Rossi Rifleman

Another great report and great advice! Obviously a Rossi Rifleman at work!

Tuco,

Don't order the Marlin spring thinking it will be a direct replacement for the Rossi spring. It is a good bit lighter (?) and delivers a softer blow. I got one and had a high percentage of FTF. I ended up shimming it with washers and stretching a few coils to make it work.

I had to do this cause in my ignorance, I clipped a couple of coils off of the rossi spring trying to make the trigger lighter. Figured it would be like the 92's are.............but it aint!

Thanks RD and Don!!

Don I was looking at the PALO VERDE GUNWORKS main spring. But thank you for letting me know the Marlin is not a direct replacement.

Edit: Scratch that, its lighter.....

Am an idiot!!

Tore it down to clean after shooting today. As I was taking the plate that holds the main spring in place off I wondered what would happen if I open the radius of that plate. I pull up the exploded diagram to see what that part is called. Just so happens it is called hammer spring adjusting plate. Adjusting by definition means is can be changed to increase or decrease. I cocked the hammer to see what the spring looked like with the washer shim. Remove the plate and open the radius and put it back together. Cock hammer and gaps in spring coils are close but not enough. Open radius up some more and bingo I have the same amount of compression as I did with the washer shim.

Moral of story, you don't need a washer shim, just open the radius of the adjusting plate.

You are the man! Been sitting here watch The G, B, & U with my cow dog!

Well I'll be dern! I never would have thought of that. And it's so simple. Thanks Tuco, now I can take the washers out of mine!!!

Yea Don I don't know why I never noticed that before. Sure beats shims...... This may really help those with FTF issues.

I sitting here watching torpedo Run.... great old movie!!

great work tuco thanks

Thanks AK, it was another blind squirrel day for me.....

I think I've got this figured out. I started thinking about why the firing pin was bound up and the possible fix for the problem. This is a classic case of how tolerances can stack up and cause an assembly of good parts to not work. Starting with the breech bolt and the locking bolt interface, the breech bolt has a square slot that accepts the locking bolt which has an angled surface. The locking bolt is raised by the lever, and the angled surface allows it to enter freely into the square slot of the breech bolt. Ideally the locking bolt is raised to the point where the angled face creates a snug fit in the breech bolt. What I believe happened with my rifle is this. When the slot that accepts the locking bolt was cut in the breech bolt, the width of the slot was toward the large side of the tolerance. The angle on the locking bolt is so shallow that just a few thousandths of extra width will allow the locking bolt to raise far enough to bind the firing pin. Since we don't want to mess with the fit between the breech and locking bolts, the only logical place to remove metal is from the top of the locking bolt where contact is made with the firing pin.

The Fix. - I started by degreasing the rear firing pin and the locking bolt, then using a q-tip I coated the exposed portion of the rear firing pin with Prussian blue. I have to assume that not too many guys have this in their tool box, so just go take an old lipstick from the bottom of your wife's purse. Making sure the parts are grease free and dry, open the lever so the bolt to expose the rear firing pin. Turn the rifle over so you can see what you're doing, and coat the rear firing pin with lipstick. Now close the action and hold the lever tight. Now I disassembled the rifles action enough that I removed the stock, the bottom trigger guard plate, breech bolt and locking bolt. When you look at the removed locking bolt, it's easy to see when the contact is being made with the firing pin. This is where you need to remove some metal. There's a notch that has a concave profile that matches the firing pin, you'll need to remove some metal while maintaining the original concave profile. I used a depth mike to measure the distance from the top of the locking bolt down to where contact was made with the firing pin. Just for reference mine measured .137".

Now this is the point where you need to be honest with yourself. Most guys have a Dremel tool out in the garage, but are you proficient using it or do you just grind away hoping that you're not making it worse, it takes a little finesse to do it properly. It's better to find a friend who's a machinist, jeweler, or maybe a dentist and ask him to help. It's a 30 second job so it should only cost you one beer to have that friend grind the locking bolt for you.

When I ground the locking block I removed .008" of metal, then reassembled the gun. Although not as bad I still had some binding, so the gun came apart again. The second time I removed an extra .005" for a total of .013", and my original measurement of .137" is now .150" from the top of the locking bolt down to the notch that makes contact with the rear firing pin. Now when I close the bolt it actually feels better since the firing pin isn't trying to push back on the lever. The rear firing pin is no longer bound tight and it is also in perfect alignment to move forward with no resistance when the trigger is pulled. Range day is Wednesday so I'll let everyone know if the rifle is cured.