I was cruising the local gun shops looking for a project gun and came across a Savage 220 12 gauge marked as Utica NY. I was raised in Verona NY, about 20 miles from The Utica plant that used to produce these shotguns so I just had to have it. One of my first jobs was working at Special Metals in New Hartford NY alongside a fellow that worked at the Savage plant during WWII and made Thompson machine guns among other wartime weapons.
When I first got my 220 it was a real bear to break open, had to push the release lever all the way to the right and bounce it off my thigh to get it to open. I took it to the range thinking a few rounds might help to loosen it up, didn't make any difference. I searched all over the web for information on the problem and possible fixes with no luck until I found this website.
One of the articles was how to deal with a hard to open 220!!!
After I read that I grabbed that old gun and ten minutes later after a bit of cautious work with a file it works like brand-new!!
So, that's how I got here and this forum is interesting, I expect I will be looking for more Savage 220 guns and stuff.
Thanks for the information.
