[Rex in OTZ]

Well It took a while, but Im happy I did budget in a couple new springs for the 552 project.
The bolt return spring was a surprise!
The new spring was 1.5-2" shorter than the old spring!?
Ok That was strange but makes sense, the fellow that had this .22 refinished it and then tried to make it work.
He must have streched the bolt return spring thinking it had weakened when the nose was busted off the disconnector and causing troubles.
And if that old camp gun ever sat for any great length of time sitting with a few rounds in the magazine tube that magazine spring might have taken a set over all those years and not push the rounds into the lifter like it should, causing my empty chamber problem.
That and a over powered bolt spring might mess with a cartridge Not feeding.

 

[Rex in OTZ]

Fresh out of the package I had a tangled puzzle, untangling the new mag spring.
Well I finally found my small pin punch and started in on drifting out the magazine tube cap pin.
When the old magazine spring was finally out on the bench, I set the new spring along side the old one to check mag spring lengths.
The new spring was more than a tad bit longer almost 14" longer.
Stuffing all that New mag spring back in the magazine was a challange, till I figured how to capture the few coils at a time till, I could stuff it all in.
Like stuffing 7 pounds of crap into a 4 pound container.

 

[Rex in OTZ]

Well It has been quite a winter.
In six weeks we had 17 blizzards.
I thought Id hop on my snowmobile and motor out a town to function test the 552.
After a couple detours and finding towering snow dump piles in all the usual outlets out on to the lagoon, was challanging finding a out the way place to test the rifle.
Kids out sledding on the bluffs, snowmobilers all over the place.
After 10 minutes of motoring around I found a nice out the way place.
Man it was Cold!
Was about 15°F
Those unheated handle bars are cold!

I stoked up with some CCI Blazers.
I topped up the tube magazine and cycled the action chambering a round.
It fired as it should, the next trigger pull was a metallic click.
I cycled the action thinking it had not chambered a round and had a jam as the live round remained in the chamber (ftf) and when I cycled the bolt Which did not extract the live round it fed a next round double stacking (caused by bolt manipulation) this jamup caused some troubles.
(Extractor issue?)
The dud round at times wouldnt extract.
Shook out the double feed jams and chambered the next round, which fired, the next a light strike and another double feed jam, chambering another it didnt fire either!
The dud rounds were not extracting and the next was plugging the works, except they were good rounds just not getting struck as hard as it should.
I did get it to fire 2 shots consecutively as a semi-auto then it went back to sometimes firing and mostly jambing.
I figured I had enough information to work with and picked up the fired rounds and FTF struck rounds for further study at home (was getting dark and was 18°F)
All the while my daughter was shooting cartridges from the same box in her Keystone Arms Crickett rifle without any problems (so not a cartridge failure).

I took photos of the firing pin struck cartridges and the fired cases that ejected just fine (discharge asst ejection?)

First I think I will try getting it to fire every time a round is chambered.
The fired rounds eject fine, its problematic getting it to eject live rounds that didnt fire.

I dissembled the 552 and looked over the bolt, then removed the firing pin and noticed it had a wierd reverse bow to it that Id noticed before.
After a google image search of the Remington 552 firing pins, I see that it was slightly bent (sorry no photo* forgot)
Placed the firing pin on a straight edge Yes the pin was really bent! (How was it bent?)
Using my axe head as a flat metal anvil and my small ball-peen hammer, I managed to straighten the firing pin to match the Google image after a few taps (FirePin Earmarked for replacement)
Thinking how the bow on the fireing pin changed how the pin impact away from the outer case rim, strikeing the case further away from the rim twards the cartridge center away from its priming compound.
Using the ballpeen hammer to dress up the fireing pin tip a little by draw it out some lengthing it a tad.
Then used the honeing stone to slick the sides a bit, and dress the tip just a bit.
Reassembled the .22 and drew back the bolt, it appeared the bolt didnt retract fully.
I had not tried to dry fire because my adjustments to the bent firing pin might have well put it out of specification, creating further problems like peening the chamber rim.
Dissembled and looked at the bolt buffer, observing metal buffer insert was peened and had burrs(sorry no photos)
I used a knife hone stone, utlising the coarse side, stoned even the buffer surface the bolt impacts, then worked off the sharp burrs.

Funny how Id assumed that wierd sprue like bend was normal, assuming it was supposed to be that way.
I would never have imagined a stout looking .22 fireing pin would be bent.

