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Fellow Collectors,
I recently received my “new to me” model 1895 sporting rifle and I have been slowly taking it apart and cleaning up decades of old oil and powder fouling. I pulled out the magazine and the “V” spring fell out before I could see the proper positioning of the spring in relation to the magazine follower. There doesn’t appear to be much info on the internet about the detailed disassembly and assembly of the magazine. Would someone be able to walk me through the process so that I don’t re-assemble it incorrectly or break something?
Thank you,
Ricardo
Ricardo,
The Vee spring is the lifter spring. It ought to be put back after you have reinstalled the magazine assembly in the receiver. The spring is accessed under the forearm. If I remember correctly (getting to be more challenging these days) the two legs of the vee spring are the same. Slightly compress with a smooth jawed plier and insert into the front of the receiver under the barrel. One leg of the vee will catch in the notch in the cut in the receiver (you can find it with a light or with a crooked pick before hand) and the other against the notch in the lifter. Do this with the magazine UP so the lifter ifalls by gravity to its fully raised position and the vee spring won’t need to be as compressed.
The new book out on the 1895’s will help if you wish to read it. Also, Arthur Pirkle’s book would help. Regardless, this part of the process will be rather obvious once you have seen it in operation.
Tim
Tim,
Thank you for your reply. If I understand correctly, the “Vee” spring is inserted into the forward portion of the magazine with with the point of the “Vee” inserted first while the rifle is upside down so that the magazine follower is positioned down-correct?
Okay-I got the magazine and Vee spring properly inserted but now the carrier is not going up fully with enough spring pressure to position a round for proper feed. Is there some trick to putting in the carrier and follower that I should be aware of?
Ricardo,
About the only trick that I can think of is to remove the vee spring and flip it so the leg that was held by the notch in the receiver is now against the lifter cam. It may be the bearing surface is a little worn or short on the side that you have against the lifter. If you have any spring pressure at all on the lifter, then you likely had the vee spring leg against the lifter cam where it ought to be. When in place, is the vee spring pretty well centered and has it some tension on it?
Tim
By the way, the vee of the vee spring is faced towards the muzzle and is covered by the forend. I assume, with all that entails, you have it in the notch in the front of the receiver, and the magazine has its internal parts properly in place?
Tim
Tim,
Yes, with your assistance and a diagram from the internet, I figured out the correct orientation of the spring and was able to compress it into place with needle nosed pliers. It is now providing upward force to the magazine follower although not quite enough for the follower to rise completely to the top of the magazine.
Concerning the magazine follower, I notice that the arm to which it is attached has two protrusions on the end near the screw hole where the entire assembly is anchored to the magazine housing. Are those supposed to engage something during the loading process? It is hard to figure out how they fit into the overall operation.
Ricardo
Ricardo,
Sorry for the delay. I am trying to go over this in my brain, and nothing is popping up! Best I can say is to review the assembly as a whole, to assure all is in its proper place. The main carrier is anchored at the front of the magazine and it has a lip/notch the vee spring works against. I assume you must have it installed correctly or it likely would not work at all. The carrier also has a cam lever and cartridge cradle as part of its assembly to assure the cartridges are in the proper orientation when it is time to be charged into the chamber. I should expect you did not disassemble the carrier assembly and those remain in their relative positions? If all sounds correct, then I suspect the vee spring is weakened or the notch in the end of the carrier is worn so it does not get the full benefit of the spring in the fully raised position for that last, single cartridge. If so, then you may need to try to replace parts, as in the spring and possibly the carrier. The two protrusions you talk about I am thinking are there to keep the assembly centered in the magazine. That assumes what you are talking about are what I am thinking about (and it has been years since I had a magazine apart). Mark Douglas works on these far more than I do, but I think he is in transit and it may be a while before he reads this and can perhaps help further. Hope this helps. Good luck.
Tim
Tim,
Thank you for taking time to trouble shoot this issue. I just came back from the mountains hence my delay in getting back to you. I suspect that you are correct in saying that the spring may not be exerting as much pressure as necessary to cause the cradle to angle up to the chamber and permit the proper chambering of a round.
Regards,
Ricardo
Tim,
I installed a new Vee spring which has quite a bit more force and took the 1895 to my local gunsmith to make sure that I have everything in place properly ( I did). Several weeks before he had worked on another 1895 of a later vintage so he has some recent experience. The cradle has upward force however the forward edge of the cradle still does not appear to angle up sufficiently to reach the lower edge of the chamber. Is there supposed to be another spring directly under the cradle to raise the cradle tip more or is the Vee spring the only element supplying force to the entire carrier assembly? Second question- when I load a cartridge into the magazine, the base of the cartridge is to the rear of the two lips of the magazine such that when I attempt to move the bolt forward to chamber a round, the bolt can not push the base of the cartridge past the two lips. Is a lot of force required or am I loading the cartridge incorrectly? I have looked at a number of videos and diagrams and from what I have seen, I believe that I am loading the cartridge correctly.
Thank you,
Ricardo
Ricardo, Again going on memory and it is fuzzy anymore. First, the front of the cartridge “cradle” does droop a little but shouldn’t so as to preclude the cartridge going into the chamber. There is no further spring, but only “levers” if you will to push up on the lifter in the proper amount. NOW, your comment about loading the cartridges and the rim interference with the lips of the magazine. Assuming you are not working with a magazine from a Russian musket, which had the back of the lips relieved for the stripper clip, once the cartridge is in the magazine, the lips should be holding the rim and allowing the cartridge to strip as the bolt goes forward. To load the cartridge, you need to have the cartridge relatively up with the bullet end in your hand. Push down on the follower with the rim of the cartridge in front of the lips and as the follower goes down, pivot the cartridge down and back into the proper position with the rim to the back of the magazine. IN HONESTY, it sounds to me there is more going on than meets the eye or my brain! I am going to email a person to come on here and help out better than I am!
Tim
Ricardo –
Would the rifle feed correctly before you performed the cleaning/disassembly?
Unfortunately I didn’t try it because it was pretty filthy so I wanted to get everything cleaned up and oiled before performing a function check. Of course now I wish that I hadn’t been so fastidious. The person who I bought it from is reputable and he told me a couple of times that it functioned properly. He has been honest so far so there was no reason to have concerns. That is why I ended up taking it to a gunsmith to make sure that it was properly assembled. He doesn’t see many of these but had worked on one by chance three weeks prior to my coming in. He is wondering if perhaps the carrier assembly is correct for the caliber (30-40) despite if showing the same level of wear as the rest of the mechanism. It is an early model just after switching to the fluted side so it still uses a V spring which I just changed out. The front tip of the cradle doesn’t appear to angle up much without a round in place which results in the round hitting just below the chamber instead of ramping smoothly into the chamber.
So the new spring that was put in, is “new”? I’m just going down the path that the springs have weakened on a lot of these 120 year old rifles. Although I’m more of a collector than a shooter, it seems the issues you are having describes many 1895’s I have encountered.
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