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wh20crazy

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Posts posted by wh20crazy

  1. deerslayer,

     

    Thank you so much for your help this afternoon! Like so many things in life, it's not that hard if you know what you're doing. lol

     

    Everyone else, deerslayer walked me through the procedure above. With a little wiggling of the pins I put in place of the pivot plate & pulling the trigger, the bolt released. Once I got it apart, a chunk of brass came out. Thankfully, nothing was broken. I've taken it all apart, cleaned & lubed it & put it back together. I'll get it to the range for a functional check this weekend.

  2. Tonight's update:


    - The extractor appears to be in it's proper place.


    - I removed the safety.


    - There is a little movement in the bolt, so it's not frozen in place. It is still open, but I can pull it back a little & get it to lock by pulling up on the bolt handle.


    - In this position, I can pull the trigger & watch the sear block work up & down as it should (looking through the safety hole).


    - I can push the firing pin back & see the part that hits the sear block move, so I think the firing pin is ok.


    - I cannot see or feel the pawl.


    - There was no movement when I attempted to push the trigger forward.



    For what it's worth, this was the first magazine through the gun after taking the top of the gun apart to clean & oil the bolt, firing pin & springs. I did not disassemble anything in the trigger group. It locked up after the last round from a stick mag.



    It's a West Hurley. It's been a few years since I looked it up, but it was made in either '76 or '77 as I recall. I previously replaced the broken firing pin w/ a used one. I've run a few hundred rounds through it with no problems.


  3. I got the same intentions on my WH. The replacement fitting pin fixed it. If you look at the bolt face, you'll see the slot that causes this. It's not over pressure. I got it with factory loads and my reloads, which are bottom of the scale (7.1 grains of Accurate #5 under a 230 grain plated ball). Worst part is sometimes the primer will come out of the case and cause a jam. May be getting some gas escaping to the rear when that happens too.
  4. Update: My Thompson has been sitting in the corner of the safe for a very long time. Yesterday a friend calls & says he's found something that I may want. He was helping someone clean up & found an M1 bolt & firing pin. They guy didn't know what it was. The bolt is broken, but I didn't need an M1 bolt anyway. I bought the firing pin & put it in last night. It felt so good to run a couple hundred rounds through it today.

  5. I made one from aluminum. I've never had my hands on a real one, so I don't know those dimensions. Here are the dimensions I came up with:

    Outside dimensions:

    Height - 2"

    Width - A hair over 5/8"

    Width at top - 5/16"

    Length of taper from top width to full width - 3/8"

    Thickness - 1/8" NOTE: This is the stock that I had. Use something thicker.

     

    Slot dimensions:

    Height - 7/8"

    Width - 5/16"

    Bottom of slot to bottom of 3rd hand - 1/4"

     

    This works in my gun, but is a little sloppy due to being too thin. Measure the slot in the receiver & make yours somewhere between that measurement & 1/8". Be careful when you push the magazine release to get your drum on & off, sometimes the 3rd hand will fall out as the magazine release is what holds the 3rd hand in place.

  6. I've had the trigger fail to reset on my West Hurley. I've found 2 different causes:

     

    1 - Using factory ammo, it would fail to reset the trigger. I could either push it forward, or pull it again & let it snap forward. A good, thorough cleaning/lubing of the trigger assembly fixed it.

    2 - Using reloads, it would fail to reset the trigger. It would also fail to eject & load rounds sideways sometimes I found out the guy who loaded the ammo was loading them light (he wanted light recoil in his 1911 & used the same recipe for me). He stepped up the powder for the next batch & it ran fine.

     

    With most factory ammo, the empties land 8 to 12 feet from the gun. Some of the light reloads would drop the cases at my feet.

  7. I have some reloads w/ cast lead pills. I haven't talked to the guy who loaded them since I shot some. The pills seem to run fine in my West-Hurley 1927 A1. The problems have been failures to eject (leaving the empty case in the chamber) and failure of the trigger to reset.

     

    I've noticed that the empties don't fly as far with these as they do factory loads. This leads me to believe that they may not be as hot a load as factory. My guess is this is causing the action to not cycle fully, nor as strong.

  8. My West Hurley has the following stamped on the right side of the receiver:

     

    AUTO-ORDINANCE CORPORATION

    WEST HURLEY, NEW YORK, USA

     

    I would assume only the West Hurley guns have this. Sorry, my glasses are out in the truck & I can't read my serial number without them. If my memory is serves me, there are no letters in my serial number. Mine was made in 1976.

     

    This page has serial numbers by year for 1975 through 1997: http://www.nfatoys.com/tsmg/tcn/1998/aug/aug98p3.htm

  9. Oh yeah, I'm into Thompsons. I've got a West Hurley semi. I picked it up the other year when the political climate went nuts and most folks were running to get AR's. I had always thought Thompsons were cool & figured I'd better go ahead & get one.

     

    The test I linked above is also a way to see what you'll loose if you're considering SBR'ing your Thompson. Most of us probably have them either for the historical or cool factor, not for ballistic superiority. Although, last time I was at the range, my nephew was ringing the small steel targets at 50 yards with my Thompson. I'd never even tried those. He surprised everyone there including me.

  10. I picked up two boxes of Federal Range Target Practice ammo today. When I got home I noticed the box reads "Not for use in firearms with ported barrels or ported recoil compensators". Does anyone have experience w/ this in a West Hurley semi? I can't think of a reason that the compensator would cause problems w/ ammo, but I may be missing something.

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