Reader Forum

I have The NRA Gunsmithing Guide and that’s not the only thing I disagree with in the book. You try making a Vspring the way they show and it will not work. I also have Kuhnhausen’s The Mauser M91 through M98 Bolt Actions. A Shop Manual. If you look in the front of the book you will see he gets his information from a lot of different sources. Not everything you read is gospel. In Roy Dunlap’s Gunsmithing didn’t state any a concern about this.

Neither did Walter Howe in Professional Gunsmithing, nor Clyde Baker in Modern Gunsmithing nor Harold E. Mac Farland in Introduction to Modern Gunsmithing nor in any of the four Gunsmith Kinks by Bob Brownell. It sort of upset me when someone says I may have been doing something wrong when I know for a fact I have not. I have been building custom rifles, pistols and shotguns for many years and there isn’t too much I haven’t gotten into. In fact, I’m getting into color case hardening and plating shortly.

Let’s work through a few other issues. Regarding the Stevens M-44, a good move is to buy anew rifle. About the biggest cartridge I would put in one of these is .32-20. At one time I think they came in .38-55 and .32.40, however, they were using black powder. On occasion, I’m asked to fix up granddaddy’s old gun for a youngster. Most of the time I tell them to buy the kid anew gun and hang this one on the wall. On the Stevens Visible Loader, I have a magazine tube if anyone needs one.

The Visible Loader has a weak action. The only one I completely restored had a lot of gas escape to the rear. Others I have repaired were wall hangers and not for shooting. The Marlin A1. The magazine will work with very little fitting, however, the two A1s I have fixed up to sell will not eject a loaded round. They shoot reasonably well but when trying to clear the chamber the base of the cartridge hits the ejector pin before the bullet can clear.

One of these days I will try moving the ejector pin back so the cartridge will clear as I can’t sell them the way they are. Charles A. Crum Ranson, WV 25438 CZ-82 Followup In response to my previous correspondence regarding the trigger problems with a CZ-82. My initial suspicion that the sear spring was the problem proved to be correct. After removing slight burrs on the sear and hammer lever with a light stoning, the sear spring was bent open about ten degrees, solving the problem.

Also, three other owners of CZ’s I know had similar problems to a much lesser degree. With as many of these being sold, I’m sure that they turning up for repair. It would be nice if Wolfe or somebody would come out with a replacement spring but with a slight radius at the end of the straight arm to facilitate reassembly when the ejector black is installed. Finally, I have a small correction to your assembly/disassembly instructions. Pin #6 that holds the ejector block also holds the automatic safety in place.

The left headed pin holds the frame mounted sear and sear spring. The right hand headed pin merely anchors the front of the ejector block. All in all I’m very impressed with the CZ-82 and one will soon be in my gun safe. Ronald D. Roalson St. Clair, MN Unusual Shotgun We found an unusual shotgun and would appreciate it if you could be of help in identifying it.

The gun is a 12 gauge double barrel marked "Nathan King – Manchester" on the top rib and "Newton" on the side lock plates, with an under lever to open the action, double triggers and exposed hammers. The barrels are not Damascus. I would appreciate any information you could give me regarding the history of the maker and if there are any other sources that could be contacted that would help evaluate the gun. Verne E. Dow GFY Inc.

Topeka, KS About the only thing we can glean from you description is the gun was made in Manchester, UK by a chap by the name of Nathan King. You will have to dig much deeper and farther. We believe contacting such persons as the Curator of Arms and Armor at the British Museum and Tower of London could be more productive but we are not aware of their policies on evaluating firearms sight unseen. Derringer Value I have a four barrel derringer and am trying to identify when it was made by serial number.

It has a rotating firing pin and the .22 caliber barrels are arranged in a square block.. The derringer is stamped "C. Sharps Company, Patented 1859, Serial No. 585XX." On

the right side of the frame is stamped "C. Sharps, Philadelphia, PA." What is the derringer’s value? Raymond Tamaszewski Refer to three sources as we can not estimate values sight unseen.

Blue Book of Gun Values, Standard Catalog of Firearms: The Collector’s Price & Reference Guide, and Flayderman’s Guide to Antique American Firearms and Their Values Starr Pepper Box I have a Starr .32 caliber, four barrel pepper box that is missing several parts, including a firing pin, firing pin ratchet, firing pin spring and keeper. Can you recommend anyone that offers these parts or a suggestion on how they might be built? I have Starr’s original patent drawings and instructions on how this pistol works.

Eban T. Starr was the inventor and maker of this circa 1864 old timer. Your patent drawing will be helpful on how the gun functions but we don’t believe they can serve as manufacturing blueprints. We wonder why you tackled this restoration unless you have an assured buyer standing by. You’ll be running up plenty of time and expense that would surpass the cost of anew, safer Bond Arms derringer. Freedom, PA Sight In Data I was robbed several years ago and have since had everything replaced except my sight-in card.

This had data for sighting in rifles, such as where to set point of impact at 12 or 15 yards to establish a zero at 80 yards. The card also gave point of impact information at 50 and 100 yards. The card also had data for a variety of cartridges from .22 and bigger. I have not seen a chart like this since and do not know who made it. Frederick Neuhauser, Jr. Scottsburg, IN F. B. Neuhauser Custom Guns We can do you one better as it is easy to make your own ballistic data cards.

If you’re not sure how, John Plaster has a free article on his website describing the process (ultimatesniper. com/Docs/38. PDF) You’ll need ballistics software to establish initial book data. Sierra Infinity ballistic software, currently at version 6.0, is reasonably priced. On the free end, visit JBM Bal- John G. Durst Austin, TX listics (jbmballistics.com) for free ballistic calculators online. 1911 Cyclic Rate I am curious to know the cyclic rate of a 1911 pistol in .45 ACP.

At different Bullseye pistol matches you’ll occasionally hear a pistol go full auto resulting from a poor trigger job or worn sear. George Geiges Newfoundland, PA In the late 1980s there was a failed attempt to make a PDW (Personal Defense Weapon) based on a fully automatic 1911 in .45 ACP called the AWS (Automatic Weapon Systems) 1911 Machine Pistol. The Elisco Tool Company was approached by several Filipino agencies (mostly police units) to produce this fully automatic version of the M1911A1.

The initial prototypes had a cyclic rate of 1000 RPM and standard magazines would be emptied in a split second. Even with an attempted redesign based around the higher capacity Para-Ordnance frame, the concept never worked out. Marlin 39A Takedown Screw I have a Marlin model 39A built in 1947 as indicated by the "D" prefix in the serial number. I want to reblue the receiver but I need to know how to remove the takedown screw.

The screw appears to have a bushing or wide shank just behind the threads that prevents it from falling out. Roy Seifert The only schematic on the 39A we have shows part 53, the thumbscrew, which serves as the takedown screw. No retainer of this part is indicated but its threaded end is of larger diameter than the shaft end of the screw. According to takedown instructions, the action must be closed and the hammer cocked prior to backing out the screw.

After this, we can see nothing to prevent the screw from being completely backed out from the receiver. AG