Repairing a GGRW Little Leman Trade Rifle

[Bison]

 I've this Little Leman for a few years. When I bought it, the seller neglected to mention that the trigger guard and the pin securing the barrel were very loose. The barrel pin falls out if you're not careful. I'm going to fill in the trigger guard inlets and re inlet and tig weld the hole shut on the underlug and redrill the barrel pin. I pulled this rifle out to start those repairs and noticed that the stock is cracked in the wrist area. I'm pretty sure that it wasn't that way when I received the rifle and am a little puzzled when that may have happened. Anyway, I'm going to post some pics and am solicitating advice on how to repair the wrist.

[Bison]

I also wonder if anyone has an opinion on how this might of happened. Is it common for this type of crack to appear from shooting the rifle? It's a .45 and it's been fired around 50 times since purchased.

[Birddog6]

Looking at it, several things come to mind. 

1:  The first thing I see is Grain Runout where it broke. 

2:  Also it could have been dropped & hit on the lock hammer it could have shoved the lock plate into
      the weak area.

3:  Too tight a lock fit & barrel movement into the wood/breech area, if it has a drum. Drum could have pushed
     back the lock & if no clearance, then stress the wood in that area.

4:  Could have had a high spot in the tang of hooked breech & recoil made the wood finally give.

5:  It is cracked at the Tang corner, thus possibly 3-4 & barrel movement.

Note.  You mention the barrel pins falling out & etc.  Sounds to me like you had allot of movement in the barrel             
         channel & that is a No-No, be it a pinned barrel or a hooked breech with wedge pins.  That barrel goes
         slamming back with recoil, it WILL break the stock.  If it is slamming into the tang screw, it sometimes
         cracks the stock dead center behind the tang. 

Were it me I would glue the chip back, then Micro-Bed the barrel tang & breech area.  Great care on this & use modelers clay to fill all voids & release agent, or the barrel will be in there permanently. Or you may break it
again getting the barrel out.

When you are all done with it, relieve the end of the tang wood fit about .010 & that will give you a little breathing room if you have any barrel movement.  Just take a little Kiwi Brown shoe paste & fill the .010 & forget it is there.

When they make stocks for this type of rifle, they take a pile of wood to guy with a pattern copier & tell him
they need maybe 300 like this.  No care or concern of the product Quality, just get them made.  It only has
to last til warranty is out.  If 1 or 2 breaks before the warranty expires, they give out 1-2 stocks & its a cheap
out. Please don't misunderstand me.  I am Not cutting the rifle. But it is fact a mass produced rifle has to
get into the selling market Price wise, thus they have to keep the cost down to do so. They can't pick & chose
a $100. piece of wood & build it,  sell the rifle for $150-$200 & make a profit. IF that is the market range, I
don't know what the rifle cost, i'm just stating a example. 

[Bison]

I've dismantled the rifle and am getting ready to take some more pictures. Phone was dead and is charging. While I was waiting I was looking at some pictures of an original Leman and noticed the wrist was cracked in the same spot.



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[Bison]

Some more photos. It looks like it was bedded.

[Bison]

The barrel pin is bent. This supports the theory that the barrel is moving back on recoil. It had a brass pin went I received the rifle and I noticed it was bent. I replaced it with this pin and and this one bent also. I'm going to clean up the barrel channel and try bedding again and get more bedding material around the heel of the breech plug. Keith, I don't know if you are familiar with Green River Rifle Works, but they were a group out Utah in the 70's that built these rifles. There's no maker mark on this one, so either the maker was embarrassed or this may have been a kit gun. So far the workmanship on this rifle doesn't match the hype that GRRW rifles have.

[Birddog6]

I have heard of them, but never seen or owned one.  It Definitely has grain runout where it broke.  And very well could have been a Kit Gun.  Whoever bedded it didn't do as good a job as could have been done.
Also I wonder if he bedded it, then put the pins back in same holes & didn't redrill the pin holes.  As if he bedded it & pinned it at the same time then the holes should have been aligned & no movement.  And I would be the entire barrel, not just the breech area. 

I would rebed it all & use Microbed Gel. Others like dif stuff, but I have had good results with Microbed. But glue the chip back & clamp it down First.  Relieve that area the chip broke out & let that bed as well. Weld up the barrel pin holes, later you can mark & redrill them.

[elkhart]

The pin may have been bent intentionally to help keep it in. Seems like the pin is bit too small for the hole, or the hole too big for the pin. Depends on how you look at it!

[heinz]

A careful barrel breech and tang bedding with a good barrel bedding compound will go a long way in improving the function and accuracy of this rifle..  Go slow, make sure you end up with a smooth, full contact surface for the barrel to recoil against at the breech.  The tang inlet is for looks.  The breach face inlet is what makes the gun shoot right.  Use lots of release agents.

you may want to repin with slightly oversize pins once you have the breach fixed.

[FDR]

I have always had good results using Johnsons paste wax as a release agent. I wax the complete barrel just to be sure any stray bedding material from my hands does not stick. A large plastic straw (fast food recycle), cut at an angle , makes a great tool for cleaning up any excess bedding material that squeezes out. The excess material goes right into the straw. When it fills up, throw that one out and just cut another section from the straw.

Fred

[Mtn Meek]

...I don't know if you are familiar with Green River Rifle Works, but they were a group out Utah in the 70's that built these rifles. There's no maker mark on this one, so either the maker was embarrassed or this may have been a kit gun. So far the workmanship on this rifle doesn't match the hype that GRRW rifles have.

The lack of a maker's mark does not necessarily indicate that a GRRW rifle is a kit gun.  They started making rifles in 1972 and don't appear to have started marking them with a maker's mark until sometime in 1974.  So the early factory rifles don't have maker's marks.

Their factory rifles do have the company name (later the initials) over the address stamped on the barrel.  They also have a serial number normally stamped on the left oblique flat with the caliber stamp.

A rifle without a serial number and the company and address stamps is most likely a kit gun.

[EC121]

There is a lot of wood removed in that area.  Along with the grain runout and recoil, the stock could also be flexing during loading.  That would push the tail of the lock up and put pressure on the grain runout.