Latest on this. I tried Sauer USA - now owned by Blaser. No dice, they do not support the old Sauers. They suggested Lee LeBas who I contacted. He is great to speak with but said sourcing a spring would be quite difficult if not impossible. He was reaching out to some people he knows in Germany but so far I haven’t heard back. I ordered a spring kit from Brownells that had the exact style of spring in it, but unfortunately it was about 25% too large in all dimensions. I have already sent that kit back.
I already knew this from my experience with my old German cape gun, and this rifle simply reinforces what I knew. These old German guns are not for the faint of heart if they need any repair or gunsmithing work. Finding parts is VERY difficult and finding a gunsmith who will work on them is a challenge. Even if you find the first two you better have plenty of spare change under the sofa cushions because it won’t be cheap.
I found a spring for a Zoli shotgun that dimensionally is the correct size for each leg. I ordered them from an Italian website last Friday, scheduled to be delivered Thursday via UPS which is amazingly fast coming from Italy. I hope to fit it weekend after next and get this nice drilling back up and running for Mackey.
I have also found two other spring options if needed, one for a SKB shotgun and another for an Ithaca 500-885 series shotgun.
Absolute last option is to make one from scratch, but I really do not want to do that.
