Failure to feed in Highstandard Sharpshooter

[nelstomlinson]

Hello,

I have a nickel plated Highstandard Sharpshooter Model M which won't feed reliably and won't eject. It's both accurate and pretty, so I'd really like to get it going.

The nose of the cartridge gets into the chamber alright, but then it either winds up with the bullet jammed in the chamber at an angle, or, if the cartridge does get aligned parallel with the chamber, it stops with about 1/8 inch of the cartridge protruding. About one time in three, it will chamber properly. I've tried several brands of ammunition, and they all cause the same problems.

I think that the bolt face may be slightly rough: that might be what's keeping the base of the cartridge from coming up to parallel sometimes. Is that plausible, and is there a safe way to polish that? Can you think of another cause?

When I try to push a ``stuck'' cartridge the rest of the way in, there is noticeable resistance, but it does go in, and fires normally. Could there be roughness in the chamber? Could the spring be weak? I can't see any problems on fired brass, and the inside of the chamber _looks_ smooth.

Finally, the extractor usually fails to extract. It looks as if it still has a nice right angle on its hook, so I'm thinking it may need a stronger spring.

If anyone has any comments or suggestions, I'd really like to hear them.

Thanks,
Nels

 

[rcmodel]

That you can push it in after it hangs up indicates a weak recoil spring.

The extractor spring could also be weak.
Or it could just be gunked up with years of .22RF fouling.
Clean the snot out of it and work solvent down into the spring & plunger and see what bubbles to the top!

Go here for replacement springs.
http://gunsprings.com/SemiAuto/HiStandardNF.html

If that doesn't fix it, you have a bad magazine.

rcmodel

 

[Jim Watson]

High Standard gives basic magazine tweaking at:
http://www.highstandard.com/magazines.html

 

[swampshooter]

Remove the extractor and polish the bolt face with 4/0 steel wool. To remove the extractor, pull it out slightly and push rearward against spring pressure, then move it away from the slide to about a 45 degree angle and remove. When doing this make sure you retain the spring which will try to fly out, and it's so small you won't find it. Then clean the chamber real good. A cartridge should slide in and out easily. Tune your magazines front lips to give a small amount of tension on a cartridge. The web-site that explaines this further was posted earlier by someone else. Keep in mind that the function of an extractor on a blow back action is not to extract the cartridge, but merely to hold it in place until it moves rearward enough to strike the ejector. The cartridge extracts itself. To replace the extractor reverse the procedure.

 

[swampshooter]

PS. the cartridge hanging up with the bullet partially into the chamber is caused by the magazine, normally because it is releasing the bullet too soon. Normally, hanging up about 1/2 or 2/3 of the way in is caused by bullet misalignment absorbing the strength of the recoil spring. It sounds to me like your major problem is caused by improper magazine tuning. Original factory high stand. mags were tuned perfectly, normally after market mags are not. Without having the gun here though, i can't be 100 percent positive of the diagnosis, but about 90 percent for sure.

 

[gb6491]

There is some more magazine adjusting info (with illustrations) here: http://home.roadrunner.com/~jbarta/otherstuff.html
Regards,
Greg

 

[nelstomlinson]

Thanks, and a further question

Thanks! That's a lot of useful information.

I think that the magazine I got with the gun might be the original: it is nickel plated to match the gun. It has exactly the same problems as the two that I got from e-gunparts.com, so I'll try the tuneup instructions on all three before I polish anything.

Thanks for the pointer to the replacement springs. I'm guessing that my Sharpshooter model M is one of the ``older models,'' not a current model?

The gun seems surprisingly clean. I've drenched it in Ed's Red, and there isn't much gunk coming out at all. I'm beginning to think that the fellow sold it to me because it didn't work for him.

After reading the magazine tuning information, it looks as if part of the reason feeding is so tricky is that there is no feed ramp cut out of the chamber. Does anyone have any opinions on the possibility of having a gunsmith cut a feed ramp? Would it hurt the accuracy significantly? Any other reasons not to do it (assuming I don't care about collectability)?

Again, thanks to all who chimed in. I'm off to adjust a magazine.