PotatoJudge
Member
I picked up this gun over the weekend at a local show. Looks like a 1940 manufacture. Good shape but shot a lot. Honest wear and mostly intact bluing. The gun has a factory heavy barrel, Kings vent rib, Patridge front sight with mirror in the base, Kings cockeye hammer, short action conversion, and action work. I believe the trigger and backstrap knurling were factory. Cylinder shows some evidence of prior poor timing, but the notches, leads, and ratchet are good.
When I got the gun I asked if I could dry fire it, and the seller said no but that I could work the action. The gun checked out for timing, carry up, lock up, etc working the action slow and single action. However in double action dry firing at home something odd happens. The bolt is hopping out of the notch/skipping over it, allowing the cylinder to over rotate and the gun to fire out of lockup. The bolt drops in the middle 1/3 of the lead, so early enough even for quicker shooting given normal bolt return. The hand will push the cylinder to just a hair beyond the bolt/notch engagement point so that I have to let off the trigger slightly to get it to rotate back. Good for solid lockup, but is this appropriate?
I should mention I have the Kuhnhausen manual and have studied it quite a bit working on a very worn D frame.
First, I stripped and cleaned the gun. Carbon and varnish/lubricant removed and the problem actually maybe got worse :roll eyes:
The bolt spring had a kink/bend/stretch on the frame side, so I have ordered a couple new ones. I hope that fixes it.
In the meantime, while the bolt notch fit into the cylinder appropriately out of the gun, it was worn (possibly from prior timing issues) and didn't engage much when working the action. Wondering if this might be a contributing factor, I stoned the stop to allow it to engage further then had to rework the rebound lever to compensate for the prior adjustment. After that, a single cylinder catches slightly since the bolt drops a hair later, so the top of the bolt was dressed which it looked like it needed anyway. The bolt now has room to more fully engage the notches, but return is sluggish and incomplete HOPEFULLY because of the bad spring.
I don't want to mess with the hand unless absolutely necessary, but stoning the lower notch to stop the cylinder from rotating that last millimeter or two would help timing but possibly hurt lockup.
So my question to those familiar with the action: am I going about this right? Would you have done any different (except replace the spring before altering any parts)? What's the name of this condition, if any?
The regrettable part is this: after doing this I half feel like it's a potato judge action rather than the Kings action that I wanted and paid for. I know that's not the case as the rest of the action has been worked thoroughly, but it would be nice to know the gun is running with the "expert" treatment.
The trigger is incredible though and I can't wait to shoot it so I can decide between 158 gr LSWC or 148 gr HBWC.
When I got the gun I asked if I could dry fire it, and the seller said no but that I could work the action. The gun checked out for timing, carry up, lock up, etc working the action slow and single action. However in double action dry firing at home something odd happens. The bolt is hopping out of the notch/skipping over it, allowing the cylinder to over rotate and the gun to fire out of lockup. The bolt drops in the middle 1/3 of the lead, so early enough even for quicker shooting given normal bolt return. The hand will push the cylinder to just a hair beyond the bolt/notch engagement point so that I have to let off the trigger slightly to get it to rotate back. Good for solid lockup, but is this appropriate?
I should mention I have the Kuhnhausen manual and have studied it quite a bit working on a very worn D frame.
First, I stripped and cleaned the gun. Carbon and varnish/lubricant removed and the problem actually maybe got worse :roll eyes:
The bolt spring had a kink/bend/stretch on the frame side, so I have ordered a couple new ones. I hope that fixes it.
In the meantime, while the bolt notch fit into the cylinder appropriately out of the gun, it was worn (possibly from prior timing issues) and didn't engage much when working the action. Wondering if this might be a contributing factor, I stoned the stop to allow it to engage further then had to rework the rebound lever to compensate for the prior adjustment. After that, a single cylinder catches slightly since the bolt drops a hair later, so the top of the bolt was dressed which it looked like it needed anyway. The bolt now has room to more fully engage the notches, but return is sluggish and incomplete HOPEFULLY because of the bad spring.
I don't want to mess with the hand unless absolutely necessary, but stoning the lower notch to stop the cylinder from rotating that last millimeter or two would help timing but possibly hurt lockup.
So my question to those familiar with the action: am I going about this right? Would you have done any different (except replace the spring before altering any parts)? What's the name of this condition, if any?
The regrettable part is this: after doing this I half feel like it's a potato judge action rather than the Kings action that I wanted and paid for. I know that's not the case as the rest of the action has been worked thoroughly, but it would be nice to know the gun is running with the "expert" treatment.
The trigger is incredible though and I can't wait to shoot it so I can decide between 158 gr LSWC or 148 gr HBWC.