Reising Target Pistol

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In the second of what I hope to be my continuing series of articles concerning the amateur resuscitation of oddball and/or old firearms (the first being "1871 Vetterli Conversion", July 2017) I offer here an overview of the Reising 22 Long Rifle semi-automatic pistol. The Reising name is generally known for the ill-regarded M50 submachinegun chambered in 45 Automatic Colt Pistol disliked by the Marines of Guadalcanal among other places.

However, Eugene Reising was also a highly respected competitive pistol shooter and engineer who worked with John Browning on development of the Model 1911; over the course of his life he amassed over 60 firearms patents. The Reising rimfire pistol was first patented in 1916 and again in 1921.

A few thousand were produced at Reising’s factory in Hartford, Connecticut with around a thousand built at his later factory Despite the welded slide, the malfunction was in the sear; it shoots fine. in New York City for a total of something over 5,000. The pistol has a reputation for accuracy and reliability, although the slide is delicate and prone to cracking at about the midpoint of the rail, where it meets the bolt face.

Nonetheless, it is a lovely little pistol—not unlike the Colt Woodsman in size and heft, well made, nicely balanced and uncommonly simple in operation and normal maintenance. My Reising was probably bought new by my grandfather, I suspect for use at his fishing camp in northeast Ontario. Sometime in its past the slide cracked on the left side, on the thin rail immediately forward of the main body of the slide. My grandfather welded the crack and ground down the weld, although it was never re-finished.

As the pistol is designed for low velocity 22LR ammunition, the danger of metallurgical changes is low—it seems to be a common failing and repair. It does not appear as though the crack propagated completely through the slide rail, so all of the dimensions are correct and the slide works fine. I remember shooting the pistol as a kid, crack and all with no issues.

However, as time went on my memory of the pistol’s performance is that it started doubling, with the incidences of doubling increasing to the point that we finally stopped even trying. However, I have a need to make things work, so while waiting for supplies for my Broomhandle Mauser project, resurrection of a Belgian Frontier Army 44-40 Winchester, and a Mauser switch barrel project, I decided to clear a space on the workbench to see about returning the ancient Reising to its duty.

There isn’t much available by way of literature regarding the Reising pistol, but I found a nice article about it by Mac Gregor Scott in American Handgunner magazine online ("The Reising .22 Semi- Auto Pistol", Bit.ly/37h0Jd1). Most fortunately, there is a company called Cornell Publications (CornellPubs.com) that offers reprints of old firearm manuals and catalogs. I ordered a copy of the Reising 1924 catalog which upon arrival

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proved to have a good cutaway diagram as well as the illustrated parts breakdown. Numrich Gun Parts also has this on their website (GunPartsCorp.com). Thus armed with a clue regarding disassembly and possibly even successful reassembly, I resolved to take the pistol apart to troubleshoot. Function Mr. Reising’s pistol is a simple blowback operated semi-automatic and designed for standard or low velocity ammunition.

A coil spring mounted in the frame (the retracting spring) has a shuttle (the retracting spring plunger) at the outboard end that engages a bar at the front end of the slide (listed as the bolt in the catalog) and acts as both a buffer and return for the slide. There is no locking mechanism and the spring holds the slide forward. It has no safety per se, but it does have a couple of safety features.

First is the disconnecti ng sa fet y— a small bar mounted vertically on the left side of the sear, riding on the sear pin, that is pushed up into a hole in the bottom left of the slide by the sear bar when the slide is fully in battery, allowing the pistol to fire. When the slide starts back, it pushes the bar down, blocking the externally mounted sear bar, preventing the trigger from resetting until it is released and the slide is in battery.

Second, the pistol cannot be fired without a magazine inserted and locked. There is also a half cock position on the hammer. The slide does not lock back after the last round, so keeping count is a good idea. The front sight is fixed; the rear sight is secured by a set screw which can be loosened to allow drifting the sight left or right. Elevation can be adjusted by changing blades on the front sight, although I suspect anew blade would have to be custom made as the catalog does not offer replacements.

Takedown Normal takedown for cleaning is exceptionally simple. One pulls the slide back a bit and then rotates the barrel lock on the left side of the frame above the trigger aft with the thumb, releasing the detent locking the breach end of the barrel to allow the barrel to pivot forward on the frame. Easing the slide forward and lifting the forward end off of the shuttle at the end of the return spring allows the slide to travel forward a bit more and come off. That’s it.

