Range Report Model 41

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Vectorxw8
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Range Report Model 41

Post by Vectorxw8 » Tue Apr 21, 2015 4:23 pm

Hello all, I spent a couple of hours at a local indoor range called "Classic Pistol" here in Philadelphia Pa. Nice range, good lighting, could use a little better ventilation as it got quite warm with 10 of us firing away. It did not get real smoky just real warm. I had with me my Model 41, Model 629, my old Marlin 22 semi auto rifle and my son. Shooting my 1967 Model 41 was just pure joy! It shoots straight with very little recoil. We started with the 7 3/8 barrel, Muzzle brake installed. We put 100 rounds through it then took the brake off and put the plain cap on and put another 100 threw it. Neither my son or I could feel any diffrence between the two. So in the future I will leave the brake at home it looks great to have it installed but cleaning it is a pain. Then I switched over to my light weight 5" barrel and from the very start it jammed, first shot did not eject the spent shell, all 9 rounds went that way. The barrel was clean when we started but after 9 rounds it looked like this.
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To me it looks like I fired 900 rounds through it not just 9. I have used Hopies #9 but I picked up a bottle of Bore Tech I am going to give it a try with my brass brushes and hope for the best. The 7 3/8 no problem the Bully changle barrel no problems just the 5 " field had the problem, I was using the CCI SV like I have been told many times to use. Any Ideas? Thanks Scott

Vectorxw8
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Post by Vectorxw8 » Tue Apr 21, 2015 4:30 pm

I forgot to say I did not clean it yet I wanted you to see what I was talking about. Scott

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Bullseye
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Post by Bullseye » Tue Apr 21, 2015 8:25 pm

Well, I see a few things that cause me some concern just from those two photos, first about how many rounds you have through that barrel? I can see quite a bit of battering on the barrel face, and what looks like the beginnings of a firing pin dent forming from dry firing. The dent could be more pronounced but I cannot see it as clearly from this view. How does the breech face look on the slide? I also see a clear ring (either gas residue or lead) in the chamber near the rifling. The presence of a ring says to me that the cases may not be seating fully, or you could be getting some blow-by from the cases not expanding and sealing off the gasses during the firing and ejection process. A ring could cause extra drag and be inhibiting the extraction of the spent case and bleeding off a lot of recoil energy which would otherwise contribute to a normal ejection cycle. Normal cleaning would not typically remove a lead ring and this ring could disguise itself somewhat when cleaned as part of the chamber wall. How do fully seated rounds drop into and fall out of that barrel when cleaned? A properly chambered barrel should allow for the rounds to drop in by gravity and tilting the barrel backward should allow it to drop back out. Fortunately with an M-41 a drop test is easily performed by removing the barrel and testing it off of the pistol frame with a simple flick of the trigger guard to unlock the barrel. If a drop test fails then you may need to deep scrub that chamber. If you do another drop test on your 7" barrel you can see the difference.

Take a brass cleaning bore brush, place it on a cleaning rod section, and place that rod into the chuck of a hand drill. Spin the drill at a moderate to low speed and insert it slowly into the chamber, take care not to insert the tip of the brush far enough into the chamber to engage the barrel's rifling, but deep enough to reach where the ring is, and let the brush do the work. You may have to use some solvent, but don't dip the brush into the solvent jar or the bronze material in the brush will contaminate your solvent with brass and make it less effective over time. Give the chamber a good scrubbing and see if this helps.

Another thing that may be causing poor ejections is the battering has actually peened the mouth of the chamber out of dimensions. The slightly collapsed breech mouth will also cause excessive drag and reduce recoil energy effectiveness. How I typically solve this problem is chase out the chamber with a match Bentz .22 cal chamber reamer. I lightly insert the properly lubricated reamer flutes into the chamber and gently spin it to clean out the peened material from the chamber mouth. You shouldn't need to re-cut the entire chamber so just working the mouth area about 1/4" deep should clear up the problem. If for some reason you did feel you needed to clean the walls of the whole chamber with the reamer, you go very slow and clean your flutes often and re-lubricate with plenty of tap cutting fluid. Do not insert the reamer all the way up to the barrel lands and grooves or you may accidentally cut into those with the reamer. The reamer usually reconditions a "well loved" barrel who is demonstrating some signs of battering, with some new properly dimensioned chamber walls.

Hope this helps.

R,
Bullseye
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