Has anyone out there had much experience with the Wyoming Armory highwalls?  I picked a used one up in 32-40 a while ago, sight unseen from a Cabelas over the internet.  It's beautiful (although it came with an undisclosed stock crack at the upper tang).

I have to wonder if someone has messed with it.  The hammer with drop from half cock if you pull the trigger, the firing pin drags heavily but only some of the time.  Hopefully just junk inside the breech block holding the firing pin forward but we will see.

The hammer seems somehow higher than my factory highwalls as none of my breech seaters fit without heavily scraping the hammer, and amazingly it shoots 165gr bullets sideways at 50m.   

I'm going to have to do a chamber cast on it as, although it has a 0.319" bore, when I seat any of my various bullets just ahead of the case, the first 0.125" of the bullet doesn't get engraved, so it's bigger than 0.322" for the first 0.125" of the chamber ahead of the case.   

This one is going to take a while to figure out.   But it sure looks nice.

Chris.

OK, after a little more investigation I found something odd.  I'm sure someone has been messing with it. 

It's a standard single trigger (no set) rifle, but has the hammer slotted for a fly, which is standard I think for the MVA made hammers.

After working the action a number of times while fiddling with my breech seater and to see the timing of the breech block and hammer, a set trigger fly fell out of the bottom of the action and onto the floor . 

Chris.

I would not have noticed if you hadn't asked that, but yes the face of the hammer definitely doesn't go as high as on an original.  I just compared with my 23-35 and it's quite a bit lower.  Also, interestingly, with the hammer down, the hammer spur is also not as tall.  On my 25-35, the top of the hammer spur is close to the same height as the receiver ring, but lower on the Wyoming Armory.

I've been playing around my various breech seaters ( including the nifty one you made for me).  What seems to be happening is that when the cartridge case moves the extractor even a tiny bit forward, the block & hammer immediately raise, and then interferes with the seater.  I think I can take the one you made for me and clearance it just a bit and get this thing working perfectly.

I'll probably take it all apart tomorrow and look at it closer just to see what's up with the half cock.  I don't really need a half cock anyway.  Maybe, since the spring is so strong, that it was set up to fire from half cock?

If I can get the seater clearanced, I might take a few more shots with it in the morning.  Maybe the tumbling was just the fixed ammo not sealing the bullet at all.    

Pretty weird to have a fly fall out of the action though

Chris.

I decided that now was better than later.  I just took it apart.  I think this rifle was almost never fired.  There is no wear on anything inside at all.  It looks like it was just made.

No crud in the breech block, but I found the firing pin problem.  It has 0.055" protrusion, but never goes below the breech face. It always pokes out a bit, I'm guessing 0.005" or so. 

I have a spare firing pin from an original Winchester.  It has slightly different body dimensions, but when I put the Winchester firing pin in, it is able to fully retract.   

I also found the pin for the fly .  I'm almost 100% sure someone made this up themselves, maybe part way to trying to convert it to a set trigger action.  The pin and fly are the only things that are unfinished and look home made. 

Chris.

I have a few almost ready to go.  I just need to profile the nose and do the final fitting.  I am heading to Arizona on Thursday and can finish one when I get back.  I will send you a message when I have one done.

I hope so.  It has not been the best shooting weather around here.  I am making one last trip to the range tomorrow before I go.  Shooting my 33-47 and 32 Miller short high walls and Ballards in 30-30 Wesson, and .22.
The ugly stock won't be here in time though.  I should be able to get a photo of it on the miller HW before I go.