I bought a shotgun the other day and the action was a bit rough. I start taking everything apart and find a piece of rag or something jammed inside. Why would someone do that and how can I get it out?
Finish taking it apart. It needs a degunking, rag or no. My guess? It's a patch that didn't make it out after what passed for a cleaning.
WOW! Who knows how stuff gets stuck inside a firearm's action, some folks are really unknowing or careless. As was stated, it needs a good breakdown to get all the stuff out of there. You may find other patches, etc. wedged inside as well. Depending on the gun you may need to hit up a You Tube video to show step by step takedown, but once you've got it apart it should function a lot better than it could with the cloth stuck inside. Good luck, let us know how it turns out . Stay safe.
I found a piece of a flannel shirt in a friend's Rossi 22 pump action rifle that was a misplaced improvised cleaning patch.
So here is the before and after shots so far. I took it apart and the rag was jammed in there good underneath the hammer keeping everything from moving. Got it out finally and cleaned it up. Will put it back together tomorrow and see how it goes. It’s an H&R 440
Maybe somebody's idea of storing it with an oiled rag for lube. Glad you posted the other pics, I didn't know what the heck I was looking at in the first one. Glad you figured it out.
No doubt, you would have to work at getting a rag caught up the way that one was...that’s a new one for sure. Stay safe.
Thing's so crusty, maybe they had it oiled up, to work the gorp loose, and stuffed the rag in there, for drip control. Probably got put on the back burner, when the Twin Towers got attacked, and the guy had to be away from home for 6 weeks, or something, and the rag and cleaning project got forgotten about. Life just went on, till you found it.