Browning BL22 help

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ColoradoMinuteMan
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Browning BL22 help

Post by ColoradoMinuteMan »

Good evening,

My father picked up a BL22 cheap for me as a starter rifle for my daughters who are graduating from their Daisy BB guns. It seemed to be in functional condition but it looked like it hadn't been cleaned for quite some time. I read several horror stories online about how difficult this gun was to reassemble so I tried to familiarize myself with the process watching some videos and looking at a parts list. I did a detailed strip and spent an hour or so cleaning. I could see the the extractor spring, and bolt cover plate was deformed and I soon figured out why.

It seems the bolt cover plate is about a millimeter longer than the machined out area that it is supposed to fit into. The the extractor alignment is key to reassembly and I soon could see why the extractor spring was deformed. If it is not aligned perfectly it gets stuck between the side of the bolt and the receiver. After a bit of messing with it I figured out that the bolt cover plate not being flush with the side of the bolt was making the assembly too wide to properly slide into place, which is likely why it is all deformed. Anyway, I decided to halt reassembly and pickup some replacement parts from Brownells to replace the deformed parts.

Fast forward the new parts arrived and I was looking forward to reassembly. As I anticipated the replacement bolt cover plate is exactly the same size as the original plate. I hoped this being a lever site that some of you gurus might be willing to share some wisdom. I'm assuming that either I don't know how to properly insert this plate, or that the plate is supposed to be filed to fit and the previous plate had never been properly filed and I need to do that to the replacement part. If you are familiar with the BL22 or s similar design perhaps you wouldn't mind helping me out.

Thank you in advance. (Oh and please see the attached pictures)
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Last edited by ColoradoMinuteMan on Sat Sep 21, 2013 9:06 am, edited 1 time in total.
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AJMD429
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Re: Browning BL22 help

Post by AJMD429 »

Welcome to Lever guns... 8)

My only 22 LR leverguns are Ruger 96/22's, so I am clueless, but someone here is doubtless an expert on the topic and will pipe up shortly...

In the meantime if you're bored, tell us about yourself (and your other lever guns :wink: ), or spin a tale of lever gun heroism back when you and your trusty lever gun stood alone between tranquility and utter devastation for your whole community and prevailed... :D
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"first do no harm" - gun control LAWS lead to far more deaths than 'easy access' ever could.


Want REAL change? . . . . . "Boortz/Nugent in 2012 . . . ! "
ColoradoMinuteMan
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Re: Browning BL22 help

Post by ColoradoMinuteMan »

AJMD429 wrote: In the meantime if you're bored, tell us about yourself (and your other lever guns :wink: ), or spin a tale of lever gun heroism back when you and your trusty lever gun stood alone between tranquility and utter devastation for your whole community and prevailed... :D
Well you really overestimating how interesting I really am :lol: . I did once need to use an old rifle to defend myself. When I was a teen my father and I returned from a trip only to find our entire house ransacked and things missing. After further examination it looked like someone had been living in our house, there were empty beer cans in front of the TV and food was out of the refrigerator. My father was too angry to deal with it at the moment so he left to go to work for a while and calm down but I told him I wanted to stay and start cleaning up. I grabbed the 1903 Springfield .30-06 that we had taken on our trip and stayed. After an hour or so of cleaning up I heard the screen door in the back of the house creek open and in came this guy. I immediately grabbed the rifle and raised it towards him. He said "oh, sorry wrong house" and tarted turning to walk out and I said "Oh no, you aren't going anywhere, have a seat." He started rambling "Yeah my friend Bill told me to meet him here he said that was his house" and I told him to "shut it." I called 911 and told them I had a guy in my house and they started asking 20 questions like his description and his hair color and height and all that sort of thing, seemingly taking forever to understand the situation. He started getting really nervous and it seemed like he was thinking about how to get out of this situation. The phone was a distraction and they didn't seem serious about things so I just told them "look I have this guy at gunpoint, he is nervous and if he tires anything this could get ugly, send someone now," and hung up. He just froze and a couple of minutes later the cops arrived. They took him into custody and found an old wallet of mine in his pocket that had an old ID of mine in it, so it was pretty much case closed at that point. Anyway, it wasn't nearly as exciting as it would have been with a lever gun but the 1903 was intimidating enough to get the job done.
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geobru
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Re: Browning BL22 help

Post by geobru »

Minute man, Welcome to the forum!

