Working The Winchester Model 61

A good friend recently brought me his Winchester Model 61 .22 rimfire rifle with feeding issues. In addition to the mechanical problem, the stock was severely cracked at the junction of the guard assembly and had been repaired by securing a hose clamp around the wrist, then painted blaze orange! I have seen a lot of unusual repairs on gunstocks in my years of gunsmithing but this was a first for me. This particular Model 61 was chambered for the .22 Short, Long, and Long Rifle.

According to Winchester records, its low serial number of 151xx indicates manufacture was in 1935. The rifle was originally purchased by the owner’s grandfather new, and then handed down to his father and then him. The Model 61 was introduced in 1932 due to demand of loyal Winchester customers, although there were other slide action hammerless rifles already on the market. It was made until 1963 and over 342,000 were built in several configurations.

Throughout its manufacture, the basic model was chambered in .22 Short, Long, and Long Rifle interchangeably, as well as being offered with a smoothbore barrel for .22 shot cartridges in 1939. After WWII, the M61 was offered in .22 Winchester Rimfire and in .22 Winchester Magnum Rimfire after 1960. Due to arise in collector interest, many of these great little shooters have been relegated to "safe queen" status.

I have seen these rifles in the basic configuration go for $500 to $1,200 at gun auctions with the other configurations much higher if in very good to excellent condition. Recently, I saw a Model 61 in .22 WMR go for $3,000! There were several different barrel lengths offered in both round and octagon contours and the upper tang was drilled and tapped for an optional peep sight. This well-engineered rimfire has about 70 parts but rarely gives trouble.

Other than a weak carrier spring needing replacement, the one area of trouble I have encountered over the years is the cartridge cut-off assembly. Although well made and heat treated, the cutoff arm succumbs to wear over along period of extensive use. This particular rifle had a worn cut-off arm extension on the side facing the action slide bar. The wear on the slide bar was very minimal for such an old arm.

The old cut-off arm head measured 0.213 in width while anew one I acquired from Jack First Gunshop (jackfirstgun.com, measured 0.224. This small part would be relatively easy to make and harden, however, I didn’t know off hand the correct width needed and it would have been a file-andtry proposition that I didn’t want to take the time with on this job. The original cut-off was releasing several cartridges at a time instead of just one and holding the others back. Let’s look at how this feed system works.

With the slide handle in battery (fully forward), the inner magazine tube is pulled out far enough to allow cartridges to be loaded into the slot in the outer magazine tube. The inner magazine tube is then pushed all the way in and locked. The entire feeding and chambering cycle is controlled by the movement of the slide assembly. As the slide arm is moved to the rear briskly and smoothly without pause, several events take place.

There is a half-circle slot machined into the action slide bar, approximately 5 / 1 6 " in length, 1/8"

Top: Model 61 field stripped showing bolt, guard assembly, barreled action, and inner magazine tube. in height, and 3/32" deep. As the slide bar starts its movement rearward, it allows the cartridge cut-off arm, powered by the inner magazine spring follower pushing on the next cartridge, to be pushed into this slot and allow a cartridge to feed out of the magazine.

As soon as the slide bar moves past the stationary cut-off arm, it is once again a solid piece and forces the cut-off arm back in to stop the next cartridge in the magazine from releasing. The cartridge is then picked up by the lower extractor of the bolt and lifted by the carrier up to the top of the bolt and fed into the chamber. As this is all taking place, the movement of the bolt from battery has extracted the fired case and ejected it out of the ejection port.

When this rifle functions properly, it is one of the very best rimfire systems ever invented, at least in this gunsmith’s opinion. It was so good that Winchester used a modification of it in their Model 9422. Replacing the cartridge cut-off in this rifle cured its feeding issues. Field Stripping This rifle is easily field stripped into several units. Remove the inner magazine tube and make sure the outer tube is free of cartridges. Cock the action to remove any chambered cartridge and return the slide to battery.

There is a large slotted screw on the left side of the receiver. Loosen this screw and pull it out as far as it will go. Pull the buttstock and guard assembly to the rear and out of the receiver. If you’re only going to clean the guard assembly you might want to leave the buttstock attached. With this rifle, it was damaged and needed to come off. I personally like to remove it routinely to get a better look at all the parts in the guard assembly.

Taking off the two buttplate screws and buttplate gives access to the stock bolt which has a large straight slot. I like to use a 3/8 ratchet and extension with a proper fitting drag link bit to do this. Some of these bolts have been installed since the factory assembly and can be very tight to get out. To remove the breechbolt, invert the receiver and slide the bolt all the way to the rear. There is a breechbolt retaining spring staked into the right wall of the receiver.

