Gunsmithing: Shotguns. Patrick Sweeney

shops before they got the neat job of working with fellow gunsmiths and playing with the toys.

      Tools and parts are grouped by their use or type of firearm, so you don't have to flip through the whole thing to find each entry for a particular application. Each entry includes a clear photograph of the part or tool, so you can see exactly what you are getting.

      Recently Brownells expanded their offerings, and the catalog, greatly. They now offer factory parts for 17 different manufacturers. How I wish they had started back when I was working on guns for a living! Often, the price of a job was not dictated by the price of the part, but the price of the shipping and handling, or the minimum order limit from a manufacturer. Now, if you need a particular screw, pin or part for a shotgun, you can add it to your regular order from Brownells. What, you don't make regular orders from Brownells? Just wait.

      If you can't find it in Brownells, you'll probably have to make it yourself. If you do make a useful gadget, Brownells may want to carry it. Brownells is Christmas catalog for gunsmiths and shooters. It costs less than a movie ticket and delivers much more enjoyment than many “Blockbusters” do.

CHAPTER 4 Shotgun Types and Their Maintenance

      Once it has been manufactured, every shotgun seems to spend the rest of its existence as a magnet for dirt, dust, rust, powder residue and clumsy relatives. Even sitting quietly in a locked cabinet or safe, a shotgun will collect dust. Handling your shotgun, you place water and oils from your hands and face onto the stock, forearm and steel. Taking your shotgun out into the woods, or to the gun club, exposes it to changes in temperature and humidity. Sunlight warms it and the AC in your car cools it. Rain, snow, fog and dew all conspire to get your shotgun wet. Shooting your shotgun deposits plastic and lead in the bore, powder residue in the chamber and action, and more sweat and skin oils on the wood and steel.

      Do not skimp on a cleaning rod. You can get by with a rifle rod and an adapter, but a shotgun rod is better for use in shotguns.

      It is false economy to be sparing in your use of cleaning solvents and oil. Get the best and use them as needed. These small bottles represent a multi-year supply of solvent and oil even when used excessively.

      All of these things can be cleaned off at no harm to your shotgun. But if neglected, shotguns will rust. Rust can be cleaned off your shotgun, but at a cost. The three levels of rust are: spotting, cleaned off with little or no evidence of its existence: flaking, which can be cleaned off but leaves bare spots where the bluing has been removed; and pitting, which when removed leaves as its evidence steel that is destroyed.

      Regular inspection and cleaning of your shotgun will prevent rust. If for some reason your shotgun does rust, the rust can be removed. Rust works the same way on all shotguns, as a chemical reaction between water and the steel, creating oxidized steel. How to clean your shotgun depends on what type it is.

      Rust is the enemy, and your hands can cause it. The salt and oils in your skin can strip bluing off, as they have on this shotgun.

      Shotguns come in a variety of action types. The most common ones are single-shot, doubles, pumps and semi-autos. For a while there was a number of inexpensive bolt-action shotguns made, but they are rarely seen today. One was even a modified bolt-action rifle. After The War to End All Wars (before we got into the habit of numbering them), Germany was left in a shambles. They had to pay reparations to the Allied powers, their civilian economy was non-existent after four years of war. The only things they had in excess were rifles. Too bad, because so did everyone else. However, by modifying the bolt-action Mauser and fitting a shotgun barrel to it, they could sell their surplus rifles as two-shot shotguns. The market for such guns was always small, and disappeared in the early 1960s. If you see a bolt-action shotgun today, it is almost certainly to be a slug gun, designed to be a “shotgun” for deer hunting. With a rifled barrel it can shoot as accurately as some rifles. The only thing it has in common with the inexpensive bolt actions of an earlier age is the handle on the side.

      This Belgian shotgun uses a rod through the center extension as a locking method.

      Older bolt-action shotguns were made to be inexpensive, but can be re-built beyond their earlier expectations.

      Safety Measures And Handling

      The purpose of a shotgun is to launch a payload of shot. At close range, the destructive power of a shotgun is most impressive. The shot can blast through many building materials, and make a terrifying mess on the other side.

      The first thing you always do is make sure the shotgun is unloaded. The second thing is to make sure there are no loaded shells anywhere near. The third thing is to continually check to make sure the shotgun hasn't gotten loaded since you last checked. Even if that last check was a couple of minutes ago. Your best example in this habit would be a group of practical shooters. They are used to handling, loading and unloading firearms on a regular basis. If one is showing a shotgun to his buddies, each of them will check to make sure it isn't loaded, even after seeing all the others in the group do so. Your worst example would be some of the customers any gunshop gets. Bringing a shotgun in for sale, appraisal or repair, customers will always tell the clerk “It isn't loaded.” When I was working at a commercial shop, we could hardly go a month without working the action and throwing a loaded round out onto the counter or floor.

      The modern bolt-action shotgun, with a rifled barrel, is an accurate slug-shooting machine.

      When you go to check the chamber on pumps, open the action using the slide stop. Usually located on the front or rear of the triggerguard, it unlocks the action without dry-firing it Run the slide all the way back. On autos, grasp the operating handle and rack the bolt back until it locks. Look into the chamber, and press a fingertip against the magazine follower. Once you are satisfied it is unloaded, then proceed. Even after you have checked, maintain the habit of keeping the muzzle pointed in a safe direction for disassembly and maintenance

      For cleaning you can divide a shotgun into its three basic components: The barrel or barrels, the action, and the stock and forearm. Each will require its own tools and cleaning compounds. If your shotgun has a barrel that does not detach from the receiver you will need to treat it like a rifle. Two examples of such a shotgun are the Mossberg 512, and the Browning A-Bolt Stalker. Get a rifle cleaning cradle, it will make your life much easier.

      You will need a cleaning rod, brushes and patches for the bore. Also, you wilt need cleaning solvents to dissolve the powder residue, plastic and lead that coat your bore. The selection of a cleaning rod for your shotgun is not as critical as it is for a rifle. The rod for a shotgun is not nearly large enough to touch the bore, let alone rub it hard enough to cause significant wear. I use the jointed aluminum rods because they are cheap. So cheap that when I was working commercially I didn't switch brushes or swabs. We bought and sold many used shotguns, and it seemed like every other one we bought had either extra shells or a cleaning kit with it. I simply set up a shelf with rods assembled for each gauge, one rod with a brush and one with a swab. You needn't go that far. One rod will do. For a cleaning solvent, Shooter's Choice or Birch-wood Casey powder or nitro solvents work nicely. As a lubricant and after cleaning, use Break Free or FP-10. The hinge pin of a single