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Practically Shooting

How to extract a 45 Colt from a 30-30 Lever Action


LeverAction

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A friend and I went to the range yesterday to shoot our .45 Colt LA's.

He and I both have a number of LA's in different calibers.

Anyway, we got to the range and started loading the tubes and he mentioned that he put in one round in the tube but the second round was not going in correctly.

I looked at it and he had brought the wrong rifle, a 30-30 LA. He was thoroughly embarrased. blush He is usually very careful and is a stickler for details. The problem was he has each LA in a separate green, but identical carrying case and simply picked up the wrong one without opening the case and looking at the caliber.

We shot my 45 Colt and sighted in my shotgun for deer hunting and left the jammed 30-30 alone until we got back to the house.

After some examination, I removed the tube cap and barrel ring and the round inside the tube simply slid out the end. One down, one to go.

There was no way to tilt up the jammed round safely inside the 30-30's receiver and extract it.

In most LAs there are two guide rails inside the receiver that guides the bolt during forward and backward motion.

Fortunately, these guide rails are held in place by a small screw from the outside of the receiver on both sides; one screw for each guide rail.

Weilding a small tipped srewdriver from my gunsmith's screwdriver assortment, which I had not used in years, I loosend one of the screws, lifted the guide rail out and wolla, the cartridge simply fell out when the gun was tilted.

Both cartridge cases were damaged but we retrieved the bullets which did not appear to have any damage on them.

One tip is that when replacing the guide rail, place the rail inside the receiver and engage the rail with about three threads of the screw. Then, while holding the rail with your finger, gently slide the bolt 1/2 forward, screw three more turns, and then slide the bolt 3/4 forward and tighten up the screw until snug. This helps to further position the guide rail during reassembly.

I may go into a new vocation! laugh

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