I had to replace my firing pin not too long ago and took some pictures of the disassembly process. This is the thread http://www.levergunscommunity.com/viewt ... 2+assembly

If you look at the 6th picture that shows the broken firing pin from the top of the bolt, you can see the side view of the cover. The edge toward the front of the bolt is angled like a dovetail, and the cover has that angle too. (Actually, I think both edges are angled, but the photo is inconclusive on the rear edge. I just remember when I did it the first time, I used a small screwdriver to flex the cover so it would slide into the dovetail.) If the cover is put in backwards, the edge will not seat into the bottom of the dovetail and it will be too long for the bolt.

That's about all I can tell you other than it will fit and will snap into place!

Good luck! :wink:
ColoradoMinuteMan
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Re: Browning BL22 help

Post by ColoradoMinuteMan »

geobru,

Thank you for the link and encouragement. I can see the the bolt is dovetailed slightly but I don't see the end of the cover plate being dovetailed. The edges are ever so slightly rounded it appears but it looks pretty square to me. I can slip the plate inside of the dovetail but it still makes the plate a half a millimeter too long and I can't quite seem to get it together. The former bolt cover plate was bent up on the rear edge I think because it couldn't seat properly and someone jammed it in. That is exactly what I don't want to do with the new piece. I guess I'll just take my time and see if I can get it in there, but my hopes aren't high at the moment.

thanks,
Ryan
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geobru
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Re: Browning BL22 help

Post by geobru »

Is there anything in the dovetail that is not supposed to be there that would be blocking the cover from properly seating?
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geobru
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Re: Browning BL22 help

Post by geobru »

I just looked at your pics again. Try this: Put the edge of the cover under the front dovetail line up the hole with the pin and press your thumb against the cover to see if it will snap into place.

Your picture shows it the opposite way, with the cover in the rear cut away and the front of the cover laying on top of the front edge with the dovetail. That is how I got mine together the first time with a small screwdriver to flex it into place. When I tried it the other way, it popped right in.

This link might be helpful:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GSwNQyMstQY
bgmkithaca
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Re: Browning BL22 help

Post by bgmkithaca »

It has been quite a while since I had mine apart but will offer this-where the plate slips into the slot, clean it out with a pipe cleaner and try it. Mine had to be touched up slightly with a fine stone-just enough to knock off the burrs on the plate. If you have to remove steel go easy. It is much easier to take off than put
metal back on. Best of luck.
ColoradoMinuteMan
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Re: Browning BL22 help

Post by ColoradoMinuteMan »

Good afternoon,

Thank you everyone for the comments. I went along inside the dovetail with a dental tool and it seemed clean and clear of any burrs. I agree the method of insertion should be insert into the dovetail side first and apply pressure on the pin side. You can see with the pictures though it just is about a half millimeter off, both the edge and the pin hole. I've tried flexing it slightly to get the pin and edge aligned but under that circumstance the plate has to bulge outward to have both edges inside the groves. I'm coming to the conclusion that I may need to file on the forward (dovetail) side of the plate ever so slightly with a stone. The pin side seems to align perfectly with the pin when seated so I don't want to take anything off of that side. If worse comes to worse I will need to purchase another bolt cover plate which was $4.99.

Thanks for the video link, that was actually one of the ones that I watched pre-disassembly. When he inserts the cover plate it seems to just snap right in without much effort at all, which is what I would expect.

thanks,
Ryan
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ColoradoMinuteMan
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Re: Browning BL22 help

Post by ColoradoMinuteMan »

Well folks, I ended up breaking down and filing it down slowly with my roughest sharpening stone. It was really hard metal and I took my time file for 5 seconds and then checking for fit, then repeat. I did all the rear/ non-holed end of the plate. After about 45 minutes I got it to the point where it just barely fit and I left it there. It is a nice good tight fit, but goes in without deforming the piece. I staged the pieces and placed the dreaded extractor and the replacement extractor spring. It all went together on the first try (I guess the 25 practice assemblies the other day paid off). I cycled a few magazines of snap caps through it and all seems to function great. Thanks for all the comments and advice, so far a happy ending. I'll have to get out soon for some test fires and if all is good the girls will have a good little lever gun to gain proficiency with.

thank you,
Ryan
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geobru
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Re: Browning BL22 help

Post by geobru »

Glad you got it back up and running. Your girls will love the BL-22. Its a great little gun.
pwl44m
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Re: Browning BL22 help

Post by pwl44m »

Raining with nuthin else to do so in the safe I go. I had My BL22 out to examine it after seeing this thread. I noticed that plate has a pretty good dent in it. It was there when I bought it a couple years ago and it works fine. Now I'm wondering what the dent is from. Not going to worry about it unless it gives a problem.
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