Dear Mr. Technoid Sir,

What is the proper method to close and O/U shotgun? Should you hold the opening lever to the right, close the gun gently, and release the lever. Or should you close the gun and let the lever do its own thing? A friend and I were having this discussion and I felt the best way was similar to closing a car door, close the gun with modest pressure. Do you agree with this conclusion? It seems reasonable to me.

By the way, were both shoot Browning Citoris. Thank you in advance for your input.

Best regards.

Brett
Liverpool, PA

Dear Brett,

I covered this once before some time ago, but it never hurts to do it again. Perhaps enough “repeat” questions will encourage me to get some FAQs done or get our search engine fixed up. One of these days we will get roundtoit.

My information comes from Jim Sizemore. Jim spent several decades as the head armorer for the US Army Marksmanship Unit at Fort Benning, GA. He traveled with our Olympic and World Championship teams for many years and did gun repair at the highest levels, both for the US team and for “friendlies”.

You and Jim think alike. Let the spring snap the lever back by itself. That way it seats the same way every time. If you ease it back by hand, it will seat differently each time because the human hand is not as consistent as a spring. Seating the locking mechanism differently each time will cause more damage than the snapping closure. The gun was designed to have the lever snap over.

Since you both shoot Citoris, be ware that some Citoris came with weak opening lever return springs. If the lever doesn’t snap back properly all the way, it is vital to replace the spring with a fresh one.

Best regards,

Bruce Buck
Shotgun Report’s Technoid
(Often in error, never in doubt.)