Further takedown of the pistol is not part of normal maintenance but it’s reasonably straightforward. For ease of handling, I took the barrel off of the frame by unscrewing the barrel screw on which the barrel pivots. I then removed the Bakelite grips by backing out the screws at the top and bottom of each grip. With the magazine removed, this exposes the three fingered sear spring—one leaf for the magazine release, one operating the sear, and the third for returning the sear bar and trigger.

At the top of the left side of the grip one can also see the lower end of the disconnecting safety. Before proceeding to disassemble the inner workings, the hammer needs to be returned to the forward position by pushing the disconnecting safety down and pulling the trigger (preferably while holding the trigger spur to ease it down). The sear bar, which rides in a slot on the left side of the frame, should be lifted out at this juncture and set aside. Drift the sear pin out from the

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This catalog included an illustrated parts breakdown (also found on the Numrich website) and this cutaway of the left side with the location of all of the parts annotated by the catalog numbers. This was helpful in convincing the author to undertake the disassembly himself with some hope of correct reassembly. right side using a 1/16" punch. The sear and disconnecting safety will drop out with only a little push from the leaf spring—there’s no danger of having to pursue them across the shop.

The sear spring can now be removed from its machined slot and set aside. With the sear removed, remove the hammer. Drift the hammer pin out from the right side using a 3/32" punch. Once free, the hammer and hammer strut will fall right out, exposing in the back of the grip the upper main spring follower. The main spring assembly rides in a hole drilled along the length of the back of the grip, secured at the bottom with a pin.

It comprises the spring, the upper main spring plunger with a detent at the top in which the hammer strut rides, and the lower main spring plunger at the bottom that rests on the pin. Drifting the pin out at the bottom (directly above the magazine catch) will let the main spring assembly drop out, although in my case untold years-worth of oil and crud turned to varnish meant I had to use some paint thinner and a little gentle persuasion to ease it out.

The magazine catch is just a spring loaded Baxter went to his go-to solution in such cases—J-B Weld. serrated knob with an edge to catch the bottom of the magazine. It is at the heel of the grip on the bottom, sliding back to release the magazine. It is held in place at its forward edge with a pin, which can be drifted out with a 1/16" punch.

There is a tiny coil spring set into a hole in the back edge that has to be cared for, but given all of the varnish that had accumulated on the latch, it didn’t try to go anywhere. The trigger is affixed with a 3/32" pin which, when drifted out from the right side of the frame, releases the trigger out the bottom. The retracting spring for the slide is held in place by the retracting spring plunger stop screw in the end of the frame, in the slot where the barrel pivot fits.

Backing this screw out will allow removal of the spring, guide and the shuttle (retracting spring plunger) that connects it to the slide. At the back of the frame just ahead of the rear of the slide rails is the hammer stop, a square pin mounted transversely. It is relieved at about a 45 degree angle across the surface that faces the top of the sear (to provide clearance for the sear) but completely square on the ends. This can be drifted out with a 1/16" punch.

The barrel lock is retained by a spring-loaded pin (the barrel lock plunger) that fits into a vertical hole next to the barrel lock hole on the right side of the frame. One can push this down with something like a dentist’s pick, freeing it from the detent in the barrel lock shaft and allowing the barrel lock to be pulled out from the left side of the frame. The firing pin is held in place by a transverse pin on the slide—drifting it out with a 1/16" punch will allow you to remove the firing pin and spring.

The extractor is similarly affixed with a pin, on which it pivots against a spring that returns it to grasp the edge of the cartridge upon loading. Removing the pin al-

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The damage to the edge was evident after one pass with the whetstone on the sear top. The shaft of the barrel lock has a curved cutout that rotates to clear the locking tang on the barrel. When the lock is rotated, the cutout clears the cut in the tang on the barrel, releasing the barrel to be pivoted forward. The plunger engages a detent in the right end of the shaft, securing it in the locked position. lows the extractor and spring to be detached.

Inspection With the pistol thus disassembled, I did a close inspection of the parts. It was evident that the pistol had been thoroughly taken down some time in the past as the pins all showed signs of having been drifted out before. With the exception of the grip screws, which were all pretty badly buggered, the hammer lock plunger, sear, and all of the components were in good shape, but in most cases pretty gummed up with years of oil, solvent, and powder residue.

The Bakelite grips had each spalled off apiece of the back surrounding one screw hole; it was evident that the other holes had suffered similar failure in the past and had already been repaired. The working edge of the sear proved to be worn and peened over, presenting a rounded edge to the hammer and clearly not engaging it effectively. I suspected this to be the cause of the doubling. I effected repairs with a fine whetstone, some light oil, and a good deal of patience.

