Hello Slinky


I recently acquired a 30-30 1899H in need of a fair bit of TLC. SN 118xxx. It looks like a “parts gun” to some extent - barrel might be a replacement and the number on the inside of the fore-end doesn’t match the receiver SN. No number at all under the rubber recoil pad, which came from a Western Field firearm of some sort. A ‘smith checked the headspace with go-no go gauges, and it checked out. Dummy cartridges drop in just fine. HOWEVER, the bolt will not close on a dummy. Not sure what’s going on there.


But I really wanted to take this opportunity to THANK YOU for the information - and especially the pictures - regarding the rotary magazine, as I’m having trouble there too. The magazine is difficult to load even though the rotor seems to rotate OK. My thinking was that it was wound too tight, so I took it out. I also attempted to take the carrier assembly apart, per your pictures, but could not hold the carrier spindle head tight enough to turn the carrier spindle (long screw through the carrier). But I don’t think taking the assemble apart is even necessary since the spring seem to wind ok and the screw is not buggered up like yours was. The fact that the rotor is sorta beat up is a separate issue.


So this brings me to a Question: Should the “carrier spindle head” (part 99-436) be able to turn freely in its space in the front of the receiver once the carrier spindle head screw (part 99-437) is withdrawn? I think the answer is “yes.” Mine does not; the space it rests in looks like it’s out of round. I’ll probably need to take it to a gunsmith/machinist to have that space trued up (truly round).


Thank you.


Forestar