BSA Model 12/15 Takedown advice please

[Puma]

I picked up a BSA 12/15 take down Martini style rim fire. Best I can figure it was made around 1923. It seems to be all original and in very good condition.

The breech block mechanism seems to not be adjusted properly?

In an open position the breech block does not go far enough down to fully activate the extractor, and in the closed position, the firing pin is about 1/8 " above the chamber.

I am fairly mechanically adept, but for the life of me I cannot figure out how to do an adjustment to the height of the breech block.

Any advice ?

Puma

 

[enefgee]

Have you stripped it down and completely cleaned it, mine had hardened lumps of wax "lube" and powder residue pretty much everywhere. They're fairly straightforward to take apart, and you'll get a better idea of what's wrong from seeing the relative position of the parts. Does yours have a C Broadarrow anywhere? Most of these guns were ordered for cadets.

 

[bearhunter]

You need to bend the lever plate on the extractor UP, so that the block will make contact with it.

This has to be done very carefully, because most of us don't have armorer's jigs to give you the correct angle.

I picked up one a few years back, it's now a 218Bee, that had a similar issue.

The bore and chamber were badly pitted and causing extraction issues, so its previous owner decided to make changes that ended up exacerbating the problem, instead of helping.

He couldn't remember the original angle needed for proper/timed extraction

There are all sorts of diagrams and photos on the internet, showing how the internal parts interact against each other and showing the proper angle you will need to make it work properly.

You may want to try an unfired case in the chamber and see if it falls out easily.

The other thing you may want to check before doing any bending is to check out the extractor lips to make sure they aren't worn or bent/broken.

 

[pmatuk]

the martini should be sort of snapped open to eject and just opened to extract .Not really understanding what you mean by the firing pin is 1/8 high above the chamber as they strike on the top for rf
a pic of a cf and a rf showing block heights if this helps

 

[trevj]

I picked up a BSA 12/15 take down Martini style rim fire. Best I can figure it was made around 1923. It seems to be all original and in very good condition.

The breech block mechanism seems to not be adjusted properly?

In an open position the breech block does not go far enough down to fully activate the extractor, and in the closed position, the firing pin is about 1/8 " above the chamber.

I am fairly mechanically adept, but for the life of me I cannot figure out how to do an adjustment to the height of the breech block.

Any advice ?

Puma

There are only the two arms on the lever that can affect the height of the breech block. It's a fixed relationship between those, and the pin the block rotates around at the rear of the breech. When things are properly assembled!

If your breech block is out of whack, the first place I would look is to see if the lever is bent. Well, after a thorough cleaning, anyways.

Check that it has not been mis-assembled, clean it up, then take a good look at how the parts all fit together.