I have a "AL" prefix Huntsman, which I believe to be of 1973 manufacture - from what I gathered on the FAQ. It has a screw-in breach plug, which I thought was the later version and I thought they started making these in 1973, so, I guess I am not certain on the vintage - exactly.
When I got it, the action would not open fully because the firing pin was stuck in the forward position. After an application of one part "FreeAll" and one part optimism, I discovered the spring was not broken, as the pin started to move (reasonably) freely.
Not quite home yet, as the action would still not open without holding the hammer partially cocked to allow the firing pin to retract fully. Did some careful feeling and close peering through the hammer slot while actuating the hammer, but no sighn of a half-cock or "safety notch."
More optimism and some punches should reveal an entirely gunked over half-cock notch, which I would clean out and be able to use. No dice. What I found was a perfectly formed, and apparently unused, half-cock notch, as there appeared to be no bluing rubbed off from use - and this gun HAD been used.
I taped the reciever's right side, cut the two pin holes for the trigger and hammer and set the hammer and trigger up with the pins as a make-shift jig. Using thumbs and forefingers as hammer and trigger springs, I found that the trigger would indeed engage the half-cock notch. When I turned the action and viewed it from the top, with the sear engaged in the half-cock notch, the hammer was farther forward than the hammer slot, indicating that I would never have engaged it even with the hammer resting against the front of the slot, let alone with the back of the firing pin protruding.
The firing pin appears to be correct, factory-made and does not appear to be interchangeable with any other firing pin that would work in any other H&R (Rifle or SG), so it protrudes sufficiently on either end, depending on whether the hammer is cocked or not, and does not appear to be overly long on either end. A few thousandths would not make a difference on this particular problelm.
So, my question is, what the........
One thing that comes to mind is that maybe I have a trigger that has been shortened on the sear end - considerably. The sear did show evidence that it was "tweaked" but the tip geometry looked reasonably correct and straight, which I would not expect of someone who shortened one enough to cause such a timing issue. My mind wants to reach back to a day when one had a deer in the sights of this old piece, started squeezing, kept squeezing and broke the tip off in the safety notch because he had forgotten to cock the gun.
Anyone have a picture of an older Huntsman hammer and trigger?
Thanks for listening.
Jeff H