Chamber Cleaning Question
Looking for suggestions
I have a lever action 22 (Westernfield (Mossberg 401)) that will extract a dummy round but won't extract a fired casing. The gun was free but it had a broken left extractor. I replaced both extractors and assume that there's a dirty chamber. The bore is clean but I can't see into the chamber. I tried a standard 22 brush with solvent and stuffed a patch with solvent (Hoppes) in the chamber and let it sit a couple of days, brushed it a again followed up with patches.
A previous owner may have had trouble too. Someone left gouges from a left handed set of vice grips or channel locks on the barrel. I don't see a pin or anything to hold the barrel in place.
What else, short of removing the barrel, can I try? Soak the receiver and up past the chamber in Red's. Carb cleaner? Use the brush on the rod chucked in a drill? I just wish I could inspect the chamber and get a larger bruch in it.
Thanks,
Jim
I have a lever action 22 (Westernfield (Mossberg 401)) that will extract a dummy round but won't extract a fired casing. The gun was free but it had a broken left extractor. I replaced both extractors and assume that there's a dirty chamber. The bore is clean but I can't see into the chamber. I tried a standard 22 brush with solvent and stuffed a patch with solvent (Hoppes) in the chamber and let it sit a couple of days, brushed it a again followed up with patches.
A previous owner may have had trouble too. Someone left gouges from a left handed set of vice grips or channel locks on the barrel. I don't see a pin or anything to hold the barrel in place.
What else, short of removing the barrel, can I try? Soak the receiver and up past the chamber in Red's. Carb cleaner? Use the brush on the rod chucked in a drill? I just wish I could inspect the chamber and get a larger bruch in it.
Thanks,
Jim
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J-B Bore Cleaner, or auto polishing compound.
Neal0 -
Use a sliver of mirror and a light, and inspect the MOUTH of the chamber. Due to dry firng, many a .22 has a burr at the chamber mouth from the firing pin hitting it. A fired case expands, and may snag on the burr. Indicator will be a scratch line running the length of a fired, extracted case. IF that is the problem, do NOT try to remove the burr- you need that metal, but put back in it's place. A gunsmith can "iron" the burr back into place using a chamber iron. 0 -
Examine the fired cases to see if there is any sign of a chamber defect. A dimple or a bulge or a scratch line in the case. I had a Mossberg .22 that had a badly machined chamber and the cases all had a small bulge, about the size of a B-B, that had a drag mark on it from extraction. It was a bolt gun so it had some better primary extraction than the lever gun would have. Even so I would have to drop a cleaning rod down the barrel to extract Hi-Vel cases. Had two choices - cut and remachine the breech end or find a new barrel, went with the new barrel. 0 -
I have seen many older .22 chambers With a "fire ring" cut in them from a lot of .22shorts being used in them. Then the longer .22lr case hangs up in the worn groove. Try some shorts and see if they extract better...if so "there's your sign" 0
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