Picking SH!T w/ the Chickens - SX4 Trigger work

So we finally got good enough weather and the slope of new CV-19 cases to drop far enough that we held the Mulberry Militia Trap Club this month (June).  Usually, we shoot the 4th Thursday of every month from April thru October (weather permitting).

There are ten shooters in the club.  Those that show up get to shoot.  Those who are too busy or gone, well they don't get to shoot.  We have an automated clay bird thrower that works up to 300'.  We put the trap out somewhere and then move ourselves to different places to get different looks / angles for the clays.

This month we had six of the ten show up to shoot.  We went through 2.5 boxes of birds (90 to a box) and only the Good Lord knows how many rounds of 12 ga ammo we blew up.  Suffice to say, it was more than the number of birds we tossed - maybe more like 2 or even 3X that!  This was, after all, our first month out.  Hey, it's for fun and practice anyway.

So we're shooting along just fine when I get a dud round.  How?  We (I use that term very loosely) reload our own ammo.  So on occasion a round slips through that does not have enough powder.  We usually laugh, ensure the barrel is clear, and keep right on shooting.  Not so much last Thursday.

One of the little, teeny, tiny #8 shot pellets dropped into my trigger mechanism on my Winchester SX4 shotgun.  That one little pellet would not allow my gun to fire as it jammed up my trigger.  I thought it would be a simple cleaning job to get it out.  Man was I wrong.

I have know disassembled the trigger unit to the point where I cannot get it back together.  When the springs finally let loose, parts went flying and I have no clue how to reassemble.  Time now to hit up YouTube and see if I can figure out how to fit it all back together.  The good news is that I got the sum bitch of a pellet out.


Here is the disassembled trigger system.
Note the small springs and a multitude of other bits.
The gosh-darn confounded pellet is at the tip of the Q-Tip.
Yes, that little thing caused this whole mess.
A #8 pellet has a diameter of 0.086" or 2.2mm - that's Tiny!
And so are all those parts you're looking at right there.  Damn.


So what about our Quality Control when reloading?  Well, first of all with the number of shells we go through, there really are very few messed up shells.  But the Real Reason we do not say ANYTHING AT ALL is that our reloader (Pa Jerry) works for FREE.  Can't complain about things when they are free.  Make the help angry and we'll be doing it all by our darn selves!  Nope.  Mouths shut.  Smiling.  And moving along.

Besides, this is an opportunity for me to learn more about my shotgun.  Should this ever happen in the field, I will be better prepared to fix the problem.  Now, on to YouTube...




Comments

  1. Dave PorrillJune 28, 2020 at 1:02 AM

    I sure hope you managed to find ALL those tiny little parts that jumped out! You will be really cursing if you discover one flew out into cyberspace, never to be seen again. :-)

    ReplyDelete

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