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My forearm is cracked and chipped away, the front sight post bead is broken off, the rear sight looks like it was welded and the adjuster missing. The lever action also drops open vert very loosely. Anyone know where I can source a.few replacement parts to bring ot back to life?
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Man....that looks like a start on a neat gun project! I checked a bunch of my parts suppliers and came up with nothing! However there was one Murdock 32 cal octagon barrel sold on E-bay this month!
You never no
I talked with the guy. He still has parts for sale. The foend was listed as sanded to much. I dissembled it all down since my post. All the metal is soaking in vinigar to remove rust and bluing. Looked like the receiver was case hardened or finished to look like it was. I'll refinish the stock after I get the metal work done.
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I have a piece of 1 inch PVC pipe that I blocked the end of and filled it with vinegar and stuck the Barrel in it I would assume by tomorrow everything should look close to rust free and be ready for bluing.
So yourself a favor and remove everything from the vinegar and neutralize every thing .
Vinegar causes hydrogen embrittlement , whether or not it would actually cause any problems I couldn't say . but it for sure can't help anything .
Get yourself some navel jelly or something similar .
I let a bunch of tools soak in vinegar. Kinda forgot them. 3 days later I had no chrome plating on them. Switch to Coke or Pepsi.
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I believe that rifle was made by Hopkins& allen, model 1922, or 1932 if .32RF. The round barrel models were 922. They are fairly common, so parts shouldn't be too hard to find. That octagon forend might be scarce though, but not too hard to make, if you like woodworking !
It’s a 32 RF. I was looking on numeric gun parts at the the stevens favorite model which the sights look similar. I see all I need is a front stainless steel looking blade and the adjuster for the rear sight. Th e front sight was $7.50 for a reproduction and $3.50 for the rear adjuster. I started the bluing process on the barrel yesterday. I didn’t get enough coats on it and will end up putting a few more on. The receiver was case hardened originally so I don’t know I’d I’ll blue it or play around with some vinegar and Oxpho blue to made it look like fax case hardening. The barrel sure feels nice and smoooooth now. You can see the parts cleaned up real nice. After a few hours in vinegar I did a couple seconds Of scrubbing with an SOS pad and then back in the vinegar for a couple hours. Then to neutralize the vinegar I gave them all a washing in the sink.
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The barrel has some good dings in it. Someone must have really used it. There's is no way to file down the deep dings out without making it look like a roller coaster. I’ll just clean it up the best I can. This gun will still be showing some character markings when I’m done.
We will see...maybe I’ll just blue it. I think I’ll jet it all blued up and refinish the current wood furniture set and look for a forend or try and make one? Never owned any octagon barreled rifles before. I like the looks of them. They sure aren’t as easy to blue. I kept rubbing blue off the edges when polishing to an even finish. I was going to take the day off of working on guns yesterday and can I get stranded at my house. The computer went out of my truck for the second time! So I just couldn’t sit around and started bluing the barrel. I only put three coats on it. I’ll probably de grease it and put a couple more on it. I’ll have to figure out why the lever falls down loosely when i reassemble it and look for some obsolete ammo or a way to reload for it.
This was the only marking on it caliber wise...
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Just used oxpho blue for a little fake case hardening effect. Wanted to make it look original.
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After I wiped it down with some oil it got a little darker so it looks more original than the brighter Hughes. To bad, I liked it the way it was before I wipe it down with oil but it sure turned out nice.
That is very impressive chemical “color hardening!” I’ll have to try that some time.
If you notice, there is a tiny roller at the end of your lever. This bears against a little U-shaped spring held in the hollow section of the frame under the barrel by a little flathead screw. This arrangement allowed the lever to snap up tight against the tang when closed, and to snap open to help eject the rimfire shells when the lever was opened.
Likely the spring is rusted through or broken. If you’re lucky, the screw and half the spring will still be in there, and a section of thin flat springy metal (like a clock spring or binding strap) can be filed, drilled and bent for a replacement. If everything is missing, you might call C.Sharps Arms and see if they can get you a replacement screw and spring, since they have reproduced the little Hopkins and Allen falling block .22 in every feature except the takedown barrel. Otherwise, the usual parts houses and auction sites might turn up the parts eventually.
There were tiny changes in those 922-932 rifles over the years of manufacture, so some of the major parts won’t necessarily be drop-in replacements, some will, with no trouble, and some will do so, and the changes will just be cosmetic. For instance, your stock has the slight perch-belly bottom not seen on some other H&As, and the opening end of the lever has the slightly reversed curl rather than the full curl of some of the other specimens.
At least parts for the small-frame guns do turn up occasionally, diverse though they may be. Parts for the medium-frame guns are nonexistent, although encounters with stripped frames are irritatingly frequent. They’re good for paperweights, and not much else.
