Help me understand what is wrong with my black powder rifle. The hammer has no tension on it.?

This is a percussion blackpowder rifle. It has the typical lock and hammer with trigger and hair set trigger. All the triggers work, just there is no tension on the hammer when it is released to come forward. I did not know if it needs a whole new lock or what. Any ideas on how to fix this?Help me understand what is wrong with my black powder rifle. The hammer has no tension on it.?
It sounds like a broken mainspring to me. Can't be sure without seeing it. Traditionaly designed locks have a leaf type mainspring. Many of them are manufactured in Italy and thier heat treating is hit or miss and I've seen quite a few brittle springs from them. Remove the lock from the stock (most come out easily with the removal of two screws) and it should be easy to tell if the spring is broken or not. The main spring is the big V shaped spring. Some traditonaly styled rifles have a more modern design with coil springs but there is seldom a problem with them.Help me understand what is wrong with my black powder rifle. The hammer has no tension on it.?
Off hand it does sound like the main spring. If it is a V-shaped spring, there will be a small '; teat'; to hold the spring in place through the lock plate in front of the trigger. If that got pushed out or broken, it could have that affect on your gun.





I'd take it to where you got it or at least to a decent gunsmith, unless you are very good at that stuff yourself.Without actually seeing it, that would be a good guess as to the problem.
Take the lock off and look at the mainspring. If it's like my T/C Hawken, there is one screw on the opposite side of the stock holding the lock in place. Pull the hammer back halfway and you should be able to pull the lock away from the rifle (might take some wiggling too). Then you can check the mainspring (mine is a coil).





If it's a Thompson Center, call them and I bet they'd send you a new spring for nothing. They are very customer service oriented.
It sounds as if you have a broken main spring. Go to the Dixie Gun Works web site at www.dixiegunworks.com and look at their main springs. You will need a main spring vise and a replacement main spring. The spring will cost about $7 and the vise will cost about $15. If you can't decide which main spring you need, just give them a call and they will help you pick out the right one. When you get it, just remove your lock. Follow the directions for the use of the main spring vise to remove the broken spring and then use the vise to compress the new spring and slip it into place. If you don't feel like this is something that you can do, even though it is easy, take it to a gunsmith and let him install it for you.
it might be sprung forwards by a spring thats a bit stretched or is old and rusty. check the trigger mechanism to see how it operates in order to better understand whats what. the hammer is only used to spark the flint of the primer which ignites the powder. this is why there is a bit of a delay.