Winchester Wildcat last round hold open not working well

[Suther]

Just got my used Winchester Wildcat in the mail, and while messing with it I noticed the last round bolt hold open isn't working amazingly well. If I push up on the magazine, or give the magazine a slap the hold open will catch, but once I use to button to release the bolt (which pushes down on the tab from the magazine) the last round hold open doesn't work unless I give the magazine another push. I tried a brand new magazine and that seems to have the same issues as the one that came with the gun.

I'm wondering if anyone else has had this issue, and if so, what did you do to fix it? I have a few ideas of things I could try, specifically shimming the lever the magazine pushes on, or maybe building up the lever a tiny bit with some epoxy, but I wanted to see if someone else came up with something first.

I'll add pictures to this thread after work, or maybe on my lunch break.

Thanks!

 

[alpining]

I don't own one of these, but I'm not surprised to hear it. The spring tension in the magazine is what activates the bolt hold open, right? There's not a lot of tension when the magazine is empty, so it probably has more difficulty overcoming the friction in the system during the set of conditions your describe. Just theory here, but it seems like there would be less friction (and inertia) to overcome when the bolt opens after firing the last round, because the bolt hold open hasn't also been pushed opposite at that point.

I'd just try cleaning, polishing, and lubing the running surfaces of everything involved.

 

[Suther]

Okay picture time.

First, here is the trigger group from the side, showing the lever the magazine pushes on, first without and then with the magazine:

Now, the metal bar that is moved by the red lever the magazine pushes on. When this bar is raised, it catches the bolt. (First without a magazine, then with a magazine, then with my finger pushing up on the red lever to maximize the movement of the bar so you can better visualize what is happening):

 

[Suther]

I don't own one of these, but I'm not surprised to hear it. The spring tension in the magazine is what activates the bolt hold open, right? There's not a lot of tension when the magazine is empty, so it probably has more difficulty overcoming the friction in the system during the set of conditions your describe. Just theory here, but it seems like there would be less friction (and inertia) to overcome when the bolt opens after firing the last round, because the bolt hold open hasn't also been pushed opposite at that point.

I'd just try cleaning, polishing, and lubing the running surfaces of everything involved.

Yes it is spring tension in the magazine - when the magazine is empty a little metal pin sticks up, which pushes on the red lever, which is connected to a metal bar that catches on the underside of the bolt to lock it open. The bolt hold open can also be activated with a red button/wedge infront of the trigger, and using that works just fine, it just seems that the lever the magazine pushes on isn't going up enough to reliably catch the bolt.

 

[Can-down]

Have you tried shooting it our are you just cycling it manually? Maybe a bit of recoil impluse will help? Otherwise as suggested check that all the parts associated are moving freely with no burrs or friction issues and maybe try a dry lube of some sort?

The Wildcat's look sort of cheaply made to me but I've never held one.

 

[Suther]

Have you tried shooting it our are you just cycling it manually? Maybe a bit of recoil impluse will help? Otherwise as suggested check that all the parts associated are moving freely with no burrs or friction issues and maybe try a dry lube of some sort?

The Wildcat's look sort of cheaply made to me but I've never held one.

It certainly isn't an expensive gun. But it has a reversible safety, which makes it a nice for people like me who shoot left.

I have not shot it yet, just got it yesterday in the mail. Hoping to get out tomorrow with it.

 

[Can-down]

It certainly isn't an expensive gun. But it has a reversible safety, which makes it a nice for people like me who shoot left.

I have not shot it yet, just got it yesterday in the mail. Hoping to get out tomorrow with it.

Right on, hopefully a little recoil pulse will help the mechanism work correctly.

 

[alpining]

Yes it is spring tension in the magazine...

Yeah, that's pretty much what I had imagined. As Can-down says, hopefully it works just fine under "normal" use. It might just be that the basic design won't tolerate the set of conditions you set out that cause it to fail.

It seems odd though. If a few hundred rounds of break-in don't get it working the way you want, I'd try slicking everything up. I can see a lot of "stacking" sources of friction in the linkage, not to mention the plastic bits flexing.