The late, great Charles Carder wrote the definitive book on the H&A kid’s rifles, describing all the subtle changes, but unfortunately it is out of print. I don’t, however, think that the spring and screw changed any. At least, as far as I know.
The spring and screw are missing! Someone removed it at some point and time. I emailed the above company. Thanks for the heads up. I checked out Hopkins and Allen on numeric gun parts. Spring is listed for $6 and screw is listed for $3.50 but neither are available. I guess it will be a door stop or a wall hanger till I find parts.
I can't be sure from the pictures but it looks as if the hole in the piece the action screw goes through is elongated. Shouldn't that be round? That may also be a reason the action is loose.
No it’s round. The lever spring and screw that holds it in place has been removed. I’ll post a picture.
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They have the missing front post with bottom included and the rear sight adjuster in stock. So the spring and screw is all I would need to make it functional. If I can’t find the spring and screw I’m at a stand still. Maybe I’ll order the front and rear sights anyways to make it look finished to the eye. Just really don’t want to spend any more money on it if I can’t make it functional.
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I assembled it back together and the action is as smooth as glass now. I’m kind of bummed out because the “Purdy lookin” case hardening I applied darkened. I wonder if I clear coated after I applied the bluing if it would have kept the bright coloring? I missed a few scratches when I was trying to smooth it out as well. Oh well it’s from the 1860’s so it needs not to be perfect and show some age along with wear and tare.
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Don’t have time right now to take one of mine apart and get the thread size, but I’ll do it when I can. There may be other screws with the proper thread (scope mount screws or some such) that will do in a pinch. You could turn a wooden matchstick into the hole and get the size and thread data that way, as well.
I currently have what’s left of a set of worn-out ear protectors. I saw, grind, bend and drill pieces of the spring that goes over the head and holds the muffs against the shooters’ ears for replacement trigger and sear springs. Plastic toys at Goodwill also sometimes have lighter springs inside, good for similar uses. A broken clock or lawnmower recoil spring is a good source, too. I have Brownell’s spring stock, but my spring making skills are pretty rudimentary; I’d rather try to modify something that’s “springy” already.
Another thing about those rifles is that they’re not necessarily stuck with being rimfires. Sometimes a new link can be made with wider spaced holes to raise the block slightly so a centerfire cartridge (probably .32 Long Colt) can be used. This feature was used on the medium frame guns, which came with an extra hole in the link for the same purpose. Simpler to change than the reversible firing pin in Ballard rim-or-centerfires, or the sliding dovetail on Bay States.
You don’t necessarily need the spring setup to shoot the rifle, since the trigger hand holds the lever against the tang anyway.
Just find an old sidelock shotgun spring and grind it down to the proper size. It isn't a complicated shaped part, just go slow and fit it properly.
Well, I’m as far as I’m going to get on it till I find parts. I refinished the existing fore end till I find or make a replacement. I will end up ordered the front and rear sight adjuster from Numerics today. Hopefully the front sight won’t be too much of a pain to tap out and replace. I was debating on making a a front sight blade and taping it in place. I spent a good amount of time on the stock. The receiver never mated up evenly to the stock before I started. I didn’t want to bend the receiver arms for a more even look as I was afraid I’d snap the metal being it’s probably brittle from age. I did add a little acra glass so the receiver is mounted up solid with the stock. It moved loosely back and forth when I received it. It’s rock solid now. It will make someone a great rebore project someday if don’t decide to keep it. The action is as smooth as silk and is ready to shoot as long as I hold the lever shut. Can someone tell me what kind of wood this is if I decide to try and make a forend?
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Bent Ramrod thanks for the tip on C Sharp Arms. They have the spring and screw in stock from the reproduction Hopkins and Allen 922 from the reproduction one they did a few years ago.
C. Sharp Arms sold it to me for 27 bucks plus shipping. I also was told I could return it if it doesn't work, what a great company!!! I also checked on wood fore arm blanks but no luck. I grab an oak 2x2 at menards or home depot and carve one up.
Spring and screw came in the mail today they work perfect!
Rear sight leaf and front sight came in from Numerichs guns parts today. Neither of the universal parts would work. The rear sight leaf was way to long and the front sight was to long and wide. I ended up making a front sight post and a rear sight leaf from scratch. I went off photos that I could find of ones listed over the years off google. It’s all ready to shoot...if I had some obsolete ammo.
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I'm down to making a forend from scratch now.
Your wood is walnut. Take your stock to a specialty hardwood dealer and they are likely to be able to closely match the color, walnut come can be from blonde to dark brown.
I found a few vintage 8” octagon forends for stevens specials for sale for the $28 to $40 range voting I’m going to roll the dice and buy one. From what I’ve seen in photos and measurements the stock length, barrel channel, and mounting hole is pretty close between the two. I’ll have to pop out the metal insert where the mounting screw sits on and sand down the forend contour to a thinner profile. It will save the headache of trying to cut out an octagon barrel channel imo since I don’t have the proper tooling.