Winchester Model 100 in .308 - A Gunsmith I'm Not

[Mike97124]

I have a Winchester Model 100, .308 that I inherited from my dad, who bought it around 1964 when I was a kid. After I brought it home the first thing I did was do some checking on how to take it apart so I could clean it. Good thing I did before taking it out to shoot because I found that it had a recall in 1990 for a defective firing pin. Fortunately, the recall is still being honored and Winchester (or the company that has their name) sent me a new firing pin to replace the defective one.

I received that in today's mail and since I already had the rifle apart I didn't figure it would be any more difficult to put it back together, even if it had been almost 2 months since I took it apart to get the firing pin out to send in (you have to return the old one to get the new). So I pull up a Youtube video on putting it back together and took it slowly as I put the bolt assembly back together with the new firing pin in it. After I got the bolt back together I was thinking that that wasn't too bad... little did I know that that was the easy part.

So I started putting the bolt assembly back into the trigger housing which goes into the barrel frame. To do this, with the spring and how you have to position the pieces to slide the little pins back in requires 3 hands, 2 feet, a couple of dogs barking me on, 14 choice words that even shocked the dogs, a wife that is calling from upstairs (for a moment I thought she had used some of my choice words) to ask a question and I can't get up to answer her because I have the whole assembly positioned just right to put in the main pin. Since I didn't answer she calls me on my phone (so she doesn't have to walk down the stairs and through several dogs that are doing their best to bark encouraging words to my mumbling under my breath. I decided it was better if I just answered her question and get it over with.

So I get back to pushing and pulling and aligning and finally get the last pin in that holds it all together and I breath a sigh of relief... until I see this little pin left over and I don't know where it goes. It seems the first video I watched on putting it back together didn't show putting that little pin into the bolt assembly to hold the bolt together. So I go to another video and he shows where this little pin goes. I have to take it all apart again to put the pin in the bolt. Dang!

So ok, I take it apart real with no problems (why do things come apart much easier than they go together?), put the little pin into the hole and start to put the bolt back into bolt frame and the trigger assembly to the bolt frame and the bolt frame into the barrel housing... and there is that little pin again on the towel I have across my lap just in case I drop anything. Dang! So I back it apart again so I can slip the pin in. It seems in all of the videos the pins are so tight they have to use hammers to pound them in. My rifle? So loose they fall out on their own. The little pin kept falling out and because I have to twist and turn the assembly to get it all together I can't keep it in so in desperation I dab a tiny bit of Vaseline (it was all I h ad that was like grease) on each side of the pin and no more problem with it falling out. Remember, I was still at the easy part.

So on with putting the bolt and trigger assembly into the barrel frame, which requires a lot of dexterity, hand strength, 3 hands, two feet and 12 more choice words to get back together. Which I finally do! and I'm ready to put it back into the stock... which requires 3 hands, one foot and a few more choice words and I still fail. You have to put the trigger end first, pull the bolt all the way back and then lay the barrel into the stock and snap it down... except the barrel end frame won't fit in the stock. It's like it shrunk while sitting with the barrel assembly out of it for almost 2 months. Dang!

I didn't want to chance breaking the stock getting it in as I'd read that a good Model 100 stock might be worth more than the whole gun. Also, I found when I was pulling the bolt all the way back that it wasn't cocking the hammer most of the time. Since I won't fit in the stock and there seems to be something not right with the hammer assembly (which I didn't touch), I just gather up the stock and gun assembly upstairs to get a garbage back (no, not to throw it away... yet) to put it in so it stays clean stored away. I tell my wife in passing that if I want to shoot a high power rifle I'm going to just buy one. Good thing I got this one for free and I hadn't really planned on doing much more than fire it a couple of times for memory sakes, or I would have been even less happy.

I'm not sure what I'll do with it now. Maybe I'll take it to a real gunsmith one of these days or more likely it will sit in the closest in the trash bag until it's someone else's problem... kind of like my dad did.

It's too bad as my dad didn't shoot it all that much and the stock is in not bad shape, but for the cost of getting a gunsmith to take care of it I could probably buy another gun. Maybe I'll look at it again later. Maybe.

If you read this far, don't blame me for the 3 or 4 minutes you will never get back in your life.

