Detailed Repair & Custom Restoration of two Spencer Pump Shotguns w/ Photos

[Roscoe Coles]

I promised Two Flints a little while back that I would post an article after I got my Spencer pump gun up and running.  It is an 1896 Bannerman model that I purchased a number of years ago.  When I bought it was in pretty nice shape overall but it had some mechanical problems.

For those of you have never seen or taken apart a Spencer pump, they are unique in that the bolt pivots on a screw in the back of the action so that the front of the bolt flops up and down during the cycle.  It makes for a slightly odd action but it works well.
I have taken a couple of pictures of the gun "exploded" showing the major parts.  I did not take the bolt or trigger group apart as their small parts are not important for this article.







The first problem I discovered was that the lower portion of the bolt, which forms the cartridge carrier was cracked.  This crack was in the thinnest part of the block and did not threaten the structural integrity of the bolt.  The best guess is that the crack was due to the pressure placed on the right side of the bolt by the cartridge stop, which rides on the right side of the bolt.  A careful inspection showed that the cartridge stop, which is a strong flat spring with a finger on the end, was also eating into the side of the bolt at the point of friction.  The cure for the crack was to drill a hole at the end of the crack then weld it up.  This worked well but the weld had to be carefully ground down on the inside to insure that the shells would slide in and out smoothly.  Here is a photo of the block after welding.

Welded Bolt


The second problem, the wearing of the bolt from the cartridge stop was fixed by two steps.  The first was to reshape the cartridge stop.  They tend to wear sharp over time, so sharp that they tend to cut people trying to load them.  I rounded the stop and took away the sharp edge .  The second part was to build up the friction surface on the bolt.  I did this by silver soldering on a small section of hacksaw blade and shaping it to the proper dimensions.  Not only did this bring it back to spec, it provided a hard wear surface.  In the long run I would like to find a new bolt for the gun but they are thin on the ground.

Another problem was that the firing pin, which looked to be made out of a piece of nail, was sharp and punctured primers.  Looking over the existing pin it was clear what shape the pin needed to be and I made one out of 01 tool steel, properly hardened.  This proved to be something of a problem.  While the shape was self-evident the length was not.  I made it just a little too long at the back end, which hung up on the trigger group during the cycle of the action and blocked the free travel of the bolt downwards.  Unfortunetly, this meant that shells would not extract smoothly.  This took a little bit to diagnose but once it was discovered, two minutes with a file sorted it out.

During the effort to sort out the problems caused by the long firing pin three other problems were discovered.  First, there is a square lug staked on the side of the bolt that acts as a stop on the bolt's upward travel.  Over more than a hundred years of slamming against the frame this lug had gotten just a little loose.  The cure was to make a hardened round end punch and, with the other end of the lug on a smooth anvil, peen it tight again.  Here is a picture of the bolt with a screw driver [pointing at the leg and a photo of the bolt in which the peened lug is visible.





A similar problem was discovered with the pin and roller on the left operator rod.  This roller runs in a groove on the left side of the block and it directs the movement of the bolt up and down.  Like the stop on the bolt, the pin that holds the roller on is peened on.  All of the force of cocking the gun rests on this pin and the slop in the pin is translated into less movement of the bolt.  The solution was simple, we just peened the pin tight again using the hardened round end punch.  Here is a photo of the roller and the peened pin.

Roller


Peended Roller


The last problem was more complicated.  Unlike modern pump guns the forearm operating system of the Spencer is not a solid assembly.  It is made up of four parts, the rods, a tube threaded on one end and flanged on the other, the wooden forearm and a nut.  The wood is a structural element of the design, being pinched between the rod assembly and the nut.  This, along with the force of pumping the gun, places quite a bit of stress on the assembly, particularly the flange on the tube.  Interestingly, the forearm tube and the magazine tube were made by rolling a flat sheet of steel into a tube held together buy a series of dovetails.  They are both remarkably round.   All the stress on the flange over the years caused it to crack so that the forearm assembly was loose.

Forearm Assembly


The solution for this was not simple.  Welding the thin metal was not a good option.  The decision was made to carefully machine the flange off then cut a shallow taper inside the tube.   A new flange with a matching taper was machined and silver soldered inside the original forearm.  Not only did this provide a stronger flange it is virtually impossible to tell that the repair was made once the gun was assembled.

