Reader Forum

Remington M17 Assembly I’m trying to put my brother’s Model 17 back together. It seems that some mishap occurred and he ran over the shotgun. The barrel and magazine are off the gun, and I’m trying to put it back to rights. Any reference information you could share would be greatly appreciated. Ron Crim We’ve never done an article on the Model 17. We do have access to an early Remington Factory Service Manual and will send you copies of the appropriate pages on the M17 by mail.

Understand, however, that parts will be a serious problem. Any parts available must be secured in the aftermarket. To assist in your search, call Brownells and ask for a free copy of their "Parts Source List" for out-of-production firearms. AR-15 Feeding and Extraction A friend of mine has an AR-15 that is having feeding problems, and fails to eject after firing about 30 rounds. He took the weapon to a Marine armorer who worked over the extractor and pin, the buffer, and the spring. They looked good to go.

But the problem still exists. Could you please provide some insight into potential reasons for feeding problems that I could check. Thanks you for any advice you can give. Bradford Jones Check the chamber; look over the gas system for looseness, leakage, or fouling; and check for a broken ejector or jammed ejector spring.

If short recoil is the cause, the bolt rings aren’t staggered as they should be or are missing, dirt has built up in the carrier key or outside the gas tube, or movement of the bolt carrier or buffer assembly is being restricted. Finally, check to make sure that neither the carrier key nor the gas tube is loose. Fitting Rem11-48 Ejector I need some help on the proper way to take out an old ejector and fit anew one on a Remington Model 11- 48 12-gauge shotgun. I can’t find any written info on this.

Any information you could give me on this would be greatly appreciated. Allen Gerlinger Allen. D. Gerlinger@conocophillips. com Remove the magazine cap, forend, and barrel from the action. Heat the barrel extension around the ejector to melt the brazing material and remove the ejector. Clean the ejector slot. Place the new ejector flush with the rear end of the extension and braze it in place.

Caution: Apply heat only to the extreme end of the extension, and use heat-sink paste to prevent heat transfer to the barrel itself. Glock Model 21 Problems? A recent issue of the Oregonian reported the recall by the Portland (Oregon) Police Bureau of all Glock Model 21 .45 ACP pistols in service. There were 230 pistols affected. They will be replaced by Glocks in 9 mm Parabellum (no model mentioned). The reason for the recall was the catastrophic failure of two Model 21s during training, three days apart.

One officer firing the pistols had minor injuries, the other was uninjured. A similar incident had occurred in 1997, but apparently did not lead to any doubts about the pistols because the ammunition was suspect.

Early in the article, the Chief of Police stated that the pistol "basically exploded in his hand." However, later on, a more helpful description from an internal memorandum said the following: "An examination of the two guns revealed rupturing of the barrel, bulging of the slide, and the destruction of the trigger bag (sic), magazine-release mechanism, magazine, and receiver." In each case, a failure to feed led to ignition out of battery, with the resulting rupture of the case blowing out the magazine (and, apparently, doing the other damage described).

The Portland Police Bureau is negotiating with the Glock representative for replacement of their Model 21s with 9mm pistols. Portland Police training officer, Lt. John Tellis, remarked: "The design of the 9 mm Glock is different and would eliminate the possibility of this happening. That’s why in our opinion, the 9mm is the safer gun." I’m sending you this because I thought you might not have heard of these incidents, and may wish to look into the matter further. It may be of interest to your readers.

Have you heard of this problem with the Model 21? It was news to me, and

I read widely in the firearms press. I write to you, however, as you are the only magazine not dependent on manufacturers for advertising. The reasons for the vulnerability of the Model 21 to this malfunction is not clear from the journalistic account, and the statement of Lt. Tellis was too vague and unconvincing. Perhaps you could ask Glock or the Portland Police Bureau. H. E. M. du Coudray We spoke with the NCO in charge of the Portland Police. There were no misfires.

The cases blew above the feed ramp, because they weren’t supported sufficiently. Two lots of ammo were involved—both Federal Hi Shok 230. It is believed, but not confirmed, that the angled cut at the top of the ramp was the cause. Some aftermarket barrels for the .45-caliber Glock do not have this cut. As you probably know, at one time there were numerous blown cases in M1911 frames with .38 Super loaded to major factors. As a result, the ramped barrel was born to give full support to the high-velocity round.

We can’t confirm this, but it is suspected that someone opened up the throat of the Glock 21 pistols, thereby creating the problem. As far as we’ve been able to determine, these are isolated incidents and are not evidence of a design problem with the firearm. Torquing Scope Mounts In reference to the article by Dennis Wood titled "Scope Mounting: The Right Way" (April 2004), Mr.

Wood seems to be unaware of the purpose of uniformly torquing screws and bolts that are being used in conjunction with others to hold a common fixture in place—especially when they are used to hold optical instruments. On scope bases and rings, the actual amount of torque used to seat the screws is irrelevant for all practical purposes, as long as it is uniform among the screws and is sufficient to hold them in place under the shock of firing.

The reason a torque wrench is used for this purpose is to gain uniformity in the tightening that is impossible to achieve by "feel" alone. This is the same reason that trigger-guard screws on bolt-action rifles are tightened to a uniform inchpound setting. It is not a procedure used to merely keep screws and/or bolts from backing out under the stress of recoil, as Mr. Wood implies.

