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Short version - today is the first day my Winchester 100 .308 shot and functioned normally in about 20 years, and I am most elated.
Long version:
My dad and mom gave me a Winchester 100 in .308 as my first whitetail rifle back in the early 90's when I was growing up in WV. AS far as I recall, it functioned appropriately in its early days, but within a few years, it stopped cycling effectively. It frequently either failed to eject the spent round, or wouldn't cycle the next one in effectively. He bought and replaced the action springs in it, and I think it worked OK for a very short period, and then went back to its old ways. It would only function reliably as a single shot. I was determined to take a buck with it, and one year was lucky enough to catch a big 10 pointer browsing his way out from behind a wall of hemlock trees, head down, probably also scenting a doe. He walked out from behind those hemlocks less than 10 yards from me. I shot him and dropped him in his tracks. Dad met me at the door, saw that big buck, and I thought he would explode with pride. I think the only time I saw him make a bigger deal of one of my achievements was at my grad school graduation. After that kill, I retired the rifle from regular use, thinking one day I would get a gunsmith to look at it and fix it.
I kept it stored in my grandfather's safe for a couple years during college, but otherwise dutifully moved it with me every time i changed addresses over the years. I figure it has made at least 12, maybe 14 moves with me. I had a gunsmith in VA work on it. When I told him it was a Winchester 100 .308, he pretty much described what it was doing without me even telling him, so I though it was in good hands. I got it back from him, took it to the range, and it was the same as always. So, I retired it again, until I could find another smith I trusted to look at it, and it made some more of those 12-14 moves with me. In those intervening years, we lost Dad.
This January, it made the trek to Oregon from Virginia. Once I got settled in, I thought it was high time I got that old rifle back into service. I took it to a gunsmith nearby who seemed like he had been around long enough to remember the 100's when they were new and knew a lot about them. He had it longer than I thought he would, but figured a few months wasn't a big deal after 20+ years. He called me last week and told me it was ready.
I went over and got the rifle, feeling almost as excited as I did that Christmas morning when I got it so many years ago. While I was there, I just so happened to find a new-in-the-box magazine for the rifle for well below market price, so I bought it in celebration. I rushed home and found that I didn't have any 308 ammo in the cabinet, so I ran back out and bought a box of Federal blue box. I came home, loaded up the mags, cycled the first round, squeezed off that first round, and it still did the same old thing!
I was nearly heartbroken, and wondered if it was truly just a lemon. As many of you can relate, this is more than just a rifle. It's a direct link I have to Dad, and dang it, I just wanted the thing to WORK, so I could carry it in the woods, maybe take a blacktail with it, and imagine what Dad's response would have been, knowing his youngest boy was on the other end of the country, still taking game with that old rifle 20+ years later.
I had done some of my own research on the rifle model and its known problems over the years, but I went back down the Google hole, looking for a straw for which I could grab. I found a post on a forum from a user with the same problems in the same rifle, and the problem in that case was a gummed up chamber. After he had cleaned the chamber thoroughly, his rifle worked like new. There was hope! Unfortunately, I read this late at night and was stuck working the next couple days, with no time to work on it.
So, today, I finally got the time to clean the chamber as that person had. I used a .45 cal brass wire brush wrapped with 0000 steel wool, soaked in Hoppe's #9, and attached to my cordless drill. I eased the end of it into the chamber, covered the receiver and stock with a clean rag so the shaft of the cleaning rod I had in the drill didn't mar up the rifle, and slowly squeezed the trigger while moving the brush in and out of the chamber. I did that for 30-60 seconds and thought I would see how it worked. I cleaned all the excess cleaner out of the rifle, grabbed the magazines and some ammo, and went out in the field, trying to temper my excitement. I loaded up the magazines, put the magazine in, worked the first round in, aimed at a mole hill, and fired. It went off, and the next round cycled in!!! I squeezed off the next round, and it went off, but the next round got hung again, same as always.
Cursing under my breath, I released the magazine and cleared the jam. Then, for some reason I still don't know, I grabbed the other loaded (and brand new) magazine, put in place, worked the action, and pulled the trigger. The old beast FINALLY cycled through a whole magazine! I tried using the other magazine, and it still wouldn't feed properly. I loaded the new magazine and fired off another four rounds as fast as I safely could, and repeated until I was out of ammo. Not a hiccup with the new magazine!!!!
After the ammo ran out, and I had a few minutes to think about how amazing today was, I looked at the magazines closely. The old mag has some rust on it, but the springs feel almost as strong as those in the new magazine, and the follower moves as freely. Then, I noticed the tabs on the top of the magazine are straighter on the old magazine. There are slight tooling marks there where you can see that someone bent them slightly with pliers at some point. Me? Dad? The previous owner? I don't know for sure.
Now, I don't know if it was only the magazine, or a combination of the magazine and a gummed up chamber. In hindsight, I feel like an idiot for never trying a new magazine, but for a lot of those years, I couldn't afford to spend the going rate of a spare 100 magazine for a rifle that didn't work, and I honestly always thought is was an extractor problem or a weak or broken spring or something. What I do know is it finally WORKS, as it should, and I'm the happiest I've been since I don't know when. I know if I could tell Dad all it took to get it working was a new magazine +/- a thoroughly cleaned chamber, he would say, "Well, I'll be [blasphemy]!" I know that it'll soon have a nice sling, mounts, and scope, and be sighted in for hunting again. And I know that next year, I'll take the first blacktail buck of my life with it. As I look down on my kill, I'll think of Dad, and how big he would be smiling. And then, I know I will break down and cry like a baby.