Sleeve


Once all this work was done, the gun works quite well.  It still drags a little when ejecting the shell, but this is quite minor and does not interfere with the guns operation.  I am planning on making a new switch plate, the thing on the left side of the bolt that, like a railroad switch, directs the movement of the bolt.  By making a slightly larger one I can retime the bolt and drop it down a little more (less that 1/6 of an inch) to take away all traces of dragging on the shell when ejecting.   I have the steel but I will wait to make the new switch plate till I get back into a proper shop and have a little more time.  Here is a photo of the left side of the block shoeing the switch plate.

Boltgate

                                        (all above photos re-posted by Two Flints)

Now the attention turns to loading brass shells for the old girl and finishing the work on my original Spencer carbine.  I am looking to take up NCOWS and I think it would be fun to shoot the Spencers in a match.  Not fast but very very cool! 

Look out for a similar article on the Carbine when I get it done.


Roscoe Coles

[Herbert]

good work , i was wudering how poitive extraction is on thees guns,been tring to buy one but they are not very comon in australia

[Roscoe Coles]

good work , i was wudering how poitive extraction is on thees guns,been tring to buy one but they are not very comon in australia

The extraction depends a little on the model.  I only have experience with the 1896 but all the early models seem to have one extractor on the right hand operating rod.  A photo of the 1900 Bannerman model seems to show two extractors, one on each operating rod (though, never having inspected an actual 1900 model I can not seem to tell how this would work).  In any case the extraction is quite positive and the ejection very robust.

[Roscoe Coles]

Like most of us, I am fascinated by the guns of Christopher Miner Spencer.  I have a rifle, carbine, and a couple of bannerman pump shot guns.  Some of you may have seen my post on fixing my 1896 on the Spencer information page. I still have that gun but it has never worked flawlessly.  I have always wanted a gun I could really shoot. 

A few years ago, I bought an 1890 bannerman that had a good receiver and block.  The barrel was pretty rough, the stock was broken and repaired, and there are a number of other issues that need to be addressed.  Despite all that, it is a good start for a shooter. 

The first thing to do is replace the old Damascus barrel with a modern steel one.  It turns out that a Remington 870 barrel is big enough to serve as a blank.  I found a 3in magnum 870 barrel at my local shop for $50 and set to work.  I cut off the barrel extension,  turned it to right profile, and threaded it to fit the receiver.  I could have made it a long barrel but I always wanted a short barrel (Spencer made a 20 inch for his wife), so I cut the barrel to 20.5 inches.  I also made a new magazine tube and plug out of 41-40 seamless tubing and bar stock.  I need to make a new stud to hold the magazine to the barrel. 

The next step is to shape the face of the barrel to match the inside curve of the receiver, cut the extractor notch, and set the headspace.  Many steps follow, but I thought folks might like a picture of the progress. 

[Two Flints]

Roscoe,

Do you have the link to your original post regarding your Shotgun?  Never mind . . . here they are:

https://www.cascity.com/forumhall/index.php/topic,25381.msg332618.html#msg332618

https://www.cascity.com/forumhall/index.php/topic,25381.msg332643.html#msg332643

Two Flints

[Herbert]

Happy to see this tread revived ,very helpful hints if I ever find one

[Roscoe Coles]

I am waiting for some steel to make the stud between the barrel and magazine tube and an tool for cutting the curve in the back of the barrel, so I am working on other things.  Today it was time to tackle the face of the bolt, which was pitted and had a depression around the firing pin hole.  These were not deep but they were enough that I wanted to fix it to have a smooth bolt face when I set the headspace.  I started by putting some dykem on the bolt face and sanding it using sandpaper glued to a flat stick.  This revealed where the low areas were (visible as dark spots in the 1st picture).  I then used diamond hones and sand paper glued to flat sticks to carefully polish the bolt face to remove the pits (2nd picture).  I left a couple of tiny pin hole pits in order to take as little off as possible.  I made sure the keep the bolt face square to the sides.  The bolt and receiver will be re-case hardened later. I will set the headspace to account for the material removed.  There are a lot more steps to come. 

[Roscoe Coles]

In many ways the heart of the Spencer shotgun is the cam that moves the bolt up and down and cocks the hammer.  It lives on the left side actuator arm and in my experience is subject to a great deal of wear and tear.  On my 1896, the cam was loose and needed to be tightened.  On the 1890, the cam was tight but showed a lot of wear.  It started out round, but it is worn to very oddly shaped oblong (picture 1). Since the cam positions the block, this wear means that the block does not fully open, causing wear on the extractor assembly and poor ejection.  It also means that the firing pin is not properly centered on the primer. 

