finally got this shotgun fixed

[zoner]

i have a late 70's topper shotgun, 088, with a 20 gauge shorty barrel and my 357 mag barrel fits it perfect too. About 6 months ago it started actin up. The hammer would not cock and when the hammer was cocked you could open the action with the barrel release lever. I'd try to cock the hammer and it would only come back part way. Got to lookin and the striker was actually getting caught under the firing pin instead of rising all the way. Knocked the pins out three different times,switched parts from another reciever, nothing would fix it. I was down to ordering some new parts or throwing the works away. i have never removed the barrel release lever and firing pin so i knocked that pin out. Ended up having to grab the firing pin with a plier to wiggle it out from the rear. The reciever hole for the firing pin was filthy. Six q-tips with tri flo on em cleaned that stuff out. Wrapped the firing pin with 600 carborundum and polished the outside of the firing pin. there was actually a ridge on the bottom of the firing pin right where the transfer bar slides up(at the top of the bevel on the rear of the pin) so i carefully removed that ridge with a file and then polished it....took a little material off the top front edge of the striker it self and radiused it,and also stretched the lifter spring slightly to make it a little stronger, and reassembled. Before the only way this thing would cock is if i raised the barrel up past level. After assembly it once again works perfectly...which is good . Kind of wish i knew specifically which of my repairs solved the problem but oh well. The moral is a lot more crap can get down in that firing pin reciever location than i thought....Mike

[mechanic]

Yep...I had an almost identical problem when I started using my 357 barrel on a shotgun rec.  I was slightly perforating primers with pistol primers, but shot a box of 50 anyway.

While I was in there, I cleaned up the trigger a mite, it now releases at 2#, which is great as long as it lasts.

Ben

[zoner]

i have shot everything from target loads to full bore 296/158 gr xtp loads in the 357 barrel on that frame with absolutely no primer issues. That's using both WSP and WolfSP primers. The firing pin on this frame is just a hair bigger in diameter than on a SB2. I 'm refinishing the stock as we speak. The end result for this gun i'm shooting for is a 357/20 ga(26" barrel with choke tubes) combo gun that i can haul back and forth to AZ in the winter time when i'm stayin at my "snowbird house"( a park model trailer with full size room addition(Arizona room),carport,laundry rm,etc). I can also take the 20 ga "shorty" barrel along to discourage the "boogie man" if necessary