Reader Forum

Remington Front Sight Replacement I just joined the American Gunsmithing Association and I appreciate your offer of technical assistance. Where can I find information and diagrams to show how to remove and replace the front sight bead (not a threadedtype bead) on a Remington 870 Express shotgun? I hope you can help. Thank you. Recent Model 870 shotguns have been equipped with a pressed-in front bead. If you’re familiar with a hardwarestore tool called a tack puller, buy one.

If you can’t find one, you can make a tack puller by putting a slight upward bend in the blade of a screwdriver and then grinding or filing a Vgroove in it. The V-groove should span the neck of your front bead but not its ball. Then harden the modified blade with Kasenit (from Brownells).

Next you’ll want to duct tape a wooden pad to the barrel or rib about an inch behind the existing bead. (If the bead is rib-mounted, a small Cclamp with protected contact surfaces should be mounted on the muzzle side of the rib to prevent it from being lifted off the barrel.) Now, using the wooden block as a fulcrum, insert the pulling tool under the ball and pry upward to remove it.

When installing the new bead, support the barrel with a wooden dowel or a brass or aluminum rod before tapping the new bead down into place. If no rib is present, be certain the new bead doesn’t intrude into the bore. If it does, carefully file, stone, and polish the stem of the bead to blend smoothly with the bore. Winchester Model 1400 Mag Tube Removal I would appreciate any assistance you can give on safely removing the magazine tube from the receiver of a Winchester Model 1400 shotgun. Thank you.

It seems like we get this same question every few months, so listen up, guys and gals. The Model 1400 magazine tube is pressed into and held in the receiver by one or two tube throats. A back-up tube cap must be screwed on the end of the tube to drive it into the receiver with a wooden, plastic, or leather mallet. That, of course, is after the trigger assembly, forend/action bars, bolt, and the components of the recoil/gas system have been removed.

The tube only has to be driven inward far enough to free the throat(s), which will drop from the bottom of the receiver. Then remove the backup cap, slip a slide hammer over the tube, and replace the back-up cap. The slide hammer must move freely between the receiver and the cap. It can beapiece of iron pipe, a bored out 1-pound weight from a set of NRA trigger pull weights, or something as simple as a box-end wrench to which additional weight is taped.

With the back-up cap screwed back on (hand tight is okay), the replacement throat(s) are positioned on that portion of the tube projecting into the receiver, and the tube is pulled forward by hand to capture them. The slide hammer is then repeatedly moved back and forth to impact the back-up cap until the throat is (or the throats are) flush with the inside of the receiver. Finally, replace the back-up cap with the original cap. Reassemble the shotgun, and check the function with dummy rounds.

Troubleshooting Marlin 39A? Somewhere in your magazine I know I read an article on troubleshooting the Marlin Model 39A. But I have all the issues and can’t find it. Could you please tell me which issue it’s in? Thank you for your time. The bad news is: You’re wrong; There is no article on troubleshooting Marlin 39A in any of our back issues. The good news is, thanks to your request and several others, there is just what you were looking for in the issue you have in your hands. You’re welcome.

Cracked Barrel A customer brought in a Remington Model 512A tube-fed .22 rifle with the bolt out. He couldn’t get it back in. The bolt was uncocked. I cocked the bolt and it went back in partway, but pulling the trigger still wouldn’t let bolt go all the way in. Part of the carrier seems to stick up too high in the bolt tunnel. I removed some rust with steel wool to find the model number and a crack about 1-1/4 inches long showed up about 2 inches past the end of the forend.

If I get the bolt back in, how dangerous might this be to the customer (or anyone around him). The crack on the barrel is about as wide as the line drawn by a ballpoint pen or maybe a little wider. Thanks. Assuming the crack extends into the bore, we believe the gun would be dangerous to shoot’and the owner

(continued from previous page) probably wouldn’t hit anything with it anyway. Besides anew barrel, it sounds like the carrier assembly is in need of an overhaul. Adjustable M77 Trigger I recently purchased an aftermarket drop-in trigger for the Ruger All- Weather Mark II M77 (from Brownells). There was more work involved to make it drop in than I was lead to believe, so I sold it. My question to you is: Who’s got the least complicated adjustable trigger for this model? Thanks. We don’t understand your question.

The Ruger Mark II Target is built on the standard Mark II action, but has a fully adjustable trigger (see the May 98 issue). Instead of digging around in the aftermarket, why not call Ruger and get a Mark II target-trigger assembly for your Model 77? Erma-Werke Receiver? Could you help me identify a .22caliber lever-action I recently acquired? I can’t find any information except what’s on the gun. Here’s what is on it: Erma-Werke, Model EG 73, Kal .22 WMN.

It also says: Serial # 003796, Made in West Germany, Excam, Inc., Hialeah, Florida. I need a replacement receiver and a beaded insert for the front sight. The one on the gun has been broken and someone tried to repair it by spotwelding it. It didn’t work! The gun seems like a good design, but Numrich does not list any parts for it. An exploded view would also be good. Thanks for any help you may be able to give me. All importation of Excam guns ended in 1990.

Your rifle was discontinued in 1985 and was chambered for .22 WMR only. No schematic can be found. The EG 73 was a small-caliber copy of the Winchester Model 1892, which was a center fire rifle. Unfortunately, there’s no way a receiver from the Model 1892if you could find one’will fit your gun. Your best bet is to contact Brownells and ask for a free copy of their parts source list for outof-production firearms. There’s a possibility you might find a source for a receiver or front sight on that list.

Fox in a Basket I know it’s not a Fox Model B, but a customer brought me a nice old Philadelphia 20-gauge Fox shotgun. The problem is it’s totally apart. He had the action recolored and the barrels Technical Assistance Hotline To access AGA’s Technical-Assistance Hotline, call between 1 and 3 p.m. ET, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday once at all dan email to Chick Blood, Technical Editor, at blackened, and now he can’t get it back together. I’ve searched through my library and online, but have failed to find anything.

I don’t expect to find detailed instructions on assembly, but a diagram with parts would be a big help. I really don’t even know if all of the parts are there. Can you help me or tell me where to look for information? If the shotgun was made in Philadelphia by A. H. Fox, that happened between 1905 and 1930. The Model B, by the way, wasn’t introduced until 1942, some 12 years after Savage acquired Fox. In any case, if there is a patent number anywhere on the shotgun, a copy of the patent can be obtained from the U.

S. Patent & Trademark Office, Washington, DC, for a very nominal fee. If no patent number is shown, a patent search would have to be conducted at considerably greater cost. A patent contains several drawings and a description of how the gun operates, and would be of great help to you if that’s all the information you can find. Before you pay for a patent search, we suggest you contact John T. Callahan, the Savage historian Westfield, MA 01085).

Include a photo of the shotgun, gauge, barrel length, any and all markings/ numbers it carries, and a stamped, self-addressed return envelope. Mr. Callahan may be able to give you the patent number. His services are not free, but would be far less than hiring a lawyer to conduct a patent search. One concern remains with us: Your customer has greatly lessened the collector value of the gun by having it refinished. Some of the old Fox doubles are in the five-figure category.