The solution is to drill and drive out the old cam then make and install a new hardened cam that is of the correct size.  Because there is some wear on the block where the cam runs, this involves making it slightly larger than original to compensate.  Picture 2 is a shot of the old cam removed and the new one I made tonight out of 4140  I need to harden it, then soften the small part in order to peen it once it is pressed in place.  Not too complicated, just a couple of more steps. 

I hardened the stud and pressed it in.  I softened the tip so I could peen it in (figure 3).  Seems to work well but I need to assemble the receiver and figure out if the larger stud has changed the gun?s timing. 

Oh, I also improved the quality of the photos for this post.  I was using small ones due to size restrictions but they were bad.  Turns out that medium will work fine and are a lot better.  I hope folks are enjoying the project. 

[Roscoe Coles]

Yesterday, I went and used a friend?s mill to do some work on the Spencer.  The first job was To complete the new magazine tube.  The original magazine tube on the 1890 and my 1896 are made from a sheet of steel formed into a tube.  This was done because seamless steel tubing did not exist at the time.  There is some stress on the magazine tube as it supports the pump mechanism.  This caused the magazine on the 1890 to start to open up along the seam.  Someone had tried to hammer it back into shape, but this was not very successful.  As a result, the magazine was a little loose.  A while back I made a new tube out of seamless steel tubing and a new magazine plug for the end.  Yesterday, I drilled the mounting hole through the tube and the plug so it can be mounted.  The first picture shows the old tube and the new one.  The next job is to cut the stud that mounts the magazine tube to the barrel. 

The second thing I did yesterday was cut a flat in the threads on the bottom of the barrel.  The Spencer?s have a wedge that uses this flat to lock the barrel in place.  The original barrel on the Spencer was actually pretty loose, so the wedge would have been important.  The new barrel I made fits much better, but I wanted to include the wedge.  I took a little less off of the threads than they did on the original, as the wall between the flat and the chamber is pretty thin.  I will fit the wedge to account for the difference.  The second picture shows the flat on the old and new barrels.

I also started work on a tool for cutting the curve on the back of the barrel.  I am putting a bit of work into a tool I will only use once, but it should do the job.  When it is together I will post some pictures. 

[Roscoe Coles]

I am waiting for some steel, some walnut, and an internal threading cutter for the lathe, so I thought I would talk a little about what I am aiming for.  Any of you who own or have seen a Spencer shotgun know that they normally come with long barrels, but Spencer made at least 1 gun with a 20 inch barrel for his wife (first picture).  This gun was paired with a shortened magazine.  There is some evidence that you could order special order barrel lengths.  I wrestled with doing a long barrel, but I settled on 20 inches, with a standard length magazine. 

I need to make a new forearm.  The 1890 came with a gutta percha forearm, but it was broken (third picture).  This was a problem in period and Bannermans replaced these with wood forearms on later models (see the second picture for all the forearm variants, with the oldest variant at the top and the newest at the bottom).  The forearm I have is longer that the ones used on the original Spencer guns.  I have always liked the look of the shorter forearms, though the longer ones a probably more practical.  In disassembling the forearm, I found out that the threads on the forearm tube were rough and allowed cross threading.  Since I need to replace both the tube and the forearm anyway, I have decided to make a shorter forearm like the Spencer.  luckily, it turns out that  Bannermans actually used the shorter forearm on some of the 1890 guns.  Making a new forearm will be fun.  I think I will make two and try my hand a checkering one, since I have a set of checkering tools I have never used. 

The materials and tools I am waiting for should be here in time for me to work with over my Christmas/ New Years vacation.  Watch this space for progress!

[Oregon Bill]

Great project Roscoe. Seems you have the tools, the skills and most importantly, the patience!

[Roscoe Coles]

Thanks Bill, nice to know someone is enjoying the post.  I have to have patience since I have a stressful full time job and a 5 year old, which means I only get to work in short spurts of free time. 

The steel I was waiting for came today, so I am looking forward to getting to work on it again.  I spent some time last night working on the barrel tool.  Pictures soon. 

[Two Flints]

Roscoe,

I still own two Spencer Shotguns . . . I rarely use them now, though.  One has a full length barrel and the other has a shorter barrel that I had cut so that I could Grouse hunt in the thick woods around my home . . . the shorter barrel made moving through the trees a lot easier.

Two Flints

[Roscoe Coles]

It?s not a bad design.  There is a lot of pressure in a few places, which leads to wear over time, especially with the steels they were using.  Still, when properly set up they work fine.

