Citori Lightning Trigger Issue

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wbowhunt

Inactive
I have a 10 year old Citori Lightning shotgun that the trigger will not engage at all to fire upper or lower barrel recently. I use it for sporting clays, upland bird and 5 stand. I live about 30 miles from a Browning repair facility but wonder if I can resolve the problem without the long wait for the repair shop to repair. Any info to assist with a solution is appreciated.
 
Any decent gunsmith worthy of being called a gunsmith should be able to determine and fix your issue

What do you mean by "not engage at all"? - it won't cock the gun, the triggers won't fire at all, something different?
 
Find a decent gunsmith or a knowledgeable friend in your area ...to disassemble the stock - pull the receiver off the stock / and have it checked. It might just need cleaning and lube...but if its happened all of a sudden, something in the mechanism has probably broken ( but that is unusual on a Citori - even if in 10 yrs it had 200,000 shells thru it ...)....

Do all the common sense checks ...take the forend and barrels off - reinstall the barrels and the forend - make sure the forend is installed and locked on properly...flip the barrel selector back and forth ..safety on and off .../ and try and cock it again and see if it changes...

If it got put away wet after a hunt or range trip in rain or snow...you might have rust inside the receiver...
 
If it doesn't cock it won't fire, so either something in the cocking rods might be an issue.
Are the hammer springs cocked now but it just won't fire?
I'll ask the obvious - is the safety on? or stuck in between fire and safe?
 
It sounds a little like the time I assembled my barrel to the receiver of my Citori with the gun upside down, as with the trigger pointing toward the sky. I believe I shot the first barrel and then the second wouldn't fire. Not quiet the same thing but it was easily fixed.
 
I bought a new Citori that would fail to cock sometimes. Took it to McClellands in Dallas for warranty repair, They didn't repair it. I stuck it in the safe for a while, finally I called Browning about it. It was out of warrant but they did repair it on warranty, only cost me about 75.00 postage to return it.
It seems a lot of stuff I buy now days isn't right even when brand new. Most of the new handguns I've purchased over the last few years had to be repaired before they worked, Ruger even replaced one and the replacement had to go in for warranty repair.
 
For what its worth.../ my experience with shotguns and handguns has been very different than Pete's...but especially with my Browning shotguns:

I have about 15 Browning Over Unders...( field grade Citori's, XS Skeet model Citori's and XT Trap model Citori's, BT - 100's, etc - purchased most of them between 2000 and 2008 or so, and none of them have had a single issue.../ and more than one of them have at least 100,000 shells thru them...

I have about 10 relatively newer model handguns in the last 15 yrs ... 1911's, Sig Sauers, a couple of Freedom Arms revolvers ...and not an issue with any of them either....

I also have a lot of older S&W revolvers - all used when I bought them ...and none of them have had issues either...
 
I hate to send anything in for warranty. Right now I may have an issue with a Sig handgun, but I am taking one last try at ruling out operator error (perhaps too much lube) before sending it in (even though Sig told me they would check it over under warranty).
 
When you break it do the extractors and cocking bar work? Does either trigger work (safety off obviously?). Take the buttstock off and use a quality spray gun cleaner (Remoil?) lubricant on the receiver mechanics especially the inertia block. Examine to see if the cocking bar is worn or broken of if any pins have fallen out (there are several). Set the receiver on the buttstock end and let it drain for a while then hit it again. Use compressed air to blow it all out and let it dry. Reassemble and try your trigger. If it doesn't work then it might be time for the gunsmith. You don't say how old the gun is - if it is one of the salt guns it will be hard to fix.
 
It isn't a salt gun if it is a 10 year old Citori - that only happened to Superposeds from a narrow window in the 60's.
 
FITASC - you are correct to a degree. The use of salt treated wood on the superposed ended in 1972 with that generation of superposed as Browning went more to the Japanese made citori. The citori started in 1970 and did manage to get a few salt wood stock fitments, probably from leftover blanks. I have personally seen two of them. Some Browning rifles were discovered with salt woods into the 1980s.
 
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