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Winchester model 40 disassembly

rlfcjf
My brother in law just dropped off a Winchester model 40 that he inherited from his father...I informed him of the recall and that he should not fire it... He wants it throughly cleaned.. Is anyone able to e-mail me disassembly instructions as far as removing the bolt,operating handle and carrier...

rick
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10 comments

Date Votes
  • bobski
    ehhhh, youre opening a can of worms. ive torn them down for gunsmithing, but not for regular cleaning. if all you want to do is clean it, just use spray gunscrubber in it and dont bother taking out the bolt. trust me, its not easy.

    former air operations officer SEAL Delivery Vehicle Team 2. former navy skeet team, former navy rifle/pistol team member. co-owner skeetmaster tubes inc.. owner/operator professional shooting instruction. NRA certified instructor.
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  • bobski
    turn your mail blocker off. i cant email you![:0]
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  • rwilson8
    I have the same question...instructions say something about springing the left tang of carrier inward to release from receiver. I must be missing something. I just bought a model 40 and I really do want to break it down for a proper cleaning but I guess I need thorough instructions beyond removing barrel and trigger group
    Any instructions and/or link to website tutorial will be GREATLY appreciated. My greatest thanks, Bob
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  • bobski
    proper cleaning does not require complete teardown. honest, just shoot it with gun scubber and protect the wood. oil it and fire away.
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  • rwilson8
    That all sounds very reassuring and I thank you for that. Still, something just doesn't sit right with me if I can't separate the bolt from the receiver. Got any other suggestions or websites I might find usefull? thanx again
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  • bobski
    yep...a gunsmith with 3 hands! and bring cash. [:p]
    youll be hard pressed find any info, because no one ever intended for it to come apart, other than in the factory.

    case in point, as nice a gun the browning A5 or rem-11 is, very rarily does anyone dare to tackle the trigger assy of one to get to the guts. once it comes off, it takes 4 hands to put it back in; and, if you turn the wrong screw when taking the trigger guard off, youll need to rebuild the trigger assy main spring.
    same goes with the m40. best to avoid at all cost. sure, youll learn to rebuild it if you try, but youll never do it again! i learned that the hard way with mine.
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  • only winchesters
    Hello everyone: First off, you don't work on Md 40s period. If gunscruber can't get it clean enough, then it's a wall hanger. If it doesn't work correctly now, it's a wall hanger.

    There are no tear down manuals. Unless you find a 70 or 80 year old gunsmith who may have worked on one back in the 40s or 50s, it's a wall hanger.

    Today a Md 40 is a novelty Winchester. Certainly not one even the best gunsmiths would work on blindly.

    Regards Dave
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  • rwilson8
    OK OK, you convinced me. I'll take your advice and leave well enuff alone. I guess this is one of the reasons it had such a short production run with a major recall and even swap offers from Winchester.
    Any guesses as to how many still exist ? Thank you all!! Bob
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  • bobski
    the recall and ww2 was the reason for a short production run.
    funny thing is, of all the 40's i see for sale, they are worn down to silver finish from use. seems some of them did just fine for 50 years after the recall. i'd feel safe shooting an old worn out one. its the unproven nice ones in collector grade i'd be afraid of.
    youll see a lot of 40's surface now that the word winchester is being marketed as obsolete....again.
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  • only winchesters
    Hello rwilson: "How many are left", that's a good question. While production numbers that you can find, say total production was about 12,000. However from manufacturing records, enough parts were made for around 40,000 guns. It was still a cateloged gun in 1945. Of course not many shotguns were made for the general public during WWII.

    What we know about pre-64 Winchester shotguns in general, about 1/3 of all models no longer exsist. Why: poor care, broken, worn, torn down for parts etc. In the case of the Md 40 being one of the first ever to be "recalled".Based on the models of Winchesters you see come up for sale on the "net", and the small percentage that are Md 40s, my guesstimate is you would be very lucky to find 3,000 complete guns. You can't find parts for them very often, finding a gunsmith who has "first hand knowledge" of the gun, I don't no of any. (Winchester wouldn't even work on them back in the 60s). This was a John Olin pet project, that failed, one of many actually.

    Winchester became famous for lever and pump guns, Browning for semi-autos and O/Us. Obviously I'm talking about pre-64 Winchesters and Belgium Brownings. While winchester tried to break into the semi-auto market with the Md 1911SL, Md 40, Md 50, and 59 less than 400,000 made between all models kind of pales in comparison to 4 or 5 million A-5s. When you look at the "gas vs recoil semis, even Browning had many versions before the "Gold line" came out. Remington got out their first, and the Md 1100 for it's price was hard to beat.

    The Md 40 is an interesting conversation piece, one of the FIRST American made products to have a factory recall, period. Olin was told before it even was cateloged that it would have major problems, and it did.

    Regards Dave
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