Maintaining The Charles Daly Field Grade .22LR

Recently, I took in several .22’sin exchange for repair work. One of these was a Charles Daly Field Grade 22LR. Not knowing much about this gun, I started doing research to find out more. The first thing I found out was that Charles Daly or KBI has recently gone out of business (January 29, 2010) – sad, because the Charles Daly brand has been around since 1875. Manufactures from all over the world have produced guns for this brand.

This causes a lot of confusion when trying to find parts for the wide variety of guns that have been imported. I tried to find an owner’s manual with no luck. The magazine was no good, since the feed lips were bent and dinged with marks from a pair of pliers. While looking for anew magazine, the name Armscor came up as a possible manufacturer of this rifle. I ordered an Armscor magazine for a M14P, which fit the gun and cycled perfectly. I now had a decent .22 for less than $100.00!

There are two different manufactures of Charles Daly .22 rifles. The Field Grade was made by Armscor and will have "Philippines" stamped on the left side. The other is Superior II and will have "Charles Daly by Zastava" stamped. These were made in Yugoslavia. This gun was discontinued by KBI was later picked up by Remington as the Model 5. Remington later discontinued this gun after a run of only a few years.

The Armscor is still made and imported, Armscor Precision, Pahrump, NV 89060.) Numrich has some parts listed under Charles Daly Field Grade .22LR. The directions for this gun will also work for the Armscor M14P. Century Arms just started selling the Armscor bolt action but are not carrying parts for them at this time. Disassembly Remove the magazine by pushing the magazine catch to the rear and pulling down on the magazine. Make sure the gun is clear and unloaded. Place the safety in the Fire position.

Pull the bolt back while pulling the trigger and remove from the receiver. Loosen the take down screw and gently rock the receiver and barrel out of the stock. Once loose, finish removing the screw and separate the two. The take down screw remains in the stock. The barrel take down stud will be loose in the dovetail and has dimples in the four corners to keep it there. There is no reason to take this off unless it damaged. In such a case, push it off to one side and dimple the new one in with a 1/16" short punch.

Remove the two trigger housing hold down screws to release the trigger housing. These screws have two different part numbers but are identical. With the trigger housing removed the ejector screw is revealed. Once this screw is loosened, the ejector will drop out of the receiver. The front sight hood can be tapped off towards the muzzle using a brass punch on either side. A single screw holds the front sight on. The rear sight is tapped off the left, again using a brass punch.

There is an insert in the rear sight that can fly out when removing it. The barrel is pinned to the receiver. The Charles Daly has a blind hole while the M14P is a through hole. If

the barrel needs to be removed, drill and tap for a 6-48 screw. Use a one inch scope mount screw with a slide hammer to pop it out. Remove the barrel and finish drilling the hole and make anew pin. Trigger Disassembly All the pins have to be pushed out to the left side as the pins are serrated on the one side. The housing is also made of aluminum and is easy to damage by being heavy handed. Start by pushing out the safety latch pin (1). This will release the safety latch so it can be pulled out.

The safety latch has a ball swaged into place and there is a spring behind it. Best to leave this alone, especially if there are no issues with it. Next is the sear stop pin (2). When this comes out the sear spring will pop the sear out. Control the sear while removing this pin. With this removed, push the sear pivot pin (3) and the sear will come out through the top. The trigger spring is now visible, which is held by the trigger housing in the front.

Push the trigger stop pin (4) and trigger pivot pin (5), let the trigger drop down and remove the trigger spring by pulling out to the rear. The trigger can now come out through the top. The magazine catch pivot pin (6) is next, which will release the magazine catch to the front. There is no need to remove the magazine catch stop pin. Bolt Disassembly With the bolt cocked, the cocking cam stud retainer spring can be lifted out of the cocking handle.

Once the spring is out, the cocking cam stud retainer can be pushed back and the cocking cam stud lifted out of the firing pin. The cocking handle slides off leaving the firing pin and spring in the bolt. On the side is the firing pin spring retainer pin, which is under a lot of pressure, so be sure to control the pin and spring. With the pin removed the firing pin assembly will come out of the bolt. Lastly, the extractors can be removed using the tip of a screwdriver to hold the plungers down.

Rotate the extractors down and out. Cleaning And Polish This rifle had an occasional misfire due to light strikes on the rim. Firing pin protrusion was only 0.022". I cut the shoulder back at 0.005" at a time, rechecking as I went, to note the indentation on the rim of the case. I certainly did not want to go too far and start having problems with too deep of a strike. It turned out this gun needed to have 0.050". There was still the odd shot where the firing pin did not hit the rim of the case.

The body of the firing pin was very rough from machining as was the inside of the bolt. I polished the firing pin and bolt with 600 to 1000 grit sand paper. With the bolt held vertical, the firing pin should drop all the way down under its own weight. While I had the trigger apart, I also lightly stoned the sear and trigger engagements. These both were rough with machine marks and I only knocked down the rough edges and maintained the squareness.

