Thanks for the reply. Like I said the gun hasn't been fired in many years. I'm wondering what year it was made? There are no numbers anywhere. It just says Hercules on the side of the receiver. It has a lever in the center of the back of the receiver you move horizontally to open the chamber. The forearm snaps on and off with its own mechanism. No tools required. In those days (1960's) you could legally transport a gun if it was disassembled. You had the option of popping it apart instead of putting it in a case. It would then pop back together in seconds and you were ready to go. The DNR says no to that these days.
One thing I remember well is that we couldn't keep a front bead on this gun for nothing. We took it to many different gunsmiths. They would install a bead sight. After about a dozen rounds or so the bead would disappear and the firing pin would be gone. We theorized that a single bb was coming back down the barrel and blowing the pin. If we left the front bead off the gun worked perfect. We all learned to shoot it that way after the fifth or sixth attempt of having the front sight bead replaced. Everytime it would take out the firing pin sooner or later. Mostly sooner.
As I recall there was an issue with oiling the firing pin also. It had to be clean and dry in order to function correctly. Still I killed a lot of pheasants and squirrels with this gun when I was a kid. Now it stands in the corner. I clean it whenever I feel guilty about not cleaning it.