 

[Rex in OTZ]

Can't help on the sight- rifle has been in production for several years and several changes- check w/ Remington.

Re: Feeding- your rifle has a "floating chamber". When it gets gunked up, does not float. Wearing safety glasses, use Gunscrubber spray or the like with the spray extension tube. Or just take action out of stock, remove bolt, dunk in a tall can of solvent and let soak a few hours, muzzle up.

c3shooter, post: 1794024 about the Remington 552 having a dirty Floating Chamber had me wondering what is that?
So after looking at a several on-line gun part sights and pageing through a couple of very old Great Western and Numrich gun part catalogs, I was unable to locate the floating chamber mentioned in the c3shooter's post.
Was it used on a older model not in the parts catalogs.
Actually the parts diagram spells it out in black and white.
Remington 550 and 550-1 .22 autoloading rifles used a variation to enable a .22 short to make a .22 long rifle strength recoil spring compress enough to operate with shorts. The floating chamber incorporates a seperate inner/back part of the chamber. There is a slight gap/ring in the .22 long rifle length chamber that is located right at the case mouth of a .22 short cartridge. A bit of the short's gas bleeds off into this ring and this acts on the sliding rear portion of the chamber to increase the blow back force on the bolt face. Thus the weaker cartridge can still propel the bolt back with enough force to compress the heavy recoil spring. They do get dirty though and cause malfunctions if allowed to stay that way.

The most popular method is to simply install a recoil spring light enough to operate with .22 shorts. The .22 long rifles and longs will actually "over" operate the spring. Some manufactures incorporated rubber or plastic buffers at the back of the receiver to help absorb this force from the longer/more powerfull rounds. The modern Remington 552 uses such a buffer.

c3shooter was Correct that Remington did produce a floating chamber semiautomatic .22 rifle.
It just was Not the Model 552.


https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.rimfirecentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=186081&amp=1

When you consider using a lighter weight recoil spring and a easily installed hard rubber buffer instead of machining a floating chamber insert.
The cheaper alternative seems Remingtons viable cost cutting method to a semiauto that is capable of reliably cycling .22 shorts.

 

[c3shooter]

Rex- you are correct, and my apologies. The "recoiling chamber" was used in the Remington 550 and 550-1. https://www.remington.com/sites/default/files/Model 550.pdf

The 552 uses the buffer. I made the mistake of thinking that the system that worked for years on the 550 would be carried over to it's successor, the 552. My bad.

 

[Rex in OTZ]

That had me looking for a while, but I have to thank you c3shooter!
I now understand in more detail how the Model 552 is supposed to operate using .22 S-L-LR cartridges.
The rubber buffer soaks up the added recoil of the stronger recoiling cartridges.
And since this was an Alaskan camp gun, I could imagine how resiliant that Rubber Buffer Pad was like at -30°F (hard as a rock)
One would just be asking for something to break.
And the metal to metal contact of the buffer takes a real beating.
Since I hadnt photographed the battered damage to the Buffer, I drew the rounded impact area the bolt had been beating on in sub-zero temps.
The parts list names the Metal Bolt Buffer, Product #: 80190
and the Rubber block as the Buffer Pad, Product #: 1564840.

 

[c3shooter]

Rex, I know how much wear and tear Alaskan winter temps put on ordinary materials- have been in the field at air temps of -60 just a little ways North of Fairbanks. On skis. Towing an ahkio sled. Rubber and plastics act..... strangely. Slammed car door one really cold morning, and all my weather stripping shattered and fell off on the ground.

If you do not plan to run shorts thru your Speedmaster, you might think about getting a stouter spring, and save some wear & tear on the rubber buffer pad.

 

[Rex in OTZ]

I kept the old magazine spring along with the bolt return spring.
When replacing the bolt return spring it was noted the old spring was quite a bit longer than the new recoil spring (check post November 08, 2018)

 

[Sniper03]

Rex,
First of all I did not take the time to read all the previous posts here. So do not know if you found one.
But did look on E-bay i saw a Rear Sight Assembly there for the Remington 552 Speed Master.
03

 

[Rex in OTZ]

Sniper03, Yes I was able to aquire sights that fit the Remington 552 rifle.
Those itty bitty sight screws cost $6.90 each!
The sight and elevator were over $30.
I gave the screws the Blue locktite treatment.

