PaulF

Greetings everyone! Just shy of 12 years since I posted my original Reising thread. I still own this little beast and it still makes its voice heard 77 years after coming off the assembly line. My low tech firing pin fix is still very functional 12 years later. I am STILL on the same pin that I showed in the original post. This solution works, not a single broken or bent pin in all this time. And despite the age of this thing it has not been coddled, it has been used and abused. I have put thousands of rounds through the old girl. All of them have been reloads, I couldn't tell you the last time factory ammo went through my gun. It absolutely loves 200 and 230 grain plated bullets pushed by Alliant Bullseye, Win 231,Win AutoComp, Ramshot True Blue, and Alliant Unique. It has digested them all and not complained a bit. I think the Wolff springs are starting to get tired, but honestly who can blame them??? 12 Years of brutal full auto fire is a great testament to what a good job Wolff did when they put these things out there. Looking on their website I can't see Reising springs available any longer. But the set they sold me made my little subgun rock and roll. Maybe someone reading this knows where to get replacement springs???? My machine gun fever has quieted down but I do still enjoy the occasional backyard range trip to go rat-a-tat-tat. See the video below where I have one of my old school FTF's at :58 seconds. Then I do a proper function check. Thanks to everyone who has followed these many years and let's keep these pieces of history alive a little longer. My neighbors must love me. EDIT: I couldn't find a way to embed this video so just click on the link above to see some gratuitous Reising footage taken from my GoPro.

Well last weekend my 1928 WH broke its actuator. I figured it was just a side effect of the crummy WH actuator giving up the ghost. Today I went to put the gun back together with my Savage marked actuator. Strangely enough I couldn't find my Blish lock in my range box. I looked everywhere for it! I finally came to the conclusion that in the noise of the machine gun shoot I had dropped the Blish lock and not noticed. So I went to my parts kit and grabbed the Blish lock out of it. Guess what? The bolt wouldn't move forward far enough to fully close once the bolt, Blish lock, and actuator were put back together. Uh Oh. That couldn't be good. It was then that it dawned on me that the Blish lock that was in the gun when I bought it had file marks on the ears. Now I know why. Someone had fitted that lock to this gun. This can only mean that the Blish slots are seriously wrong. I could file the ears on my parts kit lock to make it work but obviously the receiver isn't correct so why half ass it? It has already led to the actuator being broken, I wouldn't want to crack the receiver. So if the truth be told me losing that lock was probably a really good thing. I managed to find PK's e-mail address and I will send him a note asking about wait times and costs involved with this repair. I don't want to just unload the gun onto someone else as it isn't right. And really, I like this thing a lot, I'd like to be able to shoot it again someday! But for tonight I am drowning my sorrows. I'll let you guys know what I find out.

Blish lock was installed, oiler was not. I keep the internals pretty wet though. Do you think the lack of the oiler might have contributed?

I went to a small machine gun shoot today. I ran one, yes ONE magazine and on the second mag the weapon failed to fire when I pulled the trigger. In fact the bolt only went ahead about 1/4 of an inch. It seemed pretty darn weird and I figured something was wrong inside. I pulled it apart and the actuator came out it two pieces. A closer inspection revealed that the actuator really looked like a piece of crap. Very porous looking casting and very rough machine work. I had thought everything in the gun had been swapped out with USGI parts. I guess not. When I got home I broke into my 1928 parts kit and pulled out the actuator. What a difference! Beautiful casting and machine work, and most importantly a nice "S" stamped in the side. So now I will have a USGI actuator. It couldn't have broken in my backyard, nope, it had to be at the range 1 1/2 hours away! Oh well. I did get to run an original 1943 MG-42 and all I can say is WOW! Set up in 8MM that thing absolutely SCREAMED. When I was running it I found it impossible to distinguish individual shots. It simply sounded like one incredibly loud noise. It was both awesome and frightening! Any here is a pic of my Savage actuator and the now dead WH actuator. Oh well, no harm done! Of interest is the painfully obvious quality difference between the two. http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b301/paulj1973/actuators.jpg

All the brass has been SOLD!! Thanks.

