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Military Firearm Restoration Corner

Pinched Reciever


Brenden

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I've got a Carl Gustava (SP?) 1918 that i tried some time ago to get the barrel off of. I set my action wrench a little too tight and now the reciever has been smashed down just a touch to make the bolt a no go. I have lightly sanded inside and have gotton the bolt to go in about 1/4 an inch past the extractor collar. Sanding is going to take forever to get this thing to accept the bolt. Any thoughts or am i just screwed?

Brenden

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No i didn't get the barrel off. This is before i had a barrel vise and thought that i (as well as dad) could just put a pipe vise on the barrel and take it off, needless to say it didn't work worth a crap. Did manage to take my 24/47 yugo barrel off just about 10 minutes ago, the action is fine and dandy, i've learned to use proper tooling and proper tension if nothing else. Makes me f-in sick to screw up a nice action. Bolt is still good though, maybe i can find a nice reciever. i'm gonna go stick my head in the creek and hold my breath real long now....

Brenden :(

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Bummer!!

Live and learn. I'd be willing to bet you don't ever make that mistake again.

You should see some of the stuff I've messed up. But I never make the same mistake twice!

 

Kenny

 

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i'm gonna go stick my head in the creek and hold my breath real long now....

Brenden :(

 

I know how you feel...

 

OK, that's twice I've done this! I hit post, then the back arrow. I walk away for a while, then come back and forget if I hit post or not.

 

Can one just delete their own post?

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Tanglewood gave me a nice suggestion last night. Since the barrel is toast, (its been cut to less than 16" and then counter bored with a drill, why i have no idea), i'll pull the barrel and then lightly file and sand away a couple thousands. If one is to lightly tap the bolt, it goes in and functions, so its very close. Maybe i can save it. Thank goodness that he called before i went into the creek.

 

 

Ken98, your correct, i made very sure i didn't over kill the tension on the action wrench last night when i pulled the yugo, its fine and functions beautiful. Its a very nice action.

 

I've noticed something on these sweed recievers, maybe kimber is like me and didn't know a whole lot at the time, but look at all those recievers on gunbroker, pinched twisted, bent, cracked. I know one can do this to any reciever but are these sweeds a touch softer or what? just a wondering

Brenden

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Brenden

 

Maybe you can give this idea a try, assuming that you have an old barrel.

 

Many stepped barrels have a section that is very nearly the same diameter as the bolt.

 

 

Taper the end of the barrel at a point just ahead of where the barrel diameter matches the bolt diameter so that you can

drive it into where the bolt goes. assuming that it will other wise fit through the rear of the receiver.

 

If you have a stepped barrel with a section just under the bolt diameter make 2 () shaped shims then drive the

barrel between them.

 

If this doesn't make sense, shoot me a PM and I'll call you.

 

Tinker

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Brendan,

 

Am I understanding correctly, that you are saying that you actually compressed the front ring of the receiver?

 

I have a difficult time understanding how this could happen if the inside was being supported by the barrel's threaded shank when you put the wrench on.

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The front ring is fairly thin. It is easy to compress the ring even if you don't distort it. Is uspect that the kimber rejects that the guy on GunBroker is selling were damaged in much the same fashion. though kimber may have had the proper tools they were trying to crank out as many as possible in as little time as possible. We all know what happens when that is the case.

 

Anyhow, to demonstrate to yourself just how thin the metal is and just how much force even a lightly tightened wrench can exert on the receiver ring, lightly tighten an action wrench on the ring. Then insert a stripped bolt. Goes in easy, now, give a quarter turn or so on the wrench bolt(s). Try the bolt again. Reapeat until you notice the bolt starts to encounter resistence. There is a very small window from snug until resistence is met.

 

We were told to insert a bolt when spinning an action off. They should have been clear that it was a stripped bolt but that's another story. I always thought it was BS and in truth it is unnecessary on a LR action however, this little excercise I've described will demonstrate that on a SR action it is not a waste of time. The bolt will keep the ring from being compress to the point of distortion and/or serve as an indicator of just how tight you have the action wrench.

 

As far as I am concerned, life's too short to mess with a suspect receiver. Move on.

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I've got a Carl Gustava (SP?) 1918 that i tried some time ago to get the barrel off of. I set my action wrench a little too tight and now the reciever has been smashed down just a touch to make the bolt a no go. I have lightly sanded inside and have gotton the bolt to go in about 1/4 an inch past the extractor collar. Sanding is going to take forever to get this thing to accept the bolt. Any thoughts or am i just screwed?

