One reason why ...
 

I do a complete disassembly clean fix reassembly before ever shooting century old firearms. First time i have encountered broken main springs. Gun looked decent outside but inside is rust ravaged. Cheers Jack

Luckily I have spares

Those replacements look to be of thinner wire.... or is it the rust build-up on the originals?





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Beauty is only skin deep.:)

Good eye Dean. I just grabbed two good ones for the picture. One is the same the other is different. The rust does make it look bigger as well. I do have several springs so no problem to finish this one. It will be a fine shooter but not a sought after collector piece for a high end auction house. Cheers, Jack

Rich. You got it right too. I don't mind buying a "junker" because after all it is a Parker Bros. Tearing them apart is therapeutic for me. Shooting them, even better. Killing some fine eating roosters - priceless. Cheers, Jack

Was the gun working properly with the broken springs ? I believe that was a selling point for coil springs back when flat springs were prominent.

I dry fired both sides. It takes a lot for a Parker to not function but i like a clean gun inside and out with all parts whole. Cheers Jack

So here is a bunch of parts less a whole lot of rust. Can you see the one extra part? Kinda like finding Waldo

I don't recognize that rectangular thing in the lower right corner of the picture....



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The extra part is the Unhooking slide plunger. There is two of them in the photo. One is attached to its spring and one is separate.


Dean, the part you mention is the locking bolt. Post 1910 style.

Brian got it. The one with spring is a spare pressed into service. The one without spring came from this VH. The spring from this one is also broken from the rust bath.

The one big benefit to the use of coil springs is the fact that they will keep working even when broken and Parker advertised this fact. Many times I have pulled out unhooking slide springs that were in many pieces. There is a point where once they break enough times, that they start to loose their function.

Rarely have I encountered broken mainsprings. I think just once or twice. And never a top lever spring (in the later guns using coils, after about 1917).