Re: the firing pin bushings need to be trued up
Rich: Whether Jent understands how the newer barrels can work on an early frame without those barrels having the roller check joint is immaterial; the fact is that they do, otherwise the repair shop at the Hunter Arms factory would not have installed them as they did. It's my understanding, based on personal research, that the roller joint check feature was eliminated as unnecessary after it was determined the fore iron was sufficient to stop forward rotation of the barrels. In the 2021 summer issue of the DGJ there will be a story featuring a set of early roller joint check barrels whereby Hunter's repair shop removed the roller device, plugged the hole, then reconfigured those barrels to auto ejector; so it's not like this operation hadn't already been perfected. As to your firing pin bushings, they've been turned/removed and were not aligned flush with the breech face when re-installed. Only a gun smith inspection can say whether your firing pins need replacement; but they don't appear to be flattened or broken, so they are likely OK. You can take a couple of primed empty cases and "test fire" your gun. Doing so will tell you 1) whether the gun will close properly with the bushings protruding above the breech face, and 2) if firing pins are correctly denting shell primers. If so, your gun would shoot; but you do need to correct the bushing issues, as the metal composing those bushings is sometimes very brittle and will crack; and once cracked become much more difficult to remove and replace. By the way, the purpose of those bushings was to allow removal of firing pins without having to disassemble the gun; so it was a good feature. Yours is a very interesting gun, and we wish you the best.
|