1897 Project No. 2

[ssgross]

Shows how far behind I've gotten when I went to post I got the "warning, you are attempting to bump a thread that is xx old". Nonetheless, I'm trying to clear out my backlog of half finished projects in the shop before starting anything else.

The barrels and mag tubes for this project have been polished and hanging in the shop for ... well since my last post. So I spent the weekend rust bluing, cleaning screw heads, and fitting parts to build the forends. I'm very satisfied, at least with appearances.

Here they are next to the trench gun project (Finished the latter a while ago. there is a thread on it here https://www.milsurps.com/showthread.php?t=76435


The riot gun forfend is a 20" norinco replacement barrel. New when I got it sans some shelf wear. Its heavy. The extension I found was a bit beat up, as was the mag tube. Took quite a bit of work to get them fitted to work - I did it first. The 30" barrel and mag tube and original matching serial extension fit up with little to no effort - owing mainly to the fact that it was me who removed the original extension. The other bubba slightly malformed when he took it off.

Sadly, I'm not done yet. On the riot gun when I was function testing, about one in every 4 cycles would slam fire. Holding the trigger forward the problem went away, so I adjusted the trigger set screw a quarter turn and the problem went away. Then when function testing the 30" forend, every cycle was slam firing. wtf. Cycling real slow I get the trigger lock back, then as soon as I push the handle forward all the way to lock up, the hammer releases. Holding my thumb on the hammer I can feel it catch the sear - but only sometimes. Most of the time, even holding the trigger all the way forward, it won't catch. My first thought was the slide wasn't making its full range of movement. So I switched to the 20" frorend. Wouldn't ya know, despite all my success with it not 24 hours earlier, it has the same problem now. I can get the hammer to lock back maybe 1 in 10+ times, but only if I go real slow - either forend. If I hold the trigger forward, I can sometimes get it to grab the safety notch, but not always.

I'm convinced I have a worn or broken sear edge or hammer notch(es). Not surprising. There was plenty of evidence bubba messed with it before I got it. The slide-lock release plunger was missing, and replaced with a short pin that looked made from a nail - the effect was the action could be opened when in battery without depressing the release plunger. I read somewhere on the internet that many cowboy-action shooters prefer this mod. Wouldn't doubt it if bubba did a trigger job too - or got too happy slam firing, which I've read can wear the edge of the sear. Nothing to do though yet, until I clear the bench and tear it down again to have a look. Until then, it's just eye candy.