Colt pump rifle 22cal Lightning?

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kevinasch

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I am looking for information on a 22 cal Colt pump action rifle. It belonged to my grnadfather. Unfortunately it is in rough shape with many pieces missing.

Serial number is 83625.Top of barrel has patents from May 29-Sept 18.83, May 26.85,June 15.86,Feb 22. 1887
It has an octagon barrel.

I would like to restore the rifle.

From what I can see it is missing the complete magazine assembly. The back end of the fireing pin looks like someone hit it with a ball peen hammer.

Any ideas on where I could look for more information and parts? The schematics I found on the web are for the medium and large frame versions, not the 22cal.

Thank you
Kevin
 
You are going to have to have a good long look about for used good parts.

Take a good look at the lifter, the bottom parts where the arms that lift it and pull it back down, are prone to breaking out. It's a complicated little part to build too, I've looked it over and found it wanting.

The gun was like as not used as a toy and generally beat around for a while, so is likely got a mushroomed over firing pin from being the toy of the luckiest kid on the block playing cowboys and indians with it. :) It may have been done purposely for that. Lucky kid, unlucky firearm.

The bolt on these is pretty lightweight too. If you get to the point of completion, stick to standard velocity or lower ammo to ease up on the risk of splitting cases.

Watch your extractor spring. It is a one-piece unit with the extractor that is fairly fragile as well.

Do you still have the sliding dust cover on yours? The brass sliding gate for loading?

You should be able to adapt a tube from just about any correct diameter tube fed rimfire. It is after all simply a tube with a spring and follower inside. Not as hard to put together as a front loading tube assy.

Cheers
Trev
 
There is a 1904 built round barrel model of this in my lockup - bore has rusty patches and the entire mag tube and brass magtube retaining/loading block is missing as well. PM me if you are interested in it for bits and pieces. Kayceel
 
kevinasch said:
Trev:
No, this one does not have the dust cover nor the brass sliding gate for loading.

Have you rebuilt yours?

Kevin
Click to expand...

Nope. May not ever, either. The cartridge lifter is a show stopper on mine, the two very thin sections that the forked actuating arm (winging it on the names, not seen a diagram either) work upon to pull the lifter block down so that the next round can feed, are both broken off.
In order to not have it jam up solid, it requires that I stick a fingertip or a stick down and push the lifter down each time.

My dust cover is likely buried in some of my many small boxes and containers. I'll know it when I see it! :) I never had the proper screw for it, and it got in the way of the aforementioned stick, so it got removed and set aside. <sigh> Hopefully not lost forever, but...

Mine has family connections too, so parting it out is off the menu. I may get around to making a new lifter for it, if I ever get my CNC mill set up and running, and this project reaches the top of the pile at some point. Or I simply work up my nerve and have a kick at welding some material in place upon it. But that seems non-optimal.

Watch the very fine thread screws used to attach the fore grip to the operating rod as as well. Cross thread it and try to force it (as someone before me did) and it will cause misery forever, trying to get it to start squarely in the original thread. On this on.e the forend wood was split lengthwise, and to judge from the ones I have seen around, this is pretty common too

Phone Western Gun Parts in Edmonton and ask if they have anything available. I think the odds rather slim, but still... Other than that, gun shows, and used parts dealers are about it, if you cannot make the stuff you need.

Coltparts.com lists more parts than I had thought, and may still ship out of the country. Their Antiques and Curio and Relics classes are quite different than ours, so the parts are not 'gun' parts, IIRC. May be worth contacting him.

I see that he shows the bolt, and the bolt guide (what I was calling the lifter) for not unreasonable money given their complexity.
The magazine follower is shown and would be a quick part to make, too,if you have access to a metal lathe.

Cheers
Trev
 
Trev.
Thank you for the information and suggestions.

Yes, I do have a metal lathe, and a milling machine. Both are manual, not CNC. It would be nice to find precise measurements for all of the pieces. I have not even been able to locate a decent schematic and parts list for the small framed ones.

Kevin
 
kevinasch said:
Trev.
Thank you for the information and suggestions.

Yes, I do have a metal lathe, and a milling machine. Both are manual, not CNC. It would be nice to find precise measurements for all of the pieces. I have not even been able to locate a decent schematic and parts list for the small framed ones.

Kevin
Click to expand...

You quite likely won't. The manufacturers of the day were not real strong on user manuals or documentation. Some of the published copies of catalog engravings, such as the one on coltparts site, are about as good reference material as you are gonna get.

Chinese blueprint (copy another part) or some deductive reasoning and fitting the part to the hole it has to go into, are pretty close to the order of the day.

That said, there always is the possibility that you can find a diagram, but consider that they were expensive and somewhat fragile guns when new, and they did not sell near the numbers that some of the less expensive makers (like Stevens, for eg.) did.

If you need a hand with dimensions, drop me a PM and I will see what I can do to help ya out.

You able to cut threads? Grind a threading tool on HSS bits? Have a thread pitch gauge? Those are pretty much what you need to make some of your own screws.

Dunno about Colt, but Winchester used some bastard sizes of threads. Stuff like 32 1/2 TPI threads (thirty two and a half) IIRC was pretty common on the High wall. That info was on the parts blueprint found of the screw. Strange, but it kept the rubes from building their own, eh.

Cheers
Trev
 
I have one of these as well in workable condition. If you need pictures of parts or anything PM me your email and I will do my best to send you some pictures. I bought it off an old lady in Saskatchewan after her husband died and I haven't really touched it yet but it does fire rounds.
 
:D I went rooting through my shi... uhh stuff, that's it, stuff, and found my dust cover in a tool box drawer! Yay! :)

If you are set up with a lathe and mill and have a bit of patience and a willingness to try, you should do OK as far as any parts you need to make.

Cheers
Trev
 
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