Mossberg .22 problem

[musick]

Any one with experience with a Mossberg 352KB .22 rifle? Mid '60's manufactured I believe.

Had a lot of problems with a Rem. 525 brick today and have been running mostly Wolf-brand for the past few years with no issues with some Rem. 50 rd boxes here and there, again, no problems. Today I got a jam every 3 or 4 rounds. Then I got a out of battery discharge. Bolt moves freely but firing pin didnt drop. I have it field stripped now but cant figure out how to fully disassemble the bolt. It looks OK from the outside but I do have a tiny pin (sear??) that came out of the bolt assembly.

Thanks for looking.

EDIT: Its currently taking minutes to submit a response or load a new page so I will check back and respond to questions/links tomorrow.

[john myers]

mossberg

sounds like it just needs a good cleaning
there are only two pins in the bolt assembly- hammer spring guide and extractor
the firing pin may be lightly staked at the top it can be driven out the front of the bolt
the only thing left will be the extractor don't need to remove it
go to Gun Parts or Numrich Arms they have diagrams that show complete assembly
or NRA has some good books on rimfire rifle takedown instructions
have fun

['ol shooter]

Here is a parts diagram, I could not locate an owners manual for it. If you can figure out the issue and need parts, Havlin's has some parts for it and Numrich may have a few as well.

[musick]

Thanks john and 'ol shooter.

This is for the owners manual for the 353 but Im told it should work for the 352. It gives a good amount of detail on the bolt assembly.

http://stevespages.com/pdf/mossberg_353.pdf

John - You are correct - it was the extractor pin that became dislodged. It really wasnt all that dirty but I gave the whole rifle a detail clean. Put it all back together and everything functions as it should.

What amazed me was I didnt lose that pin. Man that thing is small.

[john myers]

Mossberg

the extractor pin should not be so loose as to fall out on its own
you should have to push or drive it out
make sure the extractor spring is in place behind the extractor
you may have to find a way to hold the pin in place so you don't loose it
lightly peened
or flatten the outside edge a little
this could have been your problem
nothing worse than loosing one of these little bast---

[musick]

It definitely wasnt loose. I got about 80% in and was tight. This was with no tools, just a pin I had in an AK cleaning kit. I thought it may be tapered so I flipped it around and it went in slightly less, so back to the initial orientation. It protruded a bit into the groove at the bottom of the bolt so before I muscled it in I stepped back and thought about it. The hole in the middle of the extractor should act as a pivot point and allow the claw to release the rim. The spring (it was still in place) should push the claw over the next rim. Seemed to make sense to me and I was able to pivot the claw away from the bolt and when I let go it went back down.

I reassembled it and everything functioned fine, but the pin protrusion concerned me. Disassembled again and used a brass hammer and pin to hammer it into place. By no means did it easily slide into place but I didnt have to beat it in either. Continued medium taps got the pin moving and flush with the bolt. Claw pivoted as it did previously.

When I examined the case at the time of the incident, the portion just above the rim was flared out with a noticeable dimple in one area. The firing pin was pushed out from the bolt slightly into the ejection port. Maybe a few mm near the bolt face. My initial guess is the pin is mainly held into place by the extractor and the claw was pushed out enough to cause the pin to work loose. If that was the case I would think the pin should have stayed attached to the extractor piece.

I wont have a chance to actually fire it but I will do so prone and above a large white moving blanket if it falls apart again. I was lucky last time because when I removed the mag the pin landed in my hand.

I only made this post since the rifle is older than I am and I have zero smithing skills. On the bright side I understand the internal workings much more than I did before so lemons into lemonade.

Any additional comments, advice or concerns will be appreciated.

['ol shooter]

Vic Havlin at Havlin's worked for Mossberg for many years, and might be able to offer up some service pointers on what needs attention and how to do it.

[john myers]

mossberg

bring some different ammo other than the Remington to try
I have had issues using that stuff in my rim fire selfloaders
case heads would separate or split
lost the extractor spring and plunger from my little colt stagecoach
blew the ramline magazine apart on my mk 11
I will only use it on manually ejecting type guns
if you are getting bulging cases sounds like you headed same direction