Marlin 1898 12Ga pump problems

[TaylorS]

So I have a late 1904 marlin 1898 when I first got it the secondary safety seat spring was broken making the action hard to unlock after replacing it And the hammer (the seat catches has some wear) and the recoil block( the rotating lug on the side seemed a little worn), now that I’ve replaced all these parts it won’t lock up unless I push on the loading gate to get the bolt locking lug to drop into place. I’m clearly missing something, but nothing seems to have an inordinate amount of play and I’ve even swapped parts back around to see if the newer pieces were off a hair. Does anyone have some working knowledge of these ol shotguns? I could really use some help figuring out what’s going on with this.


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[SvenLindquist]

It probably has a 2&5/8" chamber. Will is lock up empty but not with shells ?

[TaylorS]

Haven’t been outdoors with it yet so it’s not locking up empty. I’d like to get it functioning properly and shoot it and hang it up it’s 115 years old I’m not wanting to push my luck to hard


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[pietro]

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You might wat to take a peek at this thread on vintage Marlin pump shotguns:

https://www.shotgunworld.com/bbs/viewtopic.php?t=242208


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[TaylorS]

Yes I’ve read all the warnings on them, still want to make it work right


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[pietro]

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Besides the warning, a portion of that thread dealt with issues & their repairs.

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[TaylorS]

Yeah somewhere in there it was said that the marlin tolerances were tighter than a Winchester’s I’m wondering if cleaning the old dirt and powder residue out of the thing loosened things up to much because like I said the secondary safety sear spring was broken but otherwise it locked up and would stay that way, until the trigger pulled and firing pin depressed. Now it only locks up right after shoving the loading gate up til it clicks into position with a finger, but once it locks up it does like it should

Come to think of it I also changed the slide stop if like much of the stuff I’ve gotten recently I may need to fit it to get it to pull all the way out and lock the bolt.

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