Early 1893 Stuck Firing Pin

Anything to do with Lever Action Guns

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DesertDave
Beginner
Posts: 12
Joined: Sat Feb 09, 2019 4:10 pm
Location: AZ

Re: Early 1893 Stuck Firing Pin

Post by DesertDave »

Thank you for all of your assistance! It took heating up the whole action and barrel with a heat gun careful not overheating the wood. The magazine was stuck to the barrel yet more years of crud, solidified oil and grease and who knows what. It finally came loose and I got it apart! I have the whole gun broken down and all parts cleaned up. Now all I have to do is put it back together once I get the new firing pin spring.

One big surprise was under the fore stock was some of the original finish and bluing. This gun must have been a beauty back in the day. Now most of the metal is pitted and none of the original finish remaining, except for that bit under the fore stock.

Another interesting observation was the considerable amount of what I think is magnetite stuck to the magnetic bottom of my cleaning trays. It makes me think that this rifle spent time being shot from the ground in black sand rich washes around here in the Southern Arizona area. It would be interesting if the old girl could tell her story.

Lastly, heat did the trick more than anything else. I would not have guessed this, mostly because I never let my equipment get into such a degraded condition. It was a shock to see the condition on the inside of this rifle. But heat came to the rescue on allowing everything from the firing pin to the various screws and finally the magazine tube and fore stock to break free and allow disassembly. For anyone working on an old gun, a good heat gun appears to be a vital tool which allows the other tools to work.

Well thank you again. I am going to close out this thread and will start a new one on the re-assembly.
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