Browning BSS sear not engaging

yorgi

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Toronto, Ontario
Older BSS 12GA handed-down to my friend by his late father, has not been taken care of. Friend wants to use it but noticed that second barrel does not fire, he used snap caps.
Over the phone, suggested to him to tap the buttpad hard, after the first shot, thought the inertia block was the culprit, still no joy...

Last night I visited his place and took off the stock, the mechanism was indeed cruddy and lightly rusted. We cleaned everything using carb cleaner and rubbing with a bronze brush.
Blasted it with air, oil liberally and lightly blasted some air again, still, second shot not functioning.

What we did notice however -with the stock removed and the action visible- is that the second hammer DOES #### when the action is opened. The problem is that once you start closing
the action, the hammer gently falls back and rests against the firing pin. What I think is happening, is that the sear is not engaging the hammer. We tried to loosen the sear but it was quite hard and we didn't want to cause any damage to it.

My cheapie gunsmithing screw tip set does not include a good head to remove the bottom action plate, the slot is incredibly wide yet super thin. Was planning on maybe opening it up to inspect the hammer cutout and sear from below. I have a feeling that the pivot-point of the sear is rusty thereby restriction the see-saw movement of the sear. In retrospect, I should have left the stock off, sprayed some penetrant on the pivot and let it soak.

So here I am, stuck in this position.... Should I admit defeat and suggest a gunsmith or is there something I missed? Suggestions welcomed, thanks in advance.
 
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