A Cowboy Coach

No fighting tonight all is well and still waitin for parts that USPS said would be delivered today.....dayum priority mail, only guaranteed to reach the post office on time.....usually takes another day or two to get the last 5 miles from there to my mail box.

For tonight, finishing up the home made front sling swivel mount. I'll make it QD. Won't be buying any parts though, a trip to the junk box supplied me fine with a too large old school fixed loop screw (10x32 fixed loop and I need 8x32 QD stud) to modify and a pair of nifty Uncle Mikes QD Rings. Long time ago I spent $5 at Numrich and received a large box of assorted loops, QD swivels, studs, sling screws and mounts.....ain't bought none in about 20 years. I just pick what I need or modify one to suit. Tonight is modify.

So....an old style fixed loop spinning head sling swivel stud with the loop and spinny head removed. Leaves me with too big a head and too big a screw. So, first, over to the drill press to spin the head down some with a file. After which, I reversed it and turned the 10-32 threaded stud to .190"....the major diameter for 8x32 thread. Then run it into the die to put on the right size thread.





After using the scope mounting scissors jig to drill a hole where I wanted it, a check of the fit.....needs to loose some diameter and length. So, back to the drill press and file.



Spinning the head down and shortening it and contouring it with files and sand paper at 3000 rpm. ..... Gets done fast. Don't need a lathe neither. About as easy to do with a hand drill.



Final check fit looks great.



After threading it to the home made base with a bit of flux, I solder the stud into place so it will never back out or pull out of the base.....



Looks good. I'da been happy to have this shorty with buckshot when I got that bear. Heard it moan, knew it was dead. Walked over, checked, set rifle down unloaded, dragged Mr. Bear up onto the log for a photo, he moaned, I jumped, screamed and fell backwards in the crick with no rifle within 8 feet......nothing. Seems it was the air rushing out of the hole in his chest made the moan. Had I had this shotgun handy, I'da prolly shot it in the head while on my butt in the creek!



And just because it was raining and I have no spare parts yet.....I picked a length for the forcing cones and proceeded to ream them both into place. Just need to polish them out in the morning but they look pretty good. $90 for the reamer and tap handle, new in box.....that's bout $15 per forcing cone for the 6 I have cut to date. One day I'll find a set of TruChoke thin wall tooling at a similar deal, and I'll give her a whirl for sure.

Finally. Parts. New used top snap lever and its larger and unworn and I believe this shotgun may well (I hope) leave the "Parts Gun" tag in the trash.

New used lever is always right in the photos.

Here, the underside showing significantly less wear and "fixing" applied to the new used lever.





Here on the top side, the New Used lever has not been "Fixed" by filing/polishing it down, or at least, not worn out! The old lever is a good bit thinner than the replacement. Likely age, wear and tear and past "repairs" to the gun.



The new used lever in place. Barrel shut and no work to the barrel extension done yet. I may still shim the barrel extension with tool steel, its been so abused, but I think this one is gonna be okay.....long as I dont' mess up!

That looks real close to the 5 o'clock position you wanted (hoped) it would have!

Yep. Extension is rough as a cob though and I have to file it down for more than the partial contact it has now. If it goes to full contact and still at 6 oclock I'll be happy. Otherwise I may very well file a dovetail in the extension and fit it with a piece of tools steel and then refit for 5 or 6 position. Good rainy weekend. Maybe a job for tomorrow morning.

Shortening the pin at the arrow, slightly, opens the gun further and can allow it to remain fully open even with the heavy factory springs. How much to shorten....depends on the gun. Cut and polish and try.



As you cut, polish, try, watch the engagement at the arrow.....leave enough overlap to properly draw the hammers back.....watch the extractor, is it up high enough for shell rims to clear the top of the action and finally, will the lighter barrels hold the action open against the heavy mainsprings without help from your third hand.



Clean out between the barrels at the muzzle end.



Tightly pack in 0000 steel wool soaked in flux, if you'll be soldering the ends shut....note gold color of the solder holding on the ribs. This barrel is hard soldered/brazed. It can be hot tank blued and the gaps at the muzzle can be carefully soldered shut with soft solder if you like.

