New To Me..1885 Low Wall

[rbertalotto]

UPS just dropped off a little Winchester 1885 Low Wall that I picked up on GunBroker a couple days ago.





It needs love but is in much better shape than I expected. Not bad for $495.00!

It needs a barrel lining so I just ordered a liner from TJ and the appropriate pilot drill bit from PTG. It is currently a 32 Short but it will be a 32-20.

The wood is excellent and metal has been reblued. It has a fair amount of pitting under the new blue job, but not too bad.

Serial number is 13554 so I need to research the DOM

The bore is horrible. Worse I've ever seen. Seems they took reasonable care of the outside but never cleaned the bore.

It needs a bit of my TIG welder and then redrilled and tapped to retain the firing pin.


And I don't believe this is correct...

I'm sure there was a more elegant way of securing the lever pin?

The wood is pretty nice



As is the barrel and most of the receiver...



Since I don't have much $$ into this rifle it might be a good candidate to try case hardening....Ya just can't have enough projects sitting on the bench!

[Coffinmaker]

Hi Roy,

Oh WOW what a super fun project.  32-20 should be just about perfect.  Along with the "other" things you pointed out, it would seem the front sight is on ..... backwards.  Please be sure to put up a few "after" pictures when you get it done!!!

Coffinmaker

[rbertalotto]

I woke up early today and headed out to the shop with my just received 1885 Low Wall.

This rifle started life as a RF in 32 SHORT and I need to convert it to CF for a reline and chamber in 32-20

And I also needed to repair a nasty job someone did on the firing pin retainer screw.

I'll be writing a whole article with loads of pictures on my web site later today.

But here is how it turned out:






Going into this I knew the firing pin would not be centered on the primer once I finished. I'm surprised the RF pin hit the cartridge as the breech block sits quite low in the receiver.
Once I reassembled the rifle I threw a 32 Short Colt in the chamber with a live primer to see if it went bang....No Joy!


And it appears to me I'm going to have to make a new link to get the breech block higher and the firing pin centered...Am I correct here?





Are links available in various lengths or will I need to make one? If available, from who?

Here is a before and after of the firing pin retainer screw:


I bored it out and used a 1/4-28 bolt as an insert. I had to drill and tap a hole for a 6-48 screw. This was a challeng as the hole needed to be drilled ay an angle to clear the firing pin and not bind.






Once a bit of blending with 220g sandpaper...don't look to bad!



Any help on the link issue is much appreciated.