.22 Cylinder repair

lummox

lummox

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I am looking at trying to fix an H&R 999 Sportsman. The problem with it is that someone has dry fired it excessively and the edges of a couple of the chambers are dented and wont fire anymore. I was wondering if it could be built up with weld and filed back to the way it should be. If not, what may be another option for getting it working again?
 
Unfortunately the person who damaged it filed the metal that was pushed out and filled it with epoxy before selling it to my father. Thank you for the suggestion and I wish it was that easy.
 
Pictures?

A divot in front of the rim should not keep it from firing reliably. Some makers (Winchester, on their rimfire 1885's as an example) left a pretty good sized divot where the firing pin was to strike, from new.

It may be possible to insert a bushing at the back of the chamber to fix any damage, but it may be a money winner to find a good used replacement cylinder from a gun parts dealer.
Or that may not be the problem, just one of them. But kinda hard to tell from here. :)

Cheers
Trev
 
I will try to get some pictures. My father still has it but I said I would try to find a way to get it fixed. Thanks for the help guys.
 
I've seen some amazing welders do some amazing stuff so I won't say it can't be done. The trick will be to avoid hard spots that prevent you from shaping the welds down to the right specs. And you'd want to use a chamber reamer to clean away the last of the weld. The majority of it being filed or Dremel ground away until there's just a hair left to clean up. Then depending on what the weld areas are like for localized hardening you may need to get the whole cylinder re-heat treated to harden then temper it back to a tough and springy value.

Fussy work by any standards. And prohibitively expensive if you need to get a gunsmith to do the work. And with my rather crude welding skills it's not anything I'd try myself. But a good welder using one of the smaller and delicate TIG units could likely do a neat job of putting dabs of metal on the spots.

Trev, the bushing was something I thought of as well. But with the small cylinder holding 9 rounds there's precious little room between the chambers. I'd have to measure it but I guess without digging mine out that it's only about .035 to .045.
 
BCRider said:
I've seen some amazing welders do some amazing stuff so I won't say it can't be done. The trick will be to avoid hard spots that prevent you from shaping the welds down to the right specs. And you'd want to use a chamber reamer to clean away the last of the weld. The majority of it being filed or Dremel ground away until there's just a hair left to clean up. Then depending on what the weld areas are like for localized hardening you may need to get the whole cylinder re-heat treated to harden then temper it back to a tough and springy value.

Fussy work by any standards. And prohibitively expensive if you need to get a gunsmith to do the work. And with my rather crude welding skills it's not anything I'd try myself. But a good welder using one of the smaller and delicate TIG units could likely do a neat job of putting dabs of metal on the spots.

Trev, the bushing was something I thought of as well. But with the small cylinder holding 9 rounds there's precious little room between the chambers. I'd have to measure it but I guess without digging mine out that it's only about .035 to .045.
Click to expand...

The OP is in Dartmouth, dunno what kind of tool and die industry there is there, but that would be the general direction I would look to find a welder that could reliably put a couple filler patches on the cylinder.
A die repair welder would like as not be able to do a big clunky ol' weld like that in his sleep, eh? :)

Personally, I would not worry about heat treatment on it other than as it affects the hardness of the weld deposit.

Yeah, as far as the size of the spaces between the bores in the cylinder, if there is space, it can work, otherwise...

Like I suggested, pictures will tell more.

D'ya spend $300 on fixing $100 gun, though?


Cheers
Trev
 
I like that washer idea!

Numrich has the whole ignition system for about $25, original firing pin, spring, firing pin retention pin, and the striker. Of course, shipping is a fortune and you guys are absolutely right: how much do you spend to fix a $100 gun?

Maybe the right suggestion is to sell this as a parts gun. Get the $100 out of it, or as much as you can, and move on!

Epoxying the cylinder. Wow. It might not be firing because the "epoxy" is one of the soft formulations and is soaking up the firing pin strike. If that's the case, it's lucky that there is no ignition.

Pictures might help, but put a piece of thin cardboard where the firing pin hits and see if you get a dent when you pull the trigger. If not, you have another problem. Likely the firing pin will be damaged from that much dry-firing. With an epoxied cylinder, I'd want to avoid shooting this revolver anyway. .22 casings are very unpleasant when they split open in an unsupported chamber. Welding gloves are strongly recommended if someone is going to insist on shooting this thing.
 
I haven't tried to many different kinds of ammo. Mostly just Winchester and Federal bulk boxes.

It is a little hard to tell in the picture but you can see where the edges of the chambers are dinged up.
 
I still think a new cylinder would be easier. While a few of the chambers appear worse than others, it seems like the ratchet/ejector in the centre has seen a lot of wear.
 
gunrunner100 said:
I still think a new cylinder would be easier. While a few of the chambers appear worse than others, it seems like the ratchet/ejector in the centre has seen a lot of wear.
Click to expand...

Ayup.

But what I would do first, is clean up the burrs so a cartridge does not stick, and take a good look at the firing pin for condition and if someone has tried to 'solve' the contact issue by shortening it.

I have shot a lot of .22 ammo out of worse chambers than those by a long shot, and reliability was not a problem.

Try setting some empty cases in the chambers and see what the pin mark looks like when fired. You may have more problems than the obvious one.

Cheers
Trev
 
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