Gun wont open far enough....
 

To insert shell's ,but only by the slightest fraction .What would cause this in a seemingly otherwise high mechanical condition Parker,I've seen this in other make's by design .

I'm thinking perhap's dirt on the cocking hook not allowing the gun to open far enough to miss the shell rim's

What do you fellas think?

To insert shell's ,but only by the slightest fraction

I'm not sure what you mean. Are you saying that the gun hardly opens at all or that the gun opens almost all the way but not quite far enough to insert a shell? If it's the latter, that extra little bit is when the hammers catch on the sears to fully cock. Could be dirt or something broken internally.

Apology's...it open's almost all the way,with just the rim of the cartridge catching.

I'm thinking it's dirt of some type.

It sounds like something is restricting the barrels from dropping down completly just prior to the end of stroke. The barrels should drop down (assuming the gun is cocked) with no resistance. I'd try taking the extractor out and give it a good cleaning, then put a little oil inside the receiver well where the bell crank rides in it's cutout on both sides. If those two things don't fix the problem, I'd try and loosen the floor plate screws and give it a try. The cocking slide rides just under the floor plate and might be binding. If all else fails and you can take the gun apart, give it cleaning. Other than that or other suggestions from the forum, a trip to the gunsmith is needed.

Good luck

I have a 20 gauge VH extractor gun that has the same problem. I never bothered me enough to worry about it. The gun functions perfectly otherwise.

Is the gun all original?

Is it an ejector gun? I have 2 Model 21's 20 and 12 and a T. Britte (Purdey triple bolt action) that require the barrels to be pushed down very slightly to load the chambers when both barrels have been fired and ejected. I always figured it was some resistance of the ejector hammers against the ejector stems when the gun was opened fully. I have never found it to be a problem in the field, but for some reason I notice it more shooting clays. Lee.:bigbye:

It's an all origional extractor gun,very nice lock up


I'm leaning heavily toward's some soert of gunk in the innard's

My 1901 Lefever did this too. All of a sudden it would not open much. It did open some, maybe 1/4 of the way. Took it to the gunsmith. He knew immediately what the problem was. There was a broken trigger spring that somehow hooked onto the opening mechanism. He just removed the spring, said that the firing pin spring provided enough power to hold the triggers forward, and it does.

It was a 5 minute fix.