Trigger Reassembly All pins are identical, can be pushed in by hand and are 0.125" in diameter and 0.650" long with serrations approximately 0.150". Once the trigger assembly is assembled, drive in all the pins with a hammer. Insert the magazine catch from the front with the serration to the front. The pins will go in from the left. Put in the magazine catch pivot pin (6). Drop the trigger in and insert the trigger spring, making sure that it goes into the grooves in the trigger housing.

Pin the trigger with the trigger pivot pin (5) and then put in the trigger stop pin (4). Next, put in the sear and pin it with the sear pivot pin (3). The sear spring goes in vertically on the magazine catch. Pull the trigger back, push the sear down and put in the sear stop pin (2). Use a pick to get the spring to come back and sit in the flat for it. You will also have to center the spring on the sear. Finally, put in the safety latch and pin (1) into place.

Test trigger, sear and safety functions and when satisfied, tap in the pins. Bolt Reassembly To reassemble the bolt, a slave pin will be needed. Make one out of 0.125" diameter drill rod that is 0.350" long with one end rounded over to make it easier to push out. Put the firing pin spring and follower in the firing pin. With the firing pin in a vise held vertically, use a small punch to carefully push the spring down far enough to start the slave pin in the slot.

Now switch to a larger punch and push down on the slave pin to get it fully into the slot. This may require pushing and releasing a few times. Insert the firing pin into the bolt and line up the hole with the slave pin. Tap the firing pin spring retainer pin into the bolt, pushing the slave pin out. Holding the bolt vertically, drop the cocking cam stud retainer in place and put the cocking cam retainer spring on it.

Take the cocking handle, lower it down and twist until it seats the spring in the hole in the back of the cocking handle. Rotate the cocking handle and drop the cocking cam stud into its hole. It will click and lock itself in place. Replace the extractors by placing the springs and plungers in their hole. Hook the extractors and rotate back into place. Test to make sure that they are seated properly. Reinstall the front and rear sights on the barrel.

With the barrel upside down, use a 1/4" dowel to hold the ejector in place while screwing the ejector back into the barrel. Attach the trigger housing using the front hold down screw. Push the trigger housing into alignment and install the rear hold down screw. The barrel assembly can now be placed back in the stock and secured with the barrel take down screw. To put the bolt back in, cock the bolt by holding the bolt and turning the cocking cam counter clockwise until it locks back.

With the safety in the fire position, pull the trigger and line up the lug underneath the bolt with the receiver. Slide the bolt into the receiver until the bolt is in battery. Release the trigger. Pull the bolt back and make sure that the bolt stops. AG

1401 Barrel Receiver Cross Pin 1402 Barrel 1403 Barrel Take Down Stud 1404 Barrel Take Down Screw 1405 Barrel Take Down Washer 1406 Ejector 1407 Ejector Screw 1408 Front Sight Hood 1409 Front Sight Ramp 1410 Front Sight Screw 1411 Rear Sight Elevator 1412 Rear Sight Leaf 1413 Rear Sight Leaf Blank Insert 1414 Receiver 1415 Bolt 1416 Cocking Cam 1417 Cocking Cam Handle 1418 Cocking Cam Stud 1419 Cocking Cam Stud Retainer 1420 Cocking Cam Stud Retainer Spring 1421 Extractor Left Hand 1422 Extractor Right Hand 1423 Extractor Plunger 1424 Extractor Spring 1425 Firing Pin 1426 Firing Pin Spring 1427 Firing Pin Spring Retainer Pin 1428 Firing Pin Spring Follower 1429 Hammer 1429-A Firing Pin Cross Pin 1430-A Magazine Catch Insert 1430 Magazine Catch 1431 Magazine Catch Pivot Pin 1432 Magazine Catch Stop Pin 1433 Safety Latch 1433-A Safety Latch Bearing 1433-B Safety Latch Bearing Spring 1434 Safety Latch Pivot Pin 1435 Safety Latch Button 1436 Sear Charles Daly Field Grade 22LR/Armscor M14P (Speci ications subject to change without notice) 1437 Sear Pivot Pin 1438 Sear Spring 1439 Sear Stop Pin 1440 Trigger 1441 Trigger Pivot Pin 1442 Trigger Spring 1443 Trigger Stop Pin 1444 Trigger Housing 1445 Trigger Housing Hold Down Screw, Front 1446 Trigger Housing Hold Down Screw, Rear 1447 Magazine Box 1448 Magazine Spring 1449 Magazine Spring Follower 1450 Magazine Spring Retainer 1451 Magazine Spring Retainer Cross Pin 1452 Butt Plate 1453 Butt Plate Retainer Screw 1454 Gun Stock