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I just got back from the NRA annual meeting. I stopped at the WACA booth and talked to a very helpful gentleman – but he couldn’t help with my problem. He suggested that I post my problem on here so that JWA would see it and be able to help out. So, here it goes…
I inherited a Winchester model 60 and 67. They were my grandfather’s passed down to my dad to me. The 67 was the first ‘real’ gun I ever fired. Now that I have a grandson, I am refurbishing them so that they will also be the first gun he fires. The 67 is done and looks and shoots amazingly well. The 60 not so much. When I test fired it it misfired. It dented the primer but didn’t fire. If I leave the shell in the same place and reset the bolt it will fire on the second shot as long as the firing pin strikes the same spot. I also tried several different ammo brands with the same result. I disassembled the bolt, sonic cleaned everything and reinstalled new springs but I’m getting the same results. I’m at a loss. Can you help?
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Hi Andy,
Welcome to the WACA forum!
The Model 60 is a simple rifle and there are typically 3 main reasons that the rifle will fail to fire (FtF). They are caused by either a weak firing pin spring, worn firing pin tip and excessive headspace. To troubleshoot, you can check the following things:
Weak firing pin spring – The firing pin should snap forward with some vigor. I know that is not very scientific but it should impact the cartridge hard enough to rebound back a noticeable amount. Since you mentioned you replaced some “springs”, if the firing pin spring was one of those replaced then it is not the issue.
Worn firing pin tip – The firing pin tip can, and does, get worn down over time. It is an easy thing to measure with either a protrusion gage or even a set of digital calipers with some finagling. You just remove the bolt and push the cocking knob forward to get the pin to protrude. Optimally, you should have between .035″-.040″ of protrusion with an as-new pin. Anything less than .030″ can start causing FtF issues.
Excessive headspace – The Model 60 headspaces off the shoulder of the bolt handle against the receiver. Since the receiver is soft steel it can wear at that location allowing the bolt to set back and create excessive headspace. The best way is to use .22 LR headspace gages to check (your local gunsmith should have a set) but in the meantime, if there is not visible wear then it might not be the problem. Save this check for last.
There is one other possible culprit, sometimes crud/debris can get into the firing pin cavity in the bolt and not allow the firing pin to move completely forward. Since this is an easy check and correction I would clean and check that area first. My technique is to disassemble the bolt, remove the firing pin from the bolt body and insert an appropriate size drill bit into the bolt body and rotate it BY HAND only. The flutes will clean out any hard crud and even a light burr if that is an issue. Thoroughly clean the components and then reassemble.
Hope that helps and let us know the outcome or if you need further guidance.
Best Regards,
WACA Life Member #6284 - Specializing in Pre-64 Winchester .22 Rimfire
Thanks for the info. Just to clarify…I disassembled the bolt and sonic cleaned each component. I then replaced the firing pin spring and firing pin head spring. I got them from Jack First. I took your advice and measured the firing pin protrusion. I took 3 measurements and got .037,.038,.037. I’ll talk to my local GS this week and see if he can measure the head space. After replacing the springs and still having the same problem I think this might be the issue. There’s not extensive visible wear…for a 90 year old gun. My thought was the round wasn’t fully seating and the first misfire shot seated the round and the second shot fired it. I’ll keep you updated. Thanks again!!
I think I have solved the problem!!
I checked the headspace and it was good. However, when I looked at the sear/extractor under magnification I noticed a VERY small “burr” on the rear (flat side) of the extractor. I don’t even know if burr is an accurate description. It looked like a very slightly rolled knife edge on the top left corner of the extractor, like the extractor got jammed into the cutout on the barrel at some point. I VERY LIGHTLY filed this off. I think this was preventing the round from properly seating. The result – I put 5 rounds through it and every one fired on the first trigger pull! Eventually I’m going to have to replace the sear/extractor but at least now I’m confident enough in it to move forward with the refurbishing project.
Thank you to JWA for the assistance!!
AWESOME, Glad you got it corrected, the sear is a very easy part to find, if you have problems getting a replacement let me know as I probably have one in my spares box.
Thanks for following up. I will add your fix to my mental list of corrective actions for the Model 60 FtF as that is a new one for me. Glad you got it running well and hope you stick around on the forum as we usually have great discussions on all things (vintage) Winchester.
Best Regards,
WACA Life Member #6284 - Specializing in Pre-64 Winchester .22 Rimfire
November 7, 2015
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Good eye! Glad you figured it out, pretty sure most of us would have missed that little burr.
Mike
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