lever does not sit secure and flush

[futura]

On my Marlin 1894 Cowboy Limited in 357 the lever does not not sit tight and when closed.

The plunger is engaged and the lever is secure and stays in place when the gun is fired but there is still a little play, less than an eight of an inch, but a bit of movement that I find anoying when I cycle and sight the rifle. This is compared to my Marlin Guide Gun that has a nice snug lever engagement with no play at all.

Any thoughts on a remedy? What could a gunsmith (or me) do to fix this?

[AJMD429]

That's over my head, but before too long someone will likely post some useful information.

I noticed on my 1894css that the extractor is SO heavily-springed that it pushes on the conical part of the barrel by the ejection port, and prevents full and easy closure of the bolt (and somewhat less so, of the lever).

I didn't do anything about it other than make my mind up to see what a few thousand rounds fired through the gun to 'break it in' will do.

I did do some de-burring and filing and polishing on the gun (per advice elsewhere on this forum) to make it FAR smoother than when first out-of-the-box new.

[Haycock]

If you haven't already done so:

1) Strip the rifle down and polish every bearing surface you can find with a drop of oil and 0000 steel-wool (clean carefully)
2) Grease the obvious bearing surfaces sparingly
3) Work the action a few hundred times
4) Shoot it at least 50 times
5) Repeat #1 and #2

If that doesn't fix it you could look at the spring underneath the ball-detent in the lever itself... it may be weak... I actually swapped a slightly shorter/weaker spring for the original one in my 1894CSS because mine was the opposite of yours and was really hard to close (like AJ's).

Having the chance to compare a 1980 model to a 2009 model side by side has been interesting. The fit/finish and smoothness of the action is WAY better in the older carbine... I guess that isn't too surprising...


Haycock

[adirondakjack]

Sounds like it is fighting both a hefty extractor spring and a hefty trigger safety spring.

As above, strip and slick it. If yer so inclined, drift out the pin and remove the extractor and take about half the bend out of the extractor spring. You can also tweak the trigger safety spring some.

http://marauder.homestead.com/files/TUNING_M_1894.htm

[futura]

I already stripped the rifle and polished her up and worked the action a few hundred times and ran a couple a hundred rounds through her.

I think I narrowed it down to needing a plunger with a different leading profile so it hold the lever tighter to the receiver.

When I get my new tang sight mounted I'll ask the gunsmith about it.

Thanks for the input.

[futura]

Update.

I put in a new finger lever plunger spring and now it fits snug. While a little harder to open and close it feels more stable when at the shoulder. I cut off a turn and a half as the full spring made it too hard to open and close.

I blame myself for when I slicked it up a bit I cut off one to many turns of the old finger lever plunger spring.