Stevens Visible Loader needs a chamber swage...

[Dark Alley Dan]

Howdy, all.

Got carried away at the recent auction and bought a wee Stevens Visible Loader in decent shape. The gun functions well, action is smooth, it doesn't appear to have been buggered about with, the bore is half-decent-ish, but at some point in her sordid 90 year history, some genius has dry-fired a burr into the chamber to the point she will not chamber ammunition.

I found this:
https://www.tandemkross.com/ChamberMadeChamberIroningSwage

Seems the right fix, but can't find one in Canada for sale as Tandemkross' dealer is sold out, and TK's cross-border shopping system requires my blood type, political affiliation, retinal scan, left-pinky toe (preserved) and last five tax returns before they'll mail me one...

Any ideas for a local (in Canada anyhow) source? Would anyone have one I could rent? Recommendations?

Cheers,

Dan

 

[marshall]

I just used a small mild tapered punch I made up , will not work on a odd gun, because of room, but most of my work was on handguns.
At one time ,I use to have a old good allan wrench type of thing, round end, not hex, for semi- auto rifles.
same idea, tap in a bit work back and froth, Don't hammer it in or you could taper the chamber ,on a soft barrel.
Real bad, I have cleaned up with a needle file, but that is last resort, on a crap gun.

At one time I was into collecting Stevens stuff, had a vg barrel for one of those, and a nos 22 favorite, but cleaned the last of it out 3-4 yrs ago.

 

[red_bailey]

I picked up a Menck chamber ironing swage in a past Brownells order, but it's discontinued now.

Assuming it's more or less where I think it is, I could loan it through the mail, if you don't come up with a source to purchase.

 

[red_bailey]

Menck swage in my hot little hands:

(Note Menck is retired, so contacting that address should not yield anything.)

 

[Dark Alley Dan]

Red, does the swage unscrew from the handle? The space to work with is minimal...

(Pic snaffled from the Interwebs. Mine's in better shape.)

 

[red_bailey]

Oh yes, the swage comes off, and can be attached to a cleaning rod with the protruding threads, to draw it in from the muzzle side. You can also use a wrench or socket to turn it with the hex flats.

(You also might remove the tilting breech block from the rifle. I couldn't see the picture until I first went to gun auction dotcom and performed a captcha...)

 

[terBC]

See if calgary shooting centre will order one in for you next time they place a tandem kross order. That’s where I got my swage from.

 

[Dark Alley Dan]

Thanks, Mate. Red and I have something in the works...

 

[trevj]

By memory, the last one I made was the butt end of a 7/32" or #2 drill bit, that I ground a bit of a flat on at a slope, then power sanded round edges on, and buffed shiny.

You can either bend the drill bit to use as a handle, or zip disk it off and put a small set of wrench flats on it.

 

[Dark Alley Dan]

Thanks to everyone for their input. The swage came, saw, conquered, and is on it's way back home again. Our red_bailey is a gentleman of the first water.

Now the rifle chambers cartridges (hurray!) and fires two out of every five (boo!). I assume the lout that dry-fired the rifle into uselessness also sufficiently bunged the firing pin to render it too short to reliably "make the trip". The process continues.

 

[trevj]

If, on removing the firing pin, there is any visible distortion of the metal, it may be able to be swaged back into size and shape.

Using a flat nosed punch and a suitable anvil (which may be as simple as a convenient large bolt or similar chunk of steel, like an old railroad spike, held in a vise).

Simply place the point of the firing pin between the anvil and punch and gently tap and roll the pin, repeat as required. With care you can cold form the metal back down in diameter, which in turn, will lengthen the tip.