Mossberg 351K .22 rifle

[richhodg66]

I picked one of these up recently, it misfired quite a bit, but fed and functioned well. Dissassembled and cleaned it thoroughly, took the firing pin and did a little judicious stoning to put a little more of a point on it.

Reassembled and everything seems great, the misfiring problem is fixed, but now, when I manually cock it the rifle works fine, but when fired, it ejects the spent case and feeds the next one, I can look in the side and see that the hammer is back, but the trigger is dead for whatever reason, like the rifle cocked but didn't tell the trigger.

I'm sure I reassembled something wrong, but can't figure out what. Manually cock it and it works every time, but never when firing.

Thoughts?

[oconeedan]

Did you lube the bolt at all when you reassembled? It sounds like your bolt isn't moving back far enough to cock the trigger / sear. A little lube may help.

[richhodg66]

Lightly oiled everything. You can look inside the action through the slot in the side of the receiver the bolt handle rides back and forth in and see the hammer is back after firing

I'm almost to the point that I will never buy another semi auto .22 unless it's a Ruger, seems like none of them work very well except the 10/22 and the old Nylon 66, which are hard to come by now.

[Buzz Krumhunger]

I'm almost to the point that I will never buy another semi auto .22 unless it's a Ruger, seems like none of them work very well except the 10/22 and the old Nylon 66, which are hard to come by now.

The only others I’ve had much luck with were the old Nylon 66, and the little Browning .22 Auto.

[Texas by God]

I’ve had pretty good luck with the Marlin model 60’s by various names over the years. The only Mossberg I’ve ever had was a m500 20 gauge so I’m not familiar with their .22’s.

[richhodg66]

OK, I think I got it figured out. The triggers on these are actually mounted in the stock, doesn't stay with the action when you take it out. There are two Y yokes on it that tie in to the mechanism on the action when you put it back in the stock. All well and good, I was aware of these and made a point of ensuring these were lined up when I put the action back in the stock.

Because it worked before I took it apart, I got wrapped around the idea I reassembled something wrong, I didn't. Bottom line, there's a light, U shaped trigger return spring in the stock, kind of like a mouse trap or clothes pin spring, anyway, this one is weak. I figured out that the action was in fact cocking like I thought, and if I manually pushed the trigger forward after each shot it works as it should.

When I get a few minutes, I'll take that spring out and see if I can stretch it some and see if that works. Numerich has all the parts for these, so as a last resort, I'll order a new one, but the shipping will likely exceed the cost of the part.

At least I fixed the misfiring, nothing sucks worse than wondering if a gun is gonna go bang.

[oconeedan]

good find

[gumbo333]

Get a bag of small assorted springs at a hardware store after you determine a basic size. Cut to fit. A couple bucks at most and you will extra springs for other trigger projects.

[RSOJim]

I also have one of these rifles. You are correct about the trigger return spring. Remove it and open it up so it has a stronger push forward on the trigger. That fixed mine. It took 3 hands to reassemble the spring and pin back in the stock. Hope this helps.

[richhodg66]

I also have one of these rifles. You are correct about the trigger return spring. Remove it and open it up so it has a stronger push forward on the trigger. That fixed mine. It took 3 hands to reassemble the spring and pin back in the stock. Hope this helps.

It does, thank you. I haven't had a chance to get back to it, but hopefully soon. Nice little rifle.