Stevens Marksman 22 Double Trigger Pull Required

[cooltouch]

I have a family heirloom Stevens Marksman 22 -- a little break-action single shot -- that was originally owned by my uncle back in the 30's. It's been mine since the 60s. It's still a reasonably accurate shooter, and I enjoy taking it out for a relaxed day of plinking. But it is annoying now. Every time I pull the trigger, I have to cock the hammer and pull it a second time to get a round to fire.

I'm thinking the culprit is one of two things: 1) the hammer spring is weak and needs replacing, or 2) because I probably dry fired it thousands of times when I was a kid and didn't know any better, I ended up damaging the firing pin, such that it needs two strikes to ignite the primer.

I haven't dismantled the rifle yet, so I can't state with any confidence which of the above items is the likely culprit, although I'm leaning toward item number 1.

So, just curious about your thoughts on this. It's a cool little rifle that I'd like to get restored back to good shooting condition.

Yes, I could take it to a gunsmith, but I have many tools, and this is the sort of repair that I do enjoy doing myself. I have, in the past, repaired and replaced broken hand springs in my SAA pistol, customized my 1911, souped up my 10-22, built a custom stock for my Remington 700 varmint rifle, and bedded the actions on several of my bolt guns.

UPDATE: I removed the Stevens's barrel and . . . I don't know what it's called . . . the tip up section that the cartridge is placed into, and the lever assy attached to it. This exposed the firing pin, which I believe to be in good shape. Its face is sort of a rounded square shape and it has no nicks, notches, or uneven areas. To test it, I scrounged up an almost empty tube of ointment, which is made from some sort of soft metal . . . lead? zinc? Anyway, I flattened the tube, then pressed it against the firing pin, then snapped the hammer a few times. The pin made a nice, smooth, and fairly deep dent into the tube. So I think the firing pin is ok.

So I suppose I should look at the hammer spring? Other possibilities?

 

[Blue68f100]

Check the barrel face to see if the FP has peened it. Dry firing can if the FP is long and hits the surface, which backs up the rim.

A week return spring can keep the hammer from hitting the FP solidly. Need to measure the FP protrusion when fully forward. There is a min for this. Max is so it does not hit the barrel face.

 

[Big Bore 44]

Remove the firing pin and clean the channel. One of the most overlooked locations on any firearm.

 

[cooltouch]

Check the barrel face to see if the FP has peened it. Dry firing can if the FP is long and hits the surface, which backs up the rim.

Okay, here's a shot of the chamber face. As you can see, there's a "divot" where the firing pin strikes. I don't know if the firing pin caused this or if it were machined into the chamber. But just picturing it in my mind, I don't see how this divot would affect firing performance. If anything, it seems to me, such a divot would improve firing performance because it would allow the firing pin to strike deeper.

A week return spring can keep the hammer from hitting the FP solidly. Need to measure the FP protrusion when fully forward. There is a min for this. Max is so it does not hit the barrel face.

Well, as you can see above, this divot sort of prevents the fp from hitting the barrel face. I can measure the fp protrusion by measuring the depth of the indentation it made in that ointment tube I mentioned above. I don't have any specs as to what that depth should be, though. l measured the indentation in the tube -- 0.045". Does that sound about right for what I'm assuming is "max"? Hmm, now that I think about it, I'm wondering if maybe the best way to determine the actual extension of the fp is to measure the depression in a spent round.

You know, the spring doesn't feel weak, to me. There's a fair amount of tension there when I pull back on the hammer. I'm thinking that if the return spring were actually weak, I should be able to notice this. Big Bore, maybe you're on to something? Time to clean the fp channel for probably the first time in this gun's life?

 

[Blue68f100]

Is the dent area raised? if so make the breach face flat again. The raised area will prevent the bolt from fully closing. The rim recess look good. No damage in that area.

