[ithacaartist]

Greg,

The de-cocking procedure you outlined is correct, but you didn't go quite far enough. It's easy to tell when the resistance is encountered, but you have to pull a little bit more just into the resistance. Pulling and holding the trigger while returning the breech block to battery finished the job.

What happens inside the gun is that this procedure allow the trigger lever in the side plate to maintain its ability to press in on the spring-loaded disconnector button on the front end of the sear bar. If you pull back too far, the barrel extension will move back, the lever will be "disconnected" from the trigger, and subsequent holding the trigger back will do nothing, allowing the gun to c0ck. Pulling back into the action's resistance relieves the tension at the sear/f.p. interface. The sear will not set when its bar is held in at the front, thus the firing pin returns all the way forward, within the block.