Mike

Mike

Read More

 

[Lilhigbee]

Contact @Velzey . He'll put it together right the next time. And I have to add;

 

[bsa1917hunter]

Yes, take it to a good smith. They are not really that hard to put together, but you have to use slave pins. Trust me on this. I've done firing pins on these rifles. Its nice, they used to send you a $30.00 gift card too, if you did the firing pin installation yourself. I'm glad Winchester still honors that recall, as Winchester really isn't Winchester anymore, but instead BACO/Browning Arms Co... If you lived closer, I'd put it back together for you, but without all the cussing. I hope anyway..

 

[jbett98]

You can make slave pins out of correct sized drill bits. I buy Harbor Freight ones since they're so cheap and that's all they're good for anyway.

 

[revjen45]

"You can make slave pins out of correct sized drill bits. I buy Harbor Freight ones since they're so cheap and that's all they're good for anyway. "
Great idea! I usually just go there for the battery powered nose hair trimmers.

Be sure to tell the smith your BIL took it apart. That's what everybody says when they bring a sack of parts in.

 

[Velzey]

Those can be slightly tricky, but not something that's going to cost more than the rifle is worth..

 

[bsa1917hunter]

This may help the OP:

 

[gmerkt]

I had a Win. Mod. 100 quite a few years ago. It worked fine with the orig. firing pin, I sent for the new one anyway. Seems like at the time I did it, there was an option. You could take or send it to a gunsmith and Olin would pick up the tab, or they would send you the pin so you could do it yourself. I've forgotten some of the details by now.

Don't ever lose the magazine for that rifle. Or the lever version, Model 88. Those are like gold.

This is not a model you particularly want to take apart and clean just because. In the way of ease of cleaning, for sure it isn't a bit like a bolt action. These were basically a hunter's gun, most of them are low round count and don't need detail cleaning much in the lifetime of the product. And now they are essentially an obsolete item and it's probably not a good idea to shoot one much for fear of winding up with a bulky paperweight. I was able to change the firing pin without too much grief but I wouldn't want to do it very often.

The 100 is kinda in the same category as many semi-auto .22's, full of little springs and pins that have to go in just so. Not really the thing for non-gunsmith types if they don't have some native mechanical aptitude. This is why we see many .22 autos that are plenty filthy. My cousin had a Remington Nylon 66 that he bought ages ago. It quit working so he gave it to me. I took it apart and found a broken part. Which wasn't easy to find a replacement part for; this is another obsolete design, hard to find parts. I got the Nylon 66 fixed and working again and gave it back to my cousin. But it had a lot of little pins, levers and springs in it. Not that easy to work on.

 

[jbett98]

If you elected to not ship it to Winchester, they gave you a check for $50.00 and a new pin if you mailed them the old firing pin first.

 

[Mike97124]

It was a trap... it came apart a lot easier than it did trying to put back together. I only had to watch the take apart video a couple of times and had the firing pin out.

Winchester won't send you a new pin unless you send them the old one. I don't think you can buy them anywhere either any more. The women that I talked to said I'd get a $30 check after I got the firing pin. I guess someone else sends that out. If I found a gunsmith that would do it for $30 today, I probably wouldn't want him working on my water pistol, let alone my rifle. LOL!

I agree about the comment on it being a hunting rifle and not just to plink with. I only remember my dad taking it out when he went deer, bear and moose hunting. I only shot it a few times and I don't recall him shooting it for practice very much. My dad was a very good shot and didn't need a lot of practice but then like many from his generation he hunted a lot as a kid to put food on the table and not for sport.

I do have a number of magazines for it and a lot of slightly tarnished .308 ammunition. I'd also read that those were worth hanging onto. Once my hands recover (they actually feel bruised and swollen a bit from putting it together several times. At least I didn't get a finger or thumb in the way of the bolt when it snapped shut a few times... it was close though. LOL!

I like the idea of the slave pins. I was using a small screw driver (like you use on eye glasses) when I did the pin that just in front of the mag release that you have to hold the bolt back the body forward and line up the little half moon with the pin hole with two hands and put the pin in with your third while trying to see in the light if it's still lined up.

Thanks for the break down chart. A full size one would be nice. I think the trigger assembly my need cleaning but I'd rather not have to take that section apart. I'll look at it a lot closer if and when I take it apart again to find out why the bolt isn't sliding all the way back. I think I may have cocked it and pulled the trigger which I read can cause a problem if done at the wrong time while putting it together.

I liked the billing schedule. LOL! That is so true about it costing more if you work on it before you take it to the gunsmith. At least I've not lost any parts yet (that I know of).

