Colt Lightning .22cal?

[rpludwig]

Inherited an old Colt Lightning pump, ".22 cal" marked on the bbl...

Pretty gummed up overall, the side loading gate barely moves, needs a complete disassembly IMO, so a few questions...

Anyone ever messed with one, i.e. is disassembly overly complex or intuitive?

Do they feed LR, Long & Short?

(I did single chamber a .22LR, it fired and ejected)

Thx in advance guys for the advice...

Ron

[pietro]

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The original small frame Lightnings were offered in two flavors - .22 Short, or .22 Long (which is a LR case loaded with a .22 S bullet).

The takedown is easy; the re-assembly isn't:

http://marauder.homestead.com/files/Lightning_Rifle.htm

Here's a photo tutorial: http://www.rimfirecentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=582380



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[rpludwig]

Pietro...thx for the links...very helpful...it's the original, not the Uberti...

Got it apart...quite a unique design, esp. the brass swing out loading block...now for the tough part!

[smkummer]

It is chambered for 22 short and 22 long. 22 LR will not feed through the action. If yours shoots accurately, your lucky as most of these with original bores are pitted and shot out. They were introduced when only black powder ammo was made and transitioned into the smokeless era but with corrosive primers. I bought one cheap that had a shot out bore, had it relined and now its my back yard shooter with colobri and CB ammo. In fact a CB long took out a crow that was digging in my trash! I have shot modern high speed 22 long (LR case with the 29 grain short bullet) with no issues that I know of.

[rpludwig]

Tore it down to the bones, looks like it was last cleaned up in 1902 (when it was mfg'd)...as said, eze to take down, a b**ch to re-assemble (mainly getting the upper & lower halves lined up).

All back together, looks good and functional, bore is pretty well shot out, likely from corrosive as smkummer said. Picked up some .22 shorts, will give it a test run this weekend.

Thx for the help guys, once again, this forum comes through!

[pietro]

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I'm glad that your plan came together - now, how about a few pics ? ;)



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[rpludwig]

[QUOTE=pietro;3573912].

I'm glad that your plan came together - now, how about a few pics ? ;)

Pics below:

[tim338]

Nice rifle

[pietro]

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Yep - Well worth a little love....... :D

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[Earlwb]

Nice rifle. I remember getting to use one as a kid many years ago. At that time the barrel was pretty much gone on it too. I was shooting it more as a smoothbore then. Nowadays, one might get the barrel relined, albeit that gets expensive if you can't do it yourself. Numrich used to sell new barrels so I don't know if they still do or not but they still sell some other parts though.

[Clark]

Mine was made in 1890 and only does Longs

[rpludwig]

test drive yesterday...only had .22 shorts, had several FTFeed, one FTFire (but with a good strike), couple FTEject, so it may be .22 longs ONLY....

The good news, with a shot out bore, grouped 6" @ 50yds, took out 5 of 5 bowling pins offhand @ 25 yds....well beyond my expectations...