Sam1911
Moderator Emeritus
AAAck!
A few months back I discovered that the cycling problems with my 11-48 20 ga. could be traced to a broken section on the carrier/slide that was impacting the shell release lever several times in each cycle.
I got a replacement slide from Numrich and the gun cycled flawlessly! Just a joy to shoot!
So I broke it down to clean it after our outing yesterday, and found that the bolt handle was WAAAY too tight to remove.
So I got some bigger tools and eventually broke it free. When I had the bolt broken down completely I could see that the little detent catch that holds the bolt handle was jammed up, cocked slightly sideways, and the top of the ball had "smeared" where I'd forced the catch out.
I used utmost care. Really I did. I got a punch and a small hammer and very gently tired to tap the ball catch back enough to free it up in it's pocket in the slide. Little taps... slightly bigger taps ... nothing. Frozen solid.
Slightly bigger tap! Bam. The ball catch and it's spring blew right THROUGH the back of the slide! Nice. Ruined the slide completely. Turns out the back of the pocket that supports the catch and spring is only about 1/32" of cast (?) steel and it takes VERY little to punch that pocket right through.
SO I have ANOTHER slide on order from Numrich. I thought I'd checked that ball and gotten it freed up before I assembled the gun last time. I guess this time I'll triple check.
And maybe I just won't disassemble the gun next time it needs cleaning. Bummer.
Love the gun, though!
-Sam
A few months back I discovered that the cycling problems with my 11-48 20 ga. could be traced to a broken section on the carrier/slide that was impacting the shell release lever several times in each cycle.
I got a replacement slide from Numrich and the gun cycled flawlessly! Just a joy to shoot!
So I broke it down to clean it after our outing yesterday, and found that the bolt handle was WAAAY too tight to remove.
So I got some bigger tools and eventually broke it free. When I had the bolt broken down completely I could see that the little detent catch that holds the bolt handle was jammed up, cocked slightly sideways, and the top of the ball had "smeared" where I'd forced the catch out.I used utmost care. Really I did. I got a punch and a small hammer and very gently tired to tap the ball catch back enough to free it up in it's pocket in the slide. Little taps... slightly bigger taps ... nothing. Frozen solid.
Slightly bigger tap! Bam. The ball catch and it's spring blew right THROUGH the back of the slide! Nice. Ruined the slide completely. Turns out the back of the pocket that supports the catch and spring is only about 1/32" of cast (?) steel and it takes VERY little to punch that pocket right through.
SO I have ANOTHER slide on order from Numrich. I thought I'd checked that ball and gotten it freed up before I assembled the gun last time. I guess this time I'll triple check.
And maybe I just won't disassemble the gun next time it needs cleaning. Bummer.
Love the gun, though!
-Sam