Mike

 

[bsa1917hunter]

It was a trap... it came apart a lot easier than it did trying to put back together. I only had to watch the take apart video a couple of times and had the firing pin out.

Winchester won't send you a new pin unless you send them the old one. I don't think you can buy them anywhere either any more. The women that I talked to said I'd get a $30 check after I got the firing pin. I guess someone else sends that out. If I found a gunsmith that would do it for $30 today, I probably wouldn't want him working on my water pistol, let alone my rifle. LOL!

I agree about the comment on it being a hunting rifle and not just to plink with. I only remember my dad taking it out when he went deer, bear and moose hunting. I only shot it a few times and I don't recall him shooting it for practice very much. My dad was a very good shot and didn't need a lot of practice but then like many from his generation he hunted a lot as a kid to put food on the table and not for sport.

I do have a number of magazines for it and a lot of slightly tarnished .308 ammunition. I'd also read that those were worth hanging onto. Once my hands recover (they actually feel bruised and swollen a bit from putting it together several times. At least I didn't get a finger or thumb in the way of the bolt when it snapped shut a few times... it was close though. LOL!

I like the idea of the slave pins. I was using a small screw driver (like you use on eye glasses) when I did the pin that just in front of the mag release that you have to hold the bolt back the body forward and line up the little half moon with the pin hole with two hands and put the pin in with your third while trying to see in the light if it's still lined up.

Thanks for the break down chart. A full size one would be nice. I think the trigger assembly my need cleaning but I'd rather not have to take that section apart. I'll look at it a lot closer if and when I take it apart again to find out why the bolt isn't sliding all the way back. I think I may have cocked it and pulled the trigger which I read can cause a problem if done at the wrong time while putting it together.

I liked the billing schedule. LOL! That is so true about it costing more if you work on it before you take it to the gunsmith. At least I've not lost any parts yet (that I know of).

Mike

Just click on the pic and then you can zoom in on the details. It should help bigtime, if you decide you want to give it another go when your hands heal up. In the envelope that the firing pin came in, I had 2 different sizes of slave pins that I made, just for this project. Good luck, if you decide to tackle it again...

 

[jbett98]

A well know outdoor sports writer called his model 100 "a single shot semi auto" as he never could get it to work right, even after having three different gunsmiths work on it.

 

[bsa1917hunter]

A well know outdoor sports writer called his model 100 "a single shot semi auto" as he never could get it to work right, even after having three different gunsmiths work on it.

Mine worked flawlessly and was accurate to boot. You just had to keep it clean... It didn't like heavy loads either. I found that out the hard way and broke an extractor. Replaced it and then loaded it light. I loaded 45 grains of RL15 behind a 150 gr hornady sp interlock in my model 100, as opposed to the 47gr. charge I used in my bolt actions...

 

[Mark W.]

Winchester made a semi auto single shot the model 55 .22 rimfire short, long, long rifle c1957-60 I have one it's very accurate.

 

[Velzey]

Winchester pays $30 because it's a half hour job. (after you know how to do it)

 

[Mike97124]

Yep, only took a half hour... then another half hour to redo it... then another half hour to do it right... then another half hour to really do it right... and... well, you get the picture, it just seemed longer but was really only a half hour.

Mike

 

[JRuby]

Many years ago I was spending my Saturday talking to my freind the gunsmith.
He asked if I was up to a challenge and that was disassembling a gunk upped model 100. It took most all of the afternoon and all four of our hands. We got it back together and functioning and yes it was a challenge. I sold my model 100 shortly after that as if I could not clean it myself it was not something I wanted to have. Just my 2 cents.

 

[coop44]

Back in the 90's I worked for Bolsa Gunsmithing in Westminster CA. They were Winchester warranty at the time, we had thousands of the recalled firing pins. They made great punches. Every week we would get a few 100's in, the smiths who did the recall could do it in minutes.

 

[revjen45]

"I liked the billing schedule. LOL! That is so true about it costing more if you work on it before you take it to the gunsmith. At least I've not lost any parts yet (that I know of)." (above)
I finally decided that in nearly all cases it's worth taking repair work to somebody who knows about it. I know more about my '79 Ironhead than the mechanics at the factory HD shop, but it's worth paying the old school mechanic (not just a parts installer) at the non-factory shop to work on it. Not quite so much with guns since my degree is in Professional Gunsmithing, but there are gun jobs I would pay to have done.