Reader Forum

Source for Steyr Barrel? As along-satisfied subscriber I have a "last-resort request." For the last three years, I’ve been trying to locate a replacement 9mm barrel for a Steyr Model GB semi-auto. I hope some of my fellow readers might have some additional insight on where I might obtain this long sought after item. Thank you for your assistance. Niel We’ve drawn a blank on this one. All we can do is to encourage any reader who can be of assistance to email Mr. Turrini directly.

Remington M742 Problems Can you help me? I have a customer’s Remington Model 742, and I am having problems finding what’s causing its problem. The gun will not set the hammer for the second round when fired, but will set every time when the bolt is pulled back by hand. The trigger housing is aluminum, as you know, and has slack in some of the pins. The hammer is also very loose by my standards, and I don’t know if it should have that much slack in it. Thank you.

Run this check: With action open, the hammer cocked, and the safety "off," pull the trigger, and then close the action. The hammer shouldn’t fall. If it does, the disconnector is sitting on top of the connector in the trigger mechanism. If properly assembled, the disconnector must be underneath the connector. The reason the gun cocks when manually cycled is due to how much slower manual operation is than when the firing system is reacting to an actual discharge.

Colt AR15 Bolt Carrier What’s the difference between the two Colt bolt carriers? And when is one used over the other? A drawing of both can be found on Brownells website (Gov. Carbine). I call one the "half moon" (#3) and the other a "full moon" (#1). Although I understand the drawings, I cannot define when to use either.

The underside is also different, causing the hammer to reset more quickly on the "full moon" than on the "half moon." The point being, a customer brought in his AR15, an original Match Target with a 20-inch barrel. He bought anew upper with a 16-inch barrel. The 20-inch has the "halfmoon" carrier, and the 16-inch has the "full-moon" carrier. His complaint: it will not eject the spent round.

Taking it to the range, the 16-inch barrel (with the "full-moon" carrier) would only send the carrier back about halfway, failing to eject the round. I replaced the upper with his original and the AR worked fine. I decided to take the carrier (half moon) from the 20-inch barrel and put it in the 16-inch barrel and try it. It worked fine. So why does the "half-moon" carrier work and the "full-moon" carrier not work?

The only difference is the 1 ounce of weight, with the "half moon" being lighter and the bottom resetting the hammer later rather than sooner. My interpretation: A shorter barrel causes less gas to get to the carrier in a shorter period of time, thus not allowing the carrier to cycle all the way. And on top of that, the "full moon" is heavier. And on top of that because the bottom is different, timing also becomes an issue. Thanks. Joe You interpretation is correct.

In the opinion of more than a few gunsmiths who work extensively with the AR15, the shorter barrel is a poor design. The ammo will generate the same high port pressure, but the propellant gas has to fight its way through a very tiny port. Result: less operating gas. Still, there are other possibilities. Clean the 16-inch upper thoroughly and check the gas-ring alignment. If it still doesn’t work, change the gas tube.

If that doesn’t solve the problem, perhaps the ejector plunger is weak or stuck, or the extractor is weak. Also, clean the buffer spring and check the bolt-carrier key for looseness. Parts Sources I hope you can give me some assistance in location the following: For a Remington Model 58 Sportsman 12 gauge, I need a piston and ring. For a Stevens Model 240 410-gauge O/U. I need a right hammer assembly. And for a Winchester Model 1400 12 gauge, I need a forend. I’ve checked with Numrich; no help there.

Your help is appreciated. Thank you. Art For the Remington and Winchester, try Pennsylvania Gun Parts For the Stevens, call Savage Arms and ask about the best source of parts for out-of-production Savage/Stevens firearms. Rem 11-87 Lockup I have a Remington 11-87 that closes on the extractor and fails to lock up on an empty chamber. The gun works fine with ammunition. Any suggestions you have would be a big help.

