Apparently, the bolt for a .22 rimfire 73 is an item that is very difficult to find.  When a part cannot be found, the only choice is to make one, which is what, through photos, I will describe in this post.  The original bolt and extractor were "modified" beyond salvage but, luckily, the customer had another rifle that could supply a bolt to use as a model. The bolt itself was machined from a bar of 1018, while the extractor was made from 1095 and heat treated as any other spring. The new bolt installed ..read more

 Here is a Lebeau-Courally BLE in 16 gauge that suffered more than a few problems.  Both hammers had failed, one completely and the other cracked completely through the pivot hole.  All of the screw slots had suffered at the hands of the last individual who had attempted repairs on the gun.  They also beat the snot out of the sear and hammer pivot pins, which originally had polished, concave ends.  After disassembly and a thorough inspection of the damage, the lengthy journey of correctly repairing everything began.   It started with the creation of new left ..read more

 A checkered but for a gun with a drawbolt-retained buttstock presents a bit of a challenge because of the need to access to that very bolt.   The way the big manufacturers do it is, typically, to simply use a buttplate of conventional design but made of the same type of wood as the stock.  They are however, never made from the same piece, nor is the grain orientation in the same direction, which would compromise the strength of the buttplate.  Needless to say, this, combined with the presence of the buttplate screws doesn't make for a very convincing representation of ..read more

 This one had a few issues.  The cylinder would not carry up, nor would it lock into position and, the mainspring was broken.  The carry up issue was, as expected, due to a broken hand spring (not an uncommon issue in these old Colts).  The cylinder stop malfunction was not however caused by any issue with its spring, but with the screw upon which it pivots.  It seems that the cylinder stop screw (as well as the trigger pivot screw) had, somehow, developed multiple bends.   Obviously, these need to be replaced. New screws were turned and threaded on the lat ..read more

 Apparently, due to the pistolsmithing work I've posted here lately, there are those who think that I'm no longer working on shotguns (doubles specifically).  I have no idea where that notion originates.  Do these people think that I've forgotten how to work on doubles because I work on something else?  Do they believe that "specializing" in one thing is the only measure of competence?  If it is the latter, have you noticed that I've got a whole blog full of posts showing the incompetence of which "trained specialists" are capable? The facts are these:  Machines a ..read more

 For those of you who might be interested in such things, I've created a separate blog to cover the watchmaking work. https://vicknairwatchrestoration.blogspot.com ..read more

 I don't put too much stock in quotes.  Too often they are nothing more than platitudes, misapplied and often misattributed.  A perfect example of the latter is Einstein's "The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result."   Number one, that is NOT the definition of insanity and, number two, Einstein never said it.  That quote is from a book, written in the 1980s by Rita Mae Brown, titled Sudden Death.   Then we have the ever-popular and supremely trite "All politics is local."  The next time anyone ..read more

 This gun came in to repair a failed rib "tack down" job and turned out to be a shining example of the consequences of such half-assery.  At some point in the past, the Brown featured here had experienced a partial rib separation, which, to properly correct, would necessitate the complete removal of all ribs and forend lug.  It seems that whoever was responsible for this mess didn't think that all of that work (and expense) was necessary.  Their brilliant idea was to simply use lots of acidic flux to get the solder to adhere to the steel.  Clearly, our hero gun-plumber ..read more

 It's a Hamilton Bowen "Real Super Redhawk"(or GP-44), which is a standard SRH which has undergone major frame surgery, in order to lose the integral scope interfaces and accept an old-style Redhawk barrel. This results in the classic look of the original Redhawk, with the superior lockwork (and grip) of the Super.  Unfortunately, it retains the ugly factory hammer, which is why the customer sent it to me. Yes, yet another Python style hammer.  But for this one there were some further frame modifications that were needed beyond the usual internal "de-boogering" (removal of inter ..read more

 Here's an interesting gun and one that proves "best quality" is defined by craftsmanship, not features.  it's a Greener F45 in 12 gauge that was apparently ordered as a waterfowl gun, as evidenced by its massive size, factory 3 inch chambers, full and full chokes and factory stock reinforcement straps.  Sadly, one or more failed-plumbers-turned-"gunsmiths" had visited their incompetence upon the gun over the years.  Things like the damaged screws and the engraved ends of the hammer and sear pivots being beaten smooth are fairly typical but someone with much more ambition t ..read more