 

[cooltouch]

Thanks for the response. If you look closely at the photo above, there is the slightest indication of a lip above the "divot" I previously described. I could not really feel this lip, rubbing my finger across it. Even with my fingernail, I could detect only the slightest deformation. Still, I checked the face with a stone, and sure enough, there was indeed a slight raised area. So I stoned it flat. Could it be something that simple? I guess I'll find out next time I take the Stevens out for a plinking session.

 

[Blue68f100]

Yes. The brass must be flat against the chamber otherwise it take way energy.

 

[cooltouch]

Well, I just checked. I dismounted the barrel, then dropped in a live round of CCI Blazer. It appears to fit flush. But I decided to check actual depth, so I used a depth micrometer. The flat of the brass sits about 0.005" below the flat of the barrel face. I'm assuming that's an allowable amount.

 

[BBBBill]

All 22 rimfire cartridges headspace off the rim. The depth of the breechface recess (if any, some guns don't have that) will contribute to headspace. Recessed bolt faces will do the same. I blueprint my Ruger rimfires by reducing the boltface recess fro a typical .052" -.058" to .045" -.046", squaring the breechface in the process. You can go less than that. Some go down to .043", but you have to be more selective of your ammo. Don't want slam fires. Similar would be done to a recessed breech face that paired with a flat faced bolt.

I have zero experience with your particular gun, so I my gunsmithing advice about how to accomplish that, if you were so inclined, is pure speculation. That said, from looking at a schematic, it appears that the barrel is inserted through a barrel sleeve. If so I would investigate whether facing the rear of the barrel to reduce the depth of the recess along with installing a shim between the front face of the barrel shoulder and back face of the barrel sleeve would accomplish the desired result. Without gun in hand that is purely a guess.

 

[cooltouch]

You're correct -- the barrel is inserted into a barrel sleeve, and held in place with a large knurled bolt that can be either hand-tightened or tightened with a slotted screwdriver. I wasn't trying to remove any material beyond a very small lip above the space into which the firing pin fits. I didn't measure how far that lip protruded, but based on how it felt, I doubt it was more than a few thousandths. Nonetheless,I went ahead and stoned the area flat, thereby insuring that it was at the same depth as the rest of the barrel face. Actually, "depth" isn't the right word, since the barrel face and the barrel sleeve fit perfectly flush with each other.

 

[BBBBill]

Can you measure the depth of the rim recess in the barrel breech? How much firing pin protrusion? Got dial calipers?

 

[BillTell]

Just a thought, but sometimes when this happens, (and you mentioned it above) have you done a thorough cleaning? I'm not familiar with this particular gun, however the spring for the firing pin may be all gunked up. If there's old grease, filled in with half burned powder residue, it may just slow down the sequence enough. Try a good cleaning, and finish with some gun scrubber. Sometimes, before you do all these mathematical calculations to see if the stars are aligned and within tolerances to the millionth of an inch, a good cleaning will get results... sometimes the simple answer works...

 

[cooltouch]

Hey Bill, the rim recess is 0.050'. I checked the rim thickness with an unfired CCI Blazer round, and it measures 0.040". So there's 0.010" of play there, which I don't consider to be significant, given the way this Stevens is put together. The firing pin protrudes 0.065".When the hammer is all the way down, it's having to push against the hammer return spring to maintain this level of protrusion.

BillTell, in this gun's some 90 years of existence, it's probably never had a thorough cleaning, let alone a scrubbing. So I went ahead and cleaned out the firing pin channel as best as I could. Before, when the hammer was cocked, the fp was free to move, but exhibited just a bit of notchiness when first moved. After some cleaning and lubing, it moves freely now.

Well, I had a chance to take the Stevens out and put several rounds through it. The first round exhibited the same problem, requiring a double tap to light it off. But by the second round, and every other one after, the Stevens fired on the first squeeze of the trigger. So, I don't know if it was that shallow little lip or the cleaning and lube job, or just dismantling and remantling it that did the trick, or if it was a combination of factors, but the important thing is it's fixed, and hopefully fixed for the next 90 years.

 

[BillTell]

It was definitely the thorough cleaning...