When I was done I had restored the edge and removed the burrs on the underside of it, giving me confidence in taking it to the range for a test (with two rounds in the magazine to start) once reassembled. The hammer lock plunger had also suffered over the years. Again, I dressed it carefully with the whetstone, allowing it to more reliably engage the detent in the barrel lock. The remainder of my work on the parts consisted of a good scrubbing and light lubrication of the parts that are normally hidden.

I repaired the grips with a gentle dose of J-B Weld. Reassembly With cleaning and repairs complete, reassembly of the pistol proved to be reasonably simple. Reinserting the various elements (the ejector, the magazine catch, the barrel lock and plunger, the trigger, the firing pin and the main spring) is simply a reversal of the takedown and fully intuitive. The hammer goes back in as easily—one just needs to make sure the hammer strut engages the main spring upper plunger.

The hammer stop pin has to be reinserted correctly with the angled relief parallel to the top of the sear. The sear, disconnecting safety, and sear spring reassembly require some care simply because there are more parts to assemble at once.

Laying the frame on its right side and positioning the sear above the hammer with the working edge toward the rear and aligned with the pin hole, then inserting the disconnecting safety in its slot on top (on the left side of the sear) allows one to insert the sear pin simply from the left side. With the sear and disconnecting safety thus attached, the sear spring has to be reattached. My take on the sear spring is that it is easier to put it in after the sear.

The spring is not particularly robust, so my solution was to reach the middle leaf of the spring in behind the sear then position the spring over its milled home in the frame, at the bottom of which is a Vshaped notch (visible in the picture of the right side of the frame above)

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The bolt retracting spring and plunger are clearly visible ahead of the socket. that holds the bottom of the spring. It is a simple matter to align it just above the catch with ones thumb, then press the base of the spring with the thumb until it touches the frame and slide it down a bit into its notch, whereupon it snaps into place. There is a bit of tension from the spring taking up against the sear and from bending the spring into place but nothing that can’t be overcome with thumb pressure.

With the sear spring in place, one has only to return the sear bar by placing the pin at the front end in the matching slot in the trigger, and aligning the back against the left side leaf of the sear spring. Replacing the left side grip then holds the sear bar in place. Replace the right side grip, align the barrel on the frame, and return the barrel screw—the pistol is now in its normal cleaning configuration.

Slide the rear of the slide onto the frame and pull it back over the hammer stop, then ease it forward so the bar on the front of the slide engages the retracting spring plunger. Rotate the barrel down to mate with the frame and rotate the barrel lock forward into place and the pistol is ready for service. Test Firing Following a frustrating search for low or standard velocity 22 Long Rifle ammunition, it ultimately dawned on me to try the Civilian Marksmanship Program store online (estore.TheCMP.org).

This proved successful as I was able to order two bricks of Eley’s subsonic (1050 feet per second, 42 grain bullet) target ammunition at $62.50 for a brick of 300. Note, one has to be a member of a CMP affiliated club to order ammunition from the CMP store with a copy of a current membership card on file. At this moment one also has to be patient—I placed my order on 3 February and received the ammunition on 11 June.

Regardless, with ammunition in hand I promptly repaired to the Fairfax Rod and Gun Club range to test the pistol. My test plan was simple—load two rounds in the magazine, point it at a silhouette on the plinking range, pull the trigger, and see how many rounds come out. The first try yielded one round, so I tried it again, with the same result. I next tried with three rounds—still good. So I burned through the remainder of the box of 50, five at a time, re-discovering how much I like the pistol.

It performed flawlessly and was dead on in azimuth, shooting a bit high in elevation. The subsonic ammunition shoots wonderfully. The Eley ammo is designed specifically for semi-auto target pistols, so it’s ideal, being very easy to shoot, provides a nice and smooth action, and is consistently accurate. Once the current ammunition shortage sorts itself out, I’ll try some other low velocity rounds for comparison (hopefully finding some that area little less expensive—I grew up in the penny-per-bang era).

But clearly the admonition to shoot subsonic rounds through this pistol is an important one, albeit probably not necessary when the pistol was produced. With this op test I’ve declared victory and can now add this family heirloom to the traditional post- Thanksgiving excursion with the nephews to the plinking range.

I strongly suspect that some hotterthan-advisable rounds went down the barrel at some point in the past, causing the damage to the sear and the hammer stop pin and ultimately leading to this article—a cautionary tale to think about the scantlings of the pistol before charging the magazine. AG