If you experiment a little, you will find a narrow windof where you can pull both the safety and the trigger as you are raising the block and this will do what needs to be done.  It takes a little fiddling to get it right.   

Brent

Thanks Brent and Harry.  I'll give your suggestions a try.  THOP

One other way to de-cock a Borchardt ---- from the lowest position, raise the lever slightly, slide the safety to the rear and press the lower leg of the exposed sear forward. Continuing to raise the lever and closing the breech will lower the striker all the way.   

It's sort of like de-cocking a Luger.

Joe,  Your comment about adjusting the cocking plate surfaces was interesting.  Since I had mine apart the other night I was trying to validate Frank DeHaus' comments related to keeping the timing adjusted to ensure the firing pin was withdrawn quick enough to avoid damage when lowering the breach block.  I would be curious to know how adjustments are made to the cocking plates.  Since they are pinned and screwed into place the only thing I can think of is building up the cocking surface with weld and regrinding.  Is this how you have done it on your rifles?  THOP

Thanks Joe!  Sounds very straight forward when explained.  My rifle seems to be in good shape, timing wise, and shows very little wear on the camming plates.  There is evidence, however, that someone tried to drive the breach block out of the top of the receiver with the striker in the fired position at one time or another.  Firing pin marks at the top of the chamber and strike marks on the bottom of the breach block makes me believe that some uninitiated person removed (or tried to remove) the breach block with it uncocked.  They may even have had to replace the firing pin since the one that is in the gun now looks fine.  Thanks again for your excellent explanation.  THOP

Quote:


zrifleman,

If you, as you say, you 'snapped' the lever closed (and didn't touch the trigger whilst doing so ?)  then I submit that having no safety catch had nothing to do with the rifle discharging whatsoever. What you actions did, was jar the sear off it's notch. 

This could be due to either to sloppy fits throughout the trigger mechanism or a poor sear to sear notch relationship which permitted the sear to release.

From a purely engineering point of view, the Borchardt has perhaps the most complex trigger to firing pin design of any American single shot action, in that it works around corners (like Borchardts later design which became the Luger pistol)

The fitting tolerances between all the moving parts and the pins on which they are held have to be very tight indeed, not only that, the firing pin sear notch has to be perfectly aligned with the sear tip every time for a consistant trigger pull.

This means that the cocking cam plates, and the cocking pin have to fitted so precisely that they move the firing pin squarely to the rear during cocking, that the fit between the rear of the firing pin and the firing pin spring cap and the pin which holds it in place and also fits into a slot at the rear of the firing pin, all have to be fitted with the precision of a Swiss watch. (Not something that is usually found on a mass produced militarty rifle).

The Military Borchardt has a very poor reputation as far as a good trigger pull is concerned, but it can be restored and brought to a one pound pull which is reliable and safe, but only if a lot of work is done on all the parts to ensure a precise fitted relationship. 

On a rifle that is at least 125 years old, and which has probably seen some considerable use, it is very likely that some parts will be worn, and therefore subject to some mechanical 'play'.

With respect, I submit that your premature discharge was caused by a part or parts that had worn out of dimensional tolerance, rather than the fact that a safety catch was abscent. 

Harry