Long version:
My dad and mom gave me a Winchester 100 in .308 as my first whitetail rifle back in the early 90's when I was growing up in WV. AS far as I recall, it functioned appropriately in its early days, but within a few years, it stopped cycling effectively. It frequently either failed to eject the spent round, or wouldn't cycle the next one in effectively. He bought and replaced the action springs in it, and I think it worked OK for a very short period, and then went back to its old ways. It would only function reliably as a single shot. I was determined to take a buck with it, and one year was lucky enough to catch a big 10 pointer browsing his way out from behind a wall of hemlock trees, head down, probably also scenting a doe. He walked out from behind those hemlocks less than 10 yards from me. I shot him and dropped him in his tracks. Dad met me at the door, saw that big buck, and I thought he would explode with pride. I think the only time I saw him make a bigger deal of one of my achievements was at my grad school graduation. After that kill, I retired the rifle from regular use, thinking one day I would get a gunsmith to look at it and fix it.
I kept it stored in my grandfather's safe for a couple years during college, but otherwise dutifully moved it with me every time i changed addresses over the years. I figure it has made at least 12, maybe 14 moves with me. I had a gunsmith in VA work on it. When I told him it was a Winchester 100 .308, he pretty much described what it was doing without me even telling him, so I though it was in good hands. I got it back from him, took it to the range, and it was the same as always. So, I retired it again, until I could find another smith I trusted to look at it, and it made some more of those 12-14 moves with me. In those intervening years, we lost Dad.
This January, it made the trek to Oregon from Virginia. Once I got settled in, I thought it was high time I got that old rifle back into service. I took it to a gunsmith nearby who seemed like he had been around long enough to remember the 100's when they were new and knew a lot about them. He had it longer than I thought he would, but figured a few months wasn't a big deal after 20+ years. He called me last week and told me it was ready.
I went over and got the rifle, feeling almost as excited as I did that Christmas morning when I got it so many years ago. While I was there, I just so happened to find a new-in-the-box magazine for the rifle for well below market price, so I bought it in celebration. I rushed home and found that I didn't have any 308 ammo in the cabinet, so I ran back out and bought a box of Federal blue box. I came home, loaded up the mags, cycled the first round, squeezed off that first round, and it still did the same old thing!
I was nearly heartbroken, and wondered if it was truly just a lemon. As many of you can relate, this is more than just a rifle. It's a direct link I have to Dad, and dang it, I just wanted the thing to WORK, so I could carry it in the woods, maybe take a blacktail with it, and imagine what Dad's response would have been, knowing his youngest boy was on the other end of the country, still taking game with that old rifle 20+ years later.
I had done some of my own research on the rifle model and its known problems over the years, but I went back down the Google hole, looking for a straw for which I could grab. I found a post on a forum from a user with the same problems in the same rifle, and the problem in that case was a gummed up chamber. After he had cleaned the chamber thoroughly, his rifle worked like new. There was hope! Unfortunately, I read this late at night and was stuck working the next couple days, with no time to work on it.
So, today, I finally got the time to clean the chamber as that person had. I used a .45 cal brass wire brush wrapped with 0000 steel wool, soaked in Hoppe's #9, and attached to my cordless drill. I eased the end of it into the chamber, covered the receiver and stock with a clean rag so the shaft of the cleaning rod I had in the drill didn't mar up the rifle, and slowly squeezed the trigger while moving the brush in and out of the chamber. I did that for 30-60 seconds and thought I would see how it worked. I cleaned all the excess cleaner out of the rifle, grabbed the magazines and some ammo, and went out in the field, trying to temper my excitement. I loaded up the magazines, put the magazine in, worked the first round in, aimed at a mole hill, and fired. It went off, and the next round cycled in!!! I squeezed off the next round, and it went off, but the next round got hung again, same as always.
Cursing under my breath, I released the magazine and cleared the jam. Then, for some reason I still don't know, I grabbed the other loaded (and brand new) magazine, put in place, worked the action, and pulled the trigger. The old beast FINALLY cycled through a whole magazine! I tried using the other magazine, and it still wouldn't feed properly. I loaded the new magazine and fired off another four rounds as fast as I safely could, and repeated until I was out of ammo. Not a hiccup with the new magazine!!!!
After the ammo ran out, and I had a few minutes to think about how amazing today was, I looked at the magazines closely. The old mag has some rust on it, but the springs feel almost as strong as those in the new magazine, and the follower moves as freely. Then, I noticed the tabs on the top of the magazine are straighter on the old magazine. There are slight tooling marks there where you can see that someone bent them slightly with pliers at some point. Me? Dad? The previous owner? I don't know for sure.
Now, I don't know if it was only the magazine, or a combination of the magazine and a gummed up chamber. In hindsight, I feel like an idiot for never trying a new magazine, but for a lot of those years, I couldn't afford to spend the going rate of a spare 100 magazine for a rifle that didn't work, and I honestly always thought is was an extractor problem or a weak or broken spring or something. What I do know is it finally WORKS, as it should, and I'm the happiest I've been since I don't know when. I know if I could tell Dad all it took to get it working was a new magazine +/- a thoroughly cleaned chamber, he would say, "Well, I'll be [blasphemy]!" I know that it'll soon have a nice sling, mounts, and scope, and be sighted in for hunting again. And I know that next year, I'll take the first blacktail buck of my life with it. As I look down on my kill, I'll think of Dad, and how big he would be smiling. And then, I know I will break down and cry like a baby.