Remington said to send the gun to one of their warranty stations, but I thought I should be able to make the repair. Thank you. Joel Wood Hazen, North Dakota Conservatively speaking, there are over 20 possible causes for an 11-87 failure to lock up on a loaded chamber, but your gun apparently suffers from none of them. As we understand your complaint, your gun fails to lock up only when the chamber is empty, and works "fine" the rest of the time—meaning when it is loaded.

Give the entire bolt assembly a detailed cleaning with emphasis on the extractor plunger, spring, and plunger tunnel. Closely examine the extractor slot in the bolt for damage. Is the extractor slot in the barrel deformed? Is

the extractor deformed or damaged? We don’t think so, because you have no problems during the firing cycle. If the detailed cleaning fails to cure the problem, do as Remington says. You may be up against a seldom encountered defect requiring restricted parts. We do have to ask, though: All the gun’s operations are in order except when it is empty, correct? You’re not intending to dry fire it anyway, are you?

Remington Model 11 Forend I recently received a Remington Model 11 shotgun which has had the forend replaced. The problem is that the barrel will not stay in place. I know nothing about the forend which was installed. Could the forend be wrong, or was there an insert in the forend to contact the barrel and hold it in place? Any information you could give me concerning Model 11 forends would be most appreciated. Thanks. J. R. The possibilities boggle the mind.

There were many versions of the Model 11 produced between 1905 and 1948, when it was replaced by the M11-48. "Someone" may have tried to replace a broken M11 forend with one from a different M11, one from a M11-48, or even one from a Browning Auto 5. The M11-48 and the Auto 5 used a friction ring/spring in the magazine-tube support. The M11 did not. It employed a forend guide ring. Check over the schematics for the M11, M11-48, and Auto 5 and we think you’ll discover where "someone" went wrong.

All this assumes there is nothing amiss with the barrel/receiver interface. Like, maybe, they’re worn out? S&W Schematics I am just beginning to learn the basics of gunsmithing and as yet know very little. A coworker of mine asked me to troubleshoot his S&W 910 for him, but I need to find an exploded parts diagram for the pistol. My financial resources are somewhat limited at this time. What’s the easiest way to go about finding such a diagram? Thank you for your time. Nathan J.

You can get a copy of the owner’s manual for your friends 910 by calling Smith & Wesson It will contain a schematic. An article on troubleshooting S&W Tactical pistols appeared in the September 2002 issue. For a reprint, call And you can send your snail-mail address to Amgunsmith@ aol.com for a photocopy of the article on Third Generation S&W pistols that appeared in the June 1993 issue, which is no longer available as a reprint. Werndl M1867 Parts?

Do you have a recommendation on where I may be able to locate the parts for the Werndl M1867 rifle? I have tried the large US sites (Gun Parts, SARCO, Springfield Sporters) without luck. Dolton G. Your Werndl rifle came into existence when certain politicos of the Austro-Hungarian variety decided the Remington Rolling Block was unsafe and invited in a design by two local boys. It was chambered for the 11mm x 42R. Over 500,000 were produced, and the last battlefield it saw was during WWI.

A small sectional drawing of the Werndl action appears in Rifles of The World by John Walter and published by Krause. If you have one original part, that drawing could be scaled up accordingly and those you are missing could be machined. Expensive? You Technical Assistance Hotline To access AGA’s Technical-Assistance Hotline, call between 1 and 3 p.m. ET, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday only. For assistance at all other times, you can send an email to Chick Blood, Technical Editor, at bet.

More than the rifle is worth. So, call Brownells, get a free copy of their parts-source list for out-of-production guns, and then you’ll have to start making phone calls. Savage Cartridge Stop I was given an old Savage 29A .22-caliber rifle to repair. (Another gunsmith had the gun for almost a year and said it couldn’t be repaired.) After searching the parts list, I found the cartridge stop was missing. After many calls across the U. S., I found one at Western Gunparts in Edmonton, Canada.

