Reader Forum

Remington 552 My favorite .22 rifle is the Remington 552 and I enjoyed the December 2019 article about it. Several years ago a friend gave me an old, rusted 552. I sanded, buffed, polished, and reblued it into a somewhat-nice looking rifle that is really fun to shoot. Paul Because of the excessive play between the barrel and receiver, a receiver-mounted scope is of no use, so I just shoot with open sights. But there’s one problem: the chamber seems to be "crudded up" and there are failures to extract.

I disassembled the rifle exactly per Ed Nutter’s instructions. I soaked, scrubbed, and cleaned everything. Inspecting the extractor revealed it to be not worn with good spring tension. Even with a brushed out the chamber there are still have some failures to extract, just not as many. Should I ream out the chamber, rather like the gas piston on an M14? Given the expense of a tool I’ll only use once, would another tool (drill bit?) suffice to clean out whatever is clogging the chamber?

John Author Ed Nutter responds. You mention "excessive play" between the barrel and receiver. I’d look into that as it could cause failures to extract. Does the brass stay in the chamber? Does the ejector slip off the rim? As always, be consistent with ammunition choice to rule that out. There are some bulk .22 Long Rifle that’s best used in revolvers because they seem underpowered and have trouble cycling a semi-auto.

Also, check if a previous owner shot large amounts of .22 Short, eroding the chamber and causing .22 LR to stick. Ruger Shotgun Repair The spur on the left hammer of my Ruger Gold Label broke off. Ruger won’t sell me the hammer so I sent them the shotgun for replacement. Later, the same hammer spur broke off and I sent it back to Ruger. They called telling me they don’t repair these and have no parts. Any idea how I can fix this and find parts? Charlie Get a free copy of Brownells Parts Source List.

Plenty of sources there besides Jack First and the former Numrich. During your contact with Brownells speak with one of their techs for the phone or address of a really good shotgun gunsmith with a wad of welding experience. Follow up that lead to communicate with the recommended ‘smith. Make your best deal and ship the gun. We were more than mildly shocked at the news Ruger doesn’t make shotguns anymore but, sadly, they no longer list them as currently manufactured.

While likely still available for retailers, it means supplies of the Red Label will soon dry up. The Red Label is one of the best O/U scatterguns ever for the MSRP asked. AG