[Flash]

A friend had a problem with ejection of his Aya and had a gunsmith "fix" it for him.

Got to Station 5 in skeet and he loads up, raises the gun and pushes the safety off.

"Boom" it hit around 20 feet or so in front of us.

From then on, it would go off virtually every time the safety went off.

Needless to say, it's at a different gunsmith's shop today.

This is why we always point guns in a safe direction and assume they're all loaded.

 

[Dr.Tramp]

A friend had a problem with ejection of his Aya and had a gunsmith "fix" it for him.

Got to Station 5 in skeet and he loads up, raises the gun and pushes the safety off.

"Boom" it hit around 20 feet or so in front of us.

From then on, it would go off virtually every time the safety went off.

Needless to say, it's at a different gunsmith's shop today.

This is why we always point guns in a safe direction and assume they're all loaded.

That had to be a serious pucker moment. Glad your friend was pointing it in a safe direction.
Was it working correctly before he got to station 5?
Ride Safe. Dr.Tramp...........

 

[Flash]

Yes, it was fine until station 5 and dangerous after that. We tried it several times and it would fire every time when pushing the safety off.

I'm sure it was serious pucker moment for him and he told me later that he was glad I didn't freak out. I told him that he always points the gun in a safe direction so it surprised me, but it didn't scare me. I asked him if he'd accidentally touched the trigger and he said no, and that's why he tried it again a couple more times with his fingers nowhere near the trigger.

 

[Dr.Tramp]

Weird. Is this shotgun a break open model that cocks the hammer or hammers and engages the safety when the breech is opened and closed?
My grandson's Zabala Hermanos Spanish made .410 side by side works like that.
Ride Safe. Dr.Tramp..........

 

[Flash]

Yep, it is.

 

[Dr.Tramp]

Strange. The grandson's .410 doesn't have an ejector just an extractor. It's moved by cam action as does the linkage system which re-cocks the hammers and engages the safety but its a separate cam action than those used for the action.
I found this all out when I took the .410 completely apart to smooth out some rough spots that were making it difficult to open the breech.
It's a nice little working man's shotgun but Zabala Hermanos's quality control, at least when they made this shotgun in the 60s, wasn't on par with Bennelli or Mossberg's so it needed a bit of fine tuning.
Hope he gets it sorted out okay.
Ride Safe. Dr.Tramp.................

 

[Flash]

Me too. He has a lot of high end shotguns, most of them having wood that costs more than my Perazzi or 725 Browning Sporting Clays and he has trouble with pumps and some SxS guns. I have no idea why as he seems to be pretty good about maintenance.

 

[Dr.Tramp]

The most valuable shotgun I have in my safe is my brother's 1936 12 gauge Winchester model 37. Since he lives in Japan I'm it's caretaker.
It's a first year red letter model with the pigtail release lever. It's beautifully balanced and has a silky smooth action. You can even still see some of the red enamel in the stamped letters.

It your friend's shotgun a double barrel? If so is only one barrel firing when the safety is moved to the fire position?
Sounds like the hammer/firing pin isn't being fully moved to the cocked position and engaging the trigger sear or something similar.
Let us know what he finds out.
Ride Safe. Dr.Tramp.............

 

[Flash]

His gun is a SxS with a single non selective trigger.

When it fires, it's supposed to fire the right barrel first, but this malfunction fires the left barrel only when the safety is pushed off.

I'll let you know when he gets it back and it's working safely.

 

[Dr.Tramp]

Interested in what he finds out.
Ride Safe. Dr.Tramp............

 

[jwsmith1959]

All of the Aya SXS's have an auto-safety feature which I have never liked. Optional for selective or non-selective on the single trigger models. Does not show whether mechanical or inertia. There is no safe direction for an unsafe gun.

What work did the Smith do prior to this issue?

 

[Dr.Tramp]

Any updates on what was wrong?
Ride Safe. Dr.Tramp.............

 

[Flash]

He supposedly was going to get it back late Tuesday but I haven't talked to him since then.

However, we're going to shoot some Sporting Clays this coming Tuesday so perhaps he'll have it then.

 

[Flash]

Okay, I shot a couple rounds of skeet with the owner of said unsafe SxS today and it was fixed.

What he said was that a year ago or so something happened to one of the hammers and it had to be replaced. The "gunsmith" replaced it and it worked fine until it started the ejection problem. Then another gunsmith fixed that and immediately afterwards this AD problem started.

Well, the gunsmith who fixed it this time (properly) said there was a problem that was caused when the new hammer was fit and it created a sear engagement problem. He fixed it though, and it worked fine. Does have a pretty hard trigger pull now, though.

 

[Dr.Tramp]

I was wondering what it turned out to be. Can the trigger be adjusted?
Ride Safe. Dr.Tramp.............

 

[Flash]

He's deciding whether or not he should live with it or see if he can get it adjusted.

He's understandably nervous about having trigger work done in light of past events.

 

[Dr.Tramp]

I'd be leery about having any further tinkering done too. Did he ever contact the manufacturer?
Ride Safe. Dr.Tramp...........

 

[Flash]

No contact with the manufacturer at this point.

 

[Dr.Tramp]

They may not do anything, especially since the shotgun has been worked on several times, but it might be worth contacting them just to see if there have been reports of similar problems.
Ride Safe. Dr.Tramp..........

 

[bobski]

since safeties are rarely used on a skeet range, can you imagine what would have happened when he closed it with a safety off?