Wards Model 40 22

[twomoons]

A while back I got a Monkey Wards M40 22 bolt action rifle in the shop in pieces. The barrel was good but the bolt was missing the extractor and the firing pin. I looked in my book and it's SUPPOSE to be a Marlin 101 rifle. No such luck it's an older Marlin and none of the 101 parts work.

So... On a slow day I got mad and set down with some metal stock (an old saw blade) and went to work. The firing pin was easy as it was a flat blade shape with indents and in short order the gun would fire . But... the extractor was a hook with a peg on the end and after making the first one and seeing what i did wrong, the second one looked like it might work but I still needed a spring and a detent end. I have 3 drawers of springs in the shop and every spring pack Brownell's offers and not ONE of them fit. Either the spring was too stiff or not stiff enough or too big or too small. And as I was about to give up I looked in the junk box and there was a bolt for an old Remington rifle and lo and behold the spring was the right size! Now i have this old 22 fixed and I take it out and it not only works but it shoots very well, about better than I can shoot it. So Ifigure up my labor so I can put it on the shelf... Well anone want a $250.00 70 year old rifle? I didn't think so, I ended up taking it home for the grandkids to use.

[Jack]

Twomoons, making a part that is missing must be really difficult.

[jmarriott]

My info has the Monkey wards 40 being a marlin model 101.

Also the glenfield model 10, glenfield model 101-g, Cotter & Company 10-40, Marky Bros Thunderbolt Model JL 1000 made), Western Field 40, Sears 103.181, Sears 103.1977, Sears 103.19770, Sears 103.19771, Sears 103.19780, Sears 41, Western Auto 103.181, Western Auto 103.19780, Western Auto 103.1997 .

Seems like it must have been a real seller for them or a real profit maker for the dept stores that had them made. I think only the model 60 had more direct copies.

I do have a 101, and a marlin 101 in the listing. I take it they are the same. Marlin was know to make stuff for these compinies using older parts from other items. Would not surprise me that you could have had a model 101 barrel and a model 81 reciever mated in some fashion.

I does sound like you got it together. Nothing like bringing an old shooter marlin back to life.

[twomoons]

I have the interchange book the problem lies in that the 101 changed over the years and the bolt parts from an early gun are not the same as a later gun and there are no parts for their very early gun.
I aslo fixed the broken front sight on the rifle. The front bead was broken off and the sight was bent. I straightened the sight and then used a special tool to remove the old bead shank and turned a new brass bead and shank and crimped it back in. I really like shooting the old guns more than the new ones.

[Bill]

Do some checking for Jack First Inc. here in Rapid City. Its one of the largest if not the largest gun parts dealers in the US. The buy old guns and junk them out and use the parts to manufacture/reproduce new replacement parts. They also have a parts breakdown book/books that show the part numbers. I take old guns to them all the time and of the thousands I have taken them there has only been a few guns they have not had the parts for. They do not use cast parts like some of the old guns used and instead use EDM machines and CNC machines to reproduce the parts. I was in there yesterday and they were making Colt Python hands on one CNC machine and on the EDM they were making the slide stop for the Colt .380 Mustang which is cast and continuously breaks off the round part that goes through the frame. I know the guy that runs the place and he says once you replace the cast one with a tool steel one it never goes bad. These guys do some awesome work for me. I know they shudder over some of the guns I bring in for repairs but they also love it as they can take the parts and reproduce them and then the next time they have them on hand. I'm trying to remember which .22 I took them for replacement of the trigger guard. It was pot metal and was cracked and needed to be replaced. When we tried to carefully take it off so they could reproduce it, the thing crumbled into little pieces. We ended up using a trigger guard from another gun. They wanted that trigger guard real bad as they get a huge call for them and the guy that used to make the part for them died and they lost the master. The owner was willing to fix the gun for nothing if they could have a copy of the trigger guard.