Remington 511 sear

[alanganes]

So has anyone here ever replaced the sear on one of the old Remington 510 or 511 rifles? I have one of these that has bee a bit of a back burner project for a while. The sear is worn out and sort of chipped/peened over. I understand this is not too uncommon with these guns as the sear doubles as the bolt stop, and years of use/abuse causes this sort of wear.

Anyone here ever replace one of these? I can get a replacement from Gun Parts pretty cheap, just curious how tricky these are to fit. The mechanism is simple enough to understand I think. Just curious if anyone has been down this road and has wisdom to offer...

Thanks!

-Al

[Highpower]

I haven't done a 511 myself that I can remember, but it shouldn't be too hard to do. Just make sure that you have a positive sear engagement angle when you are through.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought the safety served as the bolt stop in those rifles?  
No matter. Let us know how it goes. Maybe toss us a few pictures along the way? Pleeeeease?   

[alanganes]

You could be correct on the safety being the stop now that you mention that. That the sear acts as the bolt stop is something that I had read in a few places while researching this. You have to release the safety and pull the trigger to remove the bolt. So I can convince myself either way(!).

Late breaking edit: You got my curiosity up, so I went out to have a look. I put the trigger/sear assembly in the receiver with all of the safety components out of the gun and found that the sear does, in fact double as the bolt stop.

Here are a few pics. Sorry for the marginal photos, was using my phone camera:










Would these typically be hardened or case hardened? Any idea?

Looks simple enough in form, but you can see where the once sharp edge has been chipped or just mashed over. A replacement is only around 15 buck, so I'm not sure it is even worth trying to effect any sort of repair on the existing part, unless one just wanted to do it just to say you did.

Some of what I read suggests that this is an "improved" replacement part, but I'm not 100% sure that is true:

New Sear

[dallen]

(12-03-2014, 01:45 PM)alanganes Wrote: You could be correct on the safety being the stop now that you mention that. That the sear acts as the bolt stop is something that I had read in a few places while researching this. You have to release the safety and pull the trigger to remove the bolt. So I can convince myself either way(!).

Late breaking edit: You got my curiosity up, so I went out to have a look. I put the trigger/sear assembly in the receiver with all of the safety components out of the gun and found that the sear does, in fact double as the bolt stop.  

Here are a few pics. Sorry for the marginal photos, was using my phone camera:










Would these typically be hardened or case hardened? Any idea?

Looks simple enough in form, but you can see where the once sharp edge has been chipped or just mashed over. A replacement is only around 15 buck, so I'm not sure it is even worth trying to effect any sort of repair on the existing part, unless one just wanted to do it just to say you did.

Some of what I read suggests that this is an "improved" replacement part, but I'm not 100% sure that is true:

New Sear

For Fifteen Bucks I'd buy one, you can't make it that cheap, the Cherry Red to harden it with around here is like 49.95 a pound.

DA

[Highpower]

(12-03-2014, 01:45 PM)alanganes Wrote: Late breaking edit: You got my curiosity up, so I went out to have a look. I put the trigger/sear assembly in the receiver with all of the safety components out of the gun and found that the sear does, in fact double as the bolt stop.  

Here are a few pics. Sorry for the marginal photos, was using my phone camera:

-----<snip>-------

Would these typically be hardened or case hardened? Any idea?

Looks simple enough in form, but you can see where the once sharp edge has been chipped or just mashed over. A replacement is only around 15 buck, so I'm not sure it is even worth trying to effect any sort of repair on the existing part, unless one just wanted to do it just to say you did.

Some of what I read suggests that this is an "improved" replacement part, but I'm not 100% sure that is true:

New Sear

Ahhhh, you are right Al. The front "hooked" portion of the sear is indeed the bolt stop. That is why pictures are good for nailing down details. I didn't have the toggled trigger/sear link arrangement in my head. I agree with David. For $15 you can't loose on a new sear. As far as I know both the sear and firing pin surfaces are case hardened. What is the condition of the underside of the bolt, where the hook hits it? I'm guessing you may have to clean that up a bit as well judging from the looks of that sear?

By the way - your phone pictures are pretty good IMO, compared to a lot of others I've seen.

