Would like to lighten hammers on Rossi Overland sxs

[Trooper Ozzy]

Is it possible to lighten or change hammers springs to make the exposed hammers easier to cock?

[Cliff Hanger #3720LR]

As a Rossi Hammered shotgun shooter since before I found SASS in 1992, the hammer springs will soften as you use them.

If you try to reduce the original springs, they will eventually become too light to be reliable.

 

I have never changed the springs in any of my shotguns, just let them break in on their own.

 

Now I have modified the hammer cocking cam to reduce the amount of rebounding the hammer makes.

Basically, if you push on the hammer with your thumb it will go towards the firing pin and stop short.

Some shotguns had a large gap between the hammer and the firing pin.

After a little filing with a triangle file, all my shotguns stop short of the firing pin by about 1/8".

 

This does two things.

One, it lets the hammer fall farther before the rebound spring starts slowing the hammer down.

Better and more reliable firing pin strikes against primers.

Two, Because there is less spring at the beginning of the hammer cocking, it seem like it takes less pressure to cock the hammer.

 

I also, reshape the barrel locking lugs to have better lock up of the barrels.

When the barrels are closed , does the release level get tight and not move all the way to the center of the receiver?

By reshaping the locking lugs, the lever will move to the center and not get tight.

It insures a more positive locking of the barrels and if the the sliding lock does not bottom out on the lugs, it will be easier to open the shotgun.

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To work on the hammer cam, you must remove the side plates.

There appears to be 4 screws with two on each side of the receiver.

BUT, you only need to remove three screws. 

The two back screws go in to the receiver and the two front ones going to a metal tube spacer.

You only need to remove one front screw and the tube will stay on the other side plate when removed.

Don't be afraid of removing the side plates.

All the moving parts are mounted on the side plates and do not fall apart until you remove two inside screws from easy side plate.

I suggest doing one side and leaving the other as your visual to put it back together.

 

The hammer cam has a notch on it similar to a hammer cocking notch.

The flat can be filed down to lower the rebound of the hammer.

It is the angle of the notch that must be correct to hold the hammer on rebound.

If too shallow an angle the hammer will not stay on the rebound safety notch.

 

The barrel locking lugs are file with the end attached to the barrels left where it is and the angle of the lug to the open end is increased slightly.

 

This all can be done in about 15 minutes once you understand how it all works.

Take your time and reassemble several times as you go.

This helps let you know when you should stop filing.

 

The shotgun I use the most at matches requires me to open up the side locks a couple times during the match to tighten the hammer retaining bridge.

Why, because one of the bridge to receiver spacer tubes is too short and if I tighten the screw all the way, the hammer won't fall free and fails to hit the primer hard enough.

 

I could fix this at home with a thin shim but when I get home, I do not open up the locks and have never installed the needed shim.

A two minute job I keep forgetting to do when at home.

So, at the match, I can feel the hammer getting loose because of the way it moves to the side when cocking.

I open the locks and retighten the screw on the hammer bridge  and keep going.

 

Years ago, I had a drawing of the locks showing where to file to get the rebound shorter.

I'll have to look for that.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Cliff Hanger #3720LR]

Lightening the original springs can be done but fail in a very short time.

There are after market springs for the Rossi hammered shotgun that will do and will hold up as far as I know.

 

The Rossi springs will get lighter the more you shoot it.

I do not know who made the springs for these guns.

I wasn't interested.

 

I cock the shotgun right after closing the action and on the way up to my line of sight.

I use one thumb on each hammer.

Trying to cock both hammers with one thumb was not good for me.

Seem to cause problems, like missing one hammer or being too hard to cock.

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After shucking the empty hull, I lower the barrels to almost shotgun belt height.

With weak hand I get two more rounds from belt and drop in to barrels that are almost point straight down at ground.

After dropping two rounds in barrel, I move the weak hand tot he forestock and start lifting the barrels to close as I raise gun to shoulder.

Once the barrels are close, I slide my weak hand back to the receiver and cock the weak hand hammer as I roll my strong hand forward to cock strong side hammer.

The shotgun has not yet reached my shoulder.

Once I know both hammers are cock, I move my weak hand towards the target to be shot. (sort of punch move)

 

When my weak hand runs out of wood, the gun is just about at my shoulder and I clamp on to the forestock slowing down it's travel to the shoulder and at this point my trigger finger is on the trigger and this causes the first shot to be fired.

Shoot second target and repeat.