Ammo/restoration questions

prp40 · October 15, 2009, 09:42 PM

My grandfather passed away a while back and i inherited a few shotguns and a .22 from him. a friend who is a hunter and cleans and cares for his own guns is teaching me. one shotgun was done for. it was completely rusted out but the other one is a winchester 20 gauge that just needed a little tlc so my friend is working on it and doing as much as he can for me. now you'll have to excuse me because even though i was raised in a small country town i haven't been hunting since i was 8. when my friend started working on the winchester it wouldn't open to load a shell. its a single shot where you push a lever and the barrel pops open at an angle to load and kicks out the previous shell. you load it, straighten it out. pull back the lever on top of the gun and fire. well we've run into a little problem. when you load the shells and fire, the lever pops forward every time but it doesn't fire every time. whats causing this? i know its hitting every time because the shells that don't fire have little circular nicks in the center. now if you load it and put the shell to where the barrel just barely closes it fires every time but if you just causally push the shell in and fire nothing. out of a box of 25 shells, 16 fired. so a few questions. what needs to be done to get it to fire every time? should i just take it to a gunsmith? and the ammo that didn't fire that just have small indentations, i should just dispose of those right? i've heard never reuse ammo that didn't fire because its dangerous. is this true? my friend said that originally but then said that it may be reusable because hes never had that problem and i should look it up.

hogdogs · October 16, 2009, 02:39 AM

It is suffering from "light primer strikes"... The hammer, for any number of reasons, is failing to hit the primer and fully impact it to set it off.
Any thing from gummed up guts to a broken firing pin and all in between can be the culprit.
I try to fire off any ammo that fails to fire. It so often does ignite and there is no reason to fear trying at least once.
Brent

Doyle · October 16, 2009, 01:07 PM

The "lever" is called a hammer. Get yourself a can of cheap brake cleaner. Remove the butt plate or recoil pad and you'll see a hole going down into the stock. Shine a light down in to see what kind of nut or screw is down there and get the appropriate tool for loosening that nut or screw. That will allow the stock to come off and expose the hammer spring. Now take that brake cleaner and spray the crap out of the all the inner metal works works. Manually operate the hammer and trigger to make sure that it all gets cleaned out. Use some steel wool if needed to clean up any rust. Then, let it dry.

When dry, use a little gun oil on the hammer and trigger pivot points. If you take a paper towel and put a tiny bit of oil on it and wipe down the metal parts that sit inside the stock, it will protect them from rusting further. Put the stock back together and go shoot it.

LHB1 · October 16, 2009, 01:31 PM

Quote: "now if you load it and put the shell to where the barrel just barely closes it fires every time but if you just causally push the shell in and fire nothing. "

Sounds like a) limited protrusion of firing pin, b) excessive headspace, or c) sprung/stretched action to me. For a) Spray brake cleaner liberally on action and firing pin channel followed by light oil. Parts availability and labor fees for installation would probably prohibit replacement of firing pin. For cases b) or c) the gun is probably not repairable at any realistic price.

prp40 · October 18, 2009, 05:12 PM

thanks ya'll. really appreciate the advice.

October 15, 2009, 09:42 PM	#1
prp40 Junior Member Join Date: October 15, 2009 Posts: 6	Ammo/restoration questions My grandfather passed away a while back and i inherited a few shotguns and a .22 from him. a friend who is a hunter and cleans and cares for his own guns is teaching me. one shotgun was done for. it was completely rusted out but the other one is a winchester 20 gauge that just needed a little tlc so my friend is working on it and doing as much as he can for me. now you'll have to excuse me because even though i was raised in a small country town i haven't been hunting since i was 8. when my friend started working on the winchester it wouldn't open to load a shell. its a single shot where you push a lever and the barrel pops open at an angle to load and kicks out the previous shell. you load it, straighten it out. pull back the lever on top of the gun and fire. well we've run into a little problem. when you load the shells and fire, the lever pops forward every time but it doesn't fire every time. whats causing this? i know its hitting every time because the shells that don't fire have little circular nicks in the center. now if you load it and put the shell to where the barrel just barely closes it fires every time but if you just causally push the shell in and fire nothing. out of a box of 25 shells, 16 fired. so a few questions. what needs to be done to get it to fire every time? should i just take it to a gunsmith? and the ammo that didn't fire that just have small indentations, i should just dispose of those right? i've heard never reuse ammo that didn't fire because its dangerous. is this true? my friend said that originally but then said that it may be reusable because hes never had that problem and i should look it up.

October 16, 2009, 01:31 PM	#4
LHB1 Senior Member Join Date: March 25, 2005 Location: Houston, TX Posts: 1,545	Quote: "now if you load it and put the shell to where the barrel just barely closes it fires every time but if you just causally push the shell in and fire nothing. " Sounds like a) limited protrusion of firing pin, b) excessive headspace, or c) sprung/stretched action to me. For a) Spray brake cleaner liberally on action and firing pin channel followed by light oil. Parts availability and labor fees for installation would probably prohibit replacement of firing pin. For cases b) or c) the gun is probably not repairable at any realistic price. __________________ Good shooting and be safe. LB

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October 16, 2009, 02:39 AM	#2
hogdogs Staff In Memoriam Join Date: October 31, 2007 Location: Western Florida panhandle Posts: 11,069	It is suffering from "light primer strikes"... The hammer, for any number of reasons, is failing to hit the primer and fully impact it to set it off. Any thing from gummed up guts to a broken firing pin and all in between can be the culprit. I try to fire off any ammo that fails to fire. It so often does ignite and there is no reason to fear trying at least once. Brent

October 16, 2009, 01:07 PM	#3
Doyle Senior Member Join Date: June 20, 2007 Location: Rainbow City, Alabama Posts: 7,167	The "lever" is called a hammer. Get yourself a can of cheap brake cleaner. Remove the butt plate or recoil pad and you'll see a hole going down into the stock. Shine a light down in to see what kind of nut or screw is down there and get the appropriate tool for loosening that nut or screw. That will allow the stock to come off and expose the hammer spring. Now take that brake cleaner and spray the crap out of the all the inner metal works works. Manually operate the hammer and trigger to make sure that it all gets cleaned out. Use some steel wool if needed to clean up any rust. Then, let it dry. When dry, use a little gun oil on the hammer and trigger pivot points. If you take a paper towel and put a tiny bit of oil on it and wipe down the metal parts that sit inside the stock, it will protect them from rusting further. Put the stock back together and go shoot it.

October 18, 2009, 05:12 PM	#5
prp40 Junior Member Join Date: October 15, 2009 Posts: 6	thanks ya'll. really appreciate the advice.