Fitting Barrels

[Harry Collins]

The barrels of my PH had been cut to 28”. I found a set of 30” PH barrels on eBay. They snap on like they were made for mu frame however, they won’t open all the way to cock the hammers. The only glaring difference I see is the cocking hook recess goes a little more forward on the original barrels on the top. I welcome all thoughts and recommendations.

[David Noble]

A side view of the two cocking hooks for comparison would help.
It's likely you'll need to remove the cocking hook from the barrel and modify it to the same shape of the original, or replace it if need be.

[Tom Hawkins]

You might try swapping hooks to confirm your thoughts.

[Harry Collins]

I did swap hooks as that had worked on other projects such as this, but it was a no go. The hooks are very close in dimensions.

[David Noble]

Originally Posted by Harry Collins

I did swap hooks as that had worked on other projects such as this, but it was a no go. The hooks are very close in dimensions.

The term "close" is relative. A mere 3 thousandths of an inch in just the right spot can make a world of difference.
With the 30" barrels, upon opening the action do you feel the hammers being drawn back, but just not far enough to catch the sears? It's possible the hook is not engaging the cocking bar at all if you are not feeling the hammers being partially drawn back.
When you swapped the hooks out, did either barrel cock the hammers?

[Harry Collins]

Both hooks caught the cocking leaver, but not enough to catch the sears. Im going to file the space forward of the hook to see if giving it more travel will work. The barrels original to the gun has more travel space and I will try to match it.

[edgarspencer]

The issue is probably not the cocking hook, but the length of the extractor rod.
You can confirm that by seeing if the extractor on the original barrels will still lift up further when the gun is fully opened. It likely will, a small amount. Now, try to see if the extractor of the 'new' set will move up, when you think it's fully opened. It probably won't, meaning that the extractor is being limited by it's retaining screw. Two ways to remedy this are either dressing the end of the rod until the gun cocks, or elongating the recess on the extractor rod, on it's forward edge.

[Harry Collins]

Thanks, Edgar! I’ll give that a try.

[edgarspencer]

Just take the extractor stop screw out and try cocking the gun.

[Harry Collins]

Edgar,

While waiting for Kroil to do it's thing on the extractor screw I swapped forends. Though the forend latch didn't fully close, the gun cocked. Does it boil down to the unhooking pin not being compressed? The forend that came with the barrels appears to be tight.

Harry