1928 Remington Model 12a

[Jonesin]

Hey folks,

I recently inherited my grandfather's old 1928 Remington Model 12a. I grew up shooting this old .22. Many great memories were made.

The issue:
I was just given this rifle by my uncle. Long story short, it hadn't been fired in probably 20 years until this summer. Fired fine but failure to eject the spent casing. Pried it out, same issue again. Took a close look this time, there is a ding in the chamber.

Each round that is loaded gets creased by this ding from nearly the tip of the bullet to the rim of the casing.

The question:
Can anyone recommend an Alberta gunsmith they trust to work on a family heirloom? I'm up in Fort McMurray, but can send it wherever. I would far rather a gunsmith that is familiar with antiques instead of whatever shop specializes in Remington, whether they are certified by Remington or not.


Thanks in advance for your replies! I'll take some good photos this weekend when I get home.

Ed

 

[BCRider]

Ask them if they have a tool to bump the metal back into place rather than file or Dremel it away. The one you should pick will be the fella that says "is there any other way?" or similar.

This sort of tool is far from rocket surgery. I've made two of them for my own rimfire rifles. The second being needed when I could not find the first. Later on I found the other one. Any gunsmith that can actually machine metal should be able to have long ago made the same sort of thing.

 

[bearhunter]

BCRider is right about pressing the material in the bump back where it came from.

I have done this to several abused 22rf chamber burrs, caused by dry firing.

You likely already know that most 22rf rifles will get such a dimple when they are cocked and fired without a case in the chamber to absorb the shock from the firing pin.

There really isn't any other way to fix this, without complete take down of the rifle.

I haven't personally seen any sort of expansion tool, small enough to be inserted into the chamber and force the metal back to where it came from.

For one thing, the metal is always pushed ahead into chamber and it needs to come back to fill in the crease properly.

Brownelles' used to make a triangular tool, that was cheap. You inserted it into the chamber and turned it until the metal was swaged, hopefully back to where it came from. The results weren't perfect but it worked.

There are a couple of ways to do this job.

One is to clean up the chamber with a chamber reamer. This will still leave an impression on the face of the receiver, where the firing pin struck. It won't hurt anything, won't cause case ruptures and will allow for better feeding/extraction.

The other method, is to try to swage the offending burr back where it came from. I do this with a tapered punch, while holding the barrel in a vice, pointed straight down.

Then hold the tapered side of the punch at an angle against the burr. Then, tap it with a very light hammer, until the material in the burr is back where it should be.

This takes some patience and care to do it properly.

Other than filling in the crease on the face of the receiver with a bit of TIG weld, or some powdered steel, with a torch, I don't know how to fill that crease.

I've tried Titanium Putty from Devcon and a few others but they always fall out.

There may be another issue with that chamber as well. The divot may also be accompanied by some swelling around the crease area. That's where a reamer is needed

 

[cosmic]

The tool is called a Menck chamber iron. I believe Midway in the states sell a similar product. I figure a smart fella could make one from the shank of a 1/4 inch bolt.

 

[BCRider]

Not a bolt. It needs to be hardened. And quite hard at that. Even a good grade 8 bolt might not be hard enough. Plus it would need to be turned on a lathe. I wouldn't want to trust a file and hand drill to do a nice job unless the person has a light touch and some good amount of luck.

I made mine from some 1/4" drill rod (tool steel) then hardened it and tempered it back to a tough "blue" colour. The end that sticks out of the chamber has a groove I can use with a small purpose made slide hammer to "pull" towards me or with a Y yoke on the end of a roughly 5" length of square key stock to "push away" from me to swage the bump back into position.