Now my problem is where the heck does this stop fit in the rifle. (I haven’t been able to find a breakdown on this gun yet). I only see one spot the stop fits. The hole in the stop is .060, and the spring pin on the lifter is the same diameter. Does the stop fit on the lifter to stop the movement of the breech bolt? If that’s not the case, where does it fit? I’m hoping you can help me on this. Thank you. William You may be missing an additional part: #29A-394, which is a pin that secures the stop in place.

If so, contact the Small Arms Shop This is the best source we know of for parts and information on old Savage firearms. You can find complete assembly/ disassembly instructions for the 29A and 29B in the NRA Guide to Firearms Assembly, combined long gun/ handgun hard-cover edition. S&W Hammer When I took a S&W 686 into the sheriff’s department to register, the police officer showed me that the hammer could be placed in half cock,

(continued from previous page) then pushed off by hand pressure. He claimed that many S&W revolvers exhibit this unsafe condition. Does the factory have a fix for this? Thanks. Terence Rybak Pinckney, Michigan According to the S&W Armorer’s manual, "push-off" indicates a worn bevel on the trigger or worn cocking notch on the hammer. The remedy for both is replacement.

By the way, the only half-cock setups to appear in modern S&W revolvers were for single-action-only conversions and haven’t been offered for over 20 years. M700 Clip-Slot Specs I work primarily on U. S. military bolt-action rifles—Krag, Enfield, Springfield, and Remington 700 M-40 USMC sniper rifles.

I am looking for the specs (blue prints or detailed drawings with measurements would be even better) for machining the Model 700 receivers for the "clip slots" specified in the USMC procurement documents presented to Remington in 1966. (The Marine Corps referred to them as "stripper clip charger guides" or "clip feeding slots.") In addition, I would like to pass on a little trick I devised that others who work on Enfield 1917s may find useful.

For anyone who has ever launched a firing-pin assembly across the shop while attempting to disassemble an Enfield bolt using the instructions found in old manuals that suggest using a string and a slotted coin, I have a far easier and safer method.

I purchased a Kleinendorst Remington 700 bolt-disassembly tool from Brownells, and widened out the slot where the cocking piece rides by making two light passes with an end mill. (The Enfield cocking piece is slightly wider than the Remington.) I also widened out the recess for the shroud with a ball-end mill, which is also a bit larger in diameter on the Enfield.

The operation to remove the firing-pin assembly is identical to that of the Remington, and after modification, the tool will disassemble both the Enfield and Remington bolts. From start to finish it took me less than half an hour to modify the tool. The finished tool is nothing more than a smaller, handier version of the bench-top ordnance tool used for the same purpose at the Eddystone factory.

Rick To respond to your question, we began with calls to the USA Ordnance Museum, the USMC Museum, and the USMC Rifle Team Equipment section. The latter is where modifications are made to the M40X for sniper use. The equipment section doesn’t modify the receiver for stripper clips. They prepare the receivers to accept a super-firm scope mounting. If you stop to think about it, it would be very difficult, if not impossible, to employ stripper clips with a sniper rifle wearing a scope.

After all, a sniper is and is supposed to be a one-shot wonder. Those avenues being exhausted, we entered into several conversations with Remington. These included the museum, historian, and Custom Shop. The Custom Shop does modify Model 40X receivers for stripper clips, but stated it would take an act of Congress to have the "how to" details released for consumption outside the factory. Well, we tried. And thanks on behalf of everybody for your tip regarding the bolt-disassembly tool.

Schematic and Spacers I’ve been trying to get a schematic for the Springfield/Savage Model M-67H. No one seems to have one and, of course, all the books I have do not have it. Also, does anyone sell spacers for barrels to be mounted on receivers? You used to be able to buy them just about any place. I know now that new barrels that are made for the 98 Mauser actions have a short chamber in them, and the shoulder fits right up against the receiver.

I have one that I headspaced and it shoots great, but there is a small space between the action and the barrel. Thank you. Pete The Jack First catalog has schematics for the Springfield Series B, C, D, and E, but not for the H. As for spacers, you’ll probably have to make your own from shim stock.