I just use JB weld, original slow set, not the quick set. Easy, blends well, holds permanent. So, I pack in tightly some DRY 0000 steel wool....keeps the epoxy from running down the barrels.



For JB Weld, I push the steel wool down about the length of the short arm on an allen wrench.



Mix, fill, tamp with a tooth pic to get out the air bubbles, add more.....build up a bit of excess and clean it off the rib before it hardens.



Hang it up and leave it alone for 5 to 6 hours till it firms up. It will be full strength in about another day.



Meantime, some other issues to consider.....

Broken left side trigger spring retainer ear....



Safety spring broken off in its hole and wedged in tight and made of spring steel so it ain't likely to be drilled out!



Both original and replacement lever bind in the top of the action at the same place. It appears the top of the action may have taken a blow in the past and one side has been swaged into the top snap levers, cutting the score marks you see here. Not only is the blue removed, the sharp edge is cutting into the top snap levers. Some clearancing is indicated before finalizing fit of the barrels to action.

Barrels were successfully joined previously. Last step is establishing a good bite between top snap lever and barrel extension to hold the barrels closed when shooting.

Once the inside of the actions lever slot was deburred and the replacement (and much thicker) lever was smoked and fitted for free movement, I install the old top snap spring and check to see that it moves freely under spring power and does not bind open. Success. I have to hold it open with my thumb or it snaps closed (since I have removed the top snap plunger for the time being)







The barrel extension, lower and upper, are smoked, fitted, filed and smoked again for more fitting and filing. I have to remove the rolled up edges on the lower extension caused by all the peening and see if there is still enough metal to engage the top snap lever and hold the barrels closed.



It takes several fits but eventually I have a nice flat surface that mates well with the top snap lever. The barrels will be held closed. Next time this one needs fitting, that poor abused barrel extension will have to be shimmed since it would be a fools errand to try to peen it again. (The underside of the upper extension is also fitted to just clear the top snap lever. Don't bend it......its old and may break off. Since it was tight, likely bent down in the past, I simply file and polish the contact points. Since the barrels faces are on the action, it'll simply serve to help limit downward motion. Ultimately, its mostly just a slot filler for the action, primarily cosmetic.



The barrel extension, cleaned up and smoothed. Looks a bit tired. But, it'll work and work well for quite a while with normal care.





There's and air bubble in my JB weld out front. When it hardens up, I'll drill it out and refill that spot with a dab or two to make it pretty.

A final smoking check this morning before moving on. Barrels are pretty well joined and the top snap is hovering just shy of a 6 oclock position. It may set a bit after some shooting and still require a shim on the extension but I can check that out in a test fire before blueing and browning. For now, looking good.

I suppose the lesson is, takes a lot of effort to get this very simple action design back into shooting shape. Its so much better, even on a cheep single H&R, just to wipe away grit and apply a few drops of oil or dabs of grease so they stay tight for long and long.



In the meantime, and as I consider stock wood......a pair of nice, never used, soft recoil pads standing by. Looks like they will be just the right size. The thicker one a bit softer and may well be the one I wind up using.....plus it has the pad plugs to cover the screw heads. Much easier to neatly install without having to grease the screwdriver shank to protect the pad from tearing.



Finally.....found that pesky aluminum safety button on the floor of the shop. Gathered up a nice left over Ruger NMB trigger return spring to adapt for the safety spring on this shotgun and a nice hunk of O1 tool steel to carve out a new safety button from. This will be todays jobs, getting a functional safety back on. .... Later I gotta run down a pair of Firing Pin springs.....the ones in the gun are both wrong and smushed.

Since a piece of the broken spring steel safety spring is wedged in the original hole in the cast iron frame, it can't be drilled out.....the bit will walk off the spring and make a larger hole beside it, chancing breaking out the top. So a new hole for a new spring is drilled beside the old one, just forward. you can barely see the broken chunk of spring in this photo. The original hole, at the rear, for the safety plunger is fine and a new plunger rod is made up and polished for a slip fit.



