[Johnobody]

At present, my personal best was scored with the O/U barrel set on my Frigon. Since it was the first barrel set I tried and was so tickled with the results, I never got around to trying out the single barrel... Until today.

The O/U fires the bottom barrel first. On the single, it doesn't seem to fire the barrel unless I dry-fire it first (as if it were firing the bottom barrel) bump the butt of the gun on the ground (to simulate the recoil of being fired), then fire the single barrel.

There was only one other shooter out today. I think he was so fed up with family that he had to shoot something. He was unable to find a barrel selector in any of the usual locations on the gun. Does anyone know where the selector is, how to operate it, etc?

 

[Jim Zee]

It sounds like non-selective...bottom fires first, its not that uncommon.

Jim

 

[Barry C. Roach]

I think the trigger is selectable. See if the safety moves to the right or left as well as forward and backward, making sure, of course to do this with the gun unloaded and pointed in a safe direction.

If it does move from side to side then one side will shoot the top barrel first and the other ... the bottom.

 

[ajhiii07]

push trigger forward till clicks you have now selected top barrel to fire first.

 

[trufan]

I have a FTC and mine is not selectable. The O/U was designed to fire top barrel first (IM choke, top barrel was Full). The single was an over single. I never tried to push the trigger forward till it clicks but was told by Frenchy himself it was not selective. Your mileage may vary.

 

[Johnobody]

Barry,
We tried that and couldn't get any motion to either side and didn't want to risk breaking the gun by applying excessive force.

Trufan,
Mine is also marked as FTC, but fires bottom first. Is it possible that it was gunsmith modified to fire bottom-first? If Frenchy designed it to fire top-first, it would set the bottom after firing the top. As it stands, mine fires the other way around.

ajhiii07,
I'm hopin' you have the magic answer. We didn't explore pushing the trigger forward before we just switched back to the O/U so we could continue shooting.

Jim,
Doesn't sound like much of a combo when the single barrel can't be selected. It shoots fine as an O/U gun, but I'll be a little upset if the combo really isn't a combo.

I had bought the gun as a Top Single & O/U combo, so I wouldn't think the TS barrel would be decorative. (any frustration that is apparent in my tone is not directed at those who are helping me with their responses. I'm just a little nervous about this purchase and the amount of grief my wife is giving me while the gun isn't performing the way it's supposed to)

 

[trufan]

Johnobody,

I would assume that it would have to have been a gunsmith modification. Mine has mechanical triggers. I do not have to "bump" the stock to make it fire the second barrel, however, I experienced an excessive amount of difficulty getting the second barrel to fire after a few rounds of singles and then trying the double barrel. It appeared that the sear on the bottom hammer was not hard enough to take the repetitive touching without actually being fired as a single and would "roll" over on the edge and not allow the sear to pick up the second hammer. With a little careful filing I could get it to work the second barrel but it was only good until I started shooting it as a single and then the problem would re-occur. Since I purchased a different trap gun and this became my backup as well as a gun for my son to shoot (he doesn't shoot doubles), I had Frenchy turn it into a single barrel only by eliminating the extra parts and the safety. While he was at it he tightened it up for me also. Of course this was a few years ago. Sorry for the length of this post, just couldn't stop myself.
trufan

 

[Johnobody]

Trufan,
Thank you.
I would much rather read a long post than have a project fail because of a detail that I should have known, but didn't know because nobody told me. If that's the problem, I might be able to rectify the problem with a slightly harder metal on the sear for the bottom hammer (It's good to have a machine shop). I may decide to fight that battle.

Right now, it just doesn't want to engage anything but the bottom barrel, which leads me to believe that this gun is supposed to fire top-first the fact that it fires bottom first is, in fact, the problem.