Hi all-
First time here. Have read THR archives on many topics but just signed up- glad to now be joining the discussions and community..
I own a Winchester 1897 takedown shotgun that I bought about 22 years ago.
It looked like it had been through a war when I bought it, but despite awful appearances, the insides were all pristine. So at the time I carefully disassembled nearly all of it, boiled all the metal in detergent to remove fossilized grime, refinished with Brownell's Oxpho blue, and gave the wood a hand oil finish.
It is my favorite all around shotgun. I treat it well- kept clean and oiled with quality oil. It'll never win a beauty contest but it *works* like magic, and for me, points and hits instinctively better than many more "advanced" shotguns. I like how the "archaic" design is actually shorter than most "modern" pumps where the receiver has to be long enough for the bolt to move within the receiver.
In the past the takedown always worked normally. But recently when I push the pin, rotate the magazine tube, and then go to pull the mag. tube forward, the tube rotates but simply will not budge forward, at all. Again, it's clean, maintained, and has not been dropped. And again, I used to always be able to take it down with no issues, so it is not as if the gun is new to me (unless I am having a brain cramp and forgetting some important step).
I do not want to force anything, but really *do* want to get this sorted out so I can take the barrel off to do a bit more cleaning, and just because I don't like to leave it with something out of order.
Thanks in advance for the help.
First time here. Have read THR archives on many topics but just signed up- glad to now be joining the discussions and community..
I own a Winchester 1897 takedown shotgun that I bought about 22 years ago.
It looked like it had been through a war when I bought it, but despite awful appearances, the insides were all pristine. So at the time I carefully disassembled nearly all of it, boiled all the metal in detergent to remove fossilized grime, refinished with Brownell's Oxpho blue, and gave the wood a hand oil finish.
It is my favorite all around shotgun. I treat it well- kept clean and oiled with quality oil. It'll never win a beauty contest but it *works* like magic, and for me, points and hits instinctively better than many more "advanced" shotguns. I like how the "archaic" design is actually shorter than most "modern" pumps where the receiver has to be long enough for the bolt to move within the receiver.
In the past the takedown always worked normally. But recently when I push the pin, rotate the magazine tube, and then go to pull the mag. tube forward, the tube rotates but simply will not budge forward, at all. Again, it's clean, maintained, and has not been dropped. And again, I used to always be able to take it down with no issues, so it is not as if the gun is new to me (unless I am having a brain cramp and forgetting some important step).
I do not want to force anything, but really *do* want to get this sorted out so I can take the barrel off to do a bit more cleaning, and just because I don't like to leave it with something out of order.
Thanks in advance for the help.