Hello All, I hope someone here can pint me in the right direction.

Just purchased a low wall winchester in 22 long. It has the standard extractor/ejector that covers most of the rim of the cartridge. This one appears to be a replacement. The fit and finish do not match up exactly.

In order to eject, the ejector must be caught by the ejector catch spring and held in place until the opening of the lever "pops" the ejector and it in turn ejects the case.

Here is the issue; simply closing the lever and closing the block will not push the ejector in deep enough to be caught be the spring catch. It then of course will not eject the spent case only extract it. If you push the ejector forward with your thumb it is captured by the catch spring. You can then close the block and the case will eject on opening.

I would think that since the firing pin hits the case in an area that is supported by the ejector it could also cause some iregularities in iginiton. I.E. if the ejector is not fully against the breach of the barrel, it might have some "give" when the firing pin strikes.

Can anybody suggest a way to fix this issue?

GC, I would suggest that the first thing you need to do is disassemble the rifle and clean EVERYthing scrupulously clean then oil very lightly with a very thin oil.

Next, put the extractor (only) on the lever pin and make sure that when it is held against the side wall it will indeed go all the way into the extractor cut that is in the barrel.  If not, nothing else works until it seats there as it should.  File or stone as necessary to fit.

The extractor is not supposed to "catch" the kicker spring, just bear against it, so that when the bolt drops down the extractor kicks out to act like a sort of ejector.  Check this next.  If it doesn't work, you just have a manual extractor until you get around to tweaking it.

Reassemble completely, and it should work, if not, cuss out the Frog and get 2X your money back for the advice he gave you.   

Froggie

STOP!!!!    

I assume we are talking about an original Winchester low-wall as produced in this country until 1920 or so NOT the Japanese version currently (or recently) available.  If the latter, ignore everything I said and look for somebody who knows how to work on this totally different rifle.  NONE of what I said applies to the Japanese copy, and it does have an ejector, IIRC.

You might get in touch with Willis (singleshot) Gregory on this board if yours is the Japanese version.

Green Frog

Green Frog, Yes, this is an original low wall, made 1888.

John T, thanks for the explanation, it clears up what is going on and my mental picture of it. Being trained as an an engineer leads me to think about what is going on and what I might be able to do to fix it before going to the bench and putting tool to screw.

This particular rifle has unmolested screws and I hope to keep it that way. Sounds like I only need to drop the block and pull the forearm off to get the access I need.

Thanks to all who commented, I truly appreciate the resource that this forum is.

Per waterman's request. 2 targets shot with this 22 Long Low Wall Standard Sporting Rifle. Indoor range, 50 feet, solid rest.

Left Target is Remington 22 Long ammo, right target is Federal 22 Long Rifle Match ammo.

Not too bad, but not as good as other 22 rimfire low walls fired yesterday.