I’m sure a mechanical or optical engineer could explain the purpose and advantage of using calibrated instruments for the tightening of all screws on firearms, including scope bases and rings, but I think you get the idea. Rick Barker Thanks for your follow-up, Rick. As it happens, Mr. Wood is a mechanical engineer, and we agree with him that trying to torque a screw as small as #6 or 8 is likely to lead to broken screws. We also agree with Mr.

Wood that using thread-locker, rather than excessive torque, is a better means of ensuring that screws don’t shoot loose. We agree with you, however, that uniform tension is the goal. But with small screws, locked in place with with thread-locker, we believe that the gunsmith’s "feel" is probably sufficient for mounting most scope bases. Locked Up Longhorn I have a Texas Longhorn Arms Gro ver’s Number Five. This model is rare and the manufacturer is no longer around.

It was made on a Blackhawk frame, but with a left-side loading gate. There is a floating firing pin which the hammer strikes to fire the gun. For safety, only five rounds are to be loaded, leaving an empty chamber under the firing pin because there is no transfer bar. 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 The problem is that upon firing, the firing pin impales the primer and does not readily release it, which blocks the cylinder from turning. There is a spring to withdraw the firing pin, but it isn’t strong enough to extract the firing pin from the primer. The primer indentation seems relatively deep, but does not usually pierce the primer totally.

By drawing the hammer back to the safety notch and releasing it several times, I can observe the firing pin pop back to its normal position and the cylinder will rotate freely. I can’t see that the hammer has a rebound spring that is supposed to retract it back to the safety notch. I don’t know why the primer is capturing the firing pin and holding it, thus stopping the cylinder. What are your suggestions to approach this problem? Thanks!

Bill Gentry Lewisville, Texas The "Grover" is anew one on us but the lack of a transfer bar indicates the frame is an "Old Model" Blackhawk. We think the problem may be due to excessive cylinder end shake. Try installing end-shake washers (Brownells) to correct it. With the washer(s) in place, your front gauge between cylinder and forcing cone would be .0010 max; minimum .0003. The rear of the cylinder should gauge .0060 to .0065 between the cylinder and frame.

Another possibility is fouling of the firing-pin return spring. Remove the grips and blow out the firing-pin recess in the frame with Gunscrubber or CLP. Of course, if the spring is weakened or damaged, it must be replaced. Finally, you could shorten the firing pin, but have a fresh one standing by in case you overdo it. The result

(continued from previous page) of that error would be light hits and poor ignition. Thompson Trigger Woes I’m working on a Thompson Center Hawken that fails to fire when using the set trigger. The hammer doesn’t fall all the way to the cap. When using the rifle without the set trigger, it works just fine. The hammer doesn’t appear to be binding. Any ideas? Mike Di Nardo Apparently, the interference occurs between the set trigger assembly and the hammer.

Inspect using a magic marker on both to isolate the point(s) of contact, and stone them smooth. There may also be damage to the set trigger assembly. If it amounts to more than a bent or loose pin, the rifle may have to be returned to the factory due to parts restrictions.

Remington Model 4 Extraction I have a Remington Model 4 auto in .30-06 that came into my shop with the following info: 1) The extractor was replaced twice by two different shops because the shell was hard to extract. 2) The shell is still hard to extract. 3) I removed the barrel, and the chamber has small discolored pits in it.

My questions are. 1) Can I polish/ recut the chamber with a finishing reamer by .001/.0015 inch and still be safe? 2) What’s the right procedure to check headspace in an auto, as I have not done this before. 3) If you do not recommend this procedure, do you have any idea where I can get a replacement barrel as this is not a very popular gun. Numrich does not show it in their parts catalog. (The Remington 7400 is the closest.) Any help would be most appreciated. Thank you. Douglas Olson Polish. Just polish.

Then make a chamber cast, touch off around, and measure the dimensions of the fired case against S. A. A. M. I. chamber specs for the .30-06. Your chamber could be oversize due to wear and thus allowing the case to expand, with hard extraction being the result. Headspace should be checked with "go" and "no-go" gauges as you would with a bolt action. In this instance, control the forward movement of the Model 4 bolt so it doesn’t "slam" into the rear of the gauge.

The bolt should not close completely on a no-go gauge, the gun will remain out of battery, and the striker will not be released when the trigger is pulled. It’s an old gun. Finding a replacement barrel will be tough. Call Brownells and get a free copy of their latest parts source list for out-of-production firearms. And don’t forget to charge your customer for the numerous long-distance phone calls you’ll be making.

Marlin Model 55 Info I’m looking for any information pertaining to replacing the barrel and proper method for setting the headspace on a 12-gauge Marlin Model 55. The barrel threads into the receiver with a washer and what appear to be shims between the washer and the receiver. My assumption is that these washers are what is used to adjust the headspace.

Also it appears that the magazine well/trigger group may have to be removed, although I am hesitant to do this since the recoil lug appears to be the rear of the trigger group. Any information on this procedure and any advice on a source for action wrenches or patterns of wrenches to fit this shotgun would be a great help. Thank you in advance. Dale Annis You are correct; the washers are used to set headspace. But you are incorrect about the need to remove the trigger group and magazine well.

After turning in the Marlin’s barrel with the washer in place, insert a "go" gauge and see if the bolt closes tightly (very tightly). If the bolt moves after closing, you can fine tune the fit by carefully filing and stoning the bolt-handle notch in the receiver. Just remember, the bolt must lock down tightly on the go gauge. Your best source for action wrenches and barrel vises is Brownells.