My Spencer is going in to the Repair facility....

[.56/50 Iron]

  Well..... I may have solved  a long-standing mystery without intentionally trying. Here's what happened. Last night, I decided I was going to begin the process of putting a colored plastic insert in the the blade of the front sight. I have done this many times with many rifles---and handguns. Just a process, never a problem. I laid the carbine on a few thicknesses of towels on my kitchen table and found a steel punch that fit what I could see of the end of the cross-pin holding the front sight blade in the sight base. I tapped away. No movement of the pin. Tapped away some more (from the left side of the sight base to the right side, just as is standard procedure). It was then I noticed that the forend seemed to be turned and, I thought, hell, I must have shifted the forend retaining block in the barrel dovetail. It was then I decided to unscrew the screw holding the forend to the barrel. Off came the forend. Also, the barrel was now loose---at least as far as it could go before the extractor stopped it from turning. I OPENED THE ACTION AND THE BARREL READILY UNSCREWED!! A weaker man would have suffered a coronary! I took the barrel off to look it over. Might as well get educated as long as it was off! I noted how the extractor slot in the end of the barrel lined up with the extractor slot in the front of the frame. I could turn the barrel back in almost all the way and then it would need a little more to get the two slots perfectly lined up. OK, it came off with tapping on one side of the sight base, it should go back "tight" by tapping on the other side of the sight base. That is one tough sight base by the way! I re-installed the barrel exactly as it was, all lined up.
But you know what, I have a "quantity" of other military rifles, old and new, replicas and originals, and none can have the barrels unscrew by tapping on the side of the front sight base. When I calmed down, I went to see what was going on on the computer and there I found an email from Chiappa Firearms, makers of the Spencer (Armi-Sport) telling me I could purchase parts directly from them in Dayton. Instead, I phoned them this morning to tell them what happened...that the barrel had inadvertantly unscrewed while I tried to remove the front sight base pin by tapping it. The girl left the phone and came back to ask how old the gun was. Told her a month. She said to send it back to them in Dayton, that they would cover it under warranty. I explained that there was a "complication": I had installed a tang sight on the wrist of the buttstock. No, that was not a problem, she said! They need to have the carbine sent to them promptly...
Some of you guys have reported accuracy problems with your Spencer carbines. I'vs shot some nice groups  with mine, but then have had some groups mysteriously jump all over the target paper like a bad scope will do. Not many. Two, three shot groups relocated themselves, actually. A barrel that is not solidly screwed into the frame of the carbine is not going to group its shots for crap! Any shooter knows this. Also, for what its worth, the barrel threads still had cutting oil on them. Nice thread job! Too bad the rifle was sent out before it was finished! I'm not going to tell them about the "new" Sharps mainspring in the lock. Let's see how good they are. Probably would be a good time to re-install the original 30-pounder spring and complain about it! So, off it goes next week. You guys who have had accuracy problems may want to inquire about loose barrels on your carbines. If yours is out of warranty, don't try the "tapping experiment"!  I will report. I am also going to photograph the barrel OFF the frame, just to have some blackmail material should I need it. I never intended to wring the carbine out this thoroughly.
.56/50 Iron