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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
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