[Roscoe Coles]

I am sorry to say that everyone in my house has been sick one way or another over the last few weeks, so I have not gotten as much done as I hoped over the holidays.  However, today everyone was well and I got into the shop to make the new forearm part.  You may recall that the original was roughly threaded, which allowed cross threading.  It was also for the long Bannerman style forearm, which is two inches longer than the Spencer style.  The original gutta percha forearm was also broken.  Since I needed to make a new forearm (including both the iron and wood) I decided to make it to fit the shorter Spencer forearm.  The photograph shows the old and new forearm tubes next to the forearm iron.  I need to buy some walnut to make a forearm. 

By the way, the old forearm part was made using a thin seamless steel tube, which means that my earlier statement about seamless steel tubing not being available for the magazine tube was incorrect.  The 1896 uses a different design that does not use seamless tubing, but a google search shows that the first seamless steel tubing was commercially produced in 1891, which makes its use in the 1890 an early use of the material.  Learn something new every day.

The next job is to fit the barrel and wedge so I can cut the curve in the back of the barrel.  The tool for that job is almost done.  Pictures to follow. 

[Roscoe Coles]

As some of you know, the inside of the Spencer shotgun receiver and the front of the block are curved.  As such, the back of the barrel is also curved. For this reason, I need to cut the back of the barrel to match the curve of the receiver.  The barrel needs to be flush with the receiver because shells being lifted to the chamber could catch on any protrusions.  I could carefully mark and fit it using a file, but it would be a bit of a challenge to get exactly right.  I thought it over and decided to make a tool to cut the curve in the back of the barrel while it is mounted on the frame.  The tool pivots on the same bolt as the block, so it will have the correct curve.  It has an adjustable file in the end that can be set for depth.  The file had to be hand cut so that it would cut on the narrow edge going sideways.  I made the blanks out of O1 tool steel and my dad cut the file teeth with a chisel (he makes his own chisels for fun in the Japanese style).  After that, I hardened them.  I need to do the final fit on the barrel and install the barrel wedge, then I can cut the back of the barrel.  Here are a couple of shots of the tool in and out of the frame.  Cant wait to see how it works. 

I am waiting on some steel to make the stud between the barrel and the new magazine tube.  I also ordered some steel to make the screw that goes into the stud and a new firing pin.  I hope to get the whole front end together soon and set the headspace.  Then I can look at getting it to function and maybe make some new action screws to replace any that are worn or have buggered slots.  Then I am going to look into a replacement stock.  There is an outfit that sells replacement Spencer shotgun stocks on line, but they are not very good looking, having been made out of a very light walnut.   

[Roscoe Coles]

In the last few weeks I have been working on the stud between the magazine and the barrel (first picture). This is a simple part but it?s a bit fiddly to make. It involves cutting two holes of specific diameters to fit the barrel and the magazine at the correct distance apart, then cutting it to a specific size and drilling and threading it to align with the hole through the magazine tube.  It all has to be made exactly right to fit properly. I still need to make the magazine screw. 

I have also been cutting the back of the barrel to match the curve in the receiver (second picture).  This has been a slow process, but the tool worked well.  The next step is to cut a 55 degree bevel in the back of the chamber to match the bevel on the front of the shell rim.  The depth of the bevel will set the headspace. 

[Roscoe Coles]

To get out of the snow, I took a trip down to California to visit family.  I took the Spencer along with me to do a little work in my father?s shop.  The first job was to silver solder on the magazine stud I made to mount the magazine to the barrel.  I looked closely at the two Spencer barrels I have to see how they were originally mounted.  The 1890 looks like it was dovetailed into the barrel.  The 1896 looks like it was silver soldered on.  Given how thin the barrel is, I thought silver soldering was the better way to go.  My dad is a whiz at this so I got him to do it and give me pointers so I can do it next time.  We used an 1100 degree solder and really got it on there.  I will need to clean up some of the excess, but it?s not moving.  We also managed to get it in exactly the right spot, so everything fits just right (picture 1).

The second job was to engrave the top of the barrel with the correct markings.  A search of the web shows that the markings on some Spencer and Bannerman guns were hand engraved (usually on the fancier engraved guns).  Luckily, dad is a professional engraver so I talked him into doing it (picture 2).

I hoped to find some walnut for the stock and forearm while I was down there, but I was with the whole family and not near any wood suppliers.  It is proving difficult to get wood shipped up to Alaska, but I think I have worked that out.  Wish me luck. 

[Arizona Trooper]

If that walnut doesn't work out, drop me a line. I'm headed up to southern Indiana in a week and there are several good places to pick up walnut. Just made a new forestock for an Enfield P-56 project with some Indiana wood

[Roscoe Coles]

Thanks, I will get in touch if this falls through.