[alanganes]

New part is on order from Numrich, should be here middle of next week. I'll post some stuff as I progress, assuming that I do in fact make progress(!).

The underside of the bolt looks OK, I have a few other Remingtons of the same series, and they look pretty similar in comparing them. The notch that the sear engages is much less pronounced than the hook on the sear. It's shaped more like this:

\_/

Though the angles of the vertical sides are a bit more shallow than this. In any event I'll avoid messing with it until I have the new parts and can see how well it functions.

I like this family of guns. I have a few of them, and they are all really accurate given what they are. I have one I bought for 40 bucks maybe 30+ years ago that had lived at a summer kids camp in its past life. It was old when I got it. I have a decent 3-9x scope on it and it still can group shots at 50 yards that you can just about cover with a quarter on one of my better days.

I have another one that is so covered with pits on the outside that it looks like the moon, but still shoots very well. I don't know where it had been stored that it got so beat up, but by some miracle the bore still looks great and it shoots well. I have a project in mind for that one. I'll be soliciting ideas here when I get that in the works, no doubt.

Thanks for chiming in, I appreciate the feedback.

Al

[Highpower]

(12-04-2014, 10:30 AM)alanganes Wrote: I like this family of guns. I have a few of them, and they are all really accurate given what they are. I have one I bought for 40 bucks maybe 30+ years ago that had lived at a summer kids camp in its past life. It was old when I got it. I have a decent 3-9x scope on it and it still can group shots at 50 yards that you can just about cover with a quarter on one of my better days.

I have another one that is so covered with pits on the outside that it looks like the moon, but still shoots very well. I don't know where it had been stored that it got so beat up, but by some miracle the bore still looks great and it shoots well. I have a project in mind for that one.

Sweet. The old dogs still have plenty of life left in them. 

The only Remington .22's I have are a couple of 40-X military trainers based on the 700/722 actions.
Well used but still perform extremely well.

Now, if we can just get back to seeing some .22LR on the shelves again.... 

[alanganes]

So I may finally be getting back to this. My replacement parts arrived last week, and I was working out of state for a bit over a week. So my parts sat there. Hoping to spend some time on this over the weekend.

So the thing I noticed about the new part is the the "top" part, where the actual working surfaces are, is WAY larger than the original part. I knew it would require fitting (says so when you buy it) but this is a bit like remaking the whole top surface of the sear. I'd guess there is a full 1/8" of more that needs to be taken off.

Now I'm not distressed by this, but it brings me back sort of to the original question. Will the sear surface need to be hardened before using this? Or the entire part? or none of it? (and of course, how hard...) Neither is out of my range of capabilities I don't think but I do need to know what is correct.

Curious what the collective wisdom is.

I'll get a few photos posted tomorrow sometime if I can.

Thanks,
Al

[Highpower]

Call Numrich and ask them what material the new part is made from. I imagine it is most likely mild steel like the original and not a medium or high carbon steel. If you have to take off an eighth of an inch you are definitely going to need to case harden the sear surface afterward if the new part is a low carbon (mild) steel. The case isn't that deep even if it was hardened previously.

[alanganes]

(12-22-2014, 04:31 AM)Highpower Wrote: Call Numrich and ask them what material the new part is made from. I imagine it is most likely mild steel like the original and not a medium or high carbon steel. If you have to take off an eighth of an inch you are definitely going to need to case harden the sear surface afterward if the new part is a low carbon (mild) steel. The case isn't that deep even if it was hardened previously.

So I took a few strokes with a file across the "excess" portion of the part and it is clearly not hardened in any way. And that makes sense, as given the amount of material (1/8" may be a bit of overstatement, but not much) that needs to be taken off, any case hardening would no doubt be gone.

I was sending off to McMaster-Carr for some assorted stuff anyhow, so I added in a pound can of magic case hardening stuff. Probably still be worth the phone call to see if that is the way to go, but my guess would be that it's the same mild steel as the original. It would make sense, really.

I am off to St. Louis for a week or so for work right after Christmas, so this stuff will arrive here before I do. I'll have to come back to it them, I guess.

Once again, I appreciate the input.

-Al