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Several weeks ago, a friend of mine showed up with an old, cheap .22 rifle. I can't find a manufacturer's name on it, except perhaps "PREMIER", which is says on the side of the receiver. Other than that, the only marking I could find was ".22 Long Rifle" on the barrel.
This is a cheap old .22. The parts are stamped, and even the trigger guard is screwed into the stock with wood screws. However, it does have a nice, long, heavy barrel, and I couldn't stand to not fool with it.
The gun had been stored in an old warehouse for decades. A dirt dauber had even built a nest in the muzzle. The gun was grimey, greasy, and just plain dirty. It was also rusted shut.
I started taking the thing apart, and it was very simple to do. It's a single shot, and I managed to get everything apart, cleaned, and reassembled. I even sanded down the old stock and refinished it. Everything is slick as a cat now, except for one thing ...
It won't fire. ... More specifically, it appears that the firing pin strike is too light.
Problem is, I have never seen a bolt like this, and I don't know how to fix the problem.The bolt is a two-piece affair. The firing pin looks at first blush like it ought to be the extractor - it has a lobe at its back end that fits into a recess in the back half of the bolt, and its main body lies inside an external dovetail in the front half of the bolt, its end protruding out into the concave bolt face.
The combination sear and trigger spring is flat, and it is screwed onto the bottom front of the receiver (this one with an obvioius replacement screw and a lock washer!) It was so weak that I had to do a little bending on it to coax a bit more tension out of it.
One cocks the piece by pulling on the rear of the bolt. The back half retracts and the sear catches a grove in the bottom of the back half of the bolt and locks it back. The back half takes the firing pin with it. The sear is integral to the spring and does not move. As the trigger is pulled, it levers the flat mainspring downward taking the sear with it, and the back half of the bolt is released. As the rear half of the bolt moves forward at the direction of a coil spring inside the back half of the bolt, it takes the firing pin with it, pushing it down the channel in the front half of the bolt and into the rim of the cartridge.
I have also noticed that the front half of the bolt is actually just a hair loose, even when closed, and the bolt handle has nothing to close down on - it just sits there against the side of the port, and when the rifle is dry fired, the handle even moves up about an eightj of an inch. (Yes, I know, ... it's worn out.)
Have any of you ever seen a bolt like this? Am I correct in my guess that the old firing pin is just worn too short to hit the rim hard enough to fire the round?
Best,
Jon
This is a cheap old .22. The parts are stamped, and even the trigger guard is screwed into the stock with wood screws. However, it does have a nice, long, heavy barrel, and I couldn't stand to not fool with it.
The gun had been stored in an old warehouse for decades. A dirt dauber had even built a nest in the muzzle. The gun was grimey, greasy, and just plain dirty. It was also rusted shut.
I started taking the thing apart, and it was very simple to do. It's a single shot, and I managed to get everything apart, cleaned, and reassembled. I even sanded down the old stock and refinished it. Everything is slick as a cat now, except for one thing ...
It won't fire. ... More specifically, it appears that the firing pin strike is too light.
Problem is, I have never seen a bolt like this, and I don't know how to fix the problem.The bolt is a two-piece affair. The firing pin looks at first blush like it ought to be the extractor - it has a lobe at its back end that fits into a recess in the back half of the bolt, and its main body lies inside an external dovetail in the front half of the bolt, its end protruding out into the concave bolt face.
The combination sear and trigger spring is flat, and it is screwed onto the bottom front of the receiver (this one with an obvioius replacement screw and a lock washer!) It was so weak that I had to do a little bending on it to coax a bit more tension out of it.
One cocks the piece by pulling on the rear of the bolt. The back half retracts and the sear catches a grove in the bottom of the back half of the bolt and locks it back. The back half takes the firing pin with it. The sear is integral to the spring and does not move. As the trigger is pulled, it levers the flat mainspring downward taking the sear with it, and the back half of the bolt is released. As the rear half of the bolt moves forward at the direction of a coil spring inside the back half of the bolt, it takes the firing pin with it, pushing it down the channel in the front half of the bolt and into the rim of the cartridge.
I have also noticed that the front half of the bolt is actually just a hair loose, even when closed, and the bolt handle has nothing to close down on - it just sits there against the side of the port, and when the rifle is dry fired, the handle even moves up about an eightj of an inch. (Yes, I know, ... it's worn out.)
Have any of you ever seen a bolt like this? Am I correct in my guess that the old firing pin is just worn too short to hit the rim hard enough to fire the round?
Best,
Jon