A section of the ruger trigger spring is clipped. The end heated and the bend increased so that it will wedge in the newly drilled hole for the safety spring. Additionally, the newly made plunger is given a v-groove to trap the end of the spring. Both will allow the spring to wedge in the hole putting tension on the plunger and making the safety snap back and forward in its groove in the top tang.



Here is the new safety assemblage.....gently tapping the bent end of the new spring into the new hole will wedge it snugly and the safety functions just fine. Below the safety, note the broken off ear on the safety rocker pin that captures the left trigger return spring.



A nail, with a large head, is turned down to a snug fit in the safety rocker holes, assembled and other than a broken left trigger return spring, all the parts (left spring, safety rocker, right spring) will be retained in place. On final assembly, I will head the other side of the nail, as I left it long, and it won't fall out even if the stock is removed.



Finally, the crack in the lower tang goes partly thru the tang. I stop drill it vertically, the vertical bit of solder and flux depicts the stop drilled hole that will prevent the crack from traveling further by relieving all stress in the metal at the end of the crack. The crack is then horizontally drilled and a snug fitting nail is tinned and driven in place. When heated, the vertical solder will fill the vertical hole and follow the tinned and fluxed horizontal nail, reinforcing the crack and I'll not worry about it again.



After slow heating with a small propane flame, the solder flows and after a bit of filing, the crack repair is complete.



Now to round up springs for triggers and firing pins. Once fitted, I can function check the action and perhaps move on to restocking.

Getting itchy.......gotta round up springs but working some family stuff first. Thinkin it through, and since there is no trigger guard, I'm leanin toward a straight stock and perhaps either a Hawkins style trigger guard or one of the pretty shotgun guards I have hiddin around here somewhere. And amid all that, I'm getting a real bad itch to convert a Ruger Blackhawk to revolving rifle with perhaps, hand carved Damascus steel trigger guard and back strap assembly......

Found it. LC Smith trigger guard blank for an SxS. Long time back, they was on sale at Numrich, back when it was still GunPartsCorp/Thompson Auto Ordinance (givin away my time in grade there) for about $2 each. I bought a double handful and have used em on everything from Mauser Rifle Customs to the current shotgun project. They are nice, and with a blank stud, threadable to most any action. Now they are $11.75 and a buncha shipping. So, a nice upgrade in the looks and usability department (the loop is large for gloved hands.)

So, after putting suitable 1/4-20 threads on the stud with a good sharp die.



Some light tweaking of the loop and a bit of reshaping of the mangled and bent triggers will be required. But it'll work fine for a straight or pistol grip stock.....and if not, Numrich has a lovely brass Hawken Guard that could be adapted.



Gonna be purty I think....

One last job, before I go see Dad, and to stop it naggin at me.

Had the top snap lever at 6 o'clock with much fitting of the old abused barrel extension and a new used top snap lever. Plenty good....I wanted it better.

So, make the barrel extension future repairable with a soldered on shim. New and thicker shims can be put into place in the future as needed, no more beating the barrel extension to adjust the bite.

A .003 steel shim was chosen, cleaned on the back with sandpaper, heated on an old file and tinned with acid flux and Hi Force 44 low temp solder.

Then the bite of the barrel extension was cleaned, roughed up and tinned.

The shim was wedged into the barrel extension with acid flux on both tinned sides and the stub heated until a daub of extra solder flowed down and through to the heat source.....here it is cooling down for filing and clean up.



After clean up and a touch of cold blue to see if the solder line is real thin....it is, I can't see a solder line! Thin is good, strong. After looking it over and over, I checked the floor to see if the shim fell off......it didn't, but is sure is hard to see if a shim is there or not.





Yep, shim is there.....lovely....5 o'clock on the top snap lever! Just where I wanted it to start and it'll seat good with the first session or two at the range and then be fine as fine can be for many thousands of shots. Happy Joy......now to go see Dad!

Got back at it this morning....check running the new spring sets. Just a reassembly and function test and all went well.