While lifting up on the bottom front of the bolt with a non-marring tool, use a small screwdriver bit to push the breechbolt retaining spring in to release the bolt upward. A little judicious wiggling will free the bolt cam from its slot in the action slide bar. This is as far as disassembly needs to go for routine maintenance and cleaning. Here is the drill in order to remove the cartridge cut-off assembly if repair is needed. The rear magazine ring (holding the outer magazine tube) has a pin going through it.

Tap this pin out either way and remove the outer tube. These are often stuck in pretty tight so caution must be utilized in removal. I put plenty of penetrating fluid on both rings, let soak for a few minutes, then use a tool I made out of 1/4" brass rod ground down at the end similar to a flat tip screwdriver and mounted in apiece of dowel rod. By lightly tapping on the flanged end of the outer magazine tube, it will usually start to move.

Take your time on this maneuver as you don’t want to deform the outer tube in any way. Refrain from tapping on the end that goes into the receiver as even slight deformation will cause feeding problems. The forend assembly can then be

easily removed and the cartridge cut-off assembly will simply slide out easily from its recess in the bottom left front of the receiver. To replace the cutoff arm, make a special tool to support the edges of the retainer that hold the arm pinned to the assembly. Any two pieces of narrow 1/16" thick brass or aluminum will suffice in place of this tool. The cut-off arm is made of spring tempered steel and can be easily deformed or broken if not supported on both sides of the pin when the pin is driven out.

Some of these pins are in tight and have never been moved since factory assembly. I made my tool out of apiece of scrap aluminum and it is 1/2" wide, 3" long, and 1/16" thick. Small round and flat files were used to cut the slot to provide clearance for the arm. The pin holding the arm in the assembly is 0.059 in diameter and can be easily made from the appropriate size of drill rod. The shank of a #53 drill is the exact size.

Further disassembly of the bolt or guard assembly is not required unless a specific part is giving trouble. There are two very good resources for complete disassembly of the Model 61: J. B. Wood’s Gun Digest Book of Firearms Assembly-Disassembly: Rimfire Rifles, Part 3 and Official NRA Guide to Firearms Assembly: Rifles and Shotguns. I highly recommend these publications as they have many firearms assembly/ disassembly instructions in them. No gunsmith, either professional or layman, should be without them.

Buttstock Replacement As noted previously, the buttstock needed replacement and I obtained anew one from Boyds Gunstock Industries, Inc. (boydsgunstocks.com, This stock was made of walnut with a decent grain pattern to it, similar to the time period for this rifle’s manufacture. Note, these stocks are usually not a drop-in fit and rightly so because of differences in machining tolerances and wear. Some minor fitting needed to be undertaken to fit the stock to the guard assembly.

Let me add that the folks at Boyds are pleasant to work with and the item was delivered quickly and in great condition. With most of the normal parts sources, these buttstocks are in very short supply and it’s hit or miss to obtain a factory original stock, new or used. On this stock, I had to widen both tang slots slightly on the sides and reduce the lip at the front of the inletting approximately 1/16" so it would fit flush in its recess in the guard assembly.

This is necessary to prevent any wobble when it is secured by the stock bolt. I also cleaned up the inletting burrs that are ever present on new wood. The entire fitting process took me about an hour or so. Boyds stocks are very good quality. Final Check A critical point where slide-action rifles and shotguns are spoken about is worth discussing. Slide-action arms rely just as much on perfect timing and interaction of parts to function properly as do semi-auto arms.

The slide must be operated briskly, smoothly, and uniformly without pause or hesitation in order for all parts to mesh together and function properly as engineered. Just as in semi-auto arms, any glitch in sequence will render a malfunction of some type. It’s been my experience that many owners of these slide actions either do not know how to operate them properly or are careless with them.

When I ran a gunsmithing operation full time I often had customers bring in a slideaction rifle or shotgun with a claim of not feeding or extracting properly. I would first check the arm for any live rounds, load with dummy rounds, and proceed to run them all through the action without malfunction. I would then let the customer do the same thing with the dummy rounds, finding quite often the owners failed to do likewise because of a lack of knowledge of how these firearms worked.

When you receive these complaints, use this exercise with dummy rounds to determine if it is operator error or a true malfunction. I was able to put this great little shooter back into good operating condition and my friend will put it to good use. Many owners of these fine rifles are still not ready to relegate them to safe queen status, regardless of their collectible value! AG