[Jubjub]

I have an old single barrel 16 gauge that belonged to my father, and his uncle before that. The marking on it is EXCEL, which I understand was made by Iver Johnson. It appears to be the same as the Champion model. No idea of age, other than it has a 2 3/4" chamber, which puts it later than the 20's.

I'd kind of like to shoot the old beast, but it has a few issues. One is that it has a homemade locking block made from some folded sheet metal, as well as a piece of hacksaw blade acting as a spacer or spring or something. Another is that the buttstock is cracked behind the tang, and is just a bit wobbly besides. Other things are minor - it's missing the front sight bead, and I'd probably want the choke opened up some for modern loads.

I've checked, and Numrich has the locking block assembly. Is that something that's doable at home by a guy who has some punches and a vise, or is the gunsmith going to get some work?

[Fred Fuller]

I'd vote for giving it a long overdue retirement and an honored- and permanent- place on the wall.

lpl

[brassdog]

+1 on retiring it to wall hanger status.

With the amount of jury rigging going on in that old gun, it wouldn't be worth the cost. Modern single shots can be had for less than a C-note.

[RandKL]

Always worth fixing if it's possible. It may cost a bit more than the gun's worth and the dollar value always sways some folks, but if it's worth your time, it's worth fixing.

Excel was an oldtime Crescent name before Iver Johnson, so that means parts are a dime a dozen if you can nail down the exact model. Your best bet is to head to a graphic auction site like gunbroker.com and start searching on Iver Johnson and Crescent and see if you can find one that looks like it. Both Crescent and IJ sold their guns under a *lot* of names so don't be surprised if the one you find is some other brand still. If it is a Champion, you're halfway there already!

On old singles, the part that invariably wears is the barrel pivot pin. It's the only part, really. I'm guessing that's where you saw that spacer. That pivot pin wears out of round and at the same time, the barrel pivot wears identically....so over the years, the barrel breechface gap will widen slowly. A common method for tightening that gap on old guns is to use a half inch wide strip of shim metal, ie a coke can, wrapped around the pivot pin and trimmed off. It's a semi-perm fix by itself but if you want to fix it for good, you'll need to replace the pivot pin. Another semi-perm fix is to simply drive the pivot pin out of the receiver, rotate it 180 degrees, and tap it back in. They only wear on one side so rotating it restores it to round. The only caveat to that is that a lot of older singles and doubles had shaped receivers. A lot of modern guns have flat receiver sides so you can drift the pins out and back and they won't show....shaped ones, though, the pin will have to be ground to match the receiver contour. Again, the IJ Champion has flat sides so you're in good shape!

The barrel pivot, where it's worn to match the worn pivot pin, you can simply weld new metal into the pivot curve and then reshape it back down to fit the fixed pivot pin. The easiest and most common method, though, is to grind out a little more stock and then tack weld a half tube of steel that fits the diameter of the fixed pivot pin. Clean up the welds and polish it and it's a fifteen minute fix job.

All the internals, you can do yourself. There's nothing in those two possible guns that is beyond the average man. Strip it down and soak all the parts in kerosene over night and then blow it all out good with a can of WD-40 before reassembly.

The stock is a small problem but not impossible. Real vintage parts, as old as the gun, will have shrunk and possibly cracked so vintage wood isn't recommended unless you can't find it somewhere else. Gunbroker is your friend, however. Don't be afraid to pick up a chunk of wood and try your hand at carving. It's not as difficult as it sounds.

The barrel....that's always, and I mean always, advisable to have it cut back 3-5" or so and then the bead reset. Old singles with long barrels have the thinnest barrels you'll find on any shotgun....and they get thinner with age. Couple that with the original bead being set into the thinnest part of the barrel and you've got a split barrel waiting to happen. Seen dozens of them over the years. Slice it back at least 3-5", possibly more if it has a long choke, and you get it back to good, thicker steel. I often slice them back to 20-24" and add an Accu-choke tube. Makes a fine bird or turkey gun.

If you decide to refinish it, and there's no reason why you shouldn't if you want to, don't go the "fine polish" route that most folks end up at. Nothing looks worse than a hundred year old gun with a mirror polish and new blue. Those guns were never finished that way even when new. Use a Scotch-Brite pad to clean up any rust there might be and to remove the old blue and leave it at that stage if you want to reblue it. Scotch-Brite and then reblue gives it an authentic look. Scotch-Brite pad doesn't go bad as it gets used so don't keep switching for a fresh pad....it only gets better ;) Remember, on the receiver, go lateral as in front to back and back to front. Barrels, wrap the pad around the barrel and twist, don't go forward and back.

Post pics!

rich

[murdoc rose]

props to that guy^

[76shuvlinoff]

yep ^

much better than what I did. The old Wards locked up tight but had a damaged barrel at 19 - 20" (inside and out). chopped it back to 18.5" Scotch brighted the metal then a couple layers of Rustoleum satan black. Reinstalled the bead.

Stash gun, truck gun, 4 wheeling gun. Rustoleum touches up easy.

[blaisenguns]

In my opinion ditch it for something else. I got something very similar, fixed it up and spent way to much on a relatively useless gun, that wound up breaking in the end.

[Jubjub]

Thanks, RandKL, for the advice.

I did a little more digging, and finally found a usable diagram of the thing. It's definitely an Iver Johnson Champion, and it looks like all I need mechanically is a locking bolt spring, $11 at Numrich. The piece of hacksaw blade that I see in the bottom of the action is somehow holding the remains of a broken spring in there.

It locks up tight, the pivot surfaces aren't really worn, and really looks to have been shot very little. The bore is shiny, and the trigger pull is actually amazing. It feels like the single action pull on a Smith revolver.

I'm not going to worry about the finish. The metal is a pretty uniform brown, and the wood has a fair amount of finish remaining. It looks like shaving off maybe a millimeter of wood will take the buttstock inletting to sound wood, and the crack looks glueable.

That leaves opening up the choke and putting on a bead, which are gunsmith chores, but minor ones. I wouldn't want to cut it down. It should look like what it is.

It certainly won't be a high volume shooter, but it would be a hoot to take it out and shoot a rabbit or two once in a while. It's light, well balanced, fits well, and of course, it's family.