Brenden

 

 

You've stated that the front ring is pinched, perhaps you've visually verified that. But thinking about this this from afar - is it also possible that your rails are no longer aligned with the front ring due to rotation or a change in the (perpindicular) angle of the rails to the front ring? I recently had some barrels removed and that seems to be the case for one of my receivers.

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wow, learned a good bit. Thanks Z for that food for thought. One could fashion up about anthing to help keep distortion from occuring, but i've learned proper tooling and paticence is the only way so that i don't f-up any more.I know lifes too short, but hey, i fudged it now i want to fix it. If nothing else it will be a good learing tool for me.

 

Tinker, got you 100%. I'd never thought of that, its logical. Between the barrel stub and the shims if one needed it, would kind of act like a press, except in an opposite manner, expansion instead of compaction. Good idea and thanks.

 

Have faith i'm learning.....

 

Brenden

 

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You've stated that the front ring is pinched, perhaps you've visually verified that. But thinking about this this from afar - is it also possible that your rails are no longer aligned with the front ring due to rotation or a change in the (perpindicular) angle of the rails to the front ring? I recently had some barrels removed and that seems to be the case for one of my receivers.

 

I picked up a couple mex's from someone here that had the same problem. The actions were twisted. The check put a straightedge on the bottom first to make sure it isn't bent up/down. The check for twist winding sticks work good. As for fixing them, it is just careful bending with a mandrel inserted in the raceways. I got one fixed so far and haven't had time to correct the other one yet. Oh course I annealled the action first and will have to get it recarberized. As for pinching the front ring the only advise I'll add to what has already been said is to make sure your action wrench fits the receiver perfectly and stay away from the universal ones that have a vee to fit any flat bottomed action.

-Don

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As for pinching the front ring the only advise I'll add to what has already been said is to make sure your action wrench fits the receiver perfectly and stay away from the universal ones that have a vee to fit any flat bottomed action.

-Don

 

There is my problem and i've known this but tried any way. Mine is a universial. I'll get a better one soon or maybe talk somebody into making one since i have no way of doing it. I did get some progress tonight, took off my first charger hump. looks darn good, but not as good as some i've seen on here. Practice makes perfect and i'm venturing out and doing my best. lol

Brenden

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I've got the universal kind and now I will be much more careful. I didn't have an problems on the 2 that I've done, but it wasn't because I had even considering the possibility of this happening. I guess I just didn't see the need to reef down on the bolts once it was snug enough against the flat bottom so that it wouldn't slip. I treated it like a big adjustable cresent wrench. Good to know what can go wrong though.

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I've got the universal kind and now I will be much more careful. I didn't have an problems on the 2 that I've done, but it wasn't because I had even considering the possibility of this happening. I guess I just didn't see the need to reef down on the bolts once it was snug enough against the flat bottom so that it wouldn't slip. I treated it like a big adjustable cresent wrench. Good to know what can go wrong though.

 

Overtightening isn't the only way to pinch or mess up the receiver. I've learned to tripple check evrything. It's one thing to mess up your action, something entirly different to mess up some one else's. Ill fitting wrenches will also cause damage and so will proper fitting wrenches if you don't tighten them properly. Sometimes you'll tighten up a wrench and think it is snug. that is until you apply pressure and it slips becuase wihile it was snug, it was not "tight". What happens is teh bolts will bind and everything feels good until you apply pressure. these days I tripple check that the bottom of the wrench is actually SQUARE to teh bottom of the action. Then I gently apply some pressure to ensure that the wrench bolts haven't bound. Then, when I'm satisfied all is good, I whack the handle and off comes the action/barrel depending on how you look at it.

 

When you do this long enough you will make a mistake; some sooner, some later. Like I tell my now 7 YO, you learn by making mistakes. Hopefully we don't repeat them.

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My action wrench is made for Mauser and I have had some easy removals and some harder ones. I presoak the threads now for days or weeks with Kroil and it does make a difference, IMO. The fit of the wrench and its bolt tension needs to be carefully assessed too.

The other key, as z1r notes, is to use a BFH to give a sharp rap to the wrench rather than using a 6' bar to apply pressure. With the bar, there is a chance that you can put a twist in the action.

Once you break that initial bond with an impact, the rest is routine.

 

By the same token, you do not need a 6' bar to install a barrel, depending on your method of chambering.

Because I have a mini-lathe, there really isn't enough room to ream the barrel. I install the barrel to the action using the wrench only, then carefully hand-ream the chamber through the action. This method has worked well for me.

 

Spiris

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