Can you clean the firing pin and change springs yourself??

[upnorth]

My encore is starting to misfire. Opening weekend, I had a buck walk out 25 feet in front of me. When I pulled the trigger, all I got was a click! The firing pin made an indent, but not enough I guess? I'm starting to think that the firing pin may be dirty ( I do shoot a muzzleloader as well.), Or the hammer spring is starting to weaken? Is this something you can do yourself, or is this a gunsmith's area? As a footnote, 2 hours later I dropped a button head buck and a big doe, so it did fire. At times, I'm also forced to leave the rifle cocked when I'm watching certain trails, because the deer are right on top of you when they appear. Any tips would be appreciated. I also removed the hammer extension as well.

[RonF]

You can clean the firing pin and spring yourself.  Remove the barrel, cock the hammer and use an Allen wrench to loosen the screw that holds the breech face in.  Holding the front of the frame down, remove the screw and let the breech face, firing pin and spring slide out gently onto your finger.  Remove the firing pin and spring and clean to your heart's content.  Reverse to reassemble.  If your breech plate doesn't slide out easily, insert the screw a couple of turns and tap it gently until it loosens, then remove the screw and go from there.  The spring is small, so keep track of it.

I haven't replaced the hammer spring on an Encore, but if it's like an old style Contender you can do that, too.  It's best to make a slave pin to hold the spring in the hammer while reassembling, but not impossible to do without it.

Good luck!

RonF

[upnorth]

thanks ron. I'll have at tomorrow.

[MS10point]

I got an encore last year and was also worried about how loud the "click" was when I cocked the gun. I have found that if you hold pressure on the trigger as you cock the hammer, the "click" goes away. just release the trigger once you get l the hammer back.
I know that some may say that is a little dangerous but I think if you are careful, its better that sitting in a stand with a cocked gun.
Good Luck!
TP

[RWD]

I've actually closed my left hand over the hammer to try and muffle the sound. Cocking slowly seems to help as well.

[encore4me]

 I clean mine the same way as RonF but found it difficult to get the parts out. Mine didnt just fall out I had to push them outfrom the backside.



Matt