 

[SGWGunsmith]

Rex, it's not always very easy to diagnose an issue from afar, but your pictures of the failed ignition of the primer mix on those cases are quite telling. The firing pin is completely missing the case rim, where the primer mix resides. Either the firing pin is diving downward and going too far toward the center of the cartridge, or the firing pin face has been modified somewhat.
If I had that bolt here, I would look to see if the firing pin will freely move up and/or down at the front end. If so, then I'd either look to pinning the firing pin drive into the cartridge a bit higher, or replace it altogether.

Dennis

 

[Rex in OTZ]

I brought it out last night to to Test it after using a hammer to straighten the bent firing pin.
I encounterd some solid jams when attempting to load from the magazine.
From what I could observe of the cartridge from the ejection port was, the loading cartridge rim hanging up on the bolt, wouldnt fully rise to engage the bolt face!
Yet drop chambering a few loose rounds It did fire.
Once back I pulled it appart.

What I found was Me hammering it straight and drawing out the tip Id made the firing pin OAL longer just enough so that as the bolt in chambering the round a tiny bit of firing pin protruding out was preventing the cartridge from fully aligning on the front of the bolt to chamber and was jamming (OMG a fixed slamb fire could have happened)
It would have been like a fixed firing pin on a sten gun
So it was a stupid mistake Id made messing with straightening the firing pin, if I had messed with it, I should have checked its overall demensions to make sure it retracts fully and does not over over travel striking the chamber rim area!!
Well I did stone it down a bit and here is what the firing pin now looks like when it stamps the cartridge case.
I think I see a new 552 firing in my very near future!

Im usually one for thrift and doing things myself, but when it comes to a firing pin for a old .22
Im thinking a nice fat brand new factory firing pin should fit better than this old beat one.

☆If it bent once before It should be easier to bend in the future?☆

Right afterwards I used the aluminum dummy rounds to test it out.
The rounds fed through flawlessly when working the bolt handle.

 

[Rex in OTZ]

Last night after supper I went for my walk and Toted the 552 along for another test.
Loaded it up with 2 rows of CCI Blazers (10 rounds) and the first round fired, the second the hammer dropped but I didnt fire, in order to re-cock the first round didnt come out with the extractor and on letting the bolt forward it picked up a fresh round (double feed jam) I managed to shake it out and let the bolt close on the round that didnt extract, it fired and the next round failed to fire when the hammer dropped, only three rounds from the first magazine full actually fired with a single blow.
The rest took a couple hits to fire.
I did get three rounds to fire consecutively.
I was able to extract 3 rounds that were struck but didnt fire.
I pocketed them for later study.
Afterwards I picked up all the spent casings for study.
Once back home I studied the three that didnt fire and they had very light firing pin strikes.
Im thinking its time to replace the hammer spring for sure, the firing pin as well.
I pulled down the rifle to study the hammer and the bolt assy.
I placed a live round on the bolt face to check the extractor engagement, it seems the extractor claw barely fits around the case rim of the CCI Blazer rounds I have (seems they really fill the bolt and extractor space)
I then removed the ejector and dropped a live round in the chamber to check the bolt extractor fitment.
So today I went on Numrich and orderd a different (used) hammer spring and new firing pin (new) and also a extractor claw.

 

[Rex in OTZ]

I hauled her out last weekend.
It fired initally and then just started to lightly tap the firing pin just enough to Not set off the primer compound.
Just as annoying was its inability to extract the duds which resulted in double feed jam after jam.
It was so frustrating, it was approx 28°F
The wind was picking up and Id walked about 1.3 mile on a icy road to get to a decent place to fire my weapon.
Now I had this stuck dud that wouldnt extract from the chamber (claw kept slipping off) after cleaning the the claw and spring, this was disappointing but educational.
If future replace the extractor and be done with all the Fruitless Farting Around (FFA)
Using my pocket knife slot screwdriver & awl blades, I was able to remove the barrel and drift out the trigger group
On removing the barrel and inverting it after removing the bolt.
The dud round that repeatedly would not extract fell from the chamber by gravity more FFA.

This morning I removed that troublesome trigger group after gathering tools needed to drift out the riveted Hammer/Disconnector pin.
After drifing it out I removed the hammer and was able to remove the hammer spring and plunger.
On removal it was noticed the plunger was sticky from varnish like old lube (at room temprature!!) If the hammer spring and plunger were this sticky at room temp's, what excessive resistance to a hammer fall would it have at tempratures below 25°F?
Now was the time to replace the hammer spring I'd just bought from Numrich (used) now when replacing springs I love comparing Old and New spring lengths.
The Numrich used spring was noticeably shorter than the one removed from the Rifle . . .more FFA!
So figuring a shorter compression spring would most likely have a weaker hammer blow.
So after using solvent to remove the sticky gum and grime I reinstalled the riflea original 1971 era spring and staked the hammer/disconnector pin back in place. . . More FFA!
Now to see about what that pesky extractor claw . . . .