Installing the new reduced power top snap spring with the help of a chunk of slotted brake tube.....I managed to get all the bends out of the top snap rod and now its the right shape, two bends, not seven, and long enough to properly function the safety.



Not the original springs for these spanking new firing pins, but slightly tapered so one end grabs the pin and the other end slides without binding. Screw heads needed polished down from .344 to .336 to clearance the new pins shafts. Both screw heads will need filed down slightly to adjust firing pin protrusion....mostly on the left barrel.



Pins and hammers back in place with new wolf reduced power main springs on the hammers.....the short barrels now hang fully open of their own weight, and since the actuating rod was slightly shortened, they hang open wider. No longer have to wedge the butt on a leg while camming the barrels down to extract the spent shells.




Broken left trigger spring needs replaced......



And here with new springs on both triggers and all function checks and safety checks passed.....time to polish out the bores.

Very nice documentation of the process. It just reinforces that this is something I should never try though.
I look forward to seeing the finished product.

This is all basic skills gun owners should master. We all need to become more than parts swappers and painters

Freed up some time, energy and a touch of cash. Stock wood is on hand and well machined. Very much oversized but close where it counts.

Initial fit.....





Prussian blue indicates not much contact.



After shaving away the blue spots, some contact on one side and still none on the other.



Keep shaving away at the blue marked wood until there is a good fit. I'll probably skin it at the end with a touch of glass bedding. Makes the fit perfect and seals the endgrain against oil.



Almost there, a touch more work to do on the left side.



A quick peak at what an English straight stock and splinter forend will look like. Gotta shave the butt though, it needs a vented recoil pad.

Finally back to it. And since I got so much done, I'll reward myself today with a trip to the range to shoot the 45 Sheriff and my 1886.

But.....the buttstock nearly carved in and nearly ready for roughing up the ends for some glass bedding to make a better than I can carve fit and to seal the end grain.



Plenty of extra wood to remove and I'll likely leave the side panels just proud of the metal.....the sides are thin anyway and a bit of extra wood never hurts for some additional strength.



Fitting up the new splinter forend, a mock barrel to sand it in.



With layout blue I see I am hitting bottom on the forend iron and the barrels are just clear of the wood.



Screwed to the forend iron, a light sanding and shaping and it snaps into place nicely.



After a bunch of rasping and sanding the buttstock, I straighten the tang on the lefever trigger guard and check to see where metal and wood will need removed for adaptation to this stevens action.



The width of the buttstock and the width of the barrels is about the same, so, easy enough to cut off the stock for a recoil pad using table saw with fence and miter.

Belt sander and measure and true up the fresh cut end of the buttstock, not much truin is needed so I stop shy of the line when the measurements all around are about the same.



Screw holes on the recoil pad are 3 1/8 CTC so I find, mark and drill centered holes. Screws are run in and out a few times with some lube to prevent cracking the wood.



Initial grinding of the recoil pad is with an 80g disc, following the top and bottom lines of the stock wood.



Fine belt sander is used to bring wood down to recoil pad on the cheek sides and to smooth out the lines over the top and bottom.



Next steps are glass bedding the forend iron and the buttstock. But for now, the Cowboy Coach looks pretty good.....

Nice!

Glass bedding. Forend and iron ready to be seated.



Now seated and after cleaning off the ooz out. 24 hours and I can remove the iron and get it ready for bluing.



Toughs are placed in the forward bearing points of the buttstock to increase the surface area of the bedding compound. The bedding will be just a sliver and the troughs give it a bit more strength and holding power.....its likely the stock will be on and off several more times until its all done and so, some extra strength in the bedding is needed.



Pressing the bedding on the front and down inside the stock where the rear of the tang meets the wood.



The buttstock seated snugly with its draw bolt and after cleaning up the ooz out.....a pretty good fit.

Clearance was made in the Le Fever trigger guard tang, action tang and in the buttstock. Trigger guard mounted and ready for a skim coating of glass bed.....and a slotted head screw vice a Phillips head.

Much larger and better looking than the factory stamped guard. Plenty of room to get to the triggers now.