Decided to get a couple of troublesome Stevens 44-1/2s out of the safe and go "Waltzing Matilda" with them. Again. The first is a 47-44-1/2 with set triggers. It was found with no fly. I used a homemade fly for years, but occasionally, it would override the halfcock when the lever was cycled, and had to be halfcocked by hand. No problems otherwise, but I wanted it to work right. So I got several flies from CPA. They duly arrived and I've had nothing but trouble since. I had made a closer fitting hammer screw, so had to drill the hole in the new fly out to fit, but that modification and a little polishing and the thing swiveled on the hammer screw (I guess) like it was supposed to. But when I assembled the action it would not cock. It acted like there was no full-cock notch on the hammer. The sear would go into halfcock with no trouble. I ordered new springs for the set triggers from CPA and replaced the ones on the gun. No help. So back into the safe it went and I went on to other things. There other is a standard model, with a buggered hammer notch. I've been gradually stoning it back to a decent pull; no particular issues there. However, it (like the 47) came without the fly. I'd recently finished a reline job on this one and did a little more work on the hammer notch. I figured I might as well put one of the flies on that one, too, as all the models seemed to have them, whatever the trigger type. So I put another CPA fly (unmodified) on that hammer and it refused to cock; acted like it has no full-cock notch. I got the other gun out of the safe again and a third (standard) model with a still-extant fly (which cocks, halfcocks and fires fine). Comparing flies, the replacements seemed a little generous with material, so I did some judicious grinding and filing on the edges of the new ones to better match the outline of the old one. Still no joy. Both guns still refuse to cock, although if the hammer on the 47 is back when I tighten the hammer screw, it holds the cock notch fine. Once it's down, it doesn't catch again. So now, the 44-1/2 (without a fly) goes to the range tomorrow to see if the trigger pull has been improved and the 47 is back in the safe. Can anybody tell me how these things are supposed to work? It looks like the sear is supposed to push the fly up out of the way of the full-cock notch and then ride over it to miss the half-cock notch. I'm afraid to take any more off the surfaces.
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