12-gauge/32 inch VH or VHE, I don't remember which, on the 1-1/2 frame and the barrels had a high pitch vibration I could feel when fired. I normally hold my left hand partially on the barrels ahead of the forend while shooting clays and it was very distinct and initially annoying but I got used to it. The feel varied a bit depending on the load weight/velocity I was shooting. I attributed it to a harmonic. At the same time I had a 32 inch VH 12-gauge on the 2 frame with heavier barrels and it reacted normally when fired with the same variety of loads, no vibration felt when firing either barrel.