Need Help - Diamond Arms Single Shot 12 gauge

[Dutchninja]

I got a project gun and the only part i'm missing is the forend latch / leaf spring. I can not find that part or anything similar. My gunsmith is also having trouble locating a suitable part. Numrich has nothing. Ideas or thoughts (besides wall hanger cause i already have too much into it like an idiot)

Thanks,

[Der Gebirgsjager]

Some photos of the forend area where the latch should be and the bottom of the barrel where the latch should attach would be helpful. There are at least several methods of attaching forends, and I'm not familiar with your particular gun. It may well be that a latch would not be that difficult to make, or one from another gun adapted to work.

[Artful]

Does the barrel look like
http://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/AjAAAOSwpRRWmFCT/s-l300.jpg

And the foreend look like
http://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/cUEAAOSwImRYVGEN/s-l1600.jpg

Crescent Firearms made them for Shapleigh Hardware in ST Louis MO.
Diamond Arms was the tradename for them.
You might try looking for Crescent parts.

[Dutchninja]

Artful - THAT IS EXACTLY WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE! Yes Diamond Arms from St. Louis. Do you have a photo of what that spring looks like?

Der - everything is at my smiths shop 35 mins away.

[Der Gebirgsjager]

Oh, well...looks like you may have found your answer anyway. Some books, like the Gun Parts catalog and Blue Book of Used Gun Values have "crossover lists" of guns that were made for retail outlets like Belknap or Western Auto under their house brand names, and Crescent was a huge manufacturer of less expensive guns under many different house names. So perhaps you can consult one of these lists and find the Crescent model name for your Diamond. That would make ordering a part much easier, as someone like Gun Parts Corp. or Bob's Gun Shop in Royal, Ark., might have it under the Crescent name. You may find it easier to locate and buy the entire forestock including the latch parts than to find the parts separately.

[Drm50]

Pic Atrful provided looks very similar to early Stevens 94, before they went to the "S" shaped
forend spring. This is model with solid steel in forearm with screw up through forend. I don't know
if Stevens had any connection with Crescent, depression finished off a lot of gun companies.

[Dutchninja]

I haven't found anything suitable under Crescent. Still looking.

[pietro]

Pic Atrful provided looks very similar to early Stevens 94, before they went to the "S" shaped
forend spring.

I don't know if Stevens had any connection with Crescent, depression finished off a lot of gun companies.




Stevens purchased all Crescent & Crescent-Davis patents, rights & a warehouse full of parts just after WWI, and assembled/sold Crescent & Crescent-Davis shotguns until the parts were used up, several years later.

Dutchninja - I believe this is what your gun needs ($21 + S&H):

https://www.gunpartscorp.com/Products/1025210.htm


https://www.gunpartscorp.com/pub/ProductImage/1025210.jpg


.

[Dutchninja]

My gun smith said the spring is a flat spring not a coil spring as picture in the housing above. I'm going to check back with him. that spring looks too small to have enough force to latch the forend wood.

[Der Gebirgsjager]

The spring in the picture is not a coil spring. A coil spring is one that is wound around and around like the recoil spring in a semi-auto pistol. What you are looking at in the picture would more appropriately be termed a latch assembly, itself containing several parts, and it is a very common type of device for attaching shotgun forestocks. The long double thickness flat portion of the part at the front that is pointing upward goes against the notch in the lug on the bottom of the barrel. The entire part is attached by screws into the forestock, and when you put the curved portion at the rear of the part against the curved front of the shotgun's receiver and then push the forestock upward toward the barrel the front part that is pointing upward is forced to rotate the amount required to take up the slack necessary to make for a tight fit, which is why the front part is straight at the end but curved at the bottom--to allow it to rotate. A couple of considerations are that the entire assembly's length must be compatible with the distance available from the front of the receiver to the lug, and that the assembly must be fitted very firmly into the forestock to provide resistance to force of being snapped into place against the bottom of the barrel without allowing the assembly to move. This assembly (shown above) if not the exactly correct part for your shotgun still may be close enough to adapt to work. Since you have the original forestock you should be able to get an idea if it will work by measuring the inletted area inside the fore stock, the overall length of the inlet, distance from the front of the receiver to the barrel's lug, screw holes in the wood compared to the screw holes in the assembly, etc., and therefore also a pretty good guess as to whether or not the assembly can be adapted to your gun if not specifically made for it.