O/U Shotgun Crossbolt Operation

[Sporting Clays]

Hi - hope someone can help me here... I have an AYA 'yeoman' O/U shotgun, which is in generally excellent condition. There is one irritating problem with it though:

The bolt operates by locking lugs on the barrels and is of the 'crossbolt' type. I believe some Berettas use this design too. The problem is that the toplever sometimes is hard to move when the gun is closed - often needing a lot of pressure from the thumb to get the action open. I have polished the lugs on the barrels and although it's improved matters, it's still not as good as I'd like. Can anyone help me to understand what the problem is caused by?

Thanks in advance.

SC.

 

[rcmodel]

Seems like a lack of high film-strength lube somewhere in a high friction point or two.

Intermitent could also be caused by ammo developing excess swelling of the case rim and not relaxing back enough after the pressure goes down.

Tried different ammo?

rc

 

[Sporting Clays]

Thanks for the quick response - problem occurs even when closing on empty chambers. Oddly when I used the gun for a round of skeet on Sunday, I noticed less - but probably because I was hitting them for a change!

Would something like Break Free work?

SC.

 

[rcmodel]

Break-free will work, but Rem-Oil will work better, and grease work better still because it will stay where you put it.

You may need to pull the stock off to get it into the internal linkage where it needs to be with getting so much it soaks into the stock.

That will require a set of good gunsmith screwdrivers to prevent screw slot damage.

Be sure to run grease on the barrel under-lugs & locking bolt contacts, forearm pivot pin, extractor/ejector cams, etc.
In otherwords, if it moves, lube it!

rc