Lyman Great Plains

[Floyd Little]

New here, hope this works. I bought a LGP about 15 years ago, great rifle, never a problem. I talked a buddy of mine who is new to the game into buying a used GP. Went to the range, as soon as I picked it, it didn't feel the same as mine. Then the hammer pull seemed a little less strong than mine. Loaded up it took about four hammer falls before the cap went off. Changed out nipple, now only about two falls of hammer. Has quality dropped off on these rifles? Has anybody changed out the hammer spring? Thanks Floyd

 

[F_Thomas]

I had a similar problem that developed and I pulled the lock and cleaned the dried and caked on lube off of it and cleaned it well and re-lubed it. Problem gone.

 

[BrownBear]

Let me guess---- Were you using CCI caps? Your experience mirrors my own with Lyman brand nipples and CCI's. Remingtons fit fine, but I ended up swapping out my Lyman nipples. Every other nipple I've tried is fine, but those Lyman are a micro-schosh too large for the CCI caps to seat all the way down, and the first hammer strike only serves to push it down where it belongs. Then it takes the second one to set it off.

If you're sure the caps are seated all the way, then that soft hammer spring might indicate someone "customized" it by removing a few coils. Or as F Thomas points out, it could just be packing grease. That stuff that Lyman uses sets some kind of world record for tough.

 

[R.M.]

Has the gun been completely cleaned/detailed and lubed? The packing preservative can gum things up pretty good.
Also, was the barrel scrubbed clean? The stuff they use can be really stubborn to get rid of.

 

[msuspartan]

Floyd,
Welcome to the best forum on BP.
The previous gentlemen are spot on about the lock. I bought an older Thompson Center and needed to soak the lock in Barristol cleaner then scrub it with a brass brush. Got the junk off, lubed it with Break Free and has worked like a champ since then. I use the hot fire/shot(?) nipple and CCI's and have never had a misfire. But then again my rifle is a T/C :idunno: . But the Remington caps won't work well on mine so it may be the nipple/caps combo too. Also when cleaning the lock out, run a pipe cleaner soaked in Barristol thru the nipple barrel to the barrel. Sometimes those get clogged with gunk too.

Hope it helps and look forward to hearing what happens. :thumbsup:

Cheers, DonK

 

[jethro224]

Gunk in the lock works would be the first thing I would check too.
Or, as someone else said, maybe somebody "customized" the main spring. Or maybe a previous owner let the rifle sit for years at full cock and the spring just lost tension.
The coil main spring is fairly easy to replace if needed.

 

[Floyd Little]

Thanks for all of the help, I did clean out both locks (mine and "used" one) by feel the tension is about the same, but one of my engineer buddies pointed out that on the "bad" lock the hammer does not fall as close to the lock plate as mine. On mine the nose of the hammer is about 1/16 of an inch from the plate, on the other (bad) the nose is about 3/8. At the first chance I get I will take the lock apart and look for something broken. Any thoughts? Floyd

 

[richard peterson]

You might also check to see if the wood around the lock plate is "proud", causing the hammer to rub and slowing things down. I've seen this on a lot of Italian muzzleloaders in my years of retail gun sales.

 

[kelleyjk]

Has quality dropped off on these rifles? Has anybody changed out the hammer spring? Thanks Floyd

I think so but Ive fired a little over 200 with CCI 11 magnums in mine now and they never failed to fire.

The coil spring in these are/is pretty weak I think. And they tend to slop stock finish all inside the lock gluing it all up with gunk. And theres plenty of other things wrong with the quality but I appear to be the in the minority on this gun.

My guess is 15yrs ago semi skilled assemblers put the ready2shoot rifles together, now they seem to be farmed out to some third world hacks.

Check to see if the breech plug is fitting down into the tang proper theres been others with fit problems here that may cause lock to misalign with the bolster

 

[jethro224]

Thanks for all of the help, I did clean out both locks (mine and "used" one) by feel the tension is about the same, but one of my engineer buddies pointed out that on the "bad" lock the hammer does not fall as close to the lock plate as mine. On mine the nose of the hammer is about 1/16 of an inch from the plate, on the other (bad) the nose is about 3/8. At the first chance I get I will take the lock apart and look for something broken. Any thoughts? Floyd

Make sure the screws are tight in the plate inside of the lock. If they get loose enough the half-cock notch or fly may be catching and not allowing the hammer to drop all the way. Had it happen once.

 

[caseyb]

Hello, just wanted to say I had the exact same problem with cci caps on my .50 hawken (italian nipple), changed to rem. primers and was go to go..

also if you are useing a double set trigger
, if the rear screw is set to deep this will take presure off the leaf spring and will cause insuficient force to knock the hammer off the sear.

take care :thumbsup: