A Quick Clean Up

Here is a nice H&R model 926 that needed me my help...


For those that have never seen one of these, it is a variation of the 999 Sportsman. The action breaks open like a 999, but there is no auto ejection of the spent shells, the user must manually eject them via the ejector/base pin.

These revolvers were only made for a 5 year period in the 1970s. 

The revolver has two issues. The timing seems to be off, the cylinder is not locking up before the hammer comes to full cock on at least two of the 9 chambers.
It also has a small spot of corrosion on the cylinder where it sat in a drawer.

Here is what it looked like when it came to me:

A close up of the aforementioned corrosion.

I believe the timing issue is being caused by a weak hand/pawl spring. I will start the search for the replacement. In the mean time I will take care of the finish issues.

I was bluing some other guns, so I went ahead and removed the cylinder and ejector rod

I started by wrapping some 220 grit sand paper around a pencil, to prevent dishing the metal

The pitting is now history

I rigged up a jig to hold the cylinder using a small but long bolt, some bushings and tape.

I then put the cylinder into my chuck on the drill press and polished the whole thing to a 600 grit finish. I also polished the ejector rod while I was at it.

Here is the cylinder and ejector rod after bluing and soaking in oil

I still needed to do something about the cylinder shroud

after some cleaning with oil and 0000 steel wool it was apparent I would need to use something more aggressive, so I sanded it with 225 grit paper, removing just enough material to make the pits disappear, then finished with some 400 grit

Some Birchwood Case Perma Blue provided the color

Then a wax job, I prefer Renaissance Wax, it is a small bottle, but it goes a long ways and will not hurt the finish, it actually shines it up and provides protection against finger prints.

and finished

You may notice the cylinder and ejector rod do not match the finish on the frame and barrel. If you look at the before pictures, they didn't really match before I started. This could be due to the different types of steel alloy used in the parts.

Before and After comparison

On to the next project.....