For the Vaqueros: An action job, including new springs and having the cylinder chambers chaffered. A free spin pawl installed, Shortened cylinder pin, And, depending on the size of your hand installing a Bisley type hammer. Also, depending on the size of your hand installing a set of "Eagle Grip" gunfighter grips. Have the pistol adjusted for point of impact. Not that it will do anything for performance, but my gunsmith can bead blast the frame and remove all the writing from the barrel. Giving the gun a two-tone effect (the barrel and cylinder remain shiny while the frame has a matte finish). He can also jewel the hammer and trigger. [Click to see picture of a completed gun] For starters, however, I recommend something cheap and easy. Remove the grips, Polish the hammer strut-if it has any rough spots or burrs; Cut a single loop off of the mainspring and disconnect one leg of the trigger return spring. Reassemble and shoot the gun. You will want to repeat the mainspring lightening until the gun feels good, but don't over do it. Go to cutting only a half turn off at a time after the initial cut (and buy a spare spring first). If you go too far, you can stretch the spring, heat it with a torch until it glows and drop it in oil to quench it, but personally, I would buy a spare spring.  Shoot the guns a bunch.   Stoeger Shotgun: Action job, Chambers honed, Safety disconnected, Recoil pad and stock fitted to length, If you need more recoil reduction, installing a dead-mule. Hope these suggestions help! If you don't have a good gunsmith in your area, try mine. Neal Spruill aka "Hogleg Smith" at Southern Machine Works here in the Atlanta area (770) 503-7572. Courtesy of our friends at MuleCamp.com

 

FROM THE SASSwire (uncredited):
"I have a nickel-plated 12 gauge IGA coach gun. I spent a lot of time polishing the chambers, starting with 400 grit wet/dry emery paper, and working down to fine synthetic steel wool. I cut a slot lengthwise in a 3/8 dowel to hold the polishing medium and chucked the dowel in my power drill. Also use a polishing wheel on my Dremel tool to take all the sharp edges off the chamber mouths and extractors to reduce hang-ups when loading. Polished everywhere metal rubs metal. Be careful shortening the actuating lever spring. I overdid mine a tad (my motto if some is good, more is better has got me in a lot of trouble over the years), and the action would break open when the gun was fired. Go slow and check it. I also deactivated the automatic safety by cutting off the rod. If you take the stock off and watch while you open and close the action, it will be obvious what you need to do. It has really smoothed up over the last three years of shooting maybe 100 rounds a month.

 

The largest problem with a new Stoeger is opening the action. I bought a Lady's Uplander for my daughter when she was 11. She couldn't open it. It would leave the imprint of the latch checkering on my thumb when I applied the proper amount of thumb. Not good. I removed the butt-stock and found the coil spring that the lever compresses. After removing the spring, I burned about three coils of with the aforementioned grinder. The only hitch was making sure that the rod around which the spring is installed is turned so that the angle that meets the safety is turned right. Otherwise there won't be enough movement in the latch to release the barrels. Take your time and test the pressure with each coil you remove. You'll be alright.

 
If your hulls are sticking in the chambers, you might try chucking a cleaning rod w/rag-covered brush into an electric drill and polishing the chambers using a fine abrasive and water. This can be messy, but it helps. Who says you need ejectors?

Aside from that, the Stoegers are pretty good right out of the box. Good luck."


BLACKIE'S STOEGER TIPS
First of all, just to be safe, I am not encouraging you to disconnect the automatic safety, or alter your gun so that it will be in any way,shape or form, unsafe to operate. Although I have been around guns for a long time, I am not a gun smith, I am a amateur enthusiast only. I am relating what I did to my own gun and what you do to yours is your responsibility. I would like you to further note that these alterations (besides using the gun in CAS) will nullify your warranty (whatever that is). 'Nuf said.

Tools
1 medium to heavy, long shanked screwdriver, for buttstock.
1 regular screw driver for butt plate
1 needlenosed pliers
1 small punch
1 small prick punch
1 small hammer
1 drill bit set
1 pencil and a piece of paper
Some emery paper or fine (220+) sand paper, I have a polishing wheel w/ jewelers rouge also..
1 bench grinder, if you don't have one I'm sure you'll find someone who will.

