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Old January 4, 2018, 10:55 PM   #1
G.O. West
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How I repaired a badly worn adjustment sleeve for my Winchester Model 1897

My Winchester 1897 12 ga. shotgun was about .015" loose between the barrel extension and the receiver. There was no adjustment left in the adjustment sleeve. If you shook the gun sideways you could feel the side to side movement. Here's how I repaired it:

Rational: The outside threads of the adjustment sleeve are 20 tpi. The inside threads are 30 tpi, therefore every half turn of the adjustment sleeve into the barrel pulls the barrel .0167" towards the receiver. It would seem logical to simply tighten the ajustment sleeve 1/2 turn on the barrel, cut new notches for the adjustment sleeve lock, and gain the .0167" I needed; but that would NOT work because if set up this way the outside threads of the adjustment sleeve will not engage the corresponding threads in the receiver deeply enough. This is because the barrel extends too far towards the breechbolt, even with the barrel chamber ring removed. Therefore I figured that if instead I were to LOOSEN the adjustment sleeve on the barrel 1/2 turn from its original minimum adjustment position, that this would allow the external threads on the sleeve to reach down one more thread than original into the receiver. That would gain .050", but subtracting the .0167" of loosening the sleeve 1/2 turn on the barrel would equal a net gain of more or less .033".

Results: I removed the barrel chamber ring and opened the breechbolt. To test my theory I marked the position of the outside interrupted threads on the face of the adjustment sleeve facing the breechbolt with a red paint marker. In this way I could make sure the sleeve was in the corrrect position to properly engage the receiver threads by looking in from the breech when I assembled the barrel to the reciever. This was a bit frustrating to line everything up. When I finally did get the sleeve in the correct position I found that the barrel extension when tightened to the receiver came to about 23 degress short of the proper closed position. I called that look'n good!

I disassembled it all and cut two notches in the opposite side of the adjustment sleeve in what will now become the MINIMUM adjustment position. This is exactly 180 degrees from the original factory minimum position. (To do this I put the adjustment sleeve in the lathe chuck, turned the carbide cutting tool sideways and fed it manually into the sleeve with the hand wheel, cutting a depth of .0025" at a time. Kind of slow, but easy to cut!) If I ever need to tighten the barrel up again I'll cut a few more notches. I also trimmed off .025" or so from the breech end of the adjustment sleeve so that it didn't protrude beyond the chamber of the barrel. Then I reassembled the sleeve, locked it in place with the sleeve lock, and finished fitting the barrel extension and barrel to the receiver. For the final fitting I followed the instructions at http://www.nulineguns.com/part_part_2046_3_31_42.php

(These folks also sell new adjustment sleeves and related parts.)

Conclusion: My gun is tight! It has lots of adjustment left for the future if needed, and the whole thing didn't cost me a cent.

Ecc 11:4  He that observeth the wind shall not sow; and he that regardeth the clouds shall not reap.
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Old January 5, 2018, 06:01 PM   #2
stuckinthe60s
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why did you go thru all that trouble and just do it the factory proper way and change the parts out?
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Old January 5, 2018, 08:00 PM   #3
G.O. West
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Because up here in Canada these parts are not available, and to get gun parts through Canadian customs from the USA can sometimes be difficult, if not impossible. Nevertheless, even with the proper adjustment sleeve @ $US 199.00 (minus a future refund for unused parts) the fitting procedure is exactly the same. The actual modification of my current sleeve only took 15 minutes, once I figured out what needed to be done. Afterwards the fitting of the barrel and barrel extension to the receiver took several hours. This would be the same for fitting a new sleeve, if I had one.
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Old January 5, 2018, 08:40 PM   #4
Hawg
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why did you go thru all that trouble and just do it the factory proper way and change the parts out?
I haven't checked but 97 Winchester parts may be getting hard to find.
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Old January 6, 2018, 09:25 AM   #5
stuckinthe60s
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how was I suppose to know. you didn't fill in your location icon.
in that case....I can understand.
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Old January 6, 2018, 01:13 PM   #6
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"...to get gun parts through Canadian customs from the USA..." The issue is on the U.S. side, not ours. And just to make it interesting, shotgun stuff, that's not ITAR applicable, is dealt with by our Southern cousin's Dept. of Commerce as opposed to their State Dept. that deals with everything else.
However, that doesn't mean the part is readily available Stateside either. Gunparts lists the part as 'out of stock'. You try Western Gun Parts?
Worn parts can rarely be fixed. You can remove metal, but you cannot put it on.
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Old January 6, 2018, 02:01 PM   #7
Hawg
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Worn parts can rarely be fixed. You can remove metal, but you cannot put it on.
He's not fixing worn parts. He found a workaround to tighten up a loose takedown.
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Old January 6, 2018, 03:20 PM   #8
G.O. West
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Sleeves wear out of adjustment, but they shouldn't "wear out". They potentially could still be tight in another gun, depending on which number or letter they are.

I recently purchased this gun at a very good price. Now that it's ready to shoot, I have just measured the chamber. It's a full 2 3/4" which is nice since I've heard that some of them are 2 5/8". This one was manufactured in 1910.
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Old January 6, 2018, 05:07 PM   #9
stuckinthe60s
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they wear out because believe it or not, they weren't really suppose to be taken down...except for travelling in a mutton chop case. many don't know that and wear them out cleaning them, thinking they need to take it down every time. just thought id share that with you from my memories of my uncles chats, who worked in Winchester new haven.
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Old January 6, 2018, 07:24 PM   #10
G.O. West
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By the way, the adjustment sleeves for the 1897 Winchester are interchangeable with the Model 12 Winchester. Theoretically this fix I described in my first post should also work for a loose takedown Model 12.

Let me also say that one of the problems with this whole adjustment sleeve issue is that you cannot just buy a new sleeve and have any confidence that it will fit. Winchester made nine different sizes and each gun came out hand fitted with whatever size happened to be appropriate for that particular gun. Even if you knew what size your loose gun had, (and many sleeves aren't marked) you can't be certain whether you have to go up one, two or maybe even three sizes to get it tight again. That is why, if you want to buy a replacement adjustment sleeve, you have to buy a kit with all nine variations; then try them out until you find the one that you are going to use to hand fit the barrel and barrel extension to the receiver. You can then return the unused parts. My understanding is that Nu-Line Guns, Inc. bought up all of Winchesters inventory for these sleeves, and they are the only folks who have the nine piece kit.
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