Reader Forum

Savage 340 Barrels I own a Savage 340E in .222 Remington. I don’t know a lot of history about this gun or the 340 in general. I bought it about 22 years ago from a Tennessee groundhogger. I’ve been shooting it for about 4 years now (with Hornady V-Max). At 100 to 150 yards, it’s a tackdriver. Here’s my problem’ejection. I think the throat is burnt out. After about six rounds, it’s time to get out the ram rod. I can’t find a barrel and I don’t want to think about tooling it up to .223 (if that’s even a possibility).

Got any suggestions? Thanks in advance. If the throat is enlarged as you suspect, the problem is more likely related to extraction, because when the cartridge is fired the case expands to fill the breech tightly. We suggest you make a chamber cast with Brownells Cerro Safe and measure the casting against SAAMI specifications for a .222 chamber. If it’s enlarged, call Savage and see if they can provide a replacement barrel or contact a barrel maker for a quote on anew barrel.

Winchester Model 37 Lever Did you ever do an article on the Winchester Model 37 Red Letter? I was told the barrels are fitted to each gun, but what’s fitted to what? And, if the lever doesn’t return to center, how do you center it? Thanks. We’ve never done an article on this particular Winchester. The barrels are fitted to the receiver using factory headspace gauges.

When the action closes on a "go" gauge, the barrel, if not screwed in to that point, is otherwise secured in place and the shotgun is considered to be properly breeched. Shooters frequently fail to keep a thumb or other part of their hand clear of the lever when closing a breakopen shotgun. As a result, the lever is blocked from returning to dead center. In some designs, the lever never returns to center position, but is slightly to the left or right when the action is closed.

This does not mean the gun is unlocked and should not be fired. Crescent Victor Part? I am in need of the fore-iron and wood, if possible, for a Crescent Victor 12-gauge, single-barrel, auto-eject flat-spring model. As you probably know, the flat-spring model is different from the coil-spring model. Please advise if you have these items and I will place an order. Thanks. The AGA doesn’t sell parts for guns, whether new or out of production.

Call Brownells and ask for a free copy of their "Parts Source List." After you get the list, be prepared to make some phone calls. Bolt for Sako 222 Rem Mag? I have a Sako .222 Rem Mag on which the bolt is missing. I’ve been to several gunsmiths trying to get a bolt or have one made. No one close in my area help me. I did try Numerich and they didn’t have one. The only information on the gun is "SAKO Riihimaki No 48824" and several gunsmith marks. I’ve been told that the model is a Vixen.

Can you help me get in touch with someone who can supply a bolt or someone who can make one for this rifle? Thank you for your time. The SAKO rifle line is presently under the wing of Beretta US. They might be able to provide more general information on your rifle, although we suspect it predates their acquisition of SAKO by more than a few years. Securing a bolt is a much larger problem.

If Beretta USA had one, they wouldn’t sell it to you. (It’s restricted.) Searching the aftermarket is likely to result in a frustrating search involving lots of long-distance phone calls and ultimately leading to a dead end. Perhaps the best opportunity to have a bolt made lies with a master-metalsmith member of the American Custom Gunmakers Guild But before you do that, you might want to check out your rifle in The Blue Book of Gun Values.

That might convince you to consider anew gun in .222 Rem Mag, rather than spending an equal amount of money’or more’chasing a bolt for your Vixen. Problems with the M1911? Do you have a back issue covering any problems with the Colt OM .45 ACP pistol? Over the years, there have been numerous articles on the M1911 in American Gunsmith. Some addressed problems, some were about upgrades, and there was a series of five articles with instructions on building a comp gun from scratch.

All of these are out of print now, but there will be another series on building a standard "government model" coming up soon. In the meantime, there is another source for the information you seek.

A very well known, highly respected gunsmith named Jerry Kuhnhausen has compiled many years of notes on the M1911 in three "Shop Manuals." These manuals, complete with diagrams, dimensions, and key information on troubleshooting/repair/modifications are available from Brownells By the way, if your Original Manufacture Colt wears "Property of U. S. Army" or other branch of the military, don’t change a thing about it. Keep it clean and lightly lubricated inside and out.

Its value is sky high and going nowhere but further up. Starfire .380 Takedown I need info on a Star Model F, also known as a Starfire .380 pistol, including the takedown procedure. I’ve saved all the American Gunsmith is-

(continued from previous page) sues since I joined the AGA, but I need the month and year, if possible, of any article that might apply. Thanks. An article on the Star Model Fin .22 caliber appeared in the December 04 issue, and the Firestar was featured in the December 01 issue. The Gun Digest book on disassembly/reassembly for pistols also includes the Star PD. Between the information in the three sources, you should have little trouble taking down your .380.

Locking Remington 870 I have a Remington 870 12-gauge express mag in the shop. The customer said she shoots a lot during dove season. When the gun gets hot, it locks up and will not function until it cools down. I shot a box of 25 shells in under 10 minutes, and the barrel got hot to the touch but did not lock up. (She must shoot a lot more than I do in 10 minutes.) Would you think it gets hot enough for something to expand and cause it to lock up, or am I thinking too hard on the matter?

I took it apart and everything looks fine as far as I can tell. Thank you for your help. With a pump shotgun, when a customer delivers the general complaint: "It’s locking up," it generally means the same thing as "It’s jamming." In both cases, your initial response should be: "How?" Is it failing to ejector extractor feed back? Or is it double feeding or failing to feed up? If it’s locking, is it locking closed or locking open?

If you’ll give us the phone number of your customer’s he sounds like our kind of girl’we’d be happy to delve into this personally. (Just kidding.) But otherwise, we’d have to make some assumptions in our response. If she shoots a lot during dove season, she probably shops around for the best deal she can get on ammunition.

One of the ways shotshells can be made cheaply is to use low-cost brass for the base. (Low-cost brass flows easier than the better quality metal.) When the barrel heats up, cheap brass can flow in all directions, making extraction difficult, if not impossible. Thus the gun would be locked closed.

Barring the presence of a broken component, however, the most common cause of locking closed with an 870 is a burr that has been raised as a result of the heavy bolt repeatedly 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 impacting the chamber at the barrel breech. Check it out. If it’s there, smooth it out.

Conversely, again assuming nothing is broken, when the action locks open it is often caused by debris behind the trigger mechanism, the forearm rubbing the barrel, or the forearm nut being loose. The latter two conditions lead to misalignment of the forearm, making functioning much harder than normal. Don’t Touch the Marlin M19 I need an assembly/disassembly diagram for a Marlin Model 19, 12-gauge pump-action shotgun. I did contact the historian at the Marlin Firearms Co., but he was of no help. Thanks.

We have no schematic for the Marlin Model 19, and we aren’t surprised to hear the company historian couldn’t or wouldn’t help you. About 10 years ago, Marlin Firearms issued a service bulletin on a considerable number of shotguns, for which the manufacturing records have been lost. The 19 was among them. Due to the age of these guns, as well as unknown metallurgy, heattreatment procedures, and acceptance standards, the major concern was the possibility of failures in the firing system when modern loads are used.

Possible failures include the hammer half-cock notch, the trigger sear, and the secondary safety sear. At the time the bulletin was issued, we published a report listing all affected guns. Our conclusion was, if one of these shotguns is ever brought into your shop, your reaction should be a polite "Thanks, but no thanks."