I bought this gun for parts and the add said, "Fire damaged, bolt frozen". I think I paid $25, and I have a Wards Westerfield branded model that I really like and wanted spare parts. That was ten years ago and I found it in a closet when doing some cleaning. You can see in the close ups that the plastic trigger guard and the stock finish were certainly hot at some point.
I decided to put some penetrating oil on the bolt and go from there. After a month the bolt slipped right out, but when I closed the bolt to cock it there was a crunching noise. It took some work to get the bolt apart and the firing pin spring was definitely in bad shape and was giving light strikes, so I made one out of a spare from a CZ 75 pistol. No more light strikes but the trigger pull was 10#. A few minutes with a ceramic sharpener and it was 3#.
Now it was time to scope the bore and what a surprise, it looked brand new. So out to the range to see if it would shoot. Just like the Wards this is a 1/2MOA gun out to 50 yards. This will make a fine squirrel getter.
I decided to put some penetrating oil on the bolt and go from there. After a month the bolt slipped right out, but when I closed the bolt to cock it there was a crunching noise. It took some work to get the bolt apart and the firing pin spring was definitely in bad shape and was giving light strikes, so I made one out of a spare from a CZ 75 pistol. No more light strikes but the trigger pull was 10#. A few minutes with a ceramic sharpener and it was 3#.
Now it was time to scope the bore and what a surprise, it looked brand new. So out to the range to see if it would shoot. Just like the Wards this is a 1/2MOA gun out to 50 yards. This will make a fine squirrel getter.