If you have difficulty removing the retainer plug for the firing pin and spring, you will need three 5/64th drill bits and a piece (about 5 inch minimum would be sufficient) flat bar stock, i.e. flat piece of steel, 3/4 to 1" wide will work fine. Of course if you don't want to turn them drill bits by hand have a drill handy.

O.K. remove the barrel and furniture, you should have only the important piece left. I'm looking at it from the left side, at the top, the release lever would have to be pushed away to disengage the locking bar. For clarification the locking bar is that piece that, if you look down from the top while moving the release back and forth, is also moving back and forth just in front of the breach face. It locks the barrel in place. (nomenclature strictly my own can't read the manual, too small ) Back to side view, if you look close at the release lever you will note that it has a shaft that rotates and by a cam system, pushes the back of the locking bar against a pin with a spring on it. This pin in turn pushes against the safety mechanism and this is how, when you open the action, the safety is set. The back part of that pin is what I ground off. It was restricting the throw of the release lever and not disengaging the locking bar enough to allow the gun to be opened easily. Mark the pin about three sixteenths of an inch BEHIND the part of the frame that retains the spring. What I did was to, using the needlenosed pliers, grab that pin at the tapered end where it meets the locking bar, before the spring, and used the side of the frame as a fulcrum to compress the spring and remove the rod, be careful not to scratch the edge. I then ground the pin down to the mark. Doing this allows for more free throw of the release lever allowing the locking bar to completely disengage itself from the lug that locks the action. When this pin is ground it will not engage the safety when the gun is opened, it will however, still work manually. One other thing I did here was to push the locking bar rearward to allow me to work the release lever back and forth while lifting upwards until it was removed from the frame. I then polished the shaft just to slick it up a little. I also cut two coils from the spring before replacing all the parts. The firing pins have a nasty habit of sticking. The smith at Stoeger told me this was from dry firing but my gun had problems from new. He also told me, and this makes sense, that the gun could fire when you slam the breach closed with a pin that sticks out. This is scary to think about, I think we need to keep a close eye on these guns. The next thing he told me was to remove the firing pin and run a drill bit down the hole in the plug that the pin sticks through. Make sure you use a bit that is snug only. The pin can be removed from the breech side by using a punch to lightly tap in one of the three holes surrounding the pin. These are standard threads so remove by going counterclockwise. The reason I explain this is because mine was tight as a cob and would not move. After using all the suggestions from the wire I contacted the smith at Stoeger to first, find out if it was reverse threads and second to buy the tool to remove this plug with the three holes over the pin. Guess what he told me, Use two 5/64th inch drill bits in the holes and twist with a screw driver, yep, high tech. THERE IS NO TOOL! Well if this doesn't work for you, as it didn't work for me, then we go to the next step. Take a piece of paper and a pencil and push it over the firing pin, then rub the pencil over the holes to get a tracing. Place the paper over the flat stock near the end, get close, prick punch the centers of the holes, this will line you up and keep the bits from wandering because your going to drill them through with the 5/64th bits. wiggle the bits in the holes a bit after you've drilled through. Place all of the bits about halfway through the stock and then put the back ends of the bits into the holes in the plug and tap lightly with the hammer until you are as tight as you can get it down over the holes. If you can't get to within a 1/2" of the breach face, remove one of the bits, place back in the drill, and ream the holes out a little, you can also go about 1/8" inch deeper but be careful not to go too deep. You can also enlarge the hole in the flat stock by wiggling the bit in it a little more vigorously, but I would do this one step at a time. Repeat the process with the bits in the flat stock and holes and tapping again. Nobody I have communicated with has indicated that they have had as much trouble removing this plug as I have and this worked for me, if it doesn't work for you I'd see a gun smith. The wife can now, with one hand, push the release and with a snap of the wrist open the gun ( yes, an uncocked gun ). Sorry for making this so detailed but I wanted to make myself plain enough for our pards who have a limited gun or mechanical background. The nomenclature I used wasn't from the owners manual, can's read it with my bifocals and magnifying glass so don't attempt to find the descriptions there. I tried to explain it the best I could and I still may not have clarified this enough, someone always has a question but I only believe in dumb answers not dumb questions so feel free if you think I might be of more help.

NOTE; If, after you reassemble the firing pins and they protrude, you have the firing pin springs in backwards. ~ Blacky

If you have additional tips or mods, please e-mail them to EvilSwede@Bigfoot.com