Ithaca Model 49

I recently had a customer asking to have an old Ithaca Model 49 .22 lever-action single-shot rifle refurbished. It was in fair shape, very dirty with a few dings and dents, but all of the parts were accounted for. Although I had to order replacements for two parts beyond repair, the gun was a shooter. Research on this gun was hindered due to a lack of a serial number but seems to have been manufactured between 1961 and 1969, prior to the Gun Control Act of 1968.

While thumbing through my collection of gun manuals and exploded views, I never ran across a disassembly and reassembly instructions for this particular rifle. Completely refurbishing this old favorite meant everything had to come off of the gun. The barrel and other visible parts were sent out for bluing and the action and other aluminum parts received anew coat of finish. The wood needed to be stripped and finished as per the customer’s wishes.

I decided to share my disassembly/reassembly information as I had to start from scratch and this will save you time should a Model 49 find your bench. I began by removing the buttplate, then removed the buttstock using along, flat-head screwdriver to reach the through-the-stock screw. The wood came off without issue. The forend is removed by first using an Allen head wrench to loosen and completely remove the set screw located under the front sight/faux tube band.

After the set screw is removed, work the sight/faux tube band off the end of the barrel. Pull the forend assembly off the rifle. The barrel band and faux magazine tube comes off in one assembly. The faux magazine 22 lever-action single-shot rifle worthy of refurbishing. tube is just that, a fake tube of steel that is inserted into a blind hole drilled into the forend about two inches deep. Just pull it out. The barrel band can be removed by unscrewing the Phillips head screw and removing it from the forend.

With the wood is off the gun, it can be methodically disassembled. I inspected inside the action, noting the trigger seemed to be the best starting point. I was not sure which direction the frame pins were supposed to be removed, so I started slowly with the old "left to right" stand-by method. After a few gentle taps, I observed two cuts in the trigger frame pin on the right side of the action. This told me I was moving it in the correct direction.

The pin came out without problems and I found that the trigger lever spring and trigger lever plunger that I had seen while the trigger was still in the gun did not come out when the trigger was removed. Pulling the lever down, I found the trigger lever spring/plunger lever assembly was easily removed by pulling them out of the retaining hole. When reinstalling, use of a slave pin is advisable to align the detent relief cut with the hole in the frame and lever.

I then moved to the lever, removing the frame pin for it from the left to the right. All of the pins in the frame have two cuts on one end (right side) of each pin and each are to be removed from left to right. After removal of the lever pin, the lever pulls down off of the bolt block. Make a mental note of where the two claw-type hooks go on the bottom of the bolt block when reassembling. Be careful! There is a coil spring and detent pin inside the bottom of the bolt block that will fall out.

If it doesn’t, remove it now. Don’t forget to replace these items when reassembling. Remove the bolt block via drifting out the large frame pin that holds the bolt block in place. There is another small detent pin inside the same hole as the spring and detent just removed. Get this little 1/4" round pin out or dislodged down about 1/2" before hammering at the bolt frame pin. Spray some oil in the hole and tap the frame pin back and forth lightly a few times so the pin drops. A magnet will help here.

Once the small detent pin is out or clear of the frame pin, use a brass punch to tap out the bolt frame pin from left to right. Don’t worry about the firing pin as it has nothing to do with the frame pin retention. With the frame pin removed, note where the detent pin fits and its job. Don’t forget to reinstall this when reassembling. The bolt assembly is removed by pulling it out from the top of the

This hole also contains one more small detent that serves to hold the bolt assembly frame pin in the gun. Make sure you get that "other" small detent pin out before removing the bolt assembly frame pin. frame. The bolt contains the firing pin, firing pin return coil spring, and a pin that keeps the firing pin in place along with the firing pin coil spring. The bolt can be easily taken down from here as all parts are visible and no tricks needed to remove or reinstall them. Just note how they go into place.

The next part to remove is the hammer. Begin by unscrewing the stock stud tube located at the rear of the action. While unscrewing it from the frame, keep an eye at the base of the receiver as a very small (fine) lock washer will drop out. Once the stock stud is removed, Left and find the coil mainspring inside the stock stud. Pull this spring out. Looking inside the action, you locate the hammer rebound cam, which looks like an H&R hammer rebound cam. Remove the rebound cam and note how it was in place.

The long edge on the front of the cam lug goes upwards when reinstalling into the back of the hammer and the small end needs to be fed into the center hold of the stock stud tube when screwing it back onto the receiver. Drift the hammer frame pin out left to right. Note the two cuts on the hammer frame pin will not feed through the pin hole of the hammer. Reinstall the frame pin from right to left, smooth end first into the frame.

With receiver stripped, remove the ejector trip lever. Start by using an Allen screw to remove the small set screw located on the bottom of the receiver near the front. The screw comes out followed by a coil spring. Deep inside is an ejector lever trip detent pin that might not come out. If it doesn’t, remove the ejector trip lever frame pin instead. This is the smallest frame pin on the action and is also removed from left to right. Once out, the ejector trip lever can be pulled out of its slot.

After removal, use the end of the same pin punch used to remove the frame pin to slide into the ejector trip lever frame slot and push the detent pin out of the ejector trip lever set screw hole. The next step is to remove the barrel. This is only necessary if the barrel is to be reblued and the receiver refinished. Begin by tapping the barrel/extractor retention frame pin left to right until it comes out of the frame. You may need to push the extractor forward a little bit while drifting the pin out.

Once the frame pin is out, pull the extractor and extractor coil return spring out of the back of the barrel. To remove the barrel itself, clamp the barrel tightly in a vise with aluminum or padded jaws, grasp the action with both hands, and begin twisting it back and forth while pulling the action back away from the barrel. It will loosen and then come off. Note, the barrel has a pin cutout in the bottom of the barrel where the frame pin fits.

During reassembly make sure the barrel is set back into the receiver enough so the frame pin will fit (clear) the hole cut out. This ensures the barrel is in the correct location and that the sights will be straight up and down in alignment with the receiver. The rear sight is removed by drifting it out of its dovetail from right to left with a brass punch. Reassembly is reverse of the above order. This old favorite is one that I personally like and really enjoyed refurbishing into a virtually new gun.

I am sure the customer’s son was astounded when he saw it after completion because the gun was really rough looking before. This refurbished Model 49 will see many more years of shooting now. AG