Boito 12GA O/U issues

[southpawskeet]

I bought a Boito 12GA O/U the other day at the Carney Gun Show. Took it out to Loch Raven, immediately ran into two issues.

Issue #1.) Load shell in bottom barrel, shoot out the bottom barrel, go to open the breech to pull the shell out, breech won't open. Had to use an above average amount of force to open the breech.
Fixed #1.) After oiling breech area, breech now opens fine after shooting a shell out the bottom barrel.

Issue #2.) Load shell in top barrel; shooting out of this barrel only works half the time. When it doesn't work, you look at the dent in the primer of the shell and it's a bit off center, and possibly not struck hard enough to activate the primer.

Trying to chase down issue #2, I did a bit of poking around -- pulled off the butt stock cap/cover, got access to the 12mm bolt. Pulled the bolt out, separated the action from the butt stock. Cleaned the hell out of all those internals and oiled. Reassembled everything -- now when I dry fire the shotgun, the snap/strike feeling of the firing pin sounds/feels a lot stronger. Wondering if I take it back out to Loch Raven next time, if it's just going to work.

Anyone else run into troubles like this before? I'm thinking if I take the shotgun back out to Loch Raven and still have firing issues on the top barrel, I could go two ways:
Option 1.) Have a gunsmith troubleshoot and repair the issue -- depending on the cost. If it's going to be a lot to repair, I go for option 2.
Option 2.) Call it a loss, lesson learned, and sell it for parts, or sell whole to someone who can repair and make use out of it

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

 

[DutchV]

Numrich has parts for it, if needed:

Boito Over and Under OU-12 Parts for Sale | Gun Parts Corp.

Order Boito Over and Under OU-12 shotgun parts from Numrich Gun Parts Corp., America's leading parts and accessories supplier since 1950.

www.gunpartscorp.com

Cleaning out the old gunk and dried lube is a good first step. That may be all it needs.

 

[southpawskeet]

Thank you so much for the quick reply, DutchV. I'll be sure to update here after I take it out this weekend and give it a whirl.

 

[southpawskeet]

Went up to Loch Raven -- there was an event going on; but, they were nice enough to let me unload a box at the pattern board. Put 25 shots through the Boito, and all but one didn't actually fire on first shot (fired on second trigger pull), and that was towards the beginning of the set. Maybe after the cleaning/lubing, the firing pin just needed to get worked in a bit.

Anyhow, as we can see, one barrel shoots just fine -- is the other shell showing signs of primer drag, and is that the reason why it's so hard to open after being fired? If so, I watched a video...:

()

...on a hack/fix where the guy tricks the disassembled gun into exposing the firing pins, and then sands/cleans off any burrs. He then takes the gun back out after smoothing the metal and voila, success. Should I start there?

 

[jrumann59]

something looks off with the top shell. definitely looks like the firing pin is sticking in the out position. Maybe its bent

 

[southpawskeet]

After some more close inspection, it looks to me like on the forearm, there are two metal posts. When you go to break the barrel, the two metal posts push against two metal rods which contact some other parts that essentially retract the firing pins. There appears to be some play in this mechanism, so I think the tolerance is out of spec, so when you go to break the barrel, really the first thing that should be happening is the posts should be pressing against the rods and retracting those firing pins as soon as you go to break the barrel, but since it doesn't happen until too many millimeters late, the firing pin(s) is/are forced to drag along the spent shell as the barrel is coming down. I'm wondering if there's a way to adjust this, or if those rods are made of such soft metal that they'd either need to be replaced or I'd have to build up some more material on the end of the rods (tack weld + grinder, etc.) ... Thoughts? I can try to snap some pictures in a few.

 

[southpawskeet]

Here is the amount of play before I feel any meaningful contact between the metal posts and the metal push rods

 

[southpawskeet]

Another angle of the play

 

[southpawskeet]

What these two metal posts look like on the forearm.

 

[southpawskeet]

Picture of the metal push rods the posts end up contacting

 

[southpawskeet]

Another angle of the push rods. You can see the soft metal and how it's slightly deformed.

 

[southpawskeet]

Picture without the barrel so you can easily see how the posts contact the push rods.

 

[southpawskeet]

Closer shot of how this mechanism works.

 

[Overwatcher]

With that much wear , I'd say you have a spring or timing problem

 

[southpawskeet]

Yes, I believe the wear is causing the timing issue. So the question is, replace those push rods? Or...

 

[teratos]

Replace the push rods. If you really like the gun, see how easy they’d be to have made from a different metal.

 

[southpawskeet]

It looks like this is the part required: https://www.gunpartscorp.com/products/473070

 

[Overwatcher]

Yes replace the ejector rods. You may want to look at springs while it apart. I have seen in a few cases where springs will have a extra coil or 2 on them.

 

[Overwatcher]

I would also inspect the fore end iron and wood. Look for cracks, loose ect...