nef single shot will not fire

[ldlfh7]

I have a nef 20 ga single shot which is not firing. No firing pin mark on rounds after firing. A little background...
I got this on a trade and while the gun did work when I got it, the trigger was nearly seized and required a god awful amount of pressure to pull it. I lubed up everything and dry fired a good deal of times (I am thinking this was not such a good idea now...) and the trigger became much more reasonable. I took the gun out to the field to shoot and nothing. No firing pin mark on casings. Tried several. Did my dry firing destroy the firing pin? Is it a bad idea to dry fire these single action firearms?

 

[newfalguy101]

I would guess one of two things:

Stuck/broken firing pin or stuck transfer bar.

I have never heard of issues with dry-firing H&R/NEF guns

 

[ldlfh7]

How difficult is it to take apart and diagnose which of these problems it may be?

 

[newfalguy101]

You can break it open, cock and pull the trigger to see if the FP exposes itself when the hammer falls, however, do NOT put your finger/thumb over the FP hole as I have it on good authority it hurts when the FP smacks the offending finger!!!

Beyond that, you might have to drift out the pins and pull it apart, never done it myself, but it looks like putting it together will be considerably more tricky than pulling it apart.

 

[entropy]

Close it with a piece of paper stuck in it and dry fire it-you'll find out whether the firing pin is moving; it will break the paper.

NEF single shots are a PITA to take apart.

Pay the buck and a half or whatever it is now for Numrich's schematics, and taking pics of the process helps, too.

 

[ldlfh7]

I have disassembled the actual trigger group before(P.I.T.A to put back together) on another one of these I own but have never jumped into the firing pin/hammer/transfer bar area. Anyone know of a schematic I could look at?

 

[ldlfh7]

Entropy -

Thanks for the Numerics schematic idea.

 

[351 WINCHESTER]

Broken transfer bar. I have seen them break.

 

[loose noose]

The single shot is much easier to do than the Stevens double barrel. The trick is to use slave pins when re-assembling.

 

[entropy]

+1 on the slave pins.

 

[ldlfh7]

I still have a slave pin I made last time I had the trigger assembly out. About lost it trying to reassemble until I read somewhere to make a slave pin. Made things much easier.

Looking at the schema for this shotgun I do not see any part labeled transfer bar.
Forgive my ignorance but could it be called something else on this gun? Maybe striker & lifter assembly?

 

[a5werkes]

The flat rectangular part of the Striker Assembly is the "transfer bar". Slave pins and digital camera will be your friends.

 

[Sunray]

Sounds like the trigger was totally rusted shut. Oiling or other lubing isn't going to fix it. Needs to come out and likely replaced.
A Pardner shotgun manual is here. Has an exploded drawing. http://www.hr1871.com/documents/manuals/New/pardner-single-shot.pdf

 

[ldlfh7]

The trigger was rusted but still worked.
It only stopped working after about 50 dry fires