Frankenrifle hammer spring too light|Restoration, Repair and Maintenance|Forum|Winchester Collector

Some of you saw the photos of the rifle I have that has led an amazing life.  I bought it with the intention of having it as a parts gun.  But, it has grown on me.  After cleaning it (and now it doesn’t take a powerlifter to cycle it) the bore is surprisingly in great condition, the trigger is pretty sweet, and it appears it is going to shoot accurately (I did give it a new crown).  After I fix its problem and shoot it more, I’ll give a report on its accuracy.

Problem:  The hammer is too light.  Sometimes will not ignite the primer.

To remedy this, I was thinking I’d put more bend in the hammer-spring.  Is it best to heat the area prior to attempting a bend?  Are there other things to consider?

Some of the problem might be the bend in the lower tang.  I could bend that back and see, but the tang is already cracked, and bending it might break it all the way.

The two screws that adjust the hammer-spring are not able to help with strenghthening the strikes.

Off the topic:  most of the screw heads are messed up, so I figure people have taken the rifle apart several times.  Yet, that rifle was the dirtiest I’ve seen–seems as if no one cleaned it even when having it apart.  One of my sons who handled it before and after the cleaning was of the same idea as I was about the difficult cycling–that the home repairs and the not so straight parts were inhibiting the action.  Not so.  Gunk inhibited the movement.  It took unusual force to open and close it.  Some of the buildup I finally shaved with a knife to get down to the metal–I would not do that on other Winchesters, but we are dealing with Franken, so it left no noticeable marks.  It appears folks cleaned the bore on occasion, but never the action.

And speaking of finding gunk in Winchesters:  In cleaning an 1894 Takedown, I found grey powder under the forestock.  Looked at first as if they were people ashes–as if someone loved the rifle so much they had a bit of their cremated self stored away in that area.  Didn’t take long to see what the grey was–Plumbers’ pipe dope on the magazine threads and area.  Nice blobs o’ it.

Don’t know why it was there, unless the takedown was loose and they tried to tighten it that way.  But where they globbed the dope, wouldn’t have helped tighten a loose junction.  And the three screws under there were not used to dimple the junction.

At least it gave me an idea of what I can do with my cremains–Maybe Not.  Although, my ashes would likely be good in our .32-40 load as a buffer!  (Someone around here is a tad off the beam.)