Reader Forum

Shotgun and Back Issues I’m writing for help identifying a 12 gauge shotgun I recently bought. The shotgun is marked "National Fire- Arms Co." on the barrel, "12 GA." on top of the chamber and "Modified Choke" on the left side of the chamber. All the stamped lettering is surrounded by stars. The serial number is 1250XX. It is an exposed hammer pump shotgun and appears to be a take down model with a thirty inch barrel. It appears to be a copy of the 1898 Marlin and probably from the 1930s or 40s.

Any idea on specifics? Also, I’m looking to purchase all American Gunsmith back issues from February 2010 and earlier. Readers Doug Spooner and Charles Krall mentioned having entire collections of back issues for sale. I’d be especially interested in purchasing a complete collection of issues. Please call or write me if you have any for sale. Alton MO 65606-0068 Nothing in our files. Send a photo of the gun and your description to the National Firearms Museum, Fairfax, VA 22030 nramuseum.org).

If writing, include a stamped, self addressed return envelope. We’re posting your contact info for readers with back issues to sell. AR-15 Function Issue I had a customer bring in an AR-15 that will not pick up around from the magazine despite ejecting the fire case. I have inspected every thing I know to check and nothing seems to help. The rifle is a kit gun assembled by my customer. When contacting the kit manufacturer, their only advice proved unhelpful, suggesting only that the gas tube was upside down.

The gas tube was installed properly and everything appears as it should. George Weiland George’s Gun Repair From author Joe Carlos. I am the gunsmith that wrote the two part article published in the January and February 2014 issues titled, "Do You Have Gas?" It sounds like your problem may be answered in that article. Parts guns such as your customer’s rifle can be function nightmares as you are finding out! You say the rifle won’t feed anew round.

It’s possible for an AR to eject a fired case but for the bolt to not continue far back enough to pick up the next round in the magazine. Test if the bolt is locking back on the last shot in the magazine. If not, the bolt isn’t cycling far enough rearward. The difference in distance isn’t much but it can be enough to cause what you are describing. Other things to check, have you tried your own ammo in the gun? Try ammunition known to be reliable in AR-15 rifles as the customer’s ammo may be weak.

Use a known good magazine. Of course, cleanliness and proper lube are always suspect. If none of these quick fixes work, go through my article point by point and rule out the other possibilities. As detailed therein, you’ll find a number of things that can cause the mentioned symptoms. Pay attention to the section on checking bolt rings. After trying ammo, magazine substitutions and other quick fixes, substitute a lighter buffer spring.

Charley Gates Don’t hesitate to contact me directly at Eventually we will figure this out! From George Weiland. The gas system inspected positive and the washers on the bolt were in good shape. I test fired the rifle again with a good magazine and a hotter load of good, known quality but the results were the same. After working through your suggested quick fixes I swapped out the buffer spring. Success! I immediately was able to run out three rounds so fast it would have made you dizzy.

Thank you for the personal help. I will be watching for more of your writings. Three Generations of S&W Semiautomatics I just read Wendell Deaner’s article in the February 2014 issue. Excellent! I have an M39-2—circa 1975— that I’ve always avoided taking the frame apart. Seems that elves and witchcraft were involved. However, my M39 bought new a few years back has a rear sight that’s sort of "bayoneted" into the slide rather than drifted in.

Essentially, there’s along piece of steel on the front of the sight that rides in a cutout on the top of the slide. It’s not buried in it but more or less isn’t there. To remove the rear sight, put a fine punch into the little hole at the tip of that piece of steel and pry it up a few thousandths. That allows rotating the rear sight to the left or right and eventually disengaging it from the slide. It’ll just pop off at that point.

I don’t recall the magazine disconnector spring being particularly stiff but it’s under the sight. Other than firing with the magazine removed, it doesn’t seem to matter whether that spring and plunger are present. The plunger pushes on a lever that serves to disconnect things if it can be moved down, which it will only do if the magazine is missing. Without the plunger it won’t move downwards. Pretty trivial, but if you try to drift one of these out it could get interesting.

Removal of the safety lever is slightly different, too. Mine only requires a pin to drive the firing pin further up into the slide and then you can sort of work the safety lever out of the slide without further button pushing. The safety lever does lock the firing pin when in safe mode but it’s free to move otherwise. I quit carrying it many years ago—it’s just too big for the caliber compared to something like an S&W M&P 9mm or .40—but it’s still great to shoot. Among other things, I’m a semiretired rent-a-cop.

Very not-retired in 1975, though. Starsky & Hutch somehow got the local PD Detectives interested in the M39 and I was

able to piggyback on a bulk order for them. Hard to believe that my price was $125 in those days. Stu Mulne SMM Associates Youngstown, OH From author Wendell Dwight Deaner. Thank you for reading American Gunsmith magazine and thanks for your kind comments about my article. The variations found on your guns do not surprise me.

For a firearm first introduced in 1954 and a manufacturing history stretching over many years—three generations and thousands produced—it is common to find such things and often not well documented. I printed your letter and have added it to my research files. Thanks for the info! Ruger And Remington I have a Ruger Mini-14 with the bolt locked in battery and a Remington 700 that drops the firing pin whenever the safety is pushed off. Is there something in the archives that relates to either or both?

Are all your old articles available on the Internet now? We hope there’s no live round in the Mini. Better check it out. Point the rifle in a safe direction and pull the trigger. The live round, if present, should detonate. If the firing pin doesn’t fall, the bolt is not in battery and the rifle failed to cock. That could be good or bad news. If the rifle didn’t cock there’s something wrong with the firing system. We can’t be specific about what the something could be without the gun in hand.

We believe Ruger will provide a complete, factory assembled firing mechanism but will not provide individual replacement parts suitable for an off-site rebuild. A spent round might be stuck in a fouled or rough chamber. Another possibility, the stuck round was overloaded in its reloading and, when fired, expanded to jam itself tightly in the chamber.

As long as you’re positive you’re dealing with a spent round in the Mini, try inserting a wooden dowel or either an aluminum or brass rod down the barrel, into the case neck and into contact with its back end. Tap on the muzzle end of the inserted dowel/ rod. It may be enough to start the case moving and allow its extraction via the bolt. Jim Thompson Was the M700 ever subjected to a trigger job? If so, the resulting pull might have felt great to a trigger finger because it was excessively lightened.

The mere movement of the safety or closing, not forcefully slamming, the bolt can jar the safety enough to disengage and release the firing pin. There’s also the chance the safety is seriously worn and not capable of doing its intended job. Here again, the availability of individual parts is highly doubtful. In this case, ditto a complete safety. The Mini and Remington 700 have both been addressed in previous articles.

Whether or not those articles are among all past articles you believe are on the internet can be determined by calling Sig P220 I recently received a Sig P220 for cleaning. On disassembly, I found that right behind the hammer is a spring held in by a pin at the rear of the frame. I did not see the spring until I removed the hammer. My auto pistol disassembly manual shows it to be similar to the Browning BDA 45. It mentions the pin as a filler piece (#23) but nothing about the spring.

When reinstalling the hammer what position should the spring be in? If it’s not in the correct position it can interfere with the installation of the mainspring. Joe Grisafi Jr. Eagle 1 Gunsmithing We’ve published to articles on Sig P-Series pistols. The first (October 1999) covers disassembly/reassembly. The second (January 2000) gets into troubleshooting. We believe the spring you refer to is the slide catch lever spring. One end of it fits in a hole in the locking block.

The opposite end activates the slide catch lever. We hope this helps. The matter of mainspring interference did not come up when Sig Arms provided inputs for the articles. AG