Two lots up for sale. The first is all brass. Fully processed, re-sized, de-primed, primer pockets swaged in case any military cases were in there, and tumbled in stainless media to clean both the inside and outside of the cases. The brass lot is approximately 1000 pieces, closer to 1025 as I added a few extra. They will ship via USPS flat rate box. Price is $75.00 shipped. I can accept either PayPal, certified check, or money order. I will take a personal check as long as you don't mind waiting until the check clears before I ship the brass. First PM I get with an "I'll take the lot of 1000" gets it. http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b301/paulj1973/fsb1.jpg http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b301/paulj1973/fsb2.jpg The second lot is 350 pieces of mixed headstamp nickel plated cases. This brass has not been processed in any way other than a quick tumble in corn cob. They are nice clean cases. These have to ship in a medium flat rate box so I will take $30.00 for them shipped. I can accept either PayPal, certified check, or money order. I will take a personal check as long as you don't mind waiting until the check clears before I ship the brass. First PM I get with an "I'll take the lot of 350" gets it. http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b301/paulj1973/fsb3.jpg http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b301/paulj1973/fsb4.jpg If someone wants both lots of brass I will take $100 shipped for all 1350 cases. Just send a PM stating "I will take it all." http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b301/paulj1973/fsb.jpg

How come the hole in the end of the compensator is so freakin' HUGE?!?!!?!? Bored out for a BFA of some type maybe?

I had my 1928 apart the other day and noticed that the buffer has really taken a beating. I think it was the original buffer and I think it was on the original WH pilot. So I went to the 1928 parts kit that came with my gun and there was a pilot marked "S" with a red buffer on it. They both had cosmoline on them so I cleaned them up and they looked pretty much like they were made yesterday. I put the "S" marked pilot and buffer back in the gun and everything seems to function fine. I haven't fired it yet though. Think a 60 plus year old buffer is still good? Thanks for any help.

That is TOO cool. I hope you relieved some badguy of that beauty. I can't believe just how beat it is and that it still runs! What a story it could tell if only it could talk. Did they actually have ammo for it? Or was this just a piece that got stashed somewhere years ago and forgotten? Thanks for sharing. Be safe over there and get back home soon!

In June of 2009 I bought a WH 1928 for $12,500. The gun had been reworked by Stan Andrewski (This is what I was told anyway) and it runs like a scalded cat. It has all GI internals, the WH rear site has been replaced with an original and been correctly riveted in place, and all the metal has been very nicely refinished. That priced included two 30 round stick mags, two 50 round WH "L" drums, a 100 Round WH "C" drum, a vertical and horizontal foregrip, and a very nice condition 1928 parts kit. I thought at the time I did extremely well, and I think now a year and a half later that price is still quite fair although not quite the steal it was back then.

I recently bought some awesome 20 round mags from Z3BigDaddy and finally got a chance to hit the range today to function check them. In addition to looking awesome they performed awesome as well. And that 20 rounder just looks good in the magwell. There wasn't a scratch on the mags and the followers looked as though a round had never sat on them. So I am going out on a limb here and say that today was the first time these babies had ever been made to bark, and I'm here to tell you they WORKED!!!! Thanks again Blaine. Enjoy the vid!

I spent the last few days on a backwoods fly fishing trip and returned this afternoon to find my mags waiting for me. They are as good as new. They look awesome! Thanks a lot Z3BigDaddy, great service and super fast delivery. Now to go and function test these beauties in my 1928. Thanks again for the great deal.

tedh- I think you are on the right track fitting the bolt to the gun like Chris pointed out. My new bolt did the exact same thing you describe. I don't think it will take much fitting. Only a few thousandths and I am willing to bet it will be working. I am with you, I love my Reising! You will have your running again shortly and will have that Reising grin on your face again. Good luck and please let everyone know what you do to get it running. There aren't many of us out there who love these things, we gotta stick close! Good luck!

That's a good point Chris. I am not sure where I read of the fix I posted but I found it somewhere online ages ago. I don't seem to have headspace issues with my Reising and it has run many thousands of rounds since I replaced the bolt. Maybe someone else who knows can chime in!

Thanks for the press there ODS9091! I am pretty sure nothing in the post will help ted though. tedh- I think your problem is coming from a bolt that isn't locking into position. The receiver has a notch cut into it that allows the bolt to cam up into place. It is a fail safe to keep the weapon from firing out of battery. The bolt needs to fully cam upwards before the hammer will fully strike the firing pin. You need to either dress the action bar or the bolt where the two come together. I replaced the bolt in my Reising Model 50 and had the EXACT same problem you are describing. Until the bolt is fully cammed into place you won't get solid hammer to firing pin contact. Put your old broken firing pin in and you will see the rear end of the bolts angles up quite a bit before it is fully locked. Once fully locked the hole in the hammer will no longer hit the firing pin and the weapon will function. You will see right away what I mean. Once you dress your new bolt with a file it should work perfect again! Good luck.