Barrels unhooking only when dry fired.

[B. Dudley]

Often the initial response to people when encountering the issue of a gun's barrels not unhooking is to let the hammers down and then try it. Sometimes it works and other times it is a different, more complicated issue. I too have dealt with some guns that will only unhook if un-cocked. It is not a major inconvenience, unless the gun has ejectors. Not that a Parker cannot be cocked with the forend off, but it can be a pain.

For some time now I have wondered what is going on mechanically that makes the gun not unhook unless it is un-cocked. And I think I may be onto something with some recent diagnosis I was doing on a gun for another issue. I believe this issue is related to the bolt trip assembly. Most specifically, the spring loaded plunger in the trip assembly. Either the plunger gets worn or the spring gets weak or gummed up and does not apply enough downward pressure on the cocking slide thus causing unhooking issues.

I need to do more testing and tinkering to confirm if this is in fact the root cause, but I was led to this when I was having to do some bolt work on a VHE today. In order to save time in breaking things down over and over again, I had the action assembled off the stock and I removed the trip assembly so that I was able to easily remove and re-install the bolt without having take the trigger plate off. With no trip in the gun, the barrels would not unhook unless it was dry fired. When the trip was back in, all worked fine.

Or am I finding something out that is already known?