 

[Rex in OTZ]

As for the Extractor.
When the cartridge fires the pressure pretty much blows the case from the chamber.
Yet the extractor claw will withdraw a live round, its a different story when its slightly swollen when struck.
What I do know?
#1. It will cycle my aluminum dummy rounds all day long.
#2. It will cycle live .22 rounds.
#3. But a light firing pin tap, the case wont extract no matter how many times I slam the bolt closed in attempts to claw the round from the chamber.
#4. Yet the when the bolt is removed the round will fall from the chamber when the chamber is inverted (gravity fall)

So now the Numrich New Old Stock extractor claw is installed.
The only alternative is replacing the extractor claw spring (weak grasp on case rim?)
There is a slight firing pin ding at the edge of the chamber, I will try to burnish it out with a old punch I have for firing pin dings.
Bottom photo my pin punch scrapeing

old varnishlike scum from the extractor mortice.

 

[c3shooter]

Are you lubing that poor 22 with muktuk???

 

[Rex in OTZ]

Tonight after supper I took the 552 Jam-O-Matic for another test run.
I loaded up 15 rounds and tried to make it go (three of those rounds were FTF's) of which 2 failed to fire ,the third fired but lost the casing.
Of the 15 rounds in the magazine 5 rounds failed to fire.
Yet after ironing the chamber the FTF rounds extracted and ejected.
The next 15 rounds three rounds failed to fire.
The last 15 rounds only 4 rounds failed to fire.
I was unable to locate 9 spent casings.
I could try a different brand or see about what I could do about the firing pin strikes being kinda light.
The firing pin strikes still seem inconsistant.
The bottom photo is the FTF rounds.

I will admit it didnt jam at any time during my outing!

 

[Rex in OTZ]

This facet of some my possible problems came to light on a gunsmiting forum.

For all I went through, I thought to pass along my findings. There were many things I went through and wierd encounters. I never thought about the primer mixture fracturing. And who would have thought the Fireing pin would have been bent. There were two or three times I felt like pitching that .22 into the willows or snow drift. But I love puzzles. I just Had to know why it was doing what It was. Varnish like lube. Tired springs. Bent firing pin Broken disconnector. Worn extractor claw. Boggered chamber sticking cases. Buffer peened badly. And Flakey ammo.

Quote: Bob1919 forumsgunboards
1 day ago · post #9

''An interesting narrative on the trials and tribulations of bringing an old rifle back to life. Compounded by the low temps you must deal with.
It's those very same tempetures that might be causing the failure to fire. Pull one of the misfired rounds apart, dump the powder on a clean sheet of paper. Inspect the powder, looking for green or yellow specks or chunks mixed in. This is the priming compound, it shatters rather than lights under the blow of the FP. Inspect the case, sometimes all of the priming is gone, sometimes there is a bit left. I've seen this with almost all brands of ammo, if it is cold enough, but it seems to happen with Federal brand the most often'.

https://forums.gunboards.com/#/topics/1081375?page=1

Thats some food for thought!

To think I had a new box of cartridges rattling around in my snowmobile spare parts bag for ages!

 

[danf_fl]

I would want to try three or four.
I have seen where a .22 prefers one brand (or type of .22) over others.
When you find what works, stay with it and buy a few boxes.

Different lots of the ammo can differ, also.

 

[Rex in OTZ]

And when a particular cartridge fails to discharge after being struck a couple times, instead of pitching it in disgust, I will pocket it for later study, like pull the bullet and dump the powder looking for the primer compound loose in the case mixed with the powder.

Id encountered FTF in particular back in the early Obama era, not long before .22's disappeared off OTZ shelves.
The ammo Alaska Commercial was selling was Remington Thunderbolts there would consistantly be 4 to 9 duds per box $6 boxes of 50 in those days shortly before they disapperd for 5 - 6 years.
I dont think Obama had any influnce on rimfire cartridges being duds, just the time frame stands out in memory as to price and dry spell.
Crummy ammo from Alaska Commercial throwing/dropping or mishandling the ammunition before its stocked out on the shelf.