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[I posted this on another rimfire-oriented forum but haven't received any feedback. Hoping possibly someone here has some input for me]
I have an old small frame Colt Lightning (SN - 28271, ~1895) that came to me through my Dad. It came to him after his own Dad passed away, and the story is that it was used on his uncle's farm to deal with feral cats and other pests. The wood elements are in shockingly good condition compared to how dinged up the barrel and receiver are. I am certain my Dad never used it, unless he did so as a boy while visiting his uncle's. The reason I'm certain of this is that it appears not to have been cleaned in many decades, if ever, and the chamber has damage that looks consistent with someone repeatedly and roughly digging stuck rounds out of it with sharp tools, and/or attempting to remove lead buildup the same way - and my dad would never have treated a firearm that way.
So, I don't know the extent of damage to this thing, or if it can be salvaged. It is an heirloom primarily - but I can't stand the notion of any mechanism that can't do what it was made to do at least in principle. So, I initially set out to tear it down and really clean and lubricate it so that it will cycle smoothly because it was so gummed up that it could barely be cocked. It also would not accept a round in the chamber. With the help of this great thread I disassembled and learned more about the components of the gun: Colt Lightning Small Frame Disassembly
I've been cleaning and researching ever since. In the process I became convinced that the bore and chamber were riddled with deposits of lead and speculated that might explain why I could not get a round to smoothly drop into the chamber. So I removed the barrel and rigged a 1' pvc pipe with a plug in one end, then placed the barrel into it and then filled that with a 50/50 mix of hydrogen peroxide and distilled white vinegar and let it soak for a couple of sessions with some strokes with a copper brush in between. Most of what looked like obvious lead in and around the chamber is gone - but now I have even more questions.
Initially I thought what I was seeing might have been a ring of lead around the inside of the chamber - but now that it is cleaner, to me it just appears to be a separate layer/tube of steel. I don't know how these barrels are/were constructed - were they in two components? Or, has this rifle potentially been relined previously? There's also an uneven gouge into one side of the chamber that looks almost like someone may have tried to ream it at some point with the wrong type of tool. I'm just not knowledgeable enough to know what I'm seeing here, so I'm hoping some of you might be able to offer some insight and/or advice.
BTW, after the cleaning and soaking in the vinegar/hp solution, a round will now smoothly and easily drop in and out of the chamber under just gravity. I guess that's progress.
Thanks! Oh, pics:
I have an old small frame Colt Lightning (SN - 28271, ~1895) that came to me through my Dad. It came to him after his own Dad passed away, and the story is that it was used on his uncle's farm to deal with feral cats and other pests. The wood elements are in shockingly good condition compared to how dinged up the barrel and receiver are. I am certain my Dad never used it, unless he did so as a boy while visiting his uncle's. The reason I'm certain of this is that it appears not to have been cleaned in many decades, if ever, and the chamber has damage that looks consistent with someone repeatedly and roughly digging stuck rounds out of it with sharp tools, and/or attempting to remove lead buildup the same way - and my dad would never have treated a firearm that way.
So, I don't know the extent of damage to this thing, or if it can be salvaged. It is an heirloom primarily - but I can't stand the notion of any mechanism that can't do what it was made to do at least in principle. So, I initially set out to tear it down and really clean and lubricate it so that it will cycle smoothly because it was so gummed up that it could barely be cocked. It also would not accept a round in the chamber. With the help of this great thread I disassembled and learned more about the components of the gun: Colt Lightning Small Frame Disassembly
I've been cleaning and researching ever since. In the process I became convinced that the bore and chamber were riddled with deposits of lead and speculated that might explain why I could not get a round to smoothly drop into the chamber. So I removed the barrel and rigged a 1' pvc pipe with a plug in one end, then placed the barrel into it and then filled that with a 50/50 mix of hydrogen peroxide and distilled white vinegar and let it soak for a couple of sessions with some strokes with a copper brush in between. Most of what looked like obvious lead in and around the chamber is gone - but now I have even more questions.
Initially I thought what I was seeing might have been a ring of lead around the inside of the chamber - but now that it is cleaner, to me it just appears to be a separate layer/tube of steel. I don't know how these barrels are/were constructed - were they in two components? Or, has this rifle potentially been relined previously? There's also an uneven gouge into one side of the chamber that looks almost like someone may have tried to ream it at some point with the wrong type of tool. I'm just not knowledgeable enough to know what I'm seeing here, so I'm hoping some of you might be able to offer some insight and/or advice.
BTW, after the cleaning and soaking in the vinegar/hp solution, a round will now smoothly and easily drop in and out of the chamber under just gravity. I guess